Winners and Losers from Week 1 of the NFL season

After 8 long months off, football is finally back and is as batshit insane as ever. It all kicked off with a potential SuperBowl matchup against the Rams and Bills that caught everyone off guard. Though as it turns out, that game would be one of the tamer outcomes we saw across week 1 as we had teams frantically try and tie games up only to do their darndest to then lose them. For as much as things changed this past week, we saw a lot stay the same. With that said, let’s dive into it.



Winners

The AFC

Entering the season, there was a lot of chatter about the lack of contenders in the NFC whilst the AFC went all in on SB bids. This seems to be the case as the Chiefs, Bills and Chargers all passed the week one eye test.

Starting with the Chiefs, the concerns over the loss of Tyreek Hill seem to be greatly overstated as Mahomes, Kelce and CEH shredded apart the Cardinals defence with absolute ease, scoring a TD on the first 3 drives as the chiefs punished the blitz heavy defence of Arizona. Some of this shouldn’t come as a surprise, Zona certainly had their doubters entering the season but it was the way in which KC attacked that surprised many. CEH looked like elusive shifty back he was at LSU and was almost unrecognisable compared to how he played last season. Likewise, the offensive line looked strong in it’s pass protection and Mahomes methodically and calmly picked apart the defence. Though they still lack a true downfield threat, Kelce doesn’t appear to have lost a step and Juju seems to be a great addition for their intermediate passing attack. You still can’t help but wonder if Mecole Hardman will suffice as the team’s de-facto deep threat but for now, KC look incredible as they only failed to score off one possession with Mahomes at QB. Defensively they looked more formidable as well, especially in the secondary as Justin Reid and Juan Thornhill neutralising any downfield passing of the Cardinals. This is all without a major contribution from their two first round picks as Mcduffie’s injury will see him miss the next 4 weeks whilst George Karlaftis is still finding his way into the team.

During the 2021 NFL playoffs, we saw Josh Allen go supernova as he played about as perfect as humanly possible. Only an equally superhuman performance from Mahomes stopped the Bills from advancing into the AFC title game and perhaps, the SB. If Friday’s game is any indication, that was only the beginning for Allen and Co as the Bills eviscerated the once vaunted Rams defence. The only thing stopping the score from becoming even more lopsided than it ended up being was some boneheaded turnovers as bills recievers saw the ball slip through their grasp as well as a fumbles by rookie James Cook and Zack Moss. While this may be some cause for concern, it’s likely these are some week one wrinkles that will likely be sorted by seasons end. New additions to the team in that of Jamison Crowder and Von Miller looked fantastic as Crowder proved he’s still one of the most underappreciated slot receivers from the past five years, whilst Miller made an immediate impact to the Bills pass rush, notching two sacks. Some of the defensive appittude could certainly be chalked up to the Matt Stafford’s injured elbow as well as the lack of receiving talent behind Kupp though it’s hard to deny just how effective the Bills were at creating a pass rush off just sending four. The only injury concern for the Bills moving forward is Ed Oliver who appears to be in a walking boot though no details of the injury have emerged beyond that. As for now, it seems like the Bills may have another rematch with the Chiefs in their playoff future, perhaps for an AFC title game this time around.

Always the darling of every reporters winners and losers column of the off-season, the Chargers won a game that’s a lot closer than what box score shows. Ordinarily, this would indicate that the chargers aren’t as good as they’ve been billed but in this instance is the opposite. Facing a revamped vegas offence, the Chargers D made some spectacular plays despite missing star corner J.C Jackson with 2nd year pro Asante Samuel Jr making one of the most incredible INT’s you’ll see all season. Likewise, the addition of Mack proved to be a major factor as he blew through a shoddy Vegas offensive line to make the game winning sack. The Raiders did give the chargers all they can handle though despite the critical mistakes thanks to terrific run stuffing defence that never allowed the Chargers to produce a balanced offensive attack. All of this amounts to two strong teams in a loaded division where the Chargers were able to get a win against a rival despite being on the receiving end of key injuries. In the battle of AFC contenders, the Chargers may be third on the list but the potential is there for them to give the Bills and Chiefs some real problems if Herbert is able to continue his development and get JC Jackson and Keenan Allen back.

Minnesota Vikings

The final winner of the week belongs to one of the few hyped teams coming out of the NFC. Under new head coach and former Rams OC Kevin O’Connell, the Vikings looked like a reformed team, set on changing the era of futility the Vikings have endured since that one magical Brett Farve season. On the very first drive of the game, O’Connell put Justin Jefferson in motion and got one of the best WR’s in football wide open time and time again. To Green Bay’s credit, they’d hold the Vikings to just 3 points over the next 3 drives but GB’s lack of weapons on offence as well as the pass rushing ability of former Packer, Zaderious Smith, totally neutralised the Packers attack. Once the game reached a 17-0 halftime score, it was all but over as Sota were able to drain the clock dry in the 4th quarter and cruise to a 23-7 victory. While that isn’t a completely inspired margin of victory, it’s a good foundation for a team who had the burden of victory placed upon their shoulders for the first time in quite a while. Cause for concerns do loom for them if their offensive line can’t hold and there’s certainly some questions left for Kirk Cousins if they’re to be considered a true SB contender. But in what appears to be a lacklustre NFC, the Vikings are poised for a deep playoff run.


