32 things we learned in NFL Week 2: Historically good Colts atop pack of 20 teams Nate Davis, USA TODAY September 14, 2025 at 9:28 PM 1 The 32 things we learned from Week 2 of the 2025 NFL season: 0.
- - 32 things we learned in NFL Week 2: Historically good Colts atop pack of 2-0 teams
Nate Davis, USA TODAY September 14, 2025 at 9:28 PM
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The 32 things we learned from Week 2 of the 2025 NFL season:
0. Number of NFL victories New Orleans Saints QB Spencer Rattler has in eight starts following Sunday's 26-21 loss to the undermanned San Francisco 49ers. But Rattler did throw a career-best three TD passes in defeat, the first time he'd thrown multiple in nine pro appearances.
1. The number of times three-time Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes has been 0-2 in his nine-year NFL career, now marking the first. In fact, the last time he was 0-2? High school. Going back to Super Bowl 59, this is also the first time Mahomes has lost three straight games in the NFL. As for his Kansas City Chiefs, who have won nine straight AFC West crowns? They're 0-2 for the first time since 2014 ... which is also the last time they missed the postseason.
1a. By winning their first Week 2 game in the tenure of seventh-year head coach Zac Taylor, the AFC North-leading Cincinnati Bengals are 2-0 for the first time since 2018 − former HC Marvin Lewis' final season. But depending on the severity of QB Joe Burrow's toe injury, which knocked him out for most of Sunday's victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars − and threatens to sideline him much longer − it may also wind up as something of a Pyrrhic victory.
1b. Number of wins the New England Patriots have against Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa after holding on for a recently rare 33-27 victory in South Florida. Sunday was the Pats' eighth crack at Tua, who was sacked for the fifth time on Miami's final snap.
2. Yards shy New York Giants QB Russell Wilson, 36, was of matching his career best for passing yards (452) in Sunday's 40-37 overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys. However Wilson was sacked three times, which turned out to be just enough − along with the INT "Mr. Unlimited" airmailed in OT.
Russell Wilson takes the lead on a 48-yard touchdown to Malik Nabers, his third deep passing touchdown today.Wilson has completed 7 of 9 deep passes for 264 yards, the most deep passing yards in a game in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016).#NYGvsDAL | #NYGiants pic.twitter.com/j07mFrC8lD
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) September 14, 2025
3. The number of consecutive regular seasons that have featured a Super Bowl rematch after the Philadelphia Eagles and Chiefs teed it up Sunday, seven months after Philly opened a can of you know what on K.C.'s three-peat bid. The Eagles won 20-17, making the reigning champions 8-3 all-time in a Super Sunday redux that occurs in the subsequent season.
4. The number of field goals and PATs apiece − 16 points total − scored by Dallas' Brandon Aubrey, unassailably the league's best kicker, on Sunday. Aubrey hit a 64-yarder at the end of regulation to send the game into overtime and drilled a 46-yarder to win it. He might be the Cowboys' most important player.
In the @dallascowboys 40-37 overtime win in Week 2, @Brandon_Aubrey became the first player in @NFL history to convert a game-tying field goal with no time remaining in the fourth quarter and a game-winning field goal with no time remaining in overtime of the same game. pic.twitter.com/cO6U2z4prO
— NFL345 (@NFL345) September 14, 2025
5. The number of NFL quarterbacks − ever − with at least 500 regular-season TD passes. Aaron Rodgers threw his 508th on Sunday, tying former teammate Brett Favre for fourth place all time.
6. If Sunday's performance made it seem like Dallas could, uh, really use another pass rusher, well owner Jerry Jones revealed after his team's escape act that he'd signed three-time Pro Bowler Jadeveon Clowney. The No. 1 pick (by the Houston Texans) in the 2014 draft, Clowney has never had a double-digit sack season. Ex-Cowboy Micah Parsons, who's now wreaking havoc for the Green Bay Packers, hasn't had fewer than 12 in any of his first four seasons. Still, "America's Team" did limit the G-Men to 84 rushing yards, so maybe Jones is absolutely tickled by the performance of his Big D run D.
7. Will Chiefs TE Travis Kelce rue returning for a 13th NFL season when he could be sampling potential wedding cakes? A week after taking out teammate Xavier Worthy while running a poor route, Kelce's deflection of a Mahomes' pass at the goal line into an Eagles interception effectively sparked a 14-point swing − Philly scoring what turned out to be the decisive TD on its ensuing drive.
