Plus, Jalen Hurts shines, Seattle looks sharp, Kyle Shanahan’s offense runs wild, Ja’Marr Chase catches just fine, and much more from Week 1.
Welcome to the season-opening edition of the Sunday FreakOut, where we react and overreact to everything that happens in the Sunday afternoon games. And for the full Sunday roundup podcast-style, be sure to subscribe to
The MMQB Podcast, in your feed every Monday morning...Things That Made Me Giddy
Chandler Jones’s Pent-Up Energy: Things started with a tackle-for-loss on Derrick Henry on the first play from scrimmage, and by the end of the first quarter Jones had three sacks in his first game back from a ruptured Achilles. That included a perfectly-played defense of a Ryan Tannehill play-action boot, turning it into a strip-sack that set up the Arizona offense on the 1-yard line. Jones finished the day with five sacks, two forced fumbles (both recovered by Arizona), and as big a Defensive Player of the Year opening statement as you can make.
Jalen Hurts Proving the People Who Drafted Him Wrong: It’s been the weirdest developmental track ever set up for a young quarterback. First, the Eagles spent a second-round pick on Hurts with the idea of making him a long-term backup. Then, after an encouraging (if flawed) stint after Carson Wentz’s meltdown last season, the Eagles front office spent most of the offseason looking to replace Hurts. He wasn’t asked to do a ton in Atlanta, but Nick Sirianni had a plan with his legs and arm, and Hurts sprinkled in a couple of spectacular improvisational plays in what added up to an outstanding performance.
Steelers Do It Their Way: I could still stand to see them open the offense up a little more (the offensive line won’t be any worse than last year’s edition), but they won on their terms in Buffalo, dominating defensively and hanging around until they could string together a couple of drives and get a couple of turnovers. After just 53 yards of offense in the first half, they had 201 yards of offense and 16 points on their first four drives of the second half, and their lone touchdown drive featured a 26-yard defensive pass interference penalty when they finally started to test the Bills downfield. Sleep on this team at your own risk.
T.J. Watt Chase-Down Sacks: Those always help too. He had two of them, including a strip-sack turnover of Josh Allen.
Kyle Shanahan’s Offense: Sure, it got a little too interesting in the end. But through their first seven drives—including a turnover on a QB-center exchange on the season’s first snap—the 49ers scored 38 points while averaging 10.3 yards per play. Yes, grain of salt considering the opponent (it will take years to undo the damage done to the Lions’ roster by the previous regime), but you rarely see that level of dominance in a game featuring two NFL teams.
Hey, I Remember Joe Burrow!: The Bengals didn’t exactly open things up in his first game back, relying heavily on the run game and play-action (and a strong performance by a defense that is probably deserving of more credit). But Burrow generally looked calm and collected in the pocket, and was efficient overall.
Nick Sirianni and David Culley Are on the Board!: Both faced fellow first-year head coaches (Atlanta’s Arthur Smith and Jacksonville’s Urban Meyer) and both coaches equipped themselves well. Sirianni got sufficiently creative with Jalen Hurts and then watched his veteran defense have its way with the Falcons. As for Culley, he and coordinators Tim Kelly and Lovie Smith have an undermanned team that played hard on Sunday, completely outclassing the more talented Jaguars.
Chargers Gut One Out: Let’s not lose track of the fact that this is a really talented team, with a stud quarterback, who was facing a Washington Football Team playing their backup quarterback most of the way. But Washington made them largely play on their terms, and the Chargers went on the road and came away with a victory. That’s a very good sign for a Chargers team with a recent history of creative losses.
The Russell Wilson-Shane Waldron Marriage: They took their foot off the gas a bit while they defended a two-possession lead in the second half, but this looked like a really nice mesh of run and pass game, along with some clever route designs at the intermediate level. When combined with a couple of moonball TDs to Tyler Lockett, and this looked like the beginning of something special.
Zac Taylor Puts It in Joe Burrow’s Hands: Facing a fourth-and-1 at midfield with less than a minute to go in overtime, Taylor called play-action, with Burrow hitting C.J. Uzomah for a 32-yard play, setting up the game-winning field goal.
DeAndre Hopkins, Still a Difference Maker: His two first-half touchdowns were both incredible individual efforts, the first a late-down improv session (with an incredible throw by Kyler Murray to the back of the end zone) and the second a quick-strike throw that required him to slip a Kevin Byard tackle.
Whoa, Seattle Might Have Something in Darrell Taylor: And that’s a defense is desperate need of an edge-rushing presence. After missing his rookie year with a broken leg, Taylor was a force in his NFL debut, absolutely owning his matchup against Braden Smith. The Seahawks’ front-four won the day against a Colts O-line that was supposed to push them around.
