Week 2 of the NFL preseason is almost officially in the books. There’s one more game left on Monday night, but 15 have already been played. And that means there was plenty to see on your television screens (or streaming services or what have you) this past weekend.
It’s understandable during the preseason to want to focus on the positives. This is a time for hope, after all. Everything is still possible this upcoming season because nothing has actually happened yet. But when everything is possible, that means negative outcomes are still in play as well. So we do, at times, have to focus on the negatives.
All of which is to say, here are some of our winners and losers from Week 2 of the preseason.
As we wrote when ranking this week’s rookie quarterback performances:
Dart has been the best rookie quarterback of the preseason. He checked in No. 1 in these rankings for Tyler Sullivan last week and sits atop them once again in Week 2. He’s now 26 of 35 for 291 yards and two touchdowns through the air during New York’s two preseason contests.
Last week saw him deliver a ball under duress for a touchdown strike up the sideline. This week, his touchdown came on a much simpler throw because Greg Dulcich was wide open, but Dart’s well-executed fake toss to the running back helped sell the run and give Dulcich room to run up the middle. And then Dart also delivered a really nice ball over the middle to Montrell Washington, who caught it in front of a closing safety.
The passing yardage numbers are helped out quite a bit by a screen pass to Theo Johnson, who caught it and took off for about 30 yards, but Dart also did a good job to deliver that screen pass side-arm to get it around a defender in his face. Other than one throw he forced up the sideline that could’ve been dangerous if the defender had turned around, Giants fans should have no complaints at all and should be very happy with how their first-round QB looks so far.
Lloyd missed almost his entire rookie season due to various injuries, playing in just one game and logging six carries for 15 yards. He dealt with hip, hamstring and ankle issues, as well as appendicitis. He then missed a bunch of time early in training camp with a groin issue before returning to practice recently. Naturally, he had a hamstring issue crop up in this weekend’s game and Matt LaFleur said Sunday that Lloyd will miss “some time.” The second-year back just can’t seem to stay on the field for all that long.
After showcasing his explosiveness with a kick-return touchdown in the preseason opener, Henderson got himself going on the ground in Week 2. This time, he showed patience, burst and the ability to run through tackles on his trip into the end zone.
Henderson is looking like a guy who is going to have a significant early role in New England’s offense.
Loser: Cowboys’ backups
This was the situation at halftime of the Cowboys-Ravens game on Saturday:
Things got better in the second half, but the end result was ugly.
Backup quarterback Joe Milton finished 9 of 18 for 122 yards and an interception. Only one of the four running backs to touch the ball averaged more than 2.3 yards per carry, and it was because Malik Davis ran once for five yards. Dallas’ offense had the ball for only 19 minutes and 49 seconds.
The defense came away with two interceptions, one of which Andrew Booth returned for a touchdown, but also allowed the Ravens to run an incredible 79 plays and convert 8 of 17 third downs.
Bridgewater was coaching high school football earlier this month, but on Saturday night, he was throwing a pair of touchdown passes, including a beauty to rookie Emeka Egbuka:
Teddy Two Gloves put that in a perfect spot for the former Ohio State wideout to go make a play in the corner of the end zone.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we had Jefferson, who hung Cameron Ward out to dry on what should have been a highlight-reel play but instead was a throw that will be reduced to “oh man he should have caught that” tweets.
This was a gorgeous, layered laser from the No. 1 overall pick, who dropped the throw in a bucket over the top of three defenders and hit Jefferson in stride, in both hands, but the veteran wideout couldn’t come down with the ball.
After the game, Ward said that Jefferson told him that the throw was a little bit out in front of him, so Ward said that it was his fault and that he has to put the ball on Jefferson’s chest next time. It’s always nice to see a quarterback take accountability for a mistake; but this mistake wasn’t his, and it could’ve been a long touchdown because Jefferson had room to run with only one man to beat in front of him.
The rookie safety apparently has a nose for the football. First, he jumped in front of a late and inaccurate pass from Dillon Gabriel to come away with a pick-six:
Mere minutes later, Makuba jumped on the ball when it hit the ground again on a fumble by a Browns running back.
Philly’s secondary is in a bit of flux this season after some personnel changes alongside the Quinyon Mitchell – Cooper DeJean – Reed Blankenship trip, and the second-round pick could earn himself a role if he keeps making plays on the ball.
Welp. Stafford was supposed to hold a workout on Saturday, but a Rams spokesperson declined to tell reporters if that actually happened. Instead, the team said that there would be more information regarding Stafford’s status coming on Monday.
And this came at the end of a week where Stafford was expected to return to practice, but didn’t, and was then spotted getting treatment in a rejuvenation chamber. If that doesn’t all sound ominous, I don’t know what does.