The first week of the NFL season plays out as a mirage, offering glimpses of thirst-quenching promise for a football-starved diaspora.
With a minuscule sample, things aren't always what they seem after one game in a gauntlet of a season. Remember a year ago, when the Raiders knocked off the Patriots in Week 1 in Foxborough? Las Vegas wound up with the No. 1 overall pick. New England played in the Super Bowl.
Week 1 lies like a toddler who just doesn't know any better.
As the young season wears on, there will be twists, plummets and vaults. Teams that looked good on Sunday will falter. Clubs that struggled out of the gate will find a groove. With franchises mostly holding starters out of preseason action, many tilts around the NFL looked like exhibition matches early. In particular, some squads breaking in new coordinators -- Philly and Washington come to mind -- looked like they had a lot of kinks to iron out.
No one won a Lombardi Trophy on Sunday. No one lost one, either.
The first Sunday was an important first step in the march to February, but it's not the be-all and end-all.
Each Monday during the season, I'll take a look at five key storylines from Sunday's slate of contests, starting today with Week 1's points-a-palooza and including:
1) Sunday's points bonanza has NFL on brink of history
Yesterday's 13 games averaged 53.3 points, the highest-scoring Week 1 Sunday in league history, per NFL Research. Entering Monday Night Football, the average for the entire Week 1 slate is 50.0 points per game, which, if it holds tonight when the Denver Broncos take on the Kansas City Chiefs, would mark a Super Bowl-era record.
Six tilts on Sunday saw at least 60 combined points.
I'd like to highlight two teams that particularly stood out on offense: Baltimore and Chicago. New Ravens OC Declan Doyle actually spent last season on Ben Johnson's Bears staff, so perhaps it shouldn't be too surprising that Baltimore authored the most explosive output beyond Chicago.
Lamar Jackson looked like his two-time-MVP self, zipping darts into open windows, escaping sure sacks for first downs and looking far fresher and less frazzled than he did last year. His rapport with Zay Flowers was otherworldly before the wideout left with a hamstring injury. Assuming the issue doesn't linger -- NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported that the setback isn't considered serious -- the duo could be something special this season. Doyle did an excellent job mixing up his calls, schemed players open for easy Jackson reads and kept the Colts off balance. Add in that Derrick Henry still runs like he's 25 years old, bulldozing his way to 144 yards and three TDs for his own record-setting day, and Baltimore's offense looked deadly in putting up 41 points in a blowout win at Indianapolis. The sample is small, but if the Ravens can stay healthy -- a big if -- they could eat up points.
Meanwhile, Johnson entered the season saying he wanted to employ the best offense in league history. The Bears went out and showed they have the horses to do so in a 59-37 win at Carolina. After the game, Chicago's second-year head coach doubled down on the ambition.
"That will always be the goal," Johnson said. "We want to be the highest-scoring, we want to have the most wins, we want to win Super Bowls. That's what we do. We didn't get into this profession trying to be mediocre or average."
Sure, it came against a Panthers defense that entered the season with significant questions after making splashes in free agency to upgrade the unit, but the base of what transpired Sunday in Charlotte is replicable. Perhaps the Bears won't put up 59 points and 552 yards with two rushers hitting the century mark, but Johnson's offense proved it can score from anywhere on the field. Caleb Williams shut down questions about whether the offseason hype would prove unfounded. The Madden cover athlete built on his 2025 breakout season, made some incredible throws and used his legs as a weapon. Williams is the first player in Bears history with at least 200 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, 50 rushing yards and two rushing TDs in a single game, per NFL Research. He is the third player over the last five seasons to reach those marks in a single game, joining the Bills' Josh Allen (three times) and the Eagles' Jalen Hurts (two times).
The QB can still improve against pressure (0-for-5 passing with two sacks on 13 pressured dropbacks, per Next Gen Stats), but the 72.4% completion rate is what stood out. It's a figure he never really came close to in his first season under Johnson. The question all offseason was if Williams could smooth out the rough patches and become more consistent down-to-down. Sunday was an excellent step in that direction.
2) John Harbaugh era gets off to roaring start
The Giants actually looked like a professional operation on Sunday night for the first time in a while. The mistakes and roller-coaster play that had come to define the club were smoothed into effective showings on both sides of the ball. Harbaugh's squad ran efficiently on offense, taking advantage of a Cowboys defense that hasn't fixed all its issues from last season, and blocked very well. And the defense, while having some hiccups in the secondary, was mostly on the spot in allowing 244 total yards for the game.