Ja’Marr Chase Catches Everything: Almost everything. The rookie was targeted seven times and caught five of them, for 101 yards, including a 50-yard touchdown down the right sideline. And so we bid farewell to “Ja’Marr Chase can’t catch an NFL football,” one of the dumbest preseason storylines of recent years.
Evan McPherson vs. Greg Joseph Kicker Duel: Rookie kickers forever in Cin City, as Joseph (who kicks for the Vikings) hit from 53 as time expired in regulation to force overtime, after which McPherson (who kicks for the Bengals, and who also hit from 53 earlier) ending it with a game-winning kick from 38.
Matt Ammendola Pinch Punting: The Jets placekicker didn’t have a field goal or PAT attempt in his NFL debut, but he was forced into punting duty after Braden Mann was injured. Ammendola delivered a 65-yard directional punt that landed on the sideline on his second kick, and over six kicks finished with a respectable 42.8 net average. That’s the stuff that Week 1 legends are made of. At least in my book.
Regrets
Urban Meyer and the Summer of Our Discontent: If you’re going to mount a defense of Meyer to this moment, it would be that Bill Belichick lost 13 of his first 18 games with the Patriots. However, Meyer took over a team adding the best quarterback prospect of the best decade, with ownership agreeing to every demand in regards to infrastructure. There were rumblings all summer of unhappiness with Meyer’s demeanor and approach—overall not one thing has gone right for this team since training camp opened. And what happened Sunday was, simply, one of the worst head-coaching debuts in recent memory: 11 penalties, three turnovers, a number of defensive miscommunications, and a quarterback who seemed completely uncomfortable with what he was seeing. To show up looking this utterly unprepared for a professional football game—one against an opponent you absolutely have outmanned—seems like a bright and garish warning sign.
Trevor Lawrence’s Rocky Debut: The first interception was just a misfire trying to create while moving left, the second he just got misread the coverage, and the third was a miscommunication with his receiver. To have the No. 1 pick look so unprepared in the season debut is on the coaching staff, but in Urban Meyer’s defense, we’ve yet to see exactly how giving half the training camp reps to Gardner Minshew will pay off in the long run. But as for the short-term, this Texans defense plays hard, but that was the most undermanned unit the Jaguars will see this year.
Carson Wentz, Better But Not Great: It’s tough to say anything definitive without seeing what was happening downfield, but Wentz was too often patting the ball when the ball was clearly supposed to come out quick. There were no 2020-style meltdowns, a step in the right direction, but even after his preseason was erased, you would’ve expected better in a home matchup against a fairly soft defense.
The Fall of Fitzpatrick: Hip injuries are never a good thing for a 38-year-old quarterback.
Titans Knocked Off-Schedule: It’s never a good thing when you rely so heavily on that highly-schemed wide-zone offense, and it’s going to be an issue some weeks due to their shaky group of cornerbacks. But Sunday was a nightmare scenario, with a three-yard loss on their first play from scrimmage setting up a three-and-out, then a turnover inside their own five on their second possession, then a Julio Jones personal foul turned a third-and-1 into a third-and-16 and subsequent three-and-out. They were never in it against the Cardinals.
Arthur Smith’s New Red Zone Reality: He oversaw one of the most efficient red zone offenses in football the past two seasons in Tennessee, but Smith’s first two drives stalled inside the Eagles’ 10. It was the beginning of a long day for Smith’s offense.
Uniform Number Shenanigans: Fine, me and my octogenarian friends will learn to deal with all these single-digit numbers (even if front-seven defensive players are absolutely embarrassing themselves with that look). But I think we can all agree that Shaq Thompson changing his number an hour before the game is far too shenanigany.
Moments We’ll Tell Our Grandkids About
Trey Lance’s First Everything: First NFL pass attempt, first NFL pass completion, first NFL touchdown, first time bumming out Lions fans, probably a bunch of other firsts.
Miles Killebrew to Ulysees Gilbert III to TK for Six: A couple of tremendous names pair up for the special teams touchdown.
Just Kyler Murray Executing One of Those Wonderful Air Raid Designs:
What We’ll Be Talking About This Week
Homefield Advantage Fails to Show Up: One year after the first season ever with home teams posting a combined losing record, it was supposed to be different with fans back in stadiums. Through the 1:00 games, home teams were 3–6.
Urban Meyer Should Be Looking at the Man in the Mirror: I’ve watched the end of the Lego Batman movie with my kids enough times to know that.
• Question or comment? Email us.
