Let’s not overreact to what we’re seeing. One week does not a season make. Some players and teams that underachieved in Week 1 will come around, and some of the early superstars will tail off. Happens every year.
Here the scores from the openers last year (with the home teams in all caps).
Picking through the scores, you’ll see plenty of instances of instances where what you got in Week 1 wasn’t really very indicative of what you saw the rest of the season.
Tennessee, most notably, with Marcus Mariota shredding the Bucs, did not become an offensive juggernaut. The Bucs scored only 14 points in that first game but came around nicely.
The Panthers and Jaguars were in a low-scoring game (with one of Carolina’s touchdowns coming on an interception return by Josh Norman). Both of the offenses in that game ended up being a lot better than what they showed in that opener.
Washington and Oakland couldn’t get over the 13-point barrier, but both of those offenses ended up being good.
San Francisco, oddly, also had the No. 1 defense after Week 1 last year, giving up only 3 points to Minnesota. But the 49ers ended up ranking 29th in total defense. The Vikings, meanwhile, rebounded to win the NFC North. Adrian Peterson, who ran for only 31 yards in that opener (just like this year) wasn’t finished after all.
Too early to panic. Nothing wrong with thoroughly looking into some of the overachievers from the first games, but let’s also keep in mind what we observed last year, in the offseason, and in the preseason games.
| Week 1 Last Season | |
|---|---|
| Winner | Loser |
| NEW ENGLAND 28 | Pittsburgh 21 |
| BUFFALO 27 | Indianapolis 14 |
| Green Bay 31 | CHICAGO 23 |
| Kansas City 27 | HOUSTON 20 |
| Carolina 20 | JACKSONVILLE 9 |
| NEW YORK JETS 31 | Cleveland 10 |
| ST. LOUIS 34 | Seattle 31 (OT) |
| Miami 17 | WASHINGTON 10 |
| ARIZONA 31 | New Orleans 19 |
| SAN DIEGO 33 | Detroit 28 |
| DENVER 19 | Baltimore 13 |
| Cincinnati 33 | OAKLAND 13 |
| Tennessee 42 | TAMPA BAY 14 |
| DALLAS 27 | New York Giants 26 |
| ATLANTA 26 | Philadelphia 24 |
| SAN FRANCISCO 20 | Minnesota 3 |
—Ian Allan