NFL teams have mostly all adopted a pa s-first policy. The conventional wisdom is that teams throw to take the lead and run the ball to finish the game out. Now the second part feels optional.As the immortal Daniel Jeremiah pointed out, despite not even having a runner go over 45 yards. led the with 25 yards and Chicago pulled off . San Diego couldn't crack three yards per carry and the team the defending champions. Carolina's running backs had four yards combined until the final minutes and only ended up with 62 yards. The still beat the by 17 points.Having a great running game is a nice bonus, but it's not always nece sary to pull off convincing wins. And with that Jon Alexander Jersey , let's take a look at some of the winners and losers from :Going UpCarolina's staying power: Each year, we make preseason predictions. We know that five to six teams from the previous year usually won't make it back to the playoffs. Practically everyone had the as one of the teams to fall out of the mix, but they have picked up right where they left off. Their defense flies around and tackles well. Their pa sing game has been better through two weeks. The ' two-game head start over New Orleans in the NFC South is significant. ' offseason spending: No one has been able to block Washington defensive end through two weeks. The matchups have been easy thus far (, ), but the ' defense looks a lot more competent early this season. Speaking of which ... ' defense: They aren't the worst defense in NFL history through two weeks. They aren't even ... below average?! (Tenne see) certainly helped in Week 2, but the ' defense has looked vaguely competent both weeks. is two weeks into Comeback Player of the Year campaign of all time. ' defense: The aren't explosive on offense thus far. One look at the roster shows that more playmakers now reside on the other side of the ball. , , , and all made terrific individual plays .: All offseason, we read about how the didn't have a tight end. Through two weeks, Donnell might be the most consistent part of the offense.Long, slow drives: It was a great week if you were a fan of never-ending, precise drives led by short pa sing attacks. The ' offense had only three drives before halftime. Kansas City and Denver only had eight drives each in their game. The ' and ' offenses could barely get on the field, combining for only 84 plays. San Diego had three double-digit play drives; the team only had three drives that didn't take at least eight plays. It was a near-perfect performance by . : It's like the immediately regretted trading , so they replaced him one year later with the most similar player they could find. Smith is a tackle-breaking machine, and he has more juice in his legs than Boldin despite being 35 years old. He's made to be a Raven.: Remember him? 's replacement in Buffalo is quietly off to a nice start with the . Schwartz has plenty of talent to work with up front, and the have not mi sed and much yet. Cleveland's running game: is a blast to watch make jump cuts, and the ' offensive line has quickly picked up Kyle Shanahan's zone-blocking system. Fellow rookie tilts the field, always running downhill. He could be the back people think is. The barely need at this point.: The ' wasn't fluky. The Bucs dared Davis to beat them, and he pulled it off with a lot of impre sive throws in traffic. We want to see more.Moving Down fantasy owners: The ' interior offensive line is awful, and Gerhart doesn't look like the guy to overcome it.'s bandwagon: New England pre sured their old friend, and Ca sel mostly didn't respond well. There were miscommunications with receivers and poor, frantic decisions from Ca sel. We're not giving up on Ca sel yet, but he has to stay around .500 or the should turn to .New Orleans and Seattle's road chops: The and are great, but they just aren't the same teams away from their wild home settings. It's something to watch closely as teams fight for home-field advantage.'s accuracy: In some ways, Luck mirrors and . All three young quarterbacks can get in serious grooves, but they also fall victim to cold streaks. is the steadiest young quarterback because he's not prone to bouts of wildne s. If or played like Luck did the last two weeks, we'd call them erratic and wonder if they were in decline. Luck is still a blast to watch, but he's far from a finished product at 25 years old.The latest recaps every Sunday game from an , and considers what 's injury could mean for the . Kevin Shaa Jersey