Week two of the NFL season featured numerous exciting games and upsets, including the first career wins for three rookie quarterbacks. There were also a number of injuries to significant players, including on the New England Patriots, New York Giants and St. Louis Rams.
Colts 23, Vikings 20
Rookie Andrew Luck got his first professional win against the Vikings on Sunday, passing for 224 yards and two touchdowns and no interceptions.
Luck led the Colts on a last minute drive in the fourth quarter to set up a field goal for kicker Adam Vinatieri to take the lead. Vinatieri converted the 53-yard kick and gave the Colts their first victory of the season.
"It's just amazing that the guy's able to go out there and do the things he does as a rookie," Colts coach Chuck Pagano said to the Associated Press. "He certainly had to put the ball on them, and he did."
Donnie Avery had a standout day for the Colts, catching 11 passes for 111 yards. The Colts are now 10-0 in home games against the Vikings.
Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder had a solid game, passing for 245 on 27 of 35 attempts and two touchdowns. Percy Harvin led the Vikings with 12 receptions for 104 yards.
Bengals 34, Browns 27
The Battle of Ohio featured high scoring, exciting plays and a punt return for a touchdown as the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Cleveland Browns 34-27.
Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton had three touchdowns and Adam "Pacman" Jones added an 81-yard punt return score for Cincinnati, who improved to 13-3 in their past 16 games against the Browns.
"It's a relief," Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green said. "We had butterflies. We felt like we needed this one. Now we can just relax and go back to playing."
Cleveland rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden had a much better game after throwing four interceptions last week. He finished with 322 yards passing and two touchdowns. The Browns also got production from their rookie running back Trent Richardson, who had over 100 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
Jones's touchdown was the fifth return of his career and his first since 2003. He evaded seven different Browns players who had a hand on him and was able to spin out of one tackle at the end to make it into the endzone.
Bills 35, Chiefs 17
Bills running back CJ Spiller made the most of his opportunity, rushing for 123 yards and two touchdowns in the place of starting running back Fred Jackson who is out indefinitely with a knee injury.
Buffalo looked much better than they did in their loss to the Jets last week, taking a commanding 35-3 lead in the game before winning 35-17.
"It's always better to answer the questions when you win," said Spiller, who giggled several times at the podium. "Fred Jackson challenged me today, when he told me to put the team on my back. So when that comes down from the leader in our room, you have to step your game up. I was ready to go today.
Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick threw two touchdowns and Leodis McKelvin had an 88-yard punt return touchdown to lead Buffalo.
Kansas City couldn't stop Buffalo's running attack and fell too far out of reach to make a comeback. Quarterback Matt Cassel had an excellent game, passing for 301 yards and two touchdowns, while receiver Dwayne Bowe caught eight balls for 102 yards and two touchdowns.
Dolphins 35, Raiders 13
Both coach Joe Philbin and rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill got their first wins for Miami, while Reggie Bush rushed for 172 yards as the Dolphins beat the Oakland Raiders 35-13.
Bush rushed for 138 yards in the second half and had a career-high 26 carries in the game. Tannehill scored his first career touchdown and also added a rushing touchdown.
"It was nothing fancy, nothing magical," Philbin said. "Our identity right now is we've got to run the ball effectively and stop the run."
Trailing 10-7 in the third quarter, Miami forced a Raider punt and scored on a 23-yard Bush touchdown. A few minutes later Bush added a fantastic 65-yard touchdown run, beating a slew of defenders on the sideline as he crossed into the end zone.
Carson Palmer had 373 yards passing for the Raiders, but had an interception. Oakland had a hard time rushing the ball, only gaining 23 yards on 14 carries.
Rams 31, Redskins 28
Quarterback Sam Bradford had a stellar game, leading the St. Louis Rams to a 31-28 victory over rookie Robert Griffin III and the Washington Redskins.
Bradford had 310 yards passing and three touchdowns, while receiver Danny Amendola caught 12 balls in the first half to tie an NFL record.
St. Louis was down 21-6 in the second quarter before making a furious comeback and playing stellar defense to keep the Redskins at bay.
"You get caught up in watching the scoreboard and get caught up in negative plays and things, you've got no chance to win," coach Jeff Fisher said after the Rams (1-1) took the home opener. "So, you don't watch the scoreboard, you just go play. You make plays and the scoreboard changes."
Bradford led the team on three straight scoring drives. including a 34-yard touchdown to Brandon Gibson that gave the Rams a 23-21 lead. But with five minutes left in the third quarter, Griffin worked his magic and scored on a seven-yard touchdown run to put Washington up 28-23.
Following another Bradford pass that put the Rams up 31-28, the Redskins were driving down the field, looking for a touchdown to win it or a field goal to possibly tie and send the game into overtime.
Griffin completed a pass to Josh Morgan on third down that was short of the first, leaving Washington in a solid spot for a field goal. But after the play, Morgan responded to some shoving from Rams cornerback Cortland Finnegan, throwing the ball at him and getting flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. On fourth-and-16 the Redskins tried a 62-yard field goal, but it was well short, giving the Rams the win.
St. Louis lost starting running back Steven Jackson early in the game to a groin injury.
Cardinals 20, Patriots 18
Tom Brady and the Patriots never seemed comfortable in their home opener and the Arizona Cardinals took advantage, upsetting New England 20-18 for their second win of the season.
"Nobody really gave us a chance," said Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt, whose team was a two-touchdown underdog, "but our guys believed they could do it and it's great to see them operate that way."
The Cardinals now sit 2-0 after Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski missed a 42-yard field goal with only seconds left to play. The Patriots lost their home opener for the first time in 11 seasons since moving into Gillette Stadium in 2002.
Arizona had the game in hand after the Patriots scored with 2:06 left in the game to bring the score to 20-18. All the Cardinals had to do was run out the clock, but running back Ryan Williams fumbled at the 30-yard line, giving the Patriots another chance.
Running back Danny Woodhead scored on a 30-yard run, but the play was called back after a holding penalty. The Patriots lined up for a kick and were shocked when Gostkowski, the most accurate kicker in franchise history, missed wide left.
Aside from losing the game, the Patriots also lost key tight end Aaron Hernandez to an ankle sprain. He could be out for up to six weeks.
Seahawks 27, Cowboys 7
The Dallas Cowboys wasted any momentum they had after beating the Super Bowl champion New York Giants in week one, getting physically pushed around and soundly beat by the Seattle Seahawks 27-7 on Sunday.
Seattle made a number of big plays on special teams and defense as rookie quarterback Russell Wilson got his first professional win of his career. Wilson had 151 yards passing and helped lead the Seahawks on a 90-yard scoring drive that resulted in a 22-yard touchdown pass to Anthony McCoy.
Dallas couldn't stop running back Marshawn Lynch, who rushed for 104 yards in the second half. The Cowboys also suffered a fumble on the opening kickoff, a blocked punt and an interception from quarterback Tony Romo.
"We had a lot of opportunities to do some things in the game, whether it was, like I said, either a mental breakdown or a physical error," Romo said. "And that's everybody, it wasn't one guy and it's not just the offense, but also special teams, we obviously made some mistakes and we just got to be better in all capacities."
Romo passed for 251 yards but only could muster one touchdown. The team was returning to Seattle for the first time since the 2006 playoffs, when Romo fumbled the snap for a potential game-winning field goal that sent the Cowboys home with a loss.
Seattle had no turnovers and outgained the Cowboys in rushing 182-49.
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