It was a Week 1 for the ages, with a lot of games decided in the final minutes -- at one point around 4 p.m. Eastern there were four early games all in doubt. There were some big performances, but also a number of big stars having surprisingly quiet games. Here's hoping more of them were against you than for you.
Cardinals at Bills: Thought this would be high-scoring, but Buffalo's defense softer than anticipated. Bills got rooked on a bad roughing the passer call to set up Arizona's first touchdown. In any case, their offense rallied, Josh Allen did Josh Allen things, James Cook lots of total yards and Index favorite Khalil Shakir had a cool touchdown, albeit only 3 catches, one less than Keon Coleman. Not a smooth game for Buffalo. Big game for James Conner good one for Kyler Murray, quiet debut for Marvin Harrison Jr.
Steelers at Falcons: Ugly game all around. Steelers get the win, but debatable whether Justin Fields made a strong case for the starting job while leading the team to six field goals. Defense and T.J. Watt played well, George Pickens had a nice game, no other stars on offense, Najee Harris got most of the work (20 carries, 70 yards, that's Najee). Awful outing for immobile Kirk Cousins and the Falcons, with a couple of picks and the appearance that he's not fully recovered from last year's Achilles injury. Drake London did nothing, Kyle Pitts scored, Bijan the star. Michael Penix pick getting a little less criticism after that one.
Titans at Bears: This was all Titans in the first half but mostly Bears in the second, with Will Levis giving the game away late with one of the worst Pick Sixes you'll ever see. Chicago offense didn't do a lot (Keenan Allen dropped one of Caleb Williams' better throws that should have been a touchdown, but Caleb himself just 14 of 29 for 92 yards) but the Bears saved those of us who gambled on them in Survivor pools. Tony Pollard greatly out-touched and outperformed Tyjae Spears. Not a lot of good offense from either team otherwise.
Patriots at Bengals: Upset of the day, it's almost like not having Ja'Marr Chase all summer and then losing Tee Higgins on the eve of the season had the offense out of sync. I will give some credit to New England's defense though. Critical sequence where a leaping touchdown by Mike Gesicki was overturned on replay review, and then Cincinnati's other receiving tight end, Tanner Hudson, had the ball punched out near the goal line. So Bengals could/should have escaped, but didn't. Lots of Survivor Pool betters upset today, I imagine this is why some pools have buy-backs after Week 1. Bad beat. Rhamondre Stevenson and Zack Moss the stars, while Chase caught 6 for 62 and at least didn't hurt you too much if you started him.
Texans at Colts: Much as expected? Lots of offense from both teams, huge receiving game from Nico Collins (including a clutch grab in the final minute to enable Houston to run out the clock, TDs from Mixon (30 carries!) and Taylor, and 2 from Stefon Diggs, making those of us who doubted him look bad I guess. Quiet stats for Tank Dell but I will note he was the target on what was nearly a sweet touchdown that was knocked away at the last second. Anthony Richardson had a big fantasy performance but an uneven quarterback one, kind of as expected: 9 of 19 but with remarkable bombs to Alec Pierce and Ashton Dulin and a couple of other near misses. Thought Pittman might Minshew; one week in, yes.
Jaguars at Dolphins: What to talk about here? Tyreek Hill being arrested going to work? Nah. Dolphins pretty rough early on, but a huge momentum swing where Travis Etienne fumbled near the goal line and the Dolphins then connected on an 80-yard touchdown to Hill. (Tank Bigsby with as many carries in the game as Etienne, hmm; a factor in this backfield at last.) DeVon Achane had a huge game receiving and a short rushing touchdown; those who started him were happy, those of us who thought the Dolphins would use a committee, well, they did, but not with healthy scratch Jaylen Wright, and Achane was best and busiest by far. Jaguars kind of blew this game after dominating early, they've been doing that a lot lately.
Panthers at Saints: Ugh. Bad day for Bryce Young and the Panthers offense. And defense. Young intercepted twice and they just weren't good throws, decisions, anything. And when Derek Carr is throwing long touchdown bombs against your defense, that's not good either. New Orleans even let Alvin Kamara score a touchdown, Jamaal Williams too. Taysom Hill caught 5 passes, the team's two other tight ends scored (that was different: 2 Saints RBs and TEs scored, but Hill didn't).
