Derek Carr and Darren Waller watch Week 2

Week 2 was kind to a couple of old friends as former Las Vegas Raiders Derek Carr and Darren Waller both helped lead their team to victories. Carr and the New Orleans Saints got a big road victory in the NFC South by holding off the Carolina Panthers, while Waller and the New York Giants put together a comeback for the ages against the Arizona Cardinals.

Derek Carr

• Game result: 20-17, Saints win
• Carr stats: 21/36, 228 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT

This was another typical Carr performance. He threw a terrible interception interception early in the game and struggled in the red zone as New Orleans only had six points at halftime. He was much more efficient in the second half, stringing together a couple of touchdown drives and throwing a nice deep ball to Chris Olave down the sideline. Granted, Olave’s catch was the most impressive part of that play. The Saints do need to do a better job of protecting Carr though as he’s been sacked eight times so far and that’s part of his struggles early in games as he’s still a little skittish in the pocket.

NFC South standings:

1. Atlanta 2-0 (Point differential: +15)
2. Tampa Bay 2-0 (+13)
3. New Orleans 2-0 (+4)
4. Carolina 0-2 (-17)

The NFC South is surprisingly looking like a strong division with three undefeated teams through the first two weeks. The Falcons got a big win against the Packers and the Buccaneers took down the Bears, making the Saints win on Monday Night even more important.

Darren Waller

• Game result: 31-28, Giants win
• Waller stats: 6 catches, 76 yards, 0 TDs

As mentioned above, this was a crazy game as New York trailed 20-0 at halftime and was down 28-7 with a little less than 10 minutes to go in the third quarter. But the Giants came storming back and Waller was a big reason why as all but 12 of his yards came in the second half. He ended up tying Saquon Barkley for the most catches on the team and was second in yards behind Jalin Hyatt who had two catches for 89 yards.

NFC East standings:

1. Dallas 2-0 (+60)
2. Philadelphia 2-0 (+11)
3. Washington 2-0 (+6)
4. New York 1-1 (-37)

This was a must-win for New York for a couple of reasons. One, a loss to the tanking Cardinals would have tanked their season, and two, the NFC East is proving to be an even bigger juggernaut than we expected. The Cowboys have dominated and the Eagles have been sharp too, while the Commanders are a surprising 2-0 after coming back against the Broncos. The Giants kept their playoff hopes alive with their comeback as falling two games behind the rest of the division would have been a fast way to kill spirits.