NFL Week One has concluded, and there’s a lot to digest. It’ll be interesting to look back on this week. Will it be looked at as a tone setter, or will we look back on it in confusion?
For much of Week One, the New Orleans Saints looked hopeless. They trailed on the road 21-0 to the Detroit Lions in the middle of the third quarter. Nothing was going right.
In the first half, Tyler Shough threw for 85 passing yards on 10/22 passes with an interception. He was a big part of the reason why the Saints were trailing. To everyone’s surprise, though, New Orleans began to rally.
The score went from 21-0 to 24-24 at the end of regulation. Detroit scored first in overtime to go up 31-24. The Saints answered, but they wanted to go for the win, so they attempted a two-point conversion. The try was unsuccessful, so it was an unfortunate end to the game, but it was inspiring to see the fight.
Shough was the reason why New Orleans forced overtime. He threw for 326 yards on 25/34 passes with three touchdowns and one interception. That’s a highly encouraging trait to see in a young QB.
The Lions’ defense knew that the Saints had to have a pass-heavy game plan down 21, and Shough still shredded them. His ability to shake off an abysmal first half and be the reason for the comeback on the road against a playoff contender cannot be taught.
It feels like New Orleans may have something at quarterback. When you have the guy at quarterback, your team always has a chance. That’s the first major takeaway from NFL Week One.
The Green Bay Packers have now played in five full games without Micah Parsons. They have won none of them, and the streak keeps on growing. In that five-game span, they’ve allowed 29.8 points per game.
Green Bay’s latest outing may have been the worst. The Packers dominated most of the way against the Minnesota Vikings. They led 22-10 with 17 minutes left in the game.
Green Bay was then outscored 29-0 the rest of the way. It’s the second straight game where the team has had a sizeable lead in the latter part of the game and lost. Everyone knows how the playoff game against the Chicago Bears went.
The Packers were up 15 heading into the fourth and gave up 25 in the final 15 minutes to eventually lose 31-27. They have struggled badly to close out games on that side of the ball without Parsons.
Five straight losses dating back to last year can snowball quickly to seven or eight if things don’t change. That’s the second important takeaway from NFL Week One.
The final and scariest NFL Week One takeaway is that the Kansas City Chiefs are back and might be even better. They dismantled the vaunted Denver Broncos defense by totaling nearly 400 yards on 5.9 yards per play and scoring 31 points. Normally, the story of the game would be Patrick Mahomes and his greatness.
That wasn’t the case on Monday night. The real story was Kenneth Walker. The Super Bowl MVP from a few months ago showed out in his first game as a Chief.
Denver had no answer for Walker. He finished with 191 total yards and two touchdowns. Kansas City has not had anyone this dynamic in the backfield in the Mahomes era since Kareem Hunt in 2018.
The Chiefs won a game where Mahomes went 15 for 27 for 184 yards with an 86.0 passer rating. He did finish with three total touchdowns, but the game overall was subpar by his standards, and understandably so, as he was coming off an ACL tear just nine months ago.
It’s hard to imagine Mahomes will look worse than this moving forward. He’s only going to get healthier as the year goes and the rest of the league could be in trouble.
What’s your take? Post it in our free sports community at stadiumrant.app, or download Stadium Rant on the App Store.
It’s important not to overreact to NFL Week One either. It’s known that the opening week can be a liar at times. That also doesn’t mean to flush out Week One either.
For teams like the Los Angeles Rams and the Denver Broncos, this week needs to stick in their heads for a bit so they don’t repeat their performances. For teams like the San Francisco 49ers and the Chiefs, it was a great way to kick off the season, and the mindset needs to be about how to build off of that.
It’ll be interesting to see what the next week has in store.
If you love sports, download Stadium Rant from the Apple App Store and join one of the fastest-growing social sports communities. Be sure to follow us on socials too — you can find all our profiles on our Linktree.