Right spot, right time 🦅PHIvsKC on FOX/FOX Onehttps://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/LBF2dT38qu
— NFL (@NFL) September 14, 2025
8. The number of 2-0 teams following Sunday's games. More may yet join their ranks Monday, but for now, the Bills, Colts, Bengals, Packers, 49ers, Eagles, Cardinals and Rams stand among the unbeatens who have played twice.
makes a catch for a touchdown against the Green Bay Packers during the fourth quarter at Lambeau Field. The play was originally ruled an incomplete pass, but the call was overturned. Despite TeSlaa's effort, the Packers won the game 27-13.
" style=padding-bottom:56%>Week 1: Detroit Lions wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa (18) makes a catch for a touchdown against the Green Bay Packers during the fourth quarter at Lambeau Field. The play was originally ruled an incomplete pass, but the call was overturned. Despite TeSlaa's effort, the Packers won the game 27-13.
" data-src=https://ift.tt/hytdUFP class=caas-img data-headline="Best images of the 2025 NFL season" data-caption="
Week 1: Detroit Lions wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa (18) makes a catch for a touchdown against the Green Bay Packers during the fourth quarter at Lambeau Field. The play was originally ruled an incomplete pass, but the call was overturned. Despite TeSlaa's effort, the Packers won the game 27-13.
">Week 1: Detroit Lions wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa (18) makes a catch for a touchdown against the Green Bay Packers during the fourth quarter at Lambeau Field. The play was originally ruled an incomplete pass, but the call was overturned. Despite TeSlaa's effort, the Packers won the game 27-13.
" src=https://ift.tt/hytdUFP class=caas-img>
1 / 4Best images of the 2025 NFL season
Week 1: Detroit Lions wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa (18) makes a catch for a touchdown against the Green Bay Packers during the fourth quarter at Lambeau Field. The play was originally ruled an incomplete pass, but the call was overturned. Despite TeSlaa's effort, the Packers won the game 27-13.
9. The number of 0-2 teams following Sunday's games. More may yet join their ranks Monday, but for now, the Chiefs, Titans, Jets, Browns, Dolphins, Saints, Panthers, Bears and Giants are all quickly descending into desperation mode.
10. The Indianapolis Colts became the first team in NFL history to start a season by scoring on each of their first 10 possessions.
10a. And how about this: The Colts are the first team in the Super Bowl era (since 1966) that didn't punt in their first two games. Admit it, you knew Daniel Jones and Co. would be this good.
11. The number of games Detroit Lions RBs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery need to set an NFL record for teammates both scoring rushing TDs in the same contest − which is to say one more time. The duo matched the 10 instances old-time wingmen Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung (Packers) and Joe Perry and Hugh McElhenny (49ers) turned the trick in Sunday's 52-21 thrashing of the Chicago Bears and their former offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson.
12. The number of Jags rookie WR/CB Travis Hunter, which may as well be a target. While contributing just three catches for 22 yards in his second game, Hunter also committed a 25-yard pass interference penalty − and not against one of Cincinnati's star wideouts but Andrei Iosivas − on fourth down of the Bengals' final drive, which ended with them bleeding the clock before scoring the game-winning TD. Without Burrow.
12a. But give Hunter credit for playing through heavy usage, 42 of his 81 snaps in Week 2 coming on the defensive side.
13. The number of consecutive drives, going back to last season − and the most this century − that Miami's defense had surrendered points ... before halftime (briefly) stymied the Patriots on Sunday.
14. The number of field goals − without a miss, incidentally − Colts K Spencer Shrader has made in six NFL games split among three different teams. He drilled five Sunday, including the game-winning 45-yarder at the gun, in Indy's 29-28 defeat of the Denver Broncos.
14a. Of course, a Denver penalty for leverage nullified Schrader's first attempt to win the game, a 60-yarder that fell short.
Refs call Broncos for leverage on this kick and move the Colts forward 15 yards pic.twitter.com/rYa62VLY90
— Rate the Refs (@Rate_the_Refs) September 14, 2025
15th. The overall selection QB Mac Jones was (to the Patriots) in the 2021 NFL draft − despite rampant pre-draft speculation that he was headed to the Niners with the third pick. (San Francisco took Trey Lance instead.) But Sunday, Jones finally got to play for HC Kyle Shanahan and matched his career high with three TD throws while filing in for injured Brock Purdy, the same guy who Wally Pipped Lance three years ago. Beware, Brock.
