Week 2 is done and teams are already starting to separate themselves from the pack

The Washington Football Team and the Chicago Bears play their first games of the season this week, while the Jets and the Giants face off in the New York Bowl ™. The Houston Oilers RB Matt Smith has a heck of a game with 4 total touchdowns, and the Philadelphia Eagles find a way to blank the Cleveland Browns on the way to their first win. You can see the action for this week here: ANFL Inaugural Season - 1966 Week 2. 

Miami Dolphins @ Pittsburgh Steelers

The Miami Dolphins were unable to top their offensive performance last week and fall to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-18. Miami had a hot start early, with RB Nick Baltazar finding the end zone and DL Todd Jones sacking PIT QB Merrill Dreher for a safety for a 9-0 lead in the first quarter. The second quarter saw Merrill Dreher making TD passes to WRs Justin Ames and John Holmes to put 14 points on the board for Pittsburgh. Miami was able to score twice as well, although one time was a 41-yard FG by K Travis Morgan. 

Miami leading 18-14 at the half, the scoring goes quiet in the third. With the game looking comfortable for Miami, all they need to do is not Merrill Dreher find Justin Ames for a 43-yard TD with no time left on the clock. With 6 seconds left on the clock, QB Merrill Dreher finds WR Justin Ames for a 43-yard TD. Huh, could have seen that one coming? On 3 touchdown passing plays, Merrill Dreher threw for 181 yards. Merry Merrill loves him some deep ball, I suppose.

Boston Patriots @ Baltimore Colts

Luckily, either team had a chance at winning today in this battle of the B's. Aside from a 9 yard TD reception via QB Tim Burton to WR Nolan Foster, both teams traded field goals before K Brody Bolden put the Patriots up 13-6 at the half. After an initial flat drive to start the third quarter, BAL QB Conrad Spence found WR Tyler Collins in traffic for a 41-yard TD to tie the game.

With less than 2 minutes remaining, BAL RB Treyvion McQueen leapt in for a 4-yard rushing touchdown to put the game at 20-13. With one last drive to go, Tim Burton was able to get spooky and lobbed a 48-yard hail mary to WR Spencer Weaver. Both teams are already looking to OT. They've looking ahead so much that nobody noticed that K Brody Bolden shanked the extra point. BAL wins 20-19.

Atlanta Falcons @ San Diego Chargers

Who doesn't love special teams? The San Diego Chargers hosted the Atlanta Falcons in this matchup. K Alvin Warren and K Cam Ransey traded a FG each to start the scoring. SD QB Khalil Collins, noticing the Atlanta Falcons attempting a 3-4 pass rush, skirts his way through the middle for a 3 yard rushing TD. K Alvin Warren follows up this TD with 2 more FGs from distance, putting the Chargers up 16-3 at the half. 

Atlanta K Cam Ransey finds a 52-yard field goal late in the 3rd quarter and near the top of the 4th, ATL QB James Washington finds WR Dino Sparks for a 9-yard TD to bring the game within a score. With 2:00 min remaining, Alvin Warren makes his 5th FG of the day and the Chargers D prevents the Falcons from scoring. Falcons win 19-13.

Los Angeles Rams @ St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals host the Los Angeles Rams in what expected to by a high-flying matchup. The first quarter goes off without a hitch, but there's limited production by either team. With 3:28 remaining in the first quarter, QB John Pollard throws an incomplete pass to WR Alonzo Scott but is hit in the legs as he throws. He will be out the remainder of the game and backup QB Blake Morris will have to lift some weight. In the 2nd quarter, K Shaq Lawson puts the Rams up 6-0 at the half. At the top of the 3rd quarter, Shaq Lawson finds the uprights again from 50 yards out. LAR K Walker Pressley puts up 6 points, bringing the score to 9-6 with 9:07 left to go. 

Finally, with 8:21 in the 4th quarter, the Rams find their big play: RB Stewart Ramos finds a gap in the line and scorches the secondary for 75 yards and a TD! The Cardinals are unable to make any offense happen and the Rams win 16-6. STL QB Davaughn Augustin could not have had a worse day offensively, only completing 8-of-24 for only 41 yards.

New York Jets @ New York Giants

The New York Bowl has arrived, as the Jets "visit" the Giants. A pair of field goals by  K Quentin Sledge allows the Giants to lead early, but Jets QB Leonard Smith finds Chris McMaster for a 10-yard touchdown right before the end of the first half. Smith completes a TD pass to WR John Lewis in the middle of the 3rd quarter, putting the Jets up 14-6. NYG Johnnie Roderick stumbles his way into the end zone for a TD as well as the 2 point conversion to tie the game at 14-14 with 4:18 left to play. After trading drives that went nowhere, QB Leonard Smith finds a wide open WR Warren Regan streaking down the left hash marks. The lob, the jam! Regan makes the catch and dashes away for the 70-yard TD. The Giants are unable to score with 1:34 remaining. The Jets win 21-14.

This exciting matchup not only featured balanced offenses from both teams, but was exceptionally brutal on both quarterbacks - a combined 9 sacks! The Jets were able to force 9 tackles for loss but could not force any turnovers (conversely, the Giants had 2 TFLs and 2 forced turnovers.) Jets S Jeremy Blue suffered a torn meniscus and will not be available for the next 12 games.

San Fransisco 49ers @ Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills host the San Fransisco 49ers in this cross-country matchup. A slew of injuries to Buffalo during the game made this difficult for QB Kurt Wood. Buffalo found an early lead in the first half thanks to a TD pass to WR Keon Bennett for 47 yards and a RB Wes Williams TD. At the end of the half, QB Kurt Wood had already put up 277 passing yards.

