Snap Judgments for Week 2

Raiders rookie Darren McFadden accounted for 173 yards (164 rushing) in Sunday's win over the Chiefs, including a 19-yard TD run. AP

MINNEAPOLIS -- Musings, observations and the occasional insight as we behold maybe the grittiest, guttiest Colts comeback victory in the entire 11-year points-apalooza that has been the Peyton Manning era, that 18-15 slugging match with the shellshocked Vikings....

• Last week, rookie quarterbacks Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco kind of stole the show in the process of making their debuts, but Week 2 was all about the NFL's new blood at running back. I'd say it was a dose of pretty impressive instant impact turned in by the freshest sets of legs in the league.

Oakland's Darren McFadden was the headliner on Sunday, leading the way for a Raiders offense that racked up an eye-popping 300 yards rushing in a 23-8 beatdown of the Chiefs in Kansas City. The ex-Arkansas Hog accounted for more than half that total, with 164 yards on just 21 carries (a 7.8 average), including the first touchdown of his NFL career, a 19-yard burst in the third quarter that put the Raiders in command at 13-0.

On the drive he capped with his score, McFadden was a virtual one-man wrecking crew of the Chiefs, accounting for 89 of the 95 yards Oakland gained on that seven-play march and flashing tons of his big-play potential. McFadden touched the ball on five of those plays, clicking off runs of 21, 1, minus-2, 50 and finally, the 19-yarder for the touchdown. It was the Raiders' first meaningful touchdown of the new season, following their two garbage-time fourth-quarter scores in Monday night's 41-14 humiliation at the hands of visiting Denver, a game they trailed 27-0 after three.

McFadden had the gaudiest afternoon statistically, but he was far from alone in finding the rookie running back spotlight. Joining him were:

• Carolina's Jonathan Stewart, whose two short second-half touchdown runs helped lift the 2-0 Panthers to a comeback 20-17 win at home against the surprising Bears. Stewart scored from 1 yard out late in the third quarter and his 4-yard touchdown with 3:52 remaining provided the winning points for a Carolina team that appears intent on returning to the playoffs for the first time since 2005. Stewart totaled a team-high 77 yards on just 14 carries, and the touchdowns were the first two of his NFL career.

• Tennessee's Chris Johnson, who continued creating a major early-season buzz with the first 100-yard rushing game of his nascent career, totaling 109 yards on 19 carries in the 2-0 Titans' 24-7 road dismantling of Cincinnati. Johnson, an explosive talent whose 4.2 speed isn't just the stuff of NFL Combine legend, ripped off a 51-yard gain against the Bengals and now has a team-leading 202 yards rushing in his first two pro games.

• And Chicago's Matt Forte, who continued to impress even in defeat, running 23 times for 92 yards and catching three passes for 21 more yards in the Bears' painful missed opportunity at Carolina. It wasn't equal to Forte's showing last week at Indianapolis -- when he sparked the Bears' upset of the Colts with 123 yards and a 50-yard touchdown scamper on 23 carries -- but it also proved that his sparkling debut was hardly a fluke.

On a day when last year's ultimate impact rookie -- Minnesota running back Adrian Peterson -- was gouging the Colts defense for 160 yards on 29 carries, McFadden and Co. gave us a preview of what big things might come from the rookie running back class of 2008.

• Now that we've had one full start to study the Matt Cassel era in New England, that's about what I expect from Tom Brady's replacement, the kind of solid if unspectacular showing he turned in for the Patriots' 19-10 conquest of the Jets. Cassel completed an efficient 70 percent of his passes (16 of 23) for 165 yards, and most importantly, took care of the football (no interceptions, no fumbles).

As I said a couple times last week, the Patriots can definitely still win 10 games and maybe even the AFC East with that kind of showing. Especially with New England's defense playing so tough against New York. I think we're in for a number of Patriots games this season that follow the same basic script as we saw Sunday.