Vikings at Giants: So it was what you might call a poor start for the Giants offense and defense, and a really good one for Sam Darnold and the Vikings. No one can be too unhappy with what they got from Justin Jefferson, and Aaron Jones had a very good game. Jordan Addison left early with an ankle injury after perhaps coming back too soon from an ankle injury, but I'm no doctor. The less said about Daniel Jones and the Giants the better, but Malik Nabers used some garbage-time production to finish at 5 for 66, and as Mickey Rourke said in Barfly, "Yeah, but that counts too!"
Raiders at Chargers: Kind of a dud but at least somewhat predictable. Chargers ran a lot and J.K. Dobbins had way, way more juice than Gus Edwards. Passing game did almost nothing. Raiders had Alexander Mattison outperforming Zamir White, that was mildly surprising since Mattison isn't very good. Possibly White isn't either. Most of the during and post-game talk involved Raiders punting on 4th and 1 at the Chargers 43 while trailing by 6 points midway through the fourth quarter. Odd choice. A couple of Dobbins runs later and the game was over.
Broncos at Seahawks: Rough game early, with Seattle taking 2 safeties and nearly a third. But they got better, with a big performance by Kenneth Walker, a long touchdown run by Geno Smith, and a defense that mostly made Bo Nix look like the rookie he is, including a bad goal-line interception. Denver did make things interesting late, pulling within 6, but a bad offside penalty on defense kept them from getting the ball back. Devaughn Vele caught a bunch of passes, as he was doing in practices all summer; maybe a dynasty or deeper league option. Both defenses a little better than expected. Denver couldn't run at all and Jaleel McLaughlin had a costly lost fumble.
Cowboys at Browns: Gotta talk about Deshaun Watson. There were some protection issues, but Watson himself just doesn't look very good. Just one game against a defense that's lost some stuff from last year but is clearly still pretty good, but Browns fans have to be a little worried, and it's games like this that are why no one drafted Watson as a starter in fantasy leagues. They dynamic player he was in Houston was a long time ago and seems even longer. As for Dallas, Mike McCarthy said the team was going to run it, and so it did, with its Zeke-Dowdle committee, in which Zeke was better. Dallas defense was better than expected, passing game was worse. Just one game. David Njoku left with an ankle injury, early indications high ankle sprain, rough.
Commanders at Bucs: So rookie quarterbacks in general had a lousy day passing the ball. Jayden Daniels too, and he took his receiving corps down with him. Daniels ran in a couple of late scores, saving his day fantasy wise, but the passing wasn't good and as we said in the preseason, just seems very unlikely he'll be playing all season if he keeps up this style. Also, Dan Quinn: it's 37-14 with 2 minutes left in the game. Do you need to have your franchise quarterback running into a scrum near the goal line? Repeatedly? Nice game for Brian Robinson, unlucky not to score 3 TDs (but nice for those who had Daniels, since he profited from 2 near-misses by BRob). He's the main runner, though Austin Ekeler played just as many snaps. Also, Washington defense was terrible last year and doesn't look any better. I haven't mentioned Tampa Bay yet, they were great. Baker Mayfield blowing up and playing great on benches everywhere. Start your skill guys against Washington.
Rams at Lions: Overtime on the first Sunday night, always cool. Big story is Puka Nacua leaving with a knee injury, painful for those of us who drafted late in the first round everywhere and have him in a lot of leagues. Hopefully not significant but... Huge game for Cooper Kupp, both Lions running backs worked out. I guess the other big story is the Jameson William breakout, Rams struggled to cover him, presumably focusing on quiet Amon-Ra and LaPorta. LA has line problems which got worse during the game and definitely affected the outcome.
Monday, Monday: I assume Jets fans are just counting down the hours to this one with trepidation, right? Especially after seeing Kirk Cousins struggle to move. Presuming Aaron Rodgers is OK to maybe move around a little bit, I'm still thinking probably more defense than offense in this game, and hoping Rodgers and Christian McCaffrey (calf) are healthy and everyone else stays that way. I usually pick the final score of these Monday night games. Let's go 49ers 20, Jets 17.