Plus, Jalen Hurts shines, Seattle looks sharp, Kyle Shanahan’s offense runs wild, Ja’Marr Chase catches just fine, and much more from Week 1.
Welcome to the season-opening edition of the Sunday FreakOut, where we react and overreact to everything that happens in the Sunday afternoon games. And for the full Sunday roundup podcast-style, be sure to subscribe to The MMQB Podcast, in your feed every Monday morning...
Things That Made Me Giddy
Chandler Jones’s Pent-Up Energy: Things started with a tackle-for-loss on Derrick Henry on the first play from scrimmage, and by the end of the first quarter Jones had three sacks in his first game back from a ruptured Achilles. That included a perfectly-played defense of a Ryan Tannehill play-action boot, turning it into a strip-sack that set up the Arizona offense on the 1-yard line. Jones finished the day with five sacks, two forced fumbles (both recovered by Arizona), and as big a Defensive Player of the Year opening statement as you can make.
Jalen Hurts Proving the People Who Drafted Him Wrong: It’s been the weirdest developmental track ever set up for a young quarterback. First, the Eagles spent a second-round pick on Hurts with the idea of making him a long-term backup. Then, after an encouraging (if flawed) stint after Carson Wentz’s meltdown last season, the Eagles front office spent most of the offseason looking to replace Hurts. He wasn’t asked to do a ton in Atlanta, but Nick Sirianni had a plan with his legs and arm, and Hurts sprinkled in a couple of spectacular improvisational plays in what added up to an outstanding performance.
Steelers Do It Their Way: I could still stand to see them open the offense up a little more (the offensive line won’t be any worse than last year’s edition), but they won on their terms in Buffalo, dominating defensively and hanging around until they could string together a couple of drives and get a couple of turnovers. After just 53 yards of offense in the first half, they had 201 yards of offense and 16 points on their first four drives of the second half, and their lone touchdown drive featured a 26-yard defensive pass interference penalty when they finally started to test the Bills downfield. Sleep on this team at your own risk.
T.J. Watt Chase-Down Sacks: Those always help too. He had two of them, including a strip-sack turnover of Josh Allen.
Kyle Shanahan’s Offense: Sure, it got a little too interesting in the end. But through their first seven drives—including a turnover on a QB-center exchange on the season’s first snap—the 49ers scored 38 points while averaging 10.3 yards per play. Yes, grain of salt considering the opponent (it will take years to undo the damage done to the Lions’ roster by the previous regime), but you rarely see that level of dominance in a game featuring two NFL teams.
Hey, I Remember Joe Burrow!: The Bengals didn’t exactly open things up in his first game back, relying heavily on the run game and play-action (and a strong performance by a defense that is probably deserving of more credit). But Burrow generally looked calm and collected in the pocket, and was efficient overall.
Nick Sirianni and David Culley Are on the Board!: Both faced fellow first-year head coaches (Atlanta’s Arthur Smith and Jacksonville’s Urban Meyer) and both coaches equipped themselves well. Sirianni got sufficiently creative with Jalen Hurts and then watched his veteran defense have its way with the Falcons. As for Culley, he and coordinators Tim Kelly and Lovie Smith have an undermanned team that played hard on Sunday, completely outclassing the more talented Jaguars.
Chargers Gut One Out: Let’s not lose track of the fact that this is a really talented team, with a stud quarterback, who was facing a Washington Football Team playing their backup quarterback most of the way. But Washington made them largely play on their terms, and the Chargers went on the road and came away with a victory. That’s a very good sign for a Chargers team with a recent history of creative losses.
The Russell Wilson-Shane Waldron Marriage: They took their foot off the gas a bit while they defended a two-possession lead in the second half, but this looked like a really nice mesh of run and pass game, along with some clever route designs at the intermediate level. When combined with a couple of moonball TDs to Tyler Lockett, and this looked like the beginning of something special.
Zac Taylor Puts It in Joe Burrow’s Hands: Facing a fourth-and-1 at midfield with less than a minute to go in overtime, Taylor called play-action, with Burrow hitting C.J. Uzomah for a 32-yard play, setting up the game-winning field goal.
DeAndre Hopkins, Still a Difference Maker: His two first-half touchdowns were both incredible individual efforts, the first a late-down improv session (with an incredible throw by Kyler Murray to the back of the end zone) and the second a quick-strike throw that required him to slip a Kevin Byard tackle.
Whoa, Seattle Might Have Something in Darrell Taylor: And that’s a defense is desperate need of an edge-rushing presence. After missing his rookie year with a broken leg, Taylor was a force in his NFL debut, absolutely owning his matchup against Braden Smith. The Seahawks’ front-four won the day against a Colts O-line that was supposed to push them around.
