Campus, Sports

First and Goal: Looking back on Week 1 of the NFL

The start of football season is a special time of year for fans because from now until the final whistle of the Super Bowl in February there is NFL football to watch every single week

The quality of play this week by most teams was sloppy and it could be a result of many teams choosing to rest their starters during the preseason.

The shocker of this week was Lamar Jackson. Last season Jackson willed the Ravens into a wild card playoff game with his running game, but his performance in that game was legendarily bad, he just could not complete a pass.

He came out this week and proved all of us wrong by absolutely torching the Dolphins defense for 324 yards and 5 touchdowns. 

Packers 10, Bears 3

The game crept along despite the low score due to an avalanche of penalty flags as each team racked up 10 penalties. 

The Packers survived a late push by the Bears with an interception in the endzone by former Bears safety Adrian Amos. The Bears have a Super Bowl defense but scoring three points at home will not win much in this league. 

Tennessee Titans 43, Cleveland Browns 13

Hype built up around throughout the offseason with the acquiring of Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry but the hype train derailed on its first stop in Cleveland as the Titans crushed the Browns. 

Baltimore Ravens 59, Miami Dolphins 10

“Tank for Tua” is the Dolphins’ motto this season and it showed this week. This team is straight-up terrible. It’ll be interesting to see the Ravens  match up against a team that is actually trying to win next week.

Atlanta Falcons 12, Minnesota Vikings 28

What happened to the Falcons and Matt Ryan? The Vikings have a good defense but Ryan just looked straight-up not good. The interception in the end zone he threw in the 3rd quarter was just a horrific throw.

Buffalo Bills 17, New York Jets 16

If you waited for half a year for football to start and you tuned your TV to this game, I’m sorry. This game might have set football back 25 years with how bad the offenses were. The Jets created four turnovers and still blew the game in the final minutes. 

Washington Redskins 27, Philadelphia Eagles 32

Shoutout to DeSean Jackson to turning back the clock and catching two touchdowns that were 50-yard bombs in the Eagles’ comeback against the Skins.

Los Angeles Rams 30, Carolina Panthers 27

The Rams’ quest to return to the Super Bowl started off on the right foot with the win over Carolina, but there were definitely parts of the game where it looked like they were going to blow it. 

Back-to-back drives ending with a blocked punt and an interception brought the Panthers with momentum trending in their favor. Panthers fans are probably breathing a sigh of relief as Cam Newton returned to form after a terrible shoulder injury last season.

Kansas City Chiefs 40, Jacksonville Jaguars 26

Patrick Mahomes picked up right where he left off last season as he absolutely torched the Jaguars secondary with an absolutely outrageous 313 yards in the first half. The Jaguars lost their newly signed QB when Nick Foles was crunched between two players and broke his clavicle after throwing a beautiful rainbow touchdown pass in the first quarter.

Indianapolis Colts 24, Los Angeles Chargers 30 (F/OT)

Jacoby Brissett proved that he can take over the QB spot for Andrew Luck, but the Chargers were one of the better teams in the league last year and should be good again as they compete with the Chiefs for the AFC West.

Cincinnati Bengals 20, Seattle Seahawks 21

Russell Wilson is the most underrated QB in the league. The guy makes magic despite having had a bad offensive line around him for years. Andy Dalton had a career day, but I wouldn’t put any faith in him until he wins a playoff game.

New York Giants 17, Dallas Cowboys 35

Dak Prescott looked like he wanted to earn that $40 million guaranteed contract and if he performs at this level all season the Cowboys will most certainly back the Brinks truck up for him.

Detroit Lions 27, Arizona Cardinals 27

Ties are no fun and they are becoming more common due to the shortened OT period. Kyler Murray did impress me, especially his composure during the two-minute drill to tie the game. I was sure he was going to be a bust but not a bad debut by the short rookie.

San Francisco 49ers 31, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17

The Bucs are terrible and the 49ers’ $137 million man Jimmy Garoppolo didn’t look too sharp in his return from a torn ACL last season.

Pittsburgh Steelers 3, New England Patriots 33

The Patriots continued their domination of the Steelers as Tom Brady looked great in the debut of his 20th season.

Houston Texans 28, New Orleans Saints 30

Deshaun Watson led the Texans 75 yards down the field in two plays to tie the game with 37 seconds left. The extra point was missed, but a bonehead roughing the kicker penalty gave them another chance to take the lead.

Then Dr. Drew Brees came out and surgically sliced the Texans secondary with excellent clock management to put kicker Will Lutz in position to kick a career-long 58-yard game-winner.

Denver Broncos 16, Oakland Raiders 24

Both offenses struggled in this one, which is not really a surprise but it was good for the Raiders to win their final Monday night game in Oakland.

3 Games to Watch in Week 2

New Orleans Saints at L.A. Rams (Sunday)

This game should need no introduction: an NFC Championship rematch between what should be the two best teams in the NFC again.

Dallas Cowboys at Washington Redskins (Sunday)

Washington will most certainly be looking to regain some ground in the always tough NFC East against a Cowboys squad that looked great this week.

New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins (Sunday )

Wacky and terrible things always happen to the Pats in Miami, but keep an eye on this game because it could get out of hand

 

 

More Articles

Comments are closed.