The most notable improvement came from under center, where Jaxson Dart played the most proficient game of his career. The QB logged his first career outing with three or more pass touchdowns and zero interceptions. Dart, 23, is the youngest player to accomplish the feat in a Week 1 prime-time game and the first under the age of 25 to do so since Patrick Mahomes (2020 vs. Texans).
As a rookie, Dart showed he could make backyard plays, big-time throws, and gash defenses with his legs. However, it always felt helter-skelter, his hair always on fire. On Sunday night, the second-year QB looked calm, smooth and never out of sync. Dart was content to make the Cowboys pay for poor coverage, not forcing balls or hunting big plays. He showed he could make the ho-hum play needed to elevate an offense. Sometimes boring QB play is the best QB play.
Add in Malik Nabers' return from last year's season-ending injury -- six catches for 69 yards on a team-high nine targets -- and it was a smashing opening night at MetLife Stadium.
3) Bills exorcise Houston demons in Joe Brady's first game as head coach
The last two times Josh Allen and the Bills traveled to Houston, things ended poorly. In last year's meeting, Allen was crunched, taking a career-high eight sacks and throwing two INTs in the loss. With that backdrop on Sunday, the Joe Brady era took flight.
Facing what was expected to be one of the best defenses in football -- if not the best -- Allen ripped passes through the Texans secondary. The Buffalo O-line did a smashing job against a beast of a front. After the Bills allowed eight sacks last year in Houston, Allen faced just nine total pressures this time and took two sacks. The QB was 5-of-7 passing for 85 yards under pressure, per Next Gen Stats.
In total, Allen completed 20 of his 29 pass attempts for 334 yards and two touchdowns in the Bills' Week 1 win against the Texans, adding another two scores with his legs. Allen averaged 12.6 air yards per attempt, his highest in a game since Week 18 of 2022. The star signal-caller completed 11 of his 16 passes of 10-plus air yards with two TDs. The 286 downfield passing yards were the most the Texans have allowed in a game since DeMeco Ryans took over as head coach in 2023, per NFL Research. As always, Allen got away with a few iffy balls -- i.e., Kamari Lassiter's dropped INT late -- but the good outweighed the bad (and Houston failed to capitalize on the mistakes).
Buffalo's 36 points represented the most a Ryans-led defense has given up since his first season in Houston.
With Brady being elevated from OC to the big chair, it was worth wondering how much the offense might change with the restrictor plate off. It's just one week, but with the addition of DJ Moore (5/100/1) and the healthy status of Dalton Kincaid (5/130), the Bills offense leaned on Allen and splashed big play after big play. Coming against Ryans' defense, it was a massive statement.
4) Good LaFleur, Bad LaFleur
The stunner of the week came in Los Angeles, where the Cardinals handled Jim Harbaugh's Chargers, a trendy pick to go deep in the playoffs. The true shocker wasn't that the Cards, whose projected win total entering the season was roughly four, pulled off the upset; it was that they controlled much of the tilt. New head coach Mike LaFleur showed a deft hand in deploying his array of weapons, keeping the Bolts defense off balance. The offensive line held up well, and Jacoby Brissett once again showed that he's a professional quarterback who's unafraid to attack, completing 6 of 9 passes for 113 yards (+23.9% CPOE) on throws over 10 air yards, per Next Gen Stats. If the Cards can keep this up while avoiding turnovers, they'll be a pest. Brissett has proven he can fling it around the park, and he looked comfortable in LaFleur's offense.
The Cardinals defense, which is solid on paper but hasn't been able to stay healthy in recent years, held Justin Herbert and the Mike McDaniel-led offense to 268 total yards and 17 first downs. The D also forced two turnovers and gobbled up three sacks. Add in a blocked punt by the special teams, and it was a three-phase win in LaFleur's first game.
We've seen this show before, where teams expected to be bad show up in Week 1 and surprise. Last year, Arizona won its season opener before ultimately finishing 3-14. I don't expect a similar crash. It's just one week, but LaFleur showed he can coach, and the Cards displayed they have the talent to be frisky -- if they can stay healthy. With games against the Seahawks and 49ers on tap, they'll have a chance to prove Week 1 was more than just a flash in the pan.
The other LaFleur brother didn't fare so well.