Ja’Marr Chase Catches Everything: Almost everything. The rookie was targeted seven times and caught five of them, for 101 yards, including a 50-yard touchdown down the right sideline. And so we bid farewell to “Ja’Marr Chase can’t catch an NFL football,” one of the dumbest preseason storylines of recent years.
Evan McPherson vs. Greg Joseph Kicker Duel: Rookie kickers forever in Cin City, as Joseph (who kicks for the Vikings) hit from 53 as time expired in regulation to force overtime, after which McPherson (who kicks for the Bengals, and who also hit from 53 earlier) ending it with a game-winning kick from 38.
Matt Ammendola Pinch Punting: The Jets placekicker didn’t have a field goal or PAT attempt in his NFL debut, but he was forced into punting duty after Braden Mann was injured. Ammendola delivered a 65-yard directional punt that landed on the sideline on his second kick, and over six kicks finished with a respectable 42.8 net average. That’s the stuff that Week 1 legends are made of. At least in my book.
Regrets
Urban Meyer and the Summer of Our Discontent: If you’re going to mount a defense of Meyer to this moment, it would be that Bill Belichick lost 13 of his first 18 games with the Patriots. However, Meyer took over a team adding the best quarterback prospect of the best decade, with ownership agreeing to every demand in regards to infrastructure. There were rumblings all summer of unhappiness with Meyer’s demeanor and approach—overall not one thing has gone right for this team since training camp opened. And what happened Sunday was, simply, one of the worst head-coaching debuts in recent memory: 11 penalties, three turnovers, a number of defensive miscommunications, and a quarterback who seemed completely uncomfortable with what he was seeing. To show up looking this utterly unprepared for a professional football game—one against an opponent you absolutely have outmanned—seems like a bright and garish warning sign.
Trevor Lawrence’s Rocky Debut: The first interception was just a misfire trying to create while moving left, the second he just got misread the coverage, and the third was a miscommunication with his receiver. To have the No. 1 pick look so unprepared in the season debut is on the coaching staff, but in Urban Meyer’s defense, we’ve yet to see exactly how giving half the training camp reps to Gardner Minshew will pay off in the long run. But as for the short-term, this Texans defense plays hard, but that was the most undermanned unit the Jaguars will see this year.
Carson Wentz, Better But Not Great: It’s tough to say anything definitive without seeing what was happening downfield, but Wentz was too often patting the ball when the ball was clearly supposed to come out quick. There were no 2020-style meltdowns, a step in the right direction, but even after his preseason was erased, you would’ve expected better in a home matchup against a fairly soft defense.
The Fall of Fitzpatrick: Hip injuries are never a good thing for a 38-year-old quarterback.
Titans Knocked Off-Schedule: It’s never a good thing when you rely so heavily on that highly-schemed wide-zone offense, and it’s going to be an issue some weeks due to their shaky group of cornerbacks. But Sunday was a nightmare scenario, with a three-yard loss on their first play from scrimmage setting up a three-and-out, then a turnover inside their own five on their second possession, then a Julio Jones personal foul turned a third-and-1 into a third-and-16 and subsequent three-and-out. They were never in it against the Cardinals.
Arthur Smith’s New Red Zone Reality: He oversaw one of the most efficient red zone offenses in football the past two seasons in Tennessee, but Smith’s first two drives stalled inside the Eagles’ 10. It was the beginning of a long day for Smith’s offense.
Uniform Number Shenanigans: Fine, me and my octogenarian friends will learn to deal with all these single-digit numbers (even if front-seven defensive players are absolutely embarrassing themselves with that look). But I think we can all agree that Shaq Thompson changing his number an hour before the game is far too shenanigany.
Moments We’ll Tell Our Grandkids About
Trey Lance’s First Everything: First NFL pass attempt, first NFL pass completion, first NFL touchdown, first time bumming out Lions fans, probably a bunch of other firsts.
Miles Killebrew to Ulysees Gilbert III to TK for Six: A couple of tremendous names pair up for the special teams touchdown.
Just Kyler Murray Executing One of Those Wonderful Air Raid Designs:
What We’ll Be Talking About This Week
Homefield Advantage Fails to Show Up: One year after the first season ever with home teams posting a combined losing record, it was supposed to be different with fans back in stadiums. Through the 1:00 games, home teams were 3–6.
Urban Meyer Should Be Looking at the Man in the Mirror: I’ve watched the end of the Lego Batman movie with my kids enough times to know that.
• Question or comment? Email us.
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