With the second Sunday slate of games having wrapped up for week two of the NFL season, these three teams put on the most abysmal performances yesterday. The Chicago Bears were almost shutout by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Jacksonville Jaguars reverted to form against the Tennessee Titans, and the New York Jets got caught up in the Oakland Raiders' black hole.
Chicago Bears
At halftime, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were crushing the Chicago Bears 26-0. The final score was 29-7, as the Bears barely managed to avoid getting shutout since they only scored with 1:43 remaining in the fourth quarter. Chicago had four turnovers for the game, with three coming from quarterback Mike Glennon, including a pick-six by cornerback Robert McClain.
Tampa Bay also shut down the Bears' running game, as Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen were a combined 16 for 20 rushing the ball. Considering that they literally took the Falcons down to the final seconds of the game in a 23-17 loss in week one, this performance was disappointing.
It also raises speculation about if Glennon will get benched for first-round pick Mitch Trubisky sooner rather than later.
Jacksonville Jaguars
After the Jacksonville Jaguars managed to impress in their week one domination of the Houston Texans, they reverted to form against the Tennessee Titans. At halftime Jacksonville was very much in the game, as they were only down 6-3, but they ended up getting routed in the second half, losing 37-16.
Following 10 sacks, three recovered fumbles and one interception last week, Jacksonville's defense only managed one sack and an interception this week. Leonard Fournette also did not play as well, only managing 40 rushing yards this week, averaging 2.9 yards per carry.
The biggest difference was quarterback Blake Bortles, who threw two picks and fumbled after being turnover-free last week. Naturally, this has led to speculation about Bortles being benched if he puts up a similar performance next week against the Baltimore Ravens.
New York Jets
With about three minutes left in the second quarter, the New York Jets made a field goal to cut the Oakland Raiders' lead to 14-10. They then forced Oakland to go three and out, getting the ball back with just under two minutes in the quarter. Then Jets punt returner Kalif Raymond muffed the punt return, which the Raiders recovered at the four-yard line.
Oakland then scored what would be the first of four straight touchdown drives to make it 21-10 before halftime, as they ran away with the victory, winning 45-20.
Derek Carr lit up the Jets, going 23-28 for 230 yards and three touchdowns. In the process, he became only the second Raiders quarterback to have three straight games with multiple touchdowns and no interceptions, joining Ken Stabler (1974).