Football is back, like it was never away. Biggest stories, well, lots of close games that went down to the wire, balance of power maybe shifting in some divisions, and a whole lot of missed kicks. Let's get to the highlights and lowlights I saw while watching yesterday...
Buccaneers at Falcons: Wild game. Huge one for Emeka Egbuka, including a great route for the winning touchdown. Not a great game for Bucky Irving, but a diving touchdown to save things. Michael Penix made enough plays to win, or almost, with late first-down and touchdown scrambles and a good throw to Drake London that he couldn't hang onto. Kicker disappointment, with missed field goal and extra point for Chase McLaughlin which opened the door for Younghoe Koo to tie it up at the end...but he missed. Rough.
Bengals at Browns: Speaking of kicker struggles. Rookie Andre Szmyt missed a field goal and an extra point in a 1-point loss. Bigger story is probably the shootout that wasn't, with the Bengals offense scoring a touchdown on its opening drive and another the next quarter, but just 3 points the rest of the way. What are you gonna do. Mentioned they'd had struggles in some previous games in the series but I didn't expect it again and don't think benching Burrow, Chase or Higgins were options. Joe Flacco was slinging it around as expected, the surprise was that his busiest receivers were rookies Dylan Sampson and Harold Fannin. And third-string running back Raheim Sanders, an undrafted rookie with the Chargers all preseason, accounted for Cleveland's rushing score. The ground game did nothing; so much for Jerome Ford, even before Quinshon Judkins shows up. Uh, Sampson and Fannin should be added, though it's also possible they both just had their best games of the season. Bengals will be better going forward.
Dolphins at Colts: Uh yikes. Dolphins a disaster on both sides of the ball, making Daniel Jones and the Colts defense look like world-beaters. Seat couldn't be any hotter any earlier for Mike McDaniel, with the team not looking ready to play. Late touchdown for DeVon Achane the only saving highlight. Jonathan Taylor kept out of the end zone, frustration unless you were facing him, couple of near-misses where it looked like he really should have got in, and now he’s got a different quarterback vulturing his TDs. Big debut for Tyler Warren, strong for Michael Pittman too.
Panthers at Jaguars: Game delayed more than an hour midway through by weather. Rough outing for Bryce Young and the Panthers offense, at least you got a late TD from Chuba. Jaguars looked improved on defense, offense a little rough, but Brian Thomas scored on an end around play and Travis Etienne, thanks in part of a breakaway run, had a big day. Looks like he's the guy, with Bigsby and Tuten fighting for scraps, team disguised it well in August. I think Jacksonville's offense will be better going forward. Carolina's, well....
Raiders at Patriots: Raiders defense looked better than expected, or Patriots offense has some things to work on. Probably both. But Geno Smith had a day, Brock Bowers did (before leaving with injury, which he said was precautionary), the Raiders had a lot of success passing the ball around. Not so much running, though Ashton Jeanty scored at least. For New England I haven't seen snap counts yet but looked like a pretty even running back committee. Which isn't necessarily a surprise to start, the feeling is that TreVeyon eventually takes over. Big game for Kayshon Boutte, didn't see that coming, he'll be one of the big adds of the week.
Cardinals at Saints: Not the prettiest game. Cardinals did enough to win, Saints did enough to make things interesting, with late, game-ending drive that came up short. Touchdowns for James Conner (clever little shovel pass), Marvin Harrison, and a big run for Trey Benson to give him a serviceable day. Saints got numbers from Alvin Kamara and Juwan Johnson, hit on bets involving those players, Couple of near misses for Chris Olave, close to having a good game (he might have a lot of weeks like that). Spencer Rattler did enough that he should continue to start, made some plays.
Steelers at Jets: Justin Fields-Aaron Rodgers aerial battle, who'da thunk it. Breece Hall having a day (Jets used three backs but Hall by far the best). Garrett Wilson had a touchdown and nearly a second, end-zone play broken up. Steelers win with Rodgers having a throwback game at MetLife, just like the Jets hoped for a year or two ago. And Justin Fields, who I've scoffed at plenty, looking like an NFL quarterback with both his passing and running impact. Just one week, we'll see if they can build on that. Arthur Smith offense spreading it around, natch.
Giants at Commanders: Ah, the Giants. Nothing much doing for the offense. Russell Wilson looked as ungood as he’s looked for three years now. This is his last starting contract and who knows, maybe we’ll see Jaxson Dart before September is out. Or Week 2, because Russ oversaw a lot of bad-looking goal-line plays in this one. Can’t move but plays like he thinks he still can. Touchdowns for Jacory and Ertz and Deebo, Chris Rodriguez inactive, so looks like a Croskey-Merritt and Ekeler backfield. Quiet game for Terry McLaurin, presumably he'll join the offense next week.
Titans at Broncos: Although the Broncos were the biggest favorites of the week, I was not surprised this game was close. It's still a young Denver team at some key positions (quarterback, obviously), and the Titans came to play. Ultimately, Courtland Sutton, the Denver ground game, and the Denver defense made more plays than Bo Nix made mistakes. Not a pretty game, but entertaining. Cam Ward missed some throws and the Titans are going to lose a lot of games, but a competitive outing. Dobbins-Harvey tandem, which did very little until the fourth quarter (but that counts too).
49ers at Seahawks: Seahawks kind of seemed to be controlling this one, but somehow they only scored 10 points for most of the way. And at the end in a 10-10 game they opted to kick a short field goal rather than trying to convert a 4th and 1. San Francisco hit a big play to Ricky Pearsall -- great throw, great catch -- and then a frankly amazing touchdown to backup tight end Jake Tonges (in all the discussion of Christian McCaffrey it was kind of forgotten that George Kittle occasionally gets hurt, and he left early with a hamstring injury). Tonges came back to get a ball that looked like it was going to be intercepted. Sam Darnold hit a big throw late and looked like they might pull it out, but the defense forced a fumble (pushing a blocker into Darnold's arm) and it was over. Big win for San Fran, rough week coming up for Seattle.
Lions at Packers: Packers looked like the better team in this one; they were yesterday, although not actually a huge offensive performance. Lions offense did very little until the game was over, which will cause some consternation this week. More passing than (we) expected from Green Bay, albeit without huge numbers, including Jayden Reed playing through a foot injury to catch a touchdown, and Josh Jacobs scored late to put it away. (Next week everyone will play Reed and he'll disappear.) Tucker Kraft touchdown too. And Isaac TeSlaa (pictured) with an amazing, albeit meaningless touchdown catch.
Texans at Rams: Another less than beautiful game. Most of the right Rams did good things, while most of the Texans offense just struggled. Not sure if I underrated the Rams defense or overrated Houston's offense, maybe both. But Houston didn't put a receiver over 40 yards, and had Nick Chubb going for 60 scoreless yards while passing downs back Dare Ogunbowale had a costly late fumble (ball punched out on a pretty impressive defensive play). Defenses did their job, with each quarterback sacked 3 times.
Ravens at Bills: Incredible. Bet the under, I thought. Stars stepped up big, with Derrick Henry's huge game marred by a late fumble which helped the Bills pull it out. Defenses are surely going to be better this when not facing each other. Ravens lose a Week 1 heartbreaker for the second season in a row, though last night's was as tough as losses get. I refuse to believe this will be the norm for the Bills offense, but hats off to Josh Allen and company. Sunday night will have a lot to live up to the rest of the way.
Monday, Monday: Each week I'll try to predict the exact score of the Monday night game. I think I hit it once last year. This one is tough with a new quarterback for one team and a new offense for the other. I can't believe we'll get another shootout, so I'm going with Vikings 24, Bears 23.