Week 2 NFL Takeaways: Packers Show Strength in Win With Malik Willis

Week 2 of the NFL regular season is rolling and so are we. Just like we did last week, we’ll publish the takeaways on Sunday and update them live through Monday morning. So come back again if not all 10 are here yet …

Week 2 was another notch in the belt of Matt LaFleur’s program with the Green Bay Packers. Malik Willis, for those who don’t know, joined the team on Aug. 26. He became the starter nine days before Sunday’s game against a feisty Indianapolis Colts team. And it barely mattered.

Maybe you don’t want to hang Green Bay’s 16–10 win in the Louvre. But I kind of do.

What we saw Sunday at Lambeau was a testament to what the Packers have built, which was good enough to see Jordan Love through a detailed, extensive three-year apprenticeship, and support him as he grew into a high-end starter last year. This time around, it helped Malik Willis—a Packer for only three weeks—record his second career win in his first start in nearly two years. And LaFleur led the way in doing it mostly by just sticking to his script.

“More than anything, the offense remained pretty much the same,” Willis told me a few minutes after the win. “It’s more of, what am I comfortable with as far as the reps go and what am I not? I think he [LaFleur] does a great job giving me everything and seeing what I like, seeing what I don’t like, and having a feel for that.”

As the game went along Sunday, it was clear that Green Bay wouldn’t have to dip too deep into what Willis liked—and that’s another credit to where the Packers are right now. In the first quarter, the Packers ran the ball 20 times for 164 yards; kicked a field goal to cap an eight-play, 42-yard drive; and scored a touchdown on an 11-play, 82-yard drive. Willis threw it just twice in those 15 minutes, completing both (with a third completion wiped out by penalty) for a grand total of 14 yards.

One of the two was a 14-yard touchdown throw to Dontayvion Wicks on a flat route.

“Got him the ball. He did the rest,” Willis says. “All credit to him. It was great to see the Lambeau Leap.”

The other thing that was great for Willis to see, and a great reflection of the program, was the environment in the quarterback room three weeks ago. He knew Love, having spent time with him at the retreats their mutual agent, David Mulugheta, hosts in Austin, Texas, and backup Sean Clifford, having worked out with him under private throwing coach Quincy Avery. So those two teammates were resources.

“Just coming in knowing guys and being able to communicate with them and have some carryover in the offenses that I’ve been in—this is the fourth offense I’ve been in in three years—is cool,” Willis says. “Just continuing to have that relationship that you can communicate freely and bounce questions off each other, it’s been awesome.”

So Willis was confident going in, and the Packers had a situation that wasn’t going to put him in an impossible spot. And they didn’t early, or late.

The Packers had the run-pass ratio of a middle-school team—53 rushes for 261 yards, with Willis finishing an efficient 12-of-14 for 122 yards, that touchdown and a 126.8 rating. He effectively did what the Packers asked of him, and that wasn’t ever going to be too much.

Which is why it wouldn’t be smart to bet against the Packers riding out Love’s injury and being in position to take full advantage of his eventual return.

I took two great signs from the Seattle Seahawks’ win in New England, besides the fact that they outlasted a Patriots team in a 10 a.m. body-clock game. First was how Mike Macdonald has such a resilient team, with both of Seattle’s wins necessitating the team riding out imperfect first halves. And second was how well Geno Smith is playing in his 11th NFL season.

As he explained it to me after the Seahawks’ 23–20 win, all of that experience really marked the way he made his most critical throws to beat New England. In particular, it was actually how he combatted an ultra-aggressive Patriots defense and used their blitz-heavy approach to slice right through them.

“I welcome the blitz. I hope they blitz me,“ Smith says. “A lot of teams don’t. A lot of teams come out and play us two-high [safeties]. Today, they wanted to be aggressive. It really didn’t pay off for them. For me, I’ve seen so much football that I just know what I’m looking at. I study a lot of film. There’s always tells out there on the field. You just got to find the guy. I’ve worked on that. For the most part, teams don’t really zero us, but they got them to critical situations and that was their call. That’s what they went with.”

And we can take you through a couple of those.

• The first big one was Smith’s 56-yard touchdown strike to DK Metcalf in the first quarter. Smith saw the zero blitz (rushing the quarterback with no safeties back in coverage) and went back to last week. Denver gave him that look, and he held back an audible, hoping to set up the Broncos to use it later in the game. He never got to, so he still had the audible coming into this week.

“We felt like it was going to be good again this week,“ Smith says. “Got to an empty formation. They went to a rain check, which is their all-out blitz. I got to the right protection. We all knew the signal, got the play off, and then they busted the coverage. They didn’t guard him. [Metcalf] was wide open down the sideline.”

