NFL Week 2 winners: Lions win Ben Johnson breakup, Falcons defense comes alive

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NFL Week 2 winners: Lions win Ben Johnson breakup, Falcons defense comes alive

Troy Finnegan, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Tue, Sep 16, 2025 ·

6 min read

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The post NFL Week 2 winners: Lions win Ben Johnson breakup, Falcons defense comes alive appeared first on ClutchPoints .

Week 1 of the NFL season is always sort of a feeling-out process, but teams start to show us who they really are in Week 2. This year, that came with plenty of dramatics and tight finishes at the end of some very entertaining, high-scoring games.

Who had an overtime classic between the Cowboys and the Giants on the cards? Not me, especially with Russell Wilson going for over 400 yards through the air. Colts-Broncos and Jaguars-Bengals both had some questionable calls that made a difference at the end of games.

While there were plenty of fireworks to be enamored by, there was also a lot of nitty gritty to dig into. Here are the five biggest winners from Week 2 of the 2025 campaign.

Lions win Round 1 of the Ben Johnson breakup

Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The biggest storyline when it comes to drama coming into Week 2 was the reunion between Ben Johnson and the Lions, as the new Bears head coach made his return to the Motor City on Sunday. It was far from a triumphant return for Johnson, as the Lions marched all over the Bears on their way to a 52-21 win that ended in some very brief, frosty handshakes.

The Lions clearly had a couple of points to prove to their old offensive coordinator, whom they felt betrayed by after he chose to stay in the NFC North. They pulled out one of Johnson's old trick plays as an interception celebration during the game, and then Dan Campbell chose to twist the knife with a fourth-and-goal touchdown instead of kicking a field goal to get over the 50-point mark.

The Lions looked much more like the 2024 Lions in Week 2 than they did in Week 1. Jared Goff was back to operating on time in the pocket, Amon-Ra St. Brown was everywhere with three touchdowns , and Kerby Joseph and company were making big plays on defense.

This version of the Lions can get back into the playoffs and be a contender in the NFC, and it seems like they are starting to settle in without Johnson as the year gets going.

The Baker Mayfield experience

Baker Mayfield did the full Baker Mayfield on Monday night. There were chaotic scrambles, tight-window darts, a play where he appeared to be injured until he realized he had the opportunity to talk trash to C.J Gardner-Johnson, and a fumble that he forced on himself.

All of that is just part of the Baker Mayfield experience, as is the absolute gamer gene that allowed him to escape a muddy pocket on fourth-and-10 and lead the Bucs down the field for a game-winning touchdown to beat the Texans 20-19.

Mayfield has some flaws as a quarterback, but man is he an awesome football player. The stats from this game won't blow anyone away, but he continues to come up big in the biggest moments, and this Tampa Bay team has taken on the identity of the toughness and grit that he plays with.

QB wizard Kyle Shanahan is back

A few short years ago, before Brock Purdy broke out as an unquestionably above-average at worst quarterback, Kyle Shanahan was thought to be able to make an elite offense out of any quarterback. Jimmy Garoppolo , Nick Mullens , CJ Beathard, you name it and Shanahan would put 25 points on the board.

Purdy has been a revelation, and his out-of-structure ability has added an extra dimension to this 49ers offense. But on Sunday, with Purdy sidelined with a turf toe injury , Shanahan got to live out an alternate reality from the 2021 NFL Draft. Mac Jones took the field as the Niners' starting QB for the first time, and many people expected a heavy dose of Christian McCaffrey .

That wasn't the case. McCaffrey carried the ball 13 times for 55 yards while Jones registered 43 dropbacks, finishing 26-for-39 with 279 yards and three touchdowns. He wasn't spectacular, but he finished with an above-average EPA per dropback on the week and looked more than competent running the operation in San Francisco .

It's unclear at this point how many more games Purdy will miss, but the Shanahan QB factory is back in business until he gets back.

Falcons defense comes alive

The Falcons have had plenty of quality offenses in recent years, and now Michael Penix Jr. is leading the next iteration of that unit. However, throughout all of the quarterbacks and coordinators, the defense has never held up.

After a solid, but not excellent, Week 1 showing against the Bucs, Raheem Morris and the Falcons defense stole the show in prime time against Kevin O'Connell and the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night. JJ McCarthy was pressured on 16 of his 30 dropbacks, took six sacks and finished with a -0.66 EPA per dropback, the worst mark in the NFL in Week 2.

Minnesota also finished with a negative EPA per rush in this game and mustered just a pair of field goals in a 22-6 loss, so this was a complete domination by this unit.

Both of Atlanta 's first-round picks, Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr. , had moments in this game, and players like Devine Deablo, Billy Bowman Jr. and David Onyemata all were very impactful. A hamstring injury to AJ Terrell put a damper on things at the end of the game, but this was certainly a step in the right direction for a unit that has been a laughingstock for multiple years.

Packers hype train rolls on

The Packers are 2-for-2 making it into the winner's column after dismantling yet another NFC contender. The Washington Commanders had no answers for Green Bay in a 27-18 game on Thursday night that was not as close as the final score indicated.

The Packers marched up and down the field all night long against the Commanders, only being stopped by penalties and a brutal fourth-down under throw by Jordan Love . Defensively, the Packers' pass rush pressured Jayden Daniels more than he had ever been before and Keisean Nixon knocked away just about every pass that came his way.

At this point, Green Bay looks like it has it all. The offense was humming even without both Zach Tom and Aaron Banks on the offensive line, and there is a chance that Tom will be back for Week 3. There aren't any holes on this team if the secondary continues to play like it has so far, and that makes the Packers the most impressive team in football through two weeks.

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