RedState Sports Report: NFL Week Number Two Is Now in View

Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below the main deck of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken are happy to report that it’s the most wonderful time of the year…

Considering that they both spend 12 months out of the year doing precious little save for sitting on the couch watching sports while pounding down fish crackers, I’m amazed they’ve even noticed that NHL training camps are starting up. More on that when the season gets ready to start for real.

We shall examine college football’s upcoming Week Three and a Half tomorrow (Friday, September 18, 2026). Today, it’s the big boys’ turn. The NFL rumbles into Week Two of its schedule tonight (Thursday, September 17, 2026) with the Buffalo Bills hosting the Detroit Lions. This will mark the regular-season debut of Highmark Stadium, the Bills’ new home, replacing Ralph Wilson Stadium, which for decades saw Bills fans breaking tables in the parking lot pregame and sobbing in the parking lot postgame as their team broke their hearts again in the postseason. Maybe their luck will change with the new digs, as the Bills haven’t been to (and lost in) the Super Bowl since 1994. Lions fans, who have never seen their team in the Super Bowl, are curiously unsympathetic to the Bills fans' plight.

The Bills are helmed by quarterback Josh Allen. Although he has yet to win a championship (sorry for the reminder, Bills fans), Allen is considered one of the top talents under center in the league, if not the top. Certainly advertisers have noticed, as Allen can be found hawking various products and services at a level almost equivalent to Peyton Manning’s near-omnipresence. He comes across as affable, which helps, and he has undeniable skills both throwing and running the football. The question is, can he and the Bills finally break the jinx this season and at least reach the Super Bowl? Based on (very) early results, it looks like their main competition, aside from their own history, could well be the Kansas City Chiefs, which decisively took care of business against a not inconsiderable Denver Broncos squad, 31-10, this past Monday, September 14. Although not yet in prime form, Patrick Mahomes looks fully recovered from last year’s season-ending injury consisting of a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee. Adding insult to injury to Chiefs opponents, they now have a running game courtesy of Kenneth Walker III. It’s still a long way away, but the Thanksgiving night matchup between the Chiefs and Bills in Buffalo figures to arouse a whole lot of people from their tryptophan-induced — or hearing the same family stories you hear every year-induced — somnolence as they switch on the TV. Speaking of TV, ratings for the NFL’s first week were a mixed bag: overall, a tad down from the season, but way up for the aforementioned Broncos-Chiefs game compared to last year’s Monday Night Football opener. Like it or not, the NFL still rules the roost.

Other games of note include the Los Angeles Rams, minus prized offseason addition Myles Garrett due to knee surgery and cockiness due to a flat performance resulting in a corresponding loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the season opener for both — the teams played in Melbourne, Australia, so in exchange can we have an Australian rules football game Stateside, please? — looking to bounce back against a rejuvenated, maybe, New York Giants. When everyone has played only one game, it’s difficult to ascertain trends no matter the yelling heads at ESPN and variations thereof bellow. The Chicago Bears, who blew up the scoreboard in their season opener, racking up 59 points against the Carolina Panthers, will host the Minnesota Vikings, who should provide a far stiffer test. Not the highlight game on the schedule, but of some interest nonetheless, will be the Oakland Los Angeles Oakland Las Vegas Raiders playing their annual home away from home game against the Los Angeles San Diego Los Angeles Chargers, who really should move back to San Diego if for no other reason than reestablishing their own identity and regaining a home field advantage, especially when teams from cold weather cities come there to play late in the season. I mean, would you rather spend a Sunday in late December in Cleveland?

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