Oh it’s good to have the NFL back, 16 games down, 256 remain in the regular season and the opening weekend of games were suitably chaotic.
Buffalo made a statement in Los Angeles, San Francisco could not swim by the Bears and the Jets are still the Jets.
15 teams began their campaigns with a win, 15 suffered first up defeats and we saw a rare tie in Houston as well.
For the fifth straight season, we’re back to recap the week that was in the National Football League with our Five Lessons Learned.
1 – The Bills Mean Business
In case you were still unsure, that’s why the Bills are Super Bowl favourites and Josh Allen is the leading MVP candidate.
Behind Allen’s four total touchdowns, the Bills stormed into SoFi Stadium and trounced the reigning champions 31-10.
It was far from a perfect performance from the Bills as well, with some ugly turnovers and bad play but that has become the norm for the better teams in these early season games.
But a convincing win like that did allay plenty of concerns that the Bills were going to be broken after the way last season ended in Kansas City, or that they were buying into their own hype.
Admittedly it was only one game and it may not mean too much if Allen exposes himself to big hits every week, but there was a lot to like and little to complain about from that one.
2 – Preseason Matters
In case you missed Cris Collinsworth hammering it over and over during the broadcast on Friday, the Rams starters didn’t get a lot of work in during preseason.
Didn’t it show up during the season opener too, they looked flat, sloppy and were generally unable to execute at anything close to an adequate level on what was supposed to be their night (Cooper Kupp excepted of course).
Without trying to sound like an old curmudgeon, the decline in early season play can be generally put down to a lot of teams not playing their starters in preseason.
Yeah those games don’t count and the risk of injury in a violent sport like this one makes it such a massive gamble at times, but at some point, these guys need live action to prepare for the season.
3 – So Do Kickers
Special teamers like the kickers and punters tend to be on the receiving end of plenty of jokes, but the teams that take those positions for granted tend to pay for that view at some stage.
Kicking field goals might seem like an easy job, but it’s a highly choreographed operation that requires 11 guys to do their job and there’s no consolation points on offer for putting it wide left or right.
Week 1 saw plenty of highs and lows for the place kickers, with some early season jitters creeping in to their games.
The kickers in Cincinnati blew plenty of chances to win the game.
But Chris Boswell eventually redeemed himself in the final seconds of overtime.
You can’t fault Younghue Koo for this unsuccessful attempt though.
Plus, it wasn’t all bad news for the kickers, with a number of them stepping up to the mark in the biggest moments.
Despite losing to Cleveland, the Panthers will have to be pretty happy with their kicking situation.
So will the Browns.
It also helps to be prepared in the rare occasion when your kicker gets injured.
Kansas City had to call on safety Justin Reid, who looked better on this extra point than a handful of guys who are paid to kick the ball.
Tampa Bay will be glad they have a reliable kicker as he was able to put some points on the board early on against Dallas when Tom Brady couldn’t punch it in for a touchdown.
Former NFL executive Andrew Brandt perhaps sums it up best with this pearl of wisdom that cannot be repeated enough.
4 – Mahomes and the Chiefs are going to be fine
No Hill no Mahomes… right?
Well maybe not, Mahomes looked pretty damn good in the season opener, tearing apart the Cardinals defence in Arizona to the tune of five touchdowns.
Some were easy little dump offs like this one to Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
Others were put into very tight windows like his fourth scoring pass of the day.
Long story short he’s still got plenty of targets to aim for and he’s good enough to elevate the average players into good or sometimes even really good players.
Reports of their alleged demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Take note AFC.
5 – The standard of play sucked, but it was a lot of fun
With the exception of a few teams having their moments, the standard of play wasn’t at a level you would put on coaching tape.
Most games had multiple moments of horrendous execution and boneheaded plays that left you wondering if the players knew the regular season had started.
Joe Burrow had an astonishing five turnovers and could have had a few more, there were some flat out bad throws attempted in that game.
Even simple catching skills went away in the Giants-Titans game.
But Daniel Jones found a way to give it back.
Chicago and San Francisco at least had an excuse considering the condition of the swimming pool at Soldier Field.
But in spite of all that sloppiness, it was great to have the NFL back and we were treated to some phenomenal finishes making the early alarm well worth it.
Eight of the 14 games on Monday were decided by a single score with a handful of those games being decided on the final play.
Detroit and Washington made their games very interesting with late touchdowns to either reduce the deficit or take the lead.
What does Week 2 have in store?
Plenty.