Judging biggest overreactions for NFL Week 2 - ESPN

CINCINNATI — Zac Taylor, I feel seen.

I was standing in the Bengals' postgame interview room at Paycor Stadium on Sunday afternoon after a 27-24 loss to Baltimore, listening to their coach talk about how an 0-2 start isn't the end of the world because they did it last year and still made it to the AFC Championship Game and yada yada yada, when all of a sudden I heard him say something that made me think he's a regular reader.

«The beauty of this team is that we know it's a 17-game season,» Taylor said. «So there's no overreaction on our end. We've got to be prepared for it outside our locker room, which is natural. But this is exactly where we were last year, and this will be no different. I'm very confident of that.»

I mean, I basically had to take that as an invitation, right? The only thing better would have been if Taylor had sat down and written the lead to the Week 2 overreactions column for me. But he's a busy guy, so I felt like I didn't need to put that on his plate. We are going to start this week with those 0-2 Bengals, though, as we judge a few potential takeaways from the weekend's games.

Jump to:
Burrow and the Bengals
Fields and the Bears
Mayfield and the Buccaneers
Wilson and the Broncos
Tagovailoa and the Dolphins

Not only are the Bengals 0-2, but both losses have come against AFC North teams — which means the hill they have to climb to win their third straight division title is a steep one. According to ESPN Stats & Information data, Cincinnati is the seventh team since the division realignment in 2002 to start 0-2 with both of those losses being in division games, and none of the previous six made the playoffs. The Bengals were definitely very confident in their locker room after the game that they could do