Analysis: A tough Sunday for some of the NFL’s top teams in 2023 led to three biggest surprises: Analysis

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It was a tough Sunday for some of the NFL’s best teams in 2023.

The 49ers were beaten by the Vikings on the road. The Cowboys were destroyed by the Saints at home. The Ravens blew a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter against the Raiders. The Lions blundered in a home loss to a slumping Buccaneers.

New season. New challenges. Last year’s records don’t matter anymore.

Even Patrick Mahomes and the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs struggled. They narrowly beat the Bengals when Harrison Butker kicked a 51-yard field goal in the final second after a defensive pass interference call on fourth down and 16 gave them a chance.

And the Houston Texans needed a defensive stand in the final minute to hold off Caleb Williams and the Bears for a 19-13 victory in the final game of the day.

Las Vegas, Tampa Bay and New Orleans were the three biggest underdogs in Week 2, according to BetMGM Sportsbook.

So much for the point spreads.

Gardner Minshew helped the Raiders (1-1) come back from a 23-13 deficit in Baltimore, leading the offense on three scoring drives in the final 12 minutes of a 26-23 victory.

Reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson couldn’t do much to prevent the 8.5-point favorite Ravens from getting off to their first winless start since 2015. Baltimore led the NFL with 13 wins last season and reached the AFC Championship before losing to the Chiefs. Now the Ravens have a huge hole to climb out of.

Of the 32 teams that have started the season 0-2 since the NFL expanded its playoff field to 14 teams in 2020, only Cincinnati in 2022 and Houston in 2023 have reached the playoffs. Only five of the 32 teams have even finished with a winning record.

“We’re not going to be defined by everybody who says we’re not good, we’re good (or) the season is over after two games,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “That’s what’s going to be said, and we understand that, but they’re not here, they’re not inside. Nobody inside is going to say that. We know we’re a good football team, and we’re going to continue to get better and define the season by how we play.”

The Cowboys (1-1) had won 16 straight regular-season home games and were 6 1/2-point favorites against New Orleans, which had demolished pitiful Carolina in the season opener. But Derek Carr and the Saints crushed Dallas the same way Jordan Love and the Packers did in the same stadium in the playoffs last January.

Carr, Alvin Kamara and Rashid Shaheed were unstoppable in a 44-19 rout, scoring touchdowns on the first six drives. Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak outplayed Cowboys defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, and New Orleans made a statement against Micah Parsons and company.

“There’s a lot of things about this offense, the way Klint does things, the way he sets me up for success, puts me in position to succeed, it allows me to do a lot of things that I like to do as a quarterback,” Carr said. “It’s a really cool marriage. And Klint and I are getting to know each other. We’re only two games in, so we’re still getting to know each other.”

This is bad news for the rest of the NFC South because the Saints have already scored 91 points in two games and it’s unclear what they can do once Carr gets more comfortable with Kubiak’s offense.

The Buccaneers (2-0) were without All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr., defensive tackle Calijah Kancey and tackle Luke Goedeke in a rematch of a 1-1 NFC divisional playoff loss at Detroit. The backups stepped up, and Baker Mayfield made big plays with his legs, overcoming a fierce pass rush led by Aidan Hutchinson’s 4 1/2 sacks.

Lions coach Dan Campbell, whose aggressive playmaking backfired in the NFC title game loss to San Francisco, cost the team a chance at a field goal in the final seconds of the second quarter when he sent the field goal team down the field while Jared Goff was punting at the Buccaneers’ 9-yard line. The 10-second timeout for having too many players on the field ended the half. Detroit ran its final play of the game from the Tampa Bay 26-yard line, so a field goal would have made the difference.

“There’s no justification for that,” Campbell said. “It’s a huge mistake on my part, nobody else’s, and it was right between a rushed field goal and a timed field goal. And it was 100 percent my fault.”

After opening the season with an easy win over Aaron Rodgers and the Jets on Monday night, San Francisco (1-1) never got going in Minnesota. Despite throwing for 399 yards of offense, the defending NFC champions couldn’t find enough to score in a 23-17 loss. Brock Purdy threw for 319 yards but fumbled two possessions.

The Los Angeles Rams, another team that made the playoffs last year, are 0-2 after a 41-10 loss at Arizona. Injuries have plagued the Rams in the first two weeks and they face the 49ers next week.

“The only positive thing is this game is over now and we can move on,” Rams coach Sean McVay said.

Every losing coach can say the same.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL