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Sixteen NFL teams enter Week 2 without a win, and the pressure to avoid an 0-2 start is mounting across the league. New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel summed up the challenge clearly. “The teams that continue to improve are going to be the ones that have a chance at the end,” he said. That message carries extra weight for franchises already showing signs of deeper trouble after just one game.
Entire Divisions Struggling After Week 1
Every NFL division has at least one winless team heading into Week 2. However, some divisions fared far worse than others. Three of the four AFC South teams lost in Week 1, with the Jacksonville Jaguars as the only exception. The NFC South had an even rougher opening weekend. All four teams in that division lost, leaving the entire conference standing at 0-1.
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Among those teams, the Carolina Panthers face a particularly familiar situation. Carolina has started 0-2 in each of the last four seasons. Their Week 2 matchup against division rival Atlanta guarantees that one of those two teams will fall to 0-2. Two other Week 2 games also feature a pair of winless teams. The Dallas Cowboys meet the Washington Commanders, and the Cleveland Browns face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In each case, one team will remain without a win after Sunday.
Green Bay’s Collapse Raises Serious Questions
For the Green Bay Packers, an 0-1 record feels like much more than a single setback. Their 17-point loss to division rival Minnesota extended a losing streak that now stretches back six consecutive games, dating to last season. That is the franchise’s longest losing streak since 1990-91.
More troubling is the pattern behind the losses. Green Bay has now dropped three straight divisional games after holding double-digit leads. Earlier this season, the Packers led Chicago by 10 points in December and then by 18 points in a January playoff game. They lost both. Against Minnesota on Sunday, Green Bay surrendered a 12-point lead and fell in a blowout. The repeated late-game collapses have raised serious concerns about the team’s ability to close out games.
Head coach Matt LaFleur addressed the issue directly after the loss. “It’s going to be a topic of conversation for you guys until we do it,” he told reporters. “That’s the bottom line.” Quarterback Jordan Love echoed that frustration. “All these games find ways to be close at the end,” Love said. “We’ve got to find ways to be at our best. We’ve talked about it time and time again, and I think we’ll keep talking about it until we figure it out.”
Chargers Face Heat After Shock Home Defeat
Perhaps the most surprising 0-1 team entering Week 2 is the Los Angeles Chargers. Before the season, oddsmakers gave them the eighth-best Super Bowl odds in the league. Instead, Arizona — a team many expected to finish near the bottom of the standings — thoroughly outplayed the Chargers at home in Week 1.
The defeat intensified ongoing criticism of quarterback Justin Herbert and the offensive line’s failure to protect him. Since Herbert entered the league in 2020, no other quarterback in the NFL has taken more sacks. His total now stands at 228. Three of those came against the Cardinals, including one widely discussed play where three Chargers blockers converged on a single Arizona defender. That left two Cardinals pass rushers free to reach Herbert untouched.
Head coach Jim Harbaugh spoke candidly about the loss. “It feels like it does in any fight — feels like it does in a football fight where you don’t win,” he said. “Your mind says, ‘What are you going to do about it?'” That question now faces all 16 winless NFL teams as Week 2 gets underway.