• The second one came on a critical third-and-6 in overtime. Smith wound up hitting Zach Charbonnet in the flat in the face of heavy pressure, and Charbonnet churned out seven yards.

“They went Cover Zero again,“ Smith says. “We kind of scared them out of it when we scored on the big play. We really didn’t get it for the rest of the game. You got to know that these D-coordinators, they’re going to go with what they know. He’s a guy in those situations, critical situations, he wants to be aggressive. He wants to all-out blitz you. Do it at your own risk. I’m not a rookie quarterback … [OC Ryan] Grubb made a great call. That was one of the calls we loved in that situation. Zach was wide open.”

On the very next play, Smith reversed field on a sprint-right pass call, when he saw Jabrill Peppers had a bead on what the Seahawks were doing (“Jabrill did a great job“). With the play dead, Smith spun back to his left and found Tyler Lockett down the opposite sideline for 16 yards.

“Obviously, gotta find 16 in those moments,“ Smith says. “He does a great job of being clutch.“

Two plays after that, Jason Myers banged home a 31-yarder to finish the Patriots and get the Seahawks to 2–0, giving Macdonald, Grubb and the rest of the staff some nice proof of concept for all that they’ve asked of the players the past five months.

So the post–Pete Carroll world in Seattle doesn’t look so bad now. Smith’s a pretty big reason why, but he’ll put his new coaches right there with him.

“Most of the wins in the league are one-score. You got to fight through some things. I thought we did a great job of that today,” Smith says. “I think the message and the tone has always been consistent with those guys. Obviously, they’re great coaches. They got great schemes. They do a great job of calling the game, making adjustments and putting us in positions to be great. I just think the consistency is the main thing.“

Of course, getting that from the quarterback doesn’t hurt, either.

The New York Jets’ offense has been in a funny spot, with both of their opponents effectively playing keep away from them—but we did get a little window into who they want to be. It came at the very end of their closer-than-it-had-to-be 24–17 win in Nashville. And it said a lot.

The run call to rookie Braelon Allen on second-and-4 from the Tennessee Titans’ 20 with the game tied at 17 was the Jets’ 23rd of the game, and on an afternoon through which they had just 55 offensive plays (after Aaron Rodgers played just 38 snaps in the opener). The result was as subtle as a jackhammer to the jaw. The burly 20-year-old ran right through the Tennessee defense, rumbling untouched through the red zone for the score.

It was the result of the Jets continuing to hammer away until Tennessee broke.

“It just went down throughout the entirety of the game,“ Allen told me postgame. “We had a lot of runs that were real close. To finally get one and capitalize on an opportunity at the end of the game was huge for us. Just a testament to how well the O-line played throughout the whole game, tiring those guys out. We were able to take advantage of that.“

The first thing I’d take from it is what the Jets want to do—which is build a team that has a legend at quarterback, but doesn’t ask him to be one nonstop, because it doesn’t have to.

Despite a rough start to the season, the brass there believes in its defense, and the run game should only highlight the strength on that side of the ball, keeping legs fresh with longer possessions and shortening games. With that formula, the Jets have a shot to make Rodgers even more dangerous, forcing opponents to play his offense straight up.

The second thing here, to me, is what the Jets are going through right now. The league didn’t do them any scheduling favors. They opened at San Francisco, and got back from that cross-country trip Tuesday morning, only to have to fly to Nashville on Saturday. And having to do it after getting their collective you-know-what kicked only added to how deep they had to dig to outlast a feisty Titans team Sunday.

“It was a mindset of move on. Leave it in the past. Prepare for what’s ahead,” Allen says.

Then, the rookie paused and delivered the reality of this spot they’re in.

“As short of a week as we had, it’s even shorter this week. It’s the same mentality coming off a win. We got the plane ride tonight to celebrate it. Once we hit the facility tomorrow, we’re on to New England. That’s the biggest thing is not dwelling on it and moving forward.“

So, yes, the Jets’ home opener is Thursday against the Patriots.

Is it fair? No. But if the Jets get through that at 2–1, they’ll have a right to feel good about it (the tough injury to Jermaine Johnson on Sunday notwithstanding), and this identity they’re building.

The Tua Tagovailoa situation is big and complex, and too much to draw a conclusion on over the course of a single weekend. So we can start with the tone that Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel struck after the scariness of Thursday night’s concussion and the resulting fencing posture—and that was one of patience. On Thursday night, and again Friday morning, McDaniel declined to put a timeline on anything, which was the right thing to do.

In that short-term window, focusing on anything beyond the real-life circumstances Tagovailoa was facing, and his general health and well-being, would’ve been inappropriate.

