The NFL’s second Sunday rewrote the first

Caleb Williams scrambled left from Chicago’s first-and-goal at the 6, slid without being touched, and left Soldier Field on a cart. The Bears still hadn’t scored a touchdown. Neither had Minnesota. The final was 9–3 in the rain, and Ben Johnson said the hamstring’s severity would wait until Monday.[3]

Elsewhere the night kept going. In Kansas City, Harrison Butker’s 40-yarder ended overtime only after the Chiefs and Colts had already traded field goals and Patrick Mahomes had turned third-and-one into 22 yards to Kenneth Walker III. Green Bay won 20–17 the same way the offense couldn’t — on special teams. Carolina answered a 59-point Week 1 with a 34–3 blanking in Atlanta.[1][2][10]

Ugly, short, and unfinished. Five games carried the Sunday that mattered.

Kansas City won on overtime’s third possession

The Chiefs beat Indianapolis 33–30 after the teams exchanged field goals to open overtime. Neither had finished the other. With the ball back, Mahomes found Walker for 22 on third-and-one and set up Butker’s winner as time expired. Indianapolis fell to 0–2.[1]

Short yardage became the chunk. Butker only finished what Walker started. The final line says field goal.

Indianapolis had its own long look: Daniel Jones’s 48-yard completion to Laquon Treadwell in overtime. The Colts’ official highlights put that catch next to the finish — both possessions, not only the winning one.[4]

Chicago’s defeat came with a larger uncertainty

Williams left the Bears’ 9–3 loss to Minnesota with a hamstring injury after that fourth-quarter scramble. Johnson’s Monday update is the medical ceiling for now: no timetable attached to the cart.[3]

The wasted chances stacked. D’Andre Swift fumbled at Minnesota’s one. A potential tying kick was blocked. After Tyson Bagent moved Chicago into range for one last try, Dallas Turner ended it with a sack. Zero touchdowns either way.[3]

Minnesota’s quieter half of the story was the kicking game in wet grass — Will Reichard and special teams turning limited chances into points. The Vikings’ own account follows that lane; it’s a different cut than the quarterback tape.[5]

An offensive review owns the wasted possessions. Monday’s medical owns Williams.

Green Bay’s most productive route was the return lane

The Packers won 20–17 in overtime with 199 offensive yards and one conversion on nine third downs. Skyy Moore piled up 116 yards on kickoff returns and 92 on punt returns — 208 in all.[2]

The dagger was a 63-yard punt return to the Jets’ 19 with a little more than four minutes left. Trey Smack tied it from there: special teams had erased most of the field.[2]

Green Bay’s defense opened overtime with sacks on the Jets’ first two plays. After the punt, the Packers drove Smack’s 26-yard winner. The comeback from 17–7 was real. So were 14 accepted penalties for 133 yards. A win to keep. Mistakes to fix.[6]

Official Packers–Jets highlights still explain it better than a quarterback narrative: the return, then the overtime pressure.[7]

New Orleans stayed close enough to make one yard decisive

The Saints climbed out of a 14–3 hole and beat Baltimore 24–17. The deciding score was Tyler Shough’s one-yard run on fourth-and-goal with 1:28 left. Just before it, Juwan Johnson turned a third-down catch into 26 yards; just after, Julian Blackmon’s interception killed the Ravens’ answer.[8]

Shough went 27 of 34 for 252 yards and a passing touchdown on top of the winning rush. Chris Olave’s touchdown and Travis Etienne Jr.’s two-point conversion had tied it — and left the last drive as a chance to lead, not another chase.[8]

Earlier residue still mattered: Carl Granderson’s blocked field goal and Barion Brown’s 53-yard kickoff return, which set up a field goal before half. Those plays built the comeback without always making the highlight loop.[9]

The last yard was Shough’s. The right to try it belonged to a team that kept recovering pieces of the afternoon.

Carolina changed the question

Carolina’s 34–3 win in Atlanta was the weekend’s sharpest defensive snap among these games. A week after giving up 59 to Chicago, the Panthers kept Atlanta out of the end zone. That isn’t a new permanent ceiling. It is enough to retire Week 1 as the whole description.[10]

Devin Lloyd intercepted two passes, returned one for a touchdown, and added a sack and two tackles for loss. Possession flips, not vibes.[11]

Bryce Young threw three touchdown passes for the second straight week — six touchdowns, one interception through two games. Carolina’s own account stacks that start against his earlier openers. Next up: whether the defense can disrupt again, and whether Young keeps producing without handing the ball back.[12]

Butker hit as the clock died. Moore shortened the field when the offense couldn’t. Shough got one yard when one yard was the whole ask. Williams left on a cart, and Monday’s MRI still has to talk. Lloyd wrote over 59.