If it feels like the NFL is a little upside-down entering Week 2, that's because, well, it is.
Last year's division winners came out of the carnage that was Week 1 with a 3-4-1 record. The reigning champs in the AFC North (Bengals), NFC East (Cowboys) and NFC West (Rams) went 0-3. The teams finishing last in those divisions in 2021 — Ravens, Giants and Seahawks — started 3-0 in '22. Heck, Seattle was the only NFC West team not to make the playoffs last year and is the only one which started 1-0 this year.
That's not all.
Aaron Rodgers, the 38-year-old two-time reigning league MVP, posted a 67.6 passer rating indoors against a Vikings team that went 8-9 last year. Meanwhile, Chicago's Justin Fields, the 23-year-old still-wet-behind-the-ears second-year pro, notched an 85.7 passer rating in a driving downpour and on a flooded field against a 49ers team that reached the NFC title game last year.
And now Rodgers and Fields meet in Lambeau Field on Sunday night — the 17th straight year the Packers and Bears have played in prime time.
Rodgers is 0-1 with some of the Cheeseheads across the border already muttering about a must-win to avoid starting 0-2 with two division losses. Fields, meanwhile, is 1-0 and being hailed for the kind of resiliency, toughness and off-schedule playmaking ability that turned heads his way as a first-round talent at Ohio State.
"I think he looks more decisive than last year," said Packers coach Matt LaFleur, whose team went 2-0 against Fields last year and has won six straight against the Bears.
"The 49ers are a tough football team, and Chicago battled them and were more physical than San Fran."