Week 1 came with the usual NFL whiplash: a couple of teams looked like they’d been building toward this moment for months, and a few others played like they missed the memo that the season had started.
The cleanest statement wins came from Buffalo and Baltimore, where first-time head coaches Joe Brady and Jesse Minter both left their debuts with road victories and plenty to like under center. Brady’s Bills walked into Houston and beat the Texans 36-31 behind a huge day from Josh Allen, while Minter’s Ravens rolled into Indianapolis and thumped the Colts 41-23.
Allen did just about everything in Buffalo’s win. He piled up four touchdowns and 357 total yards, and the Bills offense kept humming all afternoon against last year’s top-ranked defense.
Houston corner Kamari Lassiter briefly had a chance to swing the game when he dropped an easy interception on an ill-advised throw, but Allen answered on the next snap with the 34-yard winner to Joshua Palmer. Buffalo finished with 409 yards, and DJ Moore and Dalton Kincaid both topped 100 yards.
Baltimore was even more ruthless in its own way. The Ravens jumped out to a 28-6 second-quarter lead and never let Indianapolis breathe, finishing with a 41-23 win and a 506-251 advantage in total yards. Daniel Jones was held to 166 yards on 5.4 yards per attempt with an interception, and Tyler Warren was quiet all day, catching three passes for 13 yards on five targets.
There were concerns, too. Buffalo’s defense has work to do, and Baltimore will have to navigate injuries to receivers Zay Flowers and Ja’Kobi Lane. But for two teams with Super Bowl aspirations, the opening returns were strong.
Not every contender got that kind of start. The Rams entered the week with a lot of the league’s hype behind them, but now they’re 0-1 after getting blown out by the 49ers in what was technically a home game. The bigger blow is the loss of All-Pro edge rusher Myles Garrett, who had arthroscopic knee surgery and is now on injured reserve for at least four weeks.
That absence could ripple fast. Without Garrett, the Rams may need future Hall of Fame defensive tackle Aaron Donald to come back immediately and take on more than planned after two years away from football, and the burden on Braden Fiske and Byron Young just got a lot heavier over the next month against the Giants, Broncos, Eagles and Bills. Los Angeles can still lean on a loaded offense - Matthew Stafford, Kyren Williams, Blake Corum, Puka Nacua and Davante Adams all give it plenty of firepower - but the margin for error looks thinner than it did a week ago.
The same can’t be said for Cleveland, which opened with a 34-10 loss to the Jaguars and never looked remotely settled. The Browns were down 24-0 at halftime, and while a Week 1 road trip to Jacksonville isn’t a scandal on its own, this was a demolition. Todd Monken’s first game in the top job turned into a nightmare after he chose to start Deshaun Watson over second-year man Shedeur Sanders.
Watson was rough from the jump. He threw an interception on Cleveland’s first drive and never really recovered, with the Browns failing to put together a single march longer than 50 yards after their opening possession until the game was already out of hand.
Jacksonville, meanwhile, moved the ball almost at will. Before garbage time, the Jaguars scored on six of their first seven drives, and four of those ended in Trevor Lawrence touchdown passes to Parker Washington, Jakobi Meyers, Brenton Strange and Josh Cameron.
Cleveland now heads to Tampa Bay next Sunday, and Monken can go back to Watson if he wants to see whether the performance improves. But if it doesn’t, and the Browns come home for their Week 3 opener against the Panthers sitting at 0-2 with the quarterback play still stuck in neutral, Sanders looks like the obvious next move.
In Other News...
Ravens Leave Week 1 Win With A Concern Fans Can't Ignore
Baltimores Week 1 win over the Colts came with a few reasons to feel uneasy, even after the final score was in hand. Zay Flowers was electric before leaving with a career-high 150 receiving yards and a touchdown, but he was not the only Raven to exit with a problem. Ja'Kobi Lane went out with a wrist injury, and T.J. Tampa left with a knee injury, with none of the three able to return.
Coach Jesse Minter did not have immediate updates afterward, leaving the team to sort through what those absences might mean going forward. The silver lining was that veterans Chris Moore and Carl Jones, both elevated from the practice squad, stepped in to help on offense and special teams, but Baltimore knows depth is only part of the concern when key contributors are suddenly unavailable. [Read more 🡒]
Ravens Suddenly Have A WR Rotation Problem They Didnt Expect
JaKobi Lanes first week in Baltimore had already started to matter. The rookie wide receiver had worked his way into the Ravens rotation as the WR3 and flashed enough promise to make the staff think he could be part of the early-season passing plan before a wrist injury cut the momentum short in Week 1. The initial read on the injury points to a fractured wrist, and the expected recovery timeline leaves the Ravens with an immediate depth question at a spot they could not really afford to lose.
Rashod Bateman, Devontez Walker and Chris Moore are the names now positioned to absorb more of the workload, and the shift comes with some pressure attached. Baltimore was already trying to sort out how its receiver group would function around a young, unproven piece like Lane, and his absence forces those plans to move faster than expected. The next stretch will say plenty about whether the Ravens can keep the passing game on schedule while Lane is out, or whether the early uncertainty at receiver becomes a real issue. [Read more 🡒]
Trey Hendricksons Ravens Debut Showed What This Defense Might Become
Trey Hendrickson didnt get the sack in his Ravens debut, but he was all over the Colts backfield in a way that should have Baltimore paying close attention. He finished with five pressures and five hurries, a steady stream of disruption that helped the defense keep the heat on and played a real part in the win. For a unit trying to get its footing without some key pieces, it was the kind of debut that hinted at a broader answer.
Baltimore leaned into a mix of nickel and dime looks to make sure Hendrickson could attack in different ways, and that flexibility may end up being just as important as the individual numbers. The production was there even without the sack column filling up, and it raised the kind of question defensive coaches love to have: what does this pass rush look like once the pieces around him are fully in place? [Read more 🡒]