NFL Week 2 early games open thread

The Falcons don’t play until past 4 p.m. today, so you’ve got a little time to kill. In addition to going to the store to stock up on your libations and comfort foods of choice, you can also watch other NFL teams duke it out while you wait.

The biggest ticket is probably Panthers-Saints for me. New Orleans unexpectedly beat the brakes off of the Packers last week, and it’ll be interesting to see if that was more of a Week 1 fluke or a sign that the Saints are annoyingly still a very good football team. The Panthers, meanwhile, squeaked by the Jets and will need to prove they can hang with good teams, and New Orleans looks like a good early test for them. I’m not going to root for either team particularly hard—I always want the Saints to lose—but we’ll get a better feel for whether the Panthers are destined to chill with the Falcons in the basement for the early part of the year or not here.

We’ll also get 49ers vs. Eagles as a nice test of whether Philadelphia is for real or just feasted on an unprepared Falcons team, Rams vs. Colts will be a nice test for the Matthew Stafford-led team even against a depleted Indy defense, and Bengals vs. Bears is there for those of you who love slow motion car crashes.

Enjoy with your fellow fans and we’ll see you here around 4 p.m. for Falcons vs. Buccaneers!