Packers HC Matt LaFleur watched a 12-point third-quarter lead disintegrate in Minnesota against backup Vikings quarterback Carson Wentz, who played the majority of the game after Kyler Murray suffered a concussion in the first half.
Yes, several questionable penalties went against the Packers, but flags didn't cause the rest of the miscues. From the moment the elder LaFleur took three points off the board in the fourth quarter to fall short on a fourth-and-1 play, the Packers crumbled.
"We're gonna be aggressive and we're gonna try to go for the throat in that situation," Matt LaFleur said of the decision.
They missed the throat and stabbed their own leg.
The offensive line completely fell apart in the face of Brian Flores' relentless pressure -- Minnesota had a 78.3% blitz rate on Jordan Love dropbacks, the fourth-highest figure by a defense in a game since at least 2018, per Next Gen Stats. Love fumbled deep in his own territory and later threw an INT to cap off the fourth-quarter collapse.
Blown leads in winnable games have become a staple under Matt LaFleur. Sunday's flop was of the epic variety: The Vikings, who scored 29 unanswered points, became the first team in NFL history to trail by 12-plus points with under 20 minutes left in regulation and win by 17-plus points, per NFL Research.
Speaking of Minnesota, Wentz proved Kevin O'Connell made the correct call in naming him the backup over J.J. McCarthy. He's not a perfect QB, but the veteran plays well enough in KOC's offense to move the ball.
5) Big-time day for lead RBs
Running backs got paid this offseason, then went on to prove the investments were worth it. Sunday saw a trove of RBs scamper all over defenses.
The top of the charts was a veritable who's who of workhorses:
- Jahmyr Gibbs led all players with 34 touches, 186 scrimmage yards and 156 rushing yards. He also forced 12 missed tackles, the most in any game of his career. After the contest, Gibbs suggested he could've had 40 touches if needed. Currently, he's on pace for a ridiculous 578 touches (the all-time record is 492 by James Wilder in 1984).
- Derrick Henry galloped for 144 rushing yards and three TDs on 24 totes and finished with 163 scrimmage yards. Give the Ravens' revamped O-line some love: Henry finished with 110 yards before contact against the Colts, the third-highest single-game total of his career. He was hit at the line of scrimmage on just 8.3% of his carries, the lowest rate of his Ravens career.
- Bijan Robinson generated 173 scrimmage yards, including 90 receiving yards, most among all RBs through Sunday. Robinson accounted for 65.8% of the Falcons' yards from scrimmage in Week 1, the highest share by any player in a team's season opener since Rams RB Eric Dickerson (66.6%) in 1986.
- D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai formed a two-headed monster for Chicago. The former gobbled up 124 rushing yards and three rushing TDs, while the latter scampered for 100 yards, with a 61-yard TD rumble. Add in Caleb Williams' ground effort (65 yards, two TDs), and the Bears became the fourth team in the Super Bowl era to have three players with at least 65 rushing yards and at least one rushing touchdown in the same game (first trio to include a QB), per NFL Research. The last team to accomplish the feat was the 2013 Rams in Week 12 with WR Tavon Austin and RBs Benny Cunningham and Zac Stacy.
- Ashton Jeanty gobbled up 147 scrimmage yards: 102 rushing yards with 45 receiving yards (team high) and two TD catches. In the 27-13 win over Miami, Jeanty generated 73 rushing yards after contact, the third-most in his career. His three explosive runs of 10-plus yards tied for the second-most in a game in his career. Pretty good for a player who suffered an ankle injury three weeks ago.
- Breece Hall scampered for 102 rushing yards and a TD and added two catches for 16 yards in the Jets' romp at Tennessee. Perhaps most notable in Gang Green's revamped offense: 17 of Hall's 22 rushing attempts came with Geno Smith under center, accounting for 85 yards and a TD, including three explosive runs (tied for a career high, per Next Gen Stats).
- Jonathan Taylor paced the Colts offense with 121 scrimmage yards, including 98 rushing yards and two rushing scores in the loss to Baltimore. It marked Taylor's 14th career game with 100-plus scrimmage yards and two-plus rushing touchdowns, tying him with Hall of Famer Edgerrin James for the most such games in Colts franchise history.
- David Montgomery didn't put up gaudy rushing or scrimmage numbers in Houston's loss -- 79 scrimmage yards (60 rushing, 19 receiving) -- but was one of just three players to score three scrimmage TDs (2 rushing, 1 receiving) on Sunday, alongside Derrick Henry and D'Andre Swift.
