Week 1 in the NFL is complete and it came with some real surprises. Nobody expects every team to play well to start the season, despite all of the uncontrolled hype that fan bases have going through the long off-season. Every team feels like it’s got better, repaired the weaknesses it had last season and everyone expects to make the playoffs, but we also all know that once play starts, that’s not going to be the reality. The good thing is that the season is long, and in the space of one individual play, seasons can change dramatically for a team, as we saw this first week.
The Giants Vs Cowboys
Starting with my New York Giants, it was not the best way to begin the 2023 campaign. Even after a full four quarters, the Giants go into week 2 having not scored a single point. I’ve been a Giants fan for 9 years now, and I have never seen them get so brutally man-handled to the point where I couldn’t finish watching the game. After a good looking first drive, the Giants had a field goal attempt blocked which was returned for a TD. On that run back their starting all-pro Left Tackle injured his hamstring which will undoubtedly hamper him for the next 6 weeks, and the game continued to deteriorate from there. It finished 40-0, and the Giants were completely and utterly embarrassed to the point where confidence to go out and win against a hopeless Arizona team is definitely not as high as it was. If the Giants lose this game, the season is undoubtedly over with the schedule coming up that they face. The Cowboys defence looked great, but fuck the Cowboys.
Aaron Rodgers & The Jets
After months of drama, stories that dominated the daily broadcasts of every network, and Super Bowl predictions and expectations, the New York Jets season came to an abrupt holt on the fourth play of the season opener against the Bills. Aaron Rodgers, a four time MVP who was going to take the Jets to the promised land got tackled and ended up tearing his achilles, a season ending injury. Nobody in the world could believe it, and nobody wins in this scenario. The Jets managed to somehow win the game, but that was down to a poor performance from Josh Allen rather than a heroic performance from Zach Wilson. The Jets now have to try to make it through the season with an excellent team but a mediocre O-Line and QB. No matter how they do, the Jets fans will always wonder what if?!
AFC Contenders Struggle
Gong in to Week 1, most people had picked either the Chiefs, the Bills or the Bengals to win the AFC, and it still may be the case that one of them emerge victorious, but all three lost. The Chiefs probably looked the best of the three as they were just let down by receivers who played for the Giants last year, but the Defence and Pat Mahomes were good. The Bills were let down by their QB and the Bengals Offence just couldn’t get anything going in a game disturbed by rain. Fortunately the NFL has a short memory, and as long as these teams come out and have a good Week 2, all will be forgotten.
Surprises
The Green Bay Packers took a lot of people by surprise this weekend dismantling the Bears. It was a good all around performance from Jordan Love and the Packers team who continued to dominate a struggling Chicago team.
The second surprise came in the form of a dominant Rams team, whom many sports broadcasters expected to max out at 4 wins this year. It wasn’t just the win, it was the way they dominated the struggling Seahawks, a division rival. The defence looked young and sharp generating pressure and avoiding big chunk plays. The offence looked electric with a fully repaired Matt Stafford showing why he is one of the best throwers in the league, making the most out of a rookie WR and finally getting some success out of Tutu Atwell. Sean McVay had those men ready to play and it will be very interesting to see if they can replicate that performance in week 2.
Special shout-out to the Miami Dolphins who didn’t necessarily surprise people with how good they were in terms a team win, but had some remarkable standout performances from Tua and Tyreek against a good Chargers team. If those two stay healthy, this team is going to be dangerous every week.
Expectations for Week 2
The Giants need a win and they need to do it with authority. The Cardinals are starting a backup QB who joined the roster a week before the start of the season, and many people forecast them to have the worst record in the NFL this year. If Daniel Jones doesn’t throw a party on that defence, it’s going to be relentless the negativity that gets thrown in his direction every week as the season goes on.
With the Bengals at the Ravens, and the Chiefs against the Jags, there is a strong chance one of the top contenders could be 0-2 at the end of this week. The Bengals did start 0-2 last year, but in a stacked AFC, they will be desperate to avoid that this year. The Chiefs could go back to being the top of all the Power Rankings this week if they dominate a very good looking Jags team, but they will need to get more production out of the WRs, even with a returning Travis Kelce.
Injuries swept through the league week 1, with more hamstring injuries in one week I can ever remember. Hopefully that won’t continue as we go in to week 2.