Northwestern NFL recap: Trevor Siemian, MVP candidate

In football, it’s totally fine to overreact after two weeks of action. There wouldn’t be a football media machine without overreactions after small sample sizes, so allow us to overreact.

TREVOR SIEMIAN SHOULD BE THE MVP OF THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE!

Touchdown Trevor Siemian

231 passing yards, 4 touchdowns, and a completely dominant 42-17 win over the Dallas Cowboys on national television. To a regular seventh-round draft pick, this would be the highlight of a career, but it’s just another day at the office for Trevor Siemian. The Northwestern product now leads the league with 6 passing touchdowns, and is fourth in the NFL in passer rating (minimum two games, sorry Sam Bradford).

On Sunday, Siemian was in command from the Broncos’ first drive of the game, a clinical 74-yard drive that culminated in a TD pass to Emmanuel Sanders. Then, Trevor started running away with it. He ended the first half with three passing touchdowns.

Trevor’s excellent play allowed the Broncos to run for most of the second half, but he still chipped in a fourth touchdown pass for good measure. With the Broncos 2-0 in a loaded AFC West, it’s basically a two-horse race between Siemian and Alex Smith for the MVP Award right now. Northwestern’s last MVP, incidentally, was quarterback Otto Graham in 1955. Could Siemian become the heir to Graham’s throne? After this week, the sky’s the limit.

Dean Lowry - Green Bay Packers

You may not have noticed Dean Lowry much in the Falcons’ comfortable win over the Packers on Sunday Night Football, but he played 34 snaps in place of the injured Mike Daniels. Lowry picked up two tackles and could be line for even more playing time as the Packers try to rebound from a disappointing road loss.

Anthony Walker - Indianapolis Colts

Walker got injured in Week 1 and was inactive for Week 2. This sadly goes with a trend of Northwestern players getting injured soon after their arrival in the NFL that Ian McCafferty wrote about last year. Good luck, Anthony.

Zach Strief - New Orleans Saints

Offensive lineman Zach Strief was one of the survivors from the Northwestern NFL injury virus, but now he’s injured for the first time in his career. Strief’s absence has really hurt the Saints’ passing attack, as New Orleans got crushed by New England to fall to 0-2.

Austin Carr - New Orleans Saints

Austin Carr was inactive for the Saints’ game against New England. Carr is running out of time to make an impact, as Willie Snead is set to return from suspension in Week 4.

Brian Peters - Houston Texans

The special teams veteran had a tackle in Houston’s nearly unwatchable 13-9 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday.

Sherrick McManis - Chicago Bears

Can we get McManis some increased snaps at safety? Cornerback? McManis, now a captain, has been a special teams ace for most of his career, but he has to be better than what the Bears are throwing out on defense, right? The Bears lost 29-7 to Tampa Bay, and they look utterly lost.