State of the NFC South: Week 2 recap

Posted by Admin September 22, 2026 NFL

The division had a better week overall: two teams won, while the other two struggled.

If you remember last week’s edition, I said that the Bucs should win their Week 2 game against the Cleveland Browns. Well, funny thing. After a long weather delay on what should have been the game’s final drive, the Bucs couldn’t score, resulting in a 4-point loss to the Browns. This was an embarrassing loss; Deshaun Watson outplayed Baker Mayfield, and the defense really struggled.

Tampa Bay‘s season is far from over, but Todd Bowles’ seat is on fire.

Now, to our first win from the division, my goodness, the Panthers destroyed the Falcons. We will get to Atlanta after this, but the Panthers won this game 34-3, and it was never really in doubt. Carolina’s defense played really well, and Bryce Young continues to have a really great start to the season.

At the top of the division, Carolina plays the Browns next week, and just like last week with the Bucs, I’m guessing the Panthers will win.

Yeesh. Losing a game by 31 points is never great, but it was worse than the score says. The one bright spot was the Falcons’ rushing attack, but they had to abandon it because of the score. The QB play, with Penix and Tua out, was downright horrible.

In Week 3, the Falcons will be getting Penix back against the Green Bay Packers, who are also struggling to start the season.

Back to winning, the Saints had the shock of the week. In a game nobody expected New Orleans to win, they beat the Baltimore Ravens, a Super Bowl contender. It wasn’t a perfect game, far from it, but with Tyler Shough being confident all game, the defense holding Derrick Henry to under 100 rushing yards (insane), and Chase Young being a monster off the edge, the Saints stayed in the game all day. In the second half, they really controlled the momentum, and after some interesting decisions by the Ravens, it was over in Baltimore.

Their next game is against the 2-0 Raiders, who have had a strong start to the season under former Saints OC Klint Kubiak. This will be a very fun game.

NFC South standings: