Each week, we’ll offer up the very best of the NFL for a given week, kind of like the fantasy football team you wished you had.
We’ll pick one quarterback, two running backs, two receivers and a tight end – OK, this is sounding a lot like a super-hindsight fantasy football team – as a way to look back on the weekend that was.
This week, our team is led by two Lions after their dominant win over the Bears and the running back who powered the Bills’ blowout win over the Jets.
QB Jared Goff, Lions
Lots of compelling candidates in close wins today, but it’s hard to argue with the sheer dominance of Detroit’s offense in a 52-21 mauling of the Bears. Goff had as many touchdowns (five) as he had incompletions, going 23-for-28 for 334 yards. You don’t realize how good Goff has been – this is his fourth career game with five touchdown passes and no interceptions.
Lions vs. Bears: Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma break down Detroit’s dominant win | NFL on FOX
Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma broke down the Lions dominant 52-21 win over the Chicago Bears.
RB James Cook, Bills
Again, picking from a lopsided win over the Jets, but Cook did so much, rushing 21 times for 132 yards and two touchdowns. His 44-yard run in the second quarter put the game out of reach and was one of the better highlight clips of the day. Cook nearly outgained the Jets by himself – he finished with 135, and New York as a team managed 154 on 47 plays.
RB Jonathan Taylor, Colts
Huge game for Taylor, rushing for 165 yards and adding another 50 yards and a score receiving — 215 yards to keep the Colts in it all the way until a last-second field goal beat the Broncos. With 236 yards after two games, Taylor leads the NFL in rushing ahead of Jacksonville’s Travis Etienne Jr. It’s Taylor’s best total ever after two games, including the 2021 season when he led the NFL in rushing. The Colts are a surprising 2-0 team, but his central role in that isn’t surprising at all.
WR Ja’Marr Chase, Bengals
The bar was set high for receivers this week – Rome Odunze had 128 yards and two touchdowns and was a distant fourth. But Chase, even with two different quarterbacks throwing to him, looked like the guy who won the receiving triple crown last year – 14 catches, 165 yards and a touchdown in a hard-fought win over the Jaguars. The Bengals have dug themselves out of enough September holes that a 2-0 start is welcome news, even if Joe Burrow’s injury concern might be the biggest headline.
Even without Joe Burrow throwing him the ball, Ja’Marr Chase had a huge game as the Bengals improved to 2-0. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
WR Amon-Ra St. Brown, Lions
If the Giants had pulled out a win, you could make a good case for Malik Nabers (9-167-2), but we’ll go back to Detroit’s rout of the Bears and choose St. Brown, who had his first three-touchdown game as part of nine catches for 115 yards. Any concerns about Detroit’s offense taking a step back with Ben Johnson gone, this helped take care of those.
TE Tucker Kraft, Packers
Way back on Thursday, Kraft had a monster game, getting six catches for 124 yards and a touchdown in Green Bay’s win over Washington. He had a 57-yard catch in the first quarter to set up the first score – that’s how you get a tight end to average 20 yards a catch for the day. Two weeks, two touchdowns as the third-year tight end continues to emerge.
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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