15a. Lance, now the Los Angeles Chargers' backup QB, hasn't throw a TD pass since his rookie year.
16. 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey caught one of Jones' TD strikes, making CMC the third NFL player ever with at least 50 career rushing touchdowns plus 30 through the air. Hall of Famers Lenny Moore and Marshall Faulk are the others.
17. The jersey number of Daniel Jones. We're loving life for "Indiana Jones," who's led the Colts to their first 2-0 start since 2009, when Hall of Famer Peyton Manning was taking the snaps. Jones passed for 316 yards and a TD on Sunday and ran for another score − and given that production came against Denver's vaunted D, it was arguably a more impressive performance than his debut for his new team in Week 1 agaisnt lowly Miami.
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - SEPTEMBER 14: Daniel Jones #17 of the Indianapolis Colts throws a pass against the Denver Broncos during the second half in the game at Lucas Oil Stadium on September 14, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
18. In a battle of former New York Jets quarterbacks, the Seattle Seahawks' Sam Darnold got the best of the Pittsburgh Steelers' Rodgers in the latter's Acrisure Stadium debut. Both were picked off twice in a fairly sloppy affair that also saw Seattle recover a kickoff in the Steelers' end zone for a touchdown.
The Seahawks just recovered a kickoff in the end zone for a touchdown!SEAvsPIT on FOX/FOX Onehttps://t.co/HkKw7uXVnt pic.twitter.com/0J1gEbqx4r
— NFL (@NFL) September 14, 2025
19. Worth wondering if the Steelers are falling into a similar trap as the 2024 Jets, who averaged a league-low 21.4 runs per game while putting too much emphasis on Rodgers' aging arm. Pittsburgh has run 41 times through two games.
20. As for the 2025 Jets? They've run it 60 times, though just 21 in Sunday's 30-10 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills. And with new QB1 Justin Fields in the concussion protocol? Different cast, same old Jets (so far).
21. The Los Angeles Rams' 33-19 defeat of the Tennessee Titans featured a meeting of the league's newest No. 1 overall pick (Titans QB Cam Ward) against its oldest active No. 1 overall pick (Rams QB Matthew Stafford, 2009).
22. The Bengals' defeat of the Jags featured three No. 1 picks: Burrow, Jags QB Trevor Lawrence and Jags DE Travon Walker … plus Hunter, the second overall selection this year.
23. In Detroit, Lions QB Jared Goff – the No. 1 pick in 2016 (by the Rams) – threw five TD passes while outdueling Chicago's Caleb Williams, the struggling top pick from last year's draft.
24. And there was a fourth game featuring a pair of No. 1 picks, the Arizona Cardinals and Kyler Murray (2019) surviving a late charge from the Carolina Panthers and Bryce Young (2022).
25. Eagles DT Jalen Carter, thrown out of the opener, played his first snaps of the 2025 season and registered one TFL and three hits on Mahomes on a day when Philly once again very much limited Kansas City's offense.
26. Number of penalties (for 266 yards) in the Cowboys-Giants thriller. Good thing the teams made a potential slopfest watchable with 77 points and nearly 1,000 yards of offense.
27. New England's Mike Vrabel and Dallas' Brian Schottenheimer notched their first wins with their current teams Sunday.
28. For Schottenheimer, 51, it's his first win ever as a head coach. Now he's just 204 behind his legendary father, Marty.
29. Elsewhere, Johnson, the Jets' Aaron Glenn – both were on Detroit's staff prior to this season – and the Saints' Kellen Moore, who won a ring with the Eagles in 2024, are all still awaiting their first HC Ws.
30. The Baltimore Ravens' home opener also served as the kickoff celebration of their 30th NFL season since they relocated from Cleveland and were renamed in 1996. As part of the festivities, the Ravens painted their end zones in throwback font styles. Would love to see the uniforms Hall of Famer Ray Lewis wore as a rookie next time ...
😮💨 pic.twitter.com/Dh3lXgZggr
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) September 12, 2025
31. Week 2 will end with a "Monday Night Football" doubleheader, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers visit the Houston Texans before the unbeaten Las Vegas Raiders host the unbeaten Chargers.
32. And hope you like "MNF" twinbills – because you're going to get four of them over the next six weeks.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NFL Week 2 takeaways: Daniel Jones' Colts among surprise 2-0 teams
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