Mid-way through the 3rd quarter, QB Kurt Wood found TE Wesley Thorpe for a 62 yard TD and the 49ers never had a chance to come close to coming back. SF RB Ryan Francis was able to find the end zone at the top of the 4th quarter, but this game was never in question as the Bills win 21-7. 

The Bills skill group received several minor injuries during the game. WR Kurt Chapman will be out for 2 games (patellar tendinitis) while WR Keon Bennett and RB Wes Williams will be out for 3 games (plantar faciitis and patellar tendinitis respectively). Bills K Jaren Hymes was injured during an extra point attempt and will also be out for 2 games (sprained ankle).

Washington Football Team @ Kansas City Chiefs

The Washington Football Team has its first game on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs. The Football Team takes an early lead in the 1st quarter, thanks to rushing touchdowns by RB William Harvey and QB Pete Green. Harvey's touchdown was set up by an 89-yard completion to WR Adam Moore. Kansas City responds with RB Austin O'Leary rushing TD to bring the game to 14-7 mid-way through the second quarter. A late safety by DL Devin Cooke on Pete Green sets the game at 14-9 by the end of the half.

Once the second half started, it was Washington Football Team all the way. RB Harvey rushed for his 2nd TD and QB Pete Green made sure Harvey caught one through the air to go up 28-9 by the end of the 3rd quarter. The Chiefs fight like mad to bring the game close, with QB Christian Huff finding TE Brett Sweeney for six, WR Zeke Smith rushing for two, and RB Austin O'Leary putting up nine to bring the score to 28-25 with 7:54 remaining. QB Pete Green shuts down all hope of a KC comeback by finding WR Max Stevens for a 51-yard TD to seal the game, Washington wins 35-25.

Dallas Cowboys @ Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings have a nice bounce back week against the Dallas Cowboys. After Dallas led at the end of the first quarter 7-3, the Vikings running game roared alive scoring 3 rushing TDs (RB Tyler Paredes scored 2, QB Johnathan Washington for 1) to lead 24-7 at the half. The Cowboys offense responds in kind in the 3rd quarter, with a RB Thomas Smith rushing TD and a TD pass from QB Chris Triplett to WR Cameron Cherocci for 2 yards. Vikings still lead 24-21 at the end of the 3rd quarter

Minnesota held clear control of the game in the 4th, putting up 17 unanswered points to seal the game 41-21. The Viking's had an effective and balanced offense today, putting up 480 scrimmage yards (201 of those being on the ground). Despite only scoring 1 TD, RB Greg McClendon led the charge with 174 scrimmage yards.

Houston Oilers @ Cleveland Browns

Ah yes. The "Matt Smith Game". Houston came into Cleveland, who were eager to get their first win after tying Philadelphia the week prior. Things could not have gone worse for the Browns special teams unit as RB Matt Smith recorded two PR TDs on back-to-back drives to put Houston up early 14-0 in the first quarter. HOU QB Clay Thomas found WR Matt Smith for an 11-yard TD and Houston just kept rolling. Coming out of the 1st quarter at 24-3, playing the rest of this game was just a courtesy. 

Cleveland's only TD of the day came from a QB Alec Garcia pass to WR Chad Wire. Houston won 37-10, but even then this game wasn't close. Neither team's offense were effective and were both responsible for 135 penalty yards combined.

Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears

The first game of the historic Packers-Bears rivalry goes down as a Bears win in Chicago. On the first play of the game, CHI QB Dustin Malone was picked off, and Green Bay immediately responses with a QB Axel Applegate TD pass to WR Eric Dublin for 23 yards. Chicago was able to find 2 FGs in the second half to bring the score to 7-6. After a quiet 3rd quarter, GB K Brian Willis boots a 38-yard FG down the middle to put the Packers up 10-6. 

Both teams traded drives, but Chicago methodically marched down the field to get into field goal range thanks to dink-and-doink passing by QB Dustin Malone. With 59 seconds remaining, Malone finds WR Chase Jackson out in the flat, who jukes his way into the end zone to secure the Bears first win 13-10.

Denver Broncos @ Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles host the Denver Broncos to find their first win of the season. The Eagles start the scoring early, with QB George Baggarley finding TE Donald Johnson for a 6-yard score. A Nate Torres INT late in the first quarter gives Philly great position to score, but they can't capitalize. Towards the top of the 2nd quarter, QB George Baggarley finds WR Alan Moorhead for a 4-yard completion in the Broncos red zone, but lands awkwardly on his back and has to exit the game. QB Humberto Dickerson returns to the field as backup to attempt to keep the Eagles in the game. They settle for a FG and the Eagles lead 10-0 at the half.

The rest of the game has stymied offense, but RB Ed Johnson is able to find the end zone after a 6 yard rush. Philadelphia K D'Juan Sullivan makes a 30 yard FG late to end the game 20-0, Eagles victory. A major factor in the Broncos effectiveness was top wideout Justin Moore going down mid-game with a sprained ankle. He will return in 2 games.

Oakland Raiders @ Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions made magic happen on the ground AND in the air this week against the Oakland Raiders. QB Yuri Ramsey, who struggled last week, found WR Demontrez Norwood for a combined 76 yards on two TD drives in the first quarter. Star WR Terry Ndlovu found the end zone on a pair of designed running plays, one of which going for 60 yards.

Both running games were lights out this game, with Oakland crossing 110 rushing yards and Detroit compiling 286 rushing yards between 5 different runners. 

OAK QB Paris Shorter was under pressure all day. Throwing for only 195 yards and 1 TD, he threw an interception to S Alfonso Taylor and was sacked 5 times for 41 total yards. He contributed 50.5% of the Raiders running game, however, which suggests he had to dance around in the pocket and was unable to find open receivers soon enough. Detroit wins 35-20.