Football fans rejoice! The regular season is here. The preseason is finally over and now teams will play games that actually matter.
Below are some NFL Week one takeaways after the Thursday night matchup and Sunday’s full slate of games. Some teams fared well while others, like the Miami Dolphins, got trounced by the Baltimore Ravens.
NFL Week One Takeaways
The Super Bowl Champs Continue to Dominate
The New England Patriots opened up the season with the, what seems like, annual raising of their Super Bowl championship banner on Sunday Night against the Pittsburgh Steelers. In Patriots fashion, they once again manhandled a Steelers team that has had absolutely no luck in Foxboro against Tom Brady.
Even at 42-years old, Brady showed no signs of slowing down in his 20th season in the NFL. And the Patriots performance Sunday was sans some important playmakers. The newly acquired Antonio Brown is expected to make his debut with the team next week against the Miami Dolphins and Demaryius Thomas is expected back during the season.
The duo of Bill Belichick and Brady continue to be unmatched in terms of game planning and execution and it showed on Sunday as the Pats outscored the Steelers, 33-3, in a game that was pretty much over after the first quarter. If the Patriots are going to sustain this kind of dominance over the season it will be difficult to bet against them winning their seventh Lombardi Trophy.
The Pittsburgh Steelers will most likely bounce back from this thrashing as they’re still a highly talented team that’s well-coached. JuJu Smith-Schuster will show whether or not he’s capable of being a number one receiver and their defense will show whether or they’re for real.
It’ll be up to the Steelers to silence their critics as the season moves forward in Week two and beyond.
https://twitter.com/Patriots/status/1170887769637314560
Green Bay Has a Defense
Ever since Aaron Rodgers took over for Brett Favre back in 2008, the Green Bay Packers have been an offensive-minded team. And rightfully so, as Rodgers has dominated the NFL by making absurd throw after absurd throw during his time in the league. However, one thing Green Bay has not consistently had in his era is a quality defense.
In fact, the Packers have only had a top-10 defense once during Rodgers’ career and that came back in 2010 under Dom Capers and they won Super Bowl XLV because of it. Great offensive teams have come out of Green Bay over the years, but now they could have something special brewing at the Frozen Tundra.
New general manager Brian Gutekunst went out and brought in defensive studs like Preston Smith, Za’Darius Smith, and Adrian Amos, while drafting Darnell Savage to solidify the safety position. Throw in ball-hawking cornerback Jaire Alexander on the outside, tackling machine Blake Martinez and this Green Bay defense has stars oozing at nearly every position.
They played extremely well for defensive coordinator Mike Pettine Thursday night and earned rookie head coach Matt LeFleur career win number one as the Packers bottled the Chicago Bears offense in the latest chapter of the NFL’s oldest rivalry. Rodgers and company struggled all night long, but they were able to rely on their defense all game. All those years spent on fixing the defense through the draft looks to have finally come full circle.
The new-look #Packers defense came out 💪 on opening night. #GBvsCHI #GoPackGo pic.twitter.com/nceweSP8Me
— Green Bay Packers (@packers) September 6, 2019
Patrick Mahomes is Still Money
One of the more intriguing questions in the NFL was wondering if Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes could maintain the magic of being an explosive quarterback after his phenomenal season in 2018. The answer?
Absolutely. Mahomes picked up right where he left off last season, showing off his incredible arm strength as he threw for three touchdowns and 378 passing yards with just eight incompletions. Mahomes never looked rattled against a Jacksonville Jaguars defense that was begging to get back on track.
While Myles Jack was throwing punches, Mahomes was throwing touchdown passes, even a no-look pass to Travis Kelce that sailed way over Kelce’s head. But when a quarterback is in full command, they can do things like that. Still, one of the most explosive teams from last season looked the part again on a sunny day in Jacksonville, who lost quarterback Nick Foles indefinitely to a broken collarbone.
Newly acquired running back LeSean McCoy looked just fine in Andy Reid‘s offense. It’s almost unfair that McCoy joined this high octane offense. Even though the Chiefs lost Tyreek Hill to injury Sammy Watkins stepped up and had a monster day. Mahomes is on pace for another MPV caliber season with all the weapons at his disposal.
Another 1️⃣. @SammyWatkins can't be stopped! 😤#KCvsJAX 📺: KCTV5 pic.twitter.com/tMKPiQMfXs
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) September 8, 2019
We All Bought into the Hype
Not too many teams have had ab off-season quite like the Cleveland Browns did. They brought in star receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and acquired running back Kareem Hunt (who won’t play until the midpoint of the season) to fuel quarterback Baker Mayfield into leading the Browns to better days.
While Mayfield was dangerous last season, his 2019 campaign didn’t start the way he wanted it to. The Tennesee Titans certainly didn’t buy into the hype as head coach Mike Vrabeland his team went into the Dog Pound and took care of business.
A pair of pick-sixes by the Titans defense and the production from Derrick Henry, Delanie Walker and Marcus Mariota looks to be safe to start the season for the Titans. The Mayfield-to-Beckham connection looks like it’ll be strong, but the Browns showed that despite being an off-season favorite, they still have a ton of growing up to do.
The overreactions will be high on the Browns after their Week one debacle and thankfully for them, it is only Week one. The Browns are a new team with a new offense that needs to figure out how to sustain drives and close out games, but they failed to show up for much of the game on Sunday.
If the hype is going to be real in 2019, then they have to play as they did in 2018, just better and faster.
FINAL: The @Titans force three turnovers in a dominating season-opening win over the Browns! #TENvsCLE pic.twitter.com/ds1qim4lCB
— NFL (@NFL) September 8, 2019
Lamar Jackson, the Passer
Put the discussion to rest. It’s over. Lamar Jackson has shown the NFL world that he is every bit a passing quarterback and not just a running back who happens to play quarterback. Jackson was a big reason the Baltimore Ravens won big on Sunday.
With Jackson hitting home run balls to Marquise Brown and Willie Snead for scores, the pressure is off of Jackson. He doesn’t have to do everything himself. The same is true for running back Mark Ingram, who showed Ravens fans everywhere that he can be a viable running back for the tough yards and scores.
Now, it is fair to question whether Baltimore was truly that dominant or just the benefactor of a really, REALLY bad Miami Dolphins team. But the fact remains that a team and quarterback still have to execute an offense to score points and the Ravens did that at will on Sunday. Earl Thomas is already paying dividends in John Harbaugh‘s defense as they only surrendered 10 points.
Fans haven’t seen a Baltimore team rule both sides of the ball in some time now. Jackson is going to get even better over time and they have a defense that’s going to either take over or keep them in ball games in 2019. The Ravens might’ve been undervalued, thanks in part to the Browns, this off-season.
"NOT BAD FOR A RUNNING BACK." – @lj_era8
😂😱🤣 pic.twitter.com/GjdOeR5xWa
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) September 8, 2019
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