NFL Week 1 Overreactions

Man it was a wonderful Sunday with a full slate of NFL games. Yes, the season kicked off Wednesday this year and then a second week night game on Thursday was great to see. But both of those games were kind of snoozers. It’s the kind of thing that can happen with solo prime time games. Then glorious Sunday arrived with 13 games from noon to night for your viewing pleasure. I dig the defending Super Bowl champs opening the season at home as a week night game for all the glory of opening day to shine upon them. But to me it’s that first NFL Sunday that really kicks the season off. Cut aways to highlights from a game not broadcast in your area. Taking you to an exciting finish after one game has ended. The score bug, where applicable, showing all the other scores. Halftime and postgame highlight packages. And this is something that is just cool to see as far as I’m concerned, strolling through town, the grocery store, or a bar or restaurant seeing everyone decked out in their team’s gear. On NFL Sunday #1 it’s just different. Everyone is hyped up and ready. I love it! I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. And now that we’ve got the first week under our belts, let’s overreact to what we saw. I’ll work backwards from Monday night. Reports of the demise of the Kansas City Chiefs have been greatly exaggerated I for one thought the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes were going to be on their way down. Mahomes injury, aging Kelse, ancient head coach, ownership/stadium drama, a newer and younger rising stud QB in Bo Nix in Denver. All of these things pointed maybe not to the Chiefs missing the playoffs again but that the AFC West was back in possession of the Broncos. That’s about as close to a statement win as you can have. Mahomes 3 combine TDs. Kenneth Walker III with almost 200 total yards. 4 sacks and 2 turnovers from the defense. Defense holding Denver to under 200 total yards and only allowing 2 third down conversions. If someone wants to take the AFC West from Kansas City it’s gonna take a herculean effort. The New York Giants will make the playoffs Yes it’s only one week. Built that’s what overreactions are for. Let’s start here, the Giants defense only gave up 244 yards to a Dallas team that had all the preseason talk about how their offense was going to light it up. New head coach John Harbaugh seems like the right guy to lead these Giants at this time. Isaiah Likely following him from Baltimore to New York might be the set of hands Jaxon Dart needs to make their passing game flourish. Harbaugh seems like the kind of coach that not only brings experience to the sidelines, but a set of intangibles too. I’ve said before that a team that’s to dumb to know they aren’t good enough can be dangerous. That’s not dumb in the way of mental abilities. It’s dumb in the way that you get to be such a close knit bunch that you act as one and tune out the outside ‘experts’ and then fun of the game takes over and you can accomplish way more that you ever thought you could. The Washington Commanders will have a top 5 draft pick Costly mental mistakes will be a hallmark of this seasons’ Commanders team just as much as their poor offensive line. Jayden Daniels might not see the injury report as much this season with a lessening of his designed runs and RPOs but the Eagles tried to give you the game. If the Commanders think they are a quality team they should have taken advantage of the Eagles lackluster performance. Stefon Diggs TERRIBLE unsportsmanlike penalty and letting up when an offsides penalty should have been called are just the first of many mental miscues this team will endure this year. What John Harbaugh brought to the Giants and what Dan Quinn brings to the Commanders are worlds apart. The best thing for Washington is to stumble along this season, fire Dan Quinn, pick high in the draft, and then offer Mike Tomlin a record setting payday to be your new head coach. Caleb Williams sucks This one isn’t from me. That’s a direct quote from my boss here at Motion Sports Network, I have the screen cap to prove it. Caleb Williams has a passer rating after week 1 behind Trevor Lawrence and Jaxon Dart and just above Carson Wentz. Ok, I’m actually omitting some numbers that are a big deal. I’m picking and choosing names and stats. Williams is #5 in passer rating. Dart and Lawrence had slightly better games in terms of completion percentage that moved their passer rating higher. And I really have no idea what calculates passer rating to have Wentz at #6. Which leads to…….. Caleb Williams will win league MVP He’s tops in QBR being more than a point higher than Trevor Lawrence in 2nd and over 5 points higher than 3rd placed Dak Prescott. His 269 passing yards and 2 TDs is only amplified when you add in his 65 rushing yards and 2 more TDs. Honestly what the heck are QBR and passer ratings and how are they even calculated? Use the eyeball test man. Williams led the Bears to the highest scoring season opener ever. And he did it on the road in sweltering swamp like weather. And he didn’t even complete a pass to his favorite target last season, TE Colston Loveland. He used his arm and his legs and his head in that he didn’t throw any interceptions or fumble the ball away either. The Bears will face the Ravens in the Super Bowl Baltimore in week 1 to me looked like they were only showing part of what they can do. Derrick Henry just did Derrick Henry things on his way to becoming #3 all time in rushing TDs. Lamar Jackson looked like he was having fun playing football again. My only initial concern was the defense giving up 23 points but when rewatching some highlights they kind of looked like they went into a prevent defense for most of the 2nd half. You have to hope that keeping Zay Flowers out in the 2nd half was purely precautionary as he had a monster first half and with a 31-13 lead at the half you would expect they would be running the ball mostly in the 2nd half. Why wouldn’t you think after week 1 that the two most impressive teams would meet in February? It’s not exactly a long shot. This is overreaction time and after what I saw in week 1 I’m not following the Vegas favorite Rams, Bills, or Seahawks. I’m taking either Baltimore or Chicago. The entire NFC South will go 3-14 Ok, maybe not that bad in that New Orleans actually showed they have some fight, taking the Lions to OT and showed they have some balls to go for 2 for the win. But if my calculations are correct, the Saints, Panthers, Falcons, and Buccaneers will all split with each other for each teams 3 wins and then lose every other game. Of course this division can’t be that bad, but there’s a chance! Tampa Bay should break out of their funk to win the South but don’t bet against the Saints. Or Panthers. And I would say or Falcons but when they relied on what Tua can do as opposed to his track record with his health they set themselves back. Oh the joys of analyzing and speculating after only 1/17 of the NFL season has been played. But man was it great to see the professionals back at it. Three weeks of college football had been entertaining and college football has it’s own things to love about it, but the NFL is just a totally different entity. It’s the same sport but a totally different world.