Losers

The NFC

Boy oh boy, if aspiring AFC contenders were the biggest winners of week one then the reverse is true of NFC title hopefuls as almost every single NFC playoff team from 2021 lost in that of the Rams, Cardinals, Cowboys, Packers and 49ers all lost whilst the only winners from that playoff run didn’t exactly pull of impressive victories. To the 49ers credit, they lost a game that was practically in a monsoon whilst for the Packers, they lack the expectations of years past after the loss of Adams. Instead, we will be focusing on the Cowboys, Cardinals and Rams given all 3 teams looked absolutely atrocious.


The first prime time game of the season, the Cowboys entered the game against the Bucs hoping for an improved version of last years epic. Instead, Dallas managed to go from the highest scoring offence of the 2021 season to the only team to not score a TD for the week and never even really appeared close to doing so. Obviously the cowboys have seen a lot of changes to the roster as they shipped off Amari cooper, lost Tyron Smith and James Washington in preseason and still don’t have Gallup back. All these things led to a truly anaemic passing offence against a Bucs defence that didn’t exactly appear menacing itself. None of the Cowboys receivers, including CeeDee Lamb were able to gain any separation whilst the offensive line committed penalty after penalty with Terrance Steele being the worst offender, racking up 5 penalties just on his own accord. Certainly there was positives for Dallas as the defence looks better than ever, led by a healthy Demarcus Lawrence as well as one of the best defenders in football in Micah Parsons. Zeke also looked fresher than ever, averaging 5.2 YPC despite Tampa having one of the highest rated rushing defences last season. But any bright spot now comes with a dull finish after news of the Prescott injury. Trailing 19-3 with just 6 minutes left, Dak would break his thumb that will require him to miss anywhere from 4-8 weeks according to reports while Cooper Rush will go under center. Even if by some miracle this doesn’t sink the Cowboys season, the offence still has major issues even with a healthy Prescott at the helm as the Oline and WR group isn’t good enough.

Doesn’t seem that long ago that the Cardinals were on top of the world as Kyler Muarry was a dual threat nightmare and the addition of Deandre Hopkins at a basement level price appeared to a game changing move. Instead, the Cardinals would win just 3 out of their final 8 games before getting blown out by the Rams in the wildcard round. Entering the 2022 season, the Cardinals added little to strengthen their team and lost more than they gained with the only meaningful addition to the team being Hollywood brown which cost them a first round pick. The lack of additions were clear immediately as the Chiefs torched the defence with ease whilst Kliff Kingsbury had no answers on playcalling duties. To the Cardinals credit, Kyler when healthy still looked like the dangerous dual threat QB he’s always been. But with no Hopkins and uninspired playcalling, all this mattered for naught as it was a world of short passes with few pass attempts downfield. Things don’t get any easier for the Cardinals this season as they are matched up with the AFC West this season and Hopkins won’t get back until week 8. This spells doom for a team that appears to be headed for the infamous treadmill of mediocrity though if this results in the firing of Kingsbury, there maybe be some hope in Arizona’s future.

Finally, we have the losers of the first game of the season and defending SB champs the Los Angeles Rams. In the salary cap era, it’s next to impossible to repeat as champions and even winning multiple across a 5- or 10-year window is a near impossibility for anyone not named Thomas Edward Brady. This is largely due to talent getting picked off rapidly, be it players or coaching staff. As previously mentioned, the Rams OC is now the head coach of the Vikings, Andrew Whitworth retired, OBJ is still recovering from the torn ACL he sustained in the SB and Von miller left for the Bills. All these losses were immediately apparent against the Bills as Stafford was under fire constantly and were unable to produce much through the air outside of some incredible work by Cooper Kupp. Even with the Bills having some uncharacteristic turnovers, the Rams weren’t able to capitalise, putting up just 10 point by half time in a tied game. The lone bright spot on the Rams offence was an ability to get the run game going as while Akers still looked to be recovering from his achilles tear, Darell Henderson looked to go through the CEH of revitalised RB play as he was productive on the ground despite playing against a top tier run defence from a year ago. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of Stafford as his throwing motion looked off despite Mcvay downplaying the elbow injury. Adding insult to injury was the sympathy given out from Bears fans as Allen Robinson was completely anonymous throughout the game, catching one of 2 targets for a grand total of 12 yards. Moving forward, the Rams face a surprisingly cushy schedule for a defending champ as their division doesn’t appear to be particularly strong which gives them time to sort their offensive line and receiver issues should they decide to do what they always do and haemorrhage their future for short term gains. Without a replacement for Whitworth however, it appears as though the Rams have a ceiling on their dreams of being the first repeat champs since the Patriots of 04-05 era.

That concludes the first winners and losers session of the NFL season. While many more teams won and lost obviously, there wasn’t too many outcomes that were entirely unexpected even if the way we got them were absolutely wild (shoutout to week 1 kickers doing their darndest to win or lose the game for their teams). Until next time, this has been Kurt.