But in time, this will become about football, because the fact that Tagovailoa is a football player is why we’re all so aware of his situation. I think the first step would be to put him on injured reserve, to take the pressure off everyone involved—player, team, doctors, everyone. That would sideline Tagovailoa for four weeks. That Week 6 is the Dolphins’ bye works out in this circumstance, in that his first shot to return would be Oct. 20 at Indianapolis.

Obviously, the party with the most at stake here is Tagovailoa and his family, so this starts with him, and I got a good reminder of that being at Hard Rock Stadium on Thursday night. With about three or four minutes left in the game against the Buffalo Bills, Tagovailoa’s wife, Annah, and one of his two kids emerged from the locker room, and spoke briefly with Tagovailoa’s brother in the tunnel before leaving. She was heard saying, “He’s O.K.,” with the acknowledgment that there was a lot of uncertainty ahead.

Tagovailoa has a lot of people relying on him here. Losing him could sink the team’s season. If he were to walk away from football, his absence could destabilize the entire team, and what McDaniel and GM Chris Grier have built. But the people he really has to answer to live under the same roof as him—and that’s what McDaniel meant when he told Tagovailoa that he’s the starting quarterback for his family first.

So for now, as Tagovailoa tries to return to football—and most folks around him think he will—and gets opinions from specialists and team doctors, I think it’s safe to say the opinions that matter most are those of his family.

My take? I’ve covered the league for 20 years, and I’ve seen the fencing posture twice. And on both occasions, it’s been Tagovailoa. I also know that’s an involuntary reaction from the brain that indicates a serious concussion. But I’m not a doctor, nor am I a professional football player. Tough decisions are ahead for sure.

Because of all of that, I’ll just join everyone in saying I hope Tagovailoa makes the right decision for himself, and the people around him.

I think Josh Allen has to be in everyone’s MVP conversations until further notice. Yes, it’s only Week 2. But the Buffalo Bills’ quarterback is, in a lot of ways, showing signs that he can do things similar to what Patrick Mahomes did the past two years: guiding a team that’s getting younger through a roster reset, as the transition from having a quarterback on a rookie deal to one on a big second contract takes shape.

Gone are Tre’Davious White, Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Mitch Morse and, yes, Stefon Diggs, among others. Which meant, naturally, there was going to be more on Allen in every way.

He’s responded with a 2–0 start and, in Thursday’s 31–10 rout of Miami, the type of game where he gave his team exactly what it needed from him. It was the fallaway, fourth-down throw to James Cook in the flat, with pressure coming, for the first touchdown of the game. It was a 33-yard downfield dime to Ty Johnson in the scramble drill on a third-and-12 to set up Cook’s second touchdown. It was even a recovery of his own first-half fumble.

He was under control. He was a leader. The team never seemed to have much doubt in how the night would play out, the same way it maintained confidence four days earlier when the Bills fell behind early against the Arizona Cardinals. It was also, really, just a continuation of how the team has followed the lead of Allen, who’s stepped up as a leader all offseason.

Whether it’s been having the skill guys in Nashville for a week before training camp, or working with a guy one-on-one, or pulling groups of two and three guys aside, or even just knowing when a guy needs to be pushed and when a guy needs encouragement, Allen’s shown, organically, how deeply he understands how his role needed to shift this year. And in addressing it to me last week, coach Sean McDermott pointed out where people have it wrong.

“People always wanna make it about Stef—it has nothing to do with that,” McDermott says. “It’s just really Josh taking another step, maturing, showing this is his team and growing as a leader. Leadership, I think it’s within us, but it’s also learned and you grow with it. And as you mentioned, it’s your comfort level with leading in a certain way. … It’s been a real pleasure to watch.”

And it shows up every day, according to McDermott.

“You could tell when he came back in the spring, his mind was in the right spot, he was equipped mentally and awareness-wise, and ready to lead,” McDermott continues. “Again, then he just carried it through. It’s easy to lead the first week back in OTAs, when it’s new and fresh. And then the same thing with the first week or so in training camp. But I think more than anything, it’s been just as important from a consistency standpoint.

“That’s what I’ve witnessed as well. There was a play in practice a few weeks ago, during the fourth preseason week where no one plays anyone … I was ready to go to the next play on the script, which is not the norm for me—usually it’s like, Hey, repeat it. To his credit, he was like, No, we’re going to do it again. It’s just an awareness to the standard and really being consistent with it.”

The early signs are pretty great that it’s carrying over into Sundays and Thursday nights and, the way it looks right now, it shows there are few more valuable guys in all of the NFL.