NFL Week 1 Recap

Date: Wednesday September 13, 2023

Writer: Anthony Iles

In any given week anything can happen in the NFL. The start of the season had a lot of different situations for each team.

Chiefs vs Lions started off the regular season on Thursday night football with the Chiefs raising their Championship banner for winning last season Super Bowl. Both teams kept answering one another and at the end of the game the Lions got an opportunity to take the lead in which they were able to get a TD and make the extra point to go up by 1 point. Defense then stayed strong shutting down the Chiefs. Lions were able to run the clock out and beat last years Super Bowl champs 21-20. TE Kelce did not play for the Chiefs and the WR group missed a lot of key passes. We will see how this WR core performs as the season goes along because most were backups except for Valdes-Scantling.

Falcons came out strong against the Panthers and won 24-10. The Ravens beat the Texans 25-9 however they had multiple injuries to key players: left tackle Ronnie Stanley, safety Marcus Williams, center Tyler Linderbaum, cornerback Marlon Humphrey & RB Dobbins (season ending knee injury). It looks like the 4 starters on this report besides RB Dobbins will not be able to play vs the Bengals next week.

Bengals went to Cleveland to play the 100th matchup against one another. Once again home field advantage worked for the Browns as they came out and got a 10 point lead in nasty rain and gloomy weather. Bengals had opportunities in the 3rd quarter and in the first half of the 4th quarter to tie or take the lead but could not get in sync on offense. I expected it to be a close game and hoped the Bengals offense could get in sync but it didn’t work out this time. Like these last 3 seasons Burrow has not played much during training camp. This has resulted in the last 2 seasons of a slower start within the first 2 games of the regular season. They will look to get back on track at home vs the Ravens on Sunday for Week 2. A win for the Bengals can out them tied for 1st place in the AFC North with the Ravens. The Browns face the Titans. I look for a drop off with the Browns as RB Henry is in town, I expect Bengals, Browns, and Ravens to be 1-1 after week 2.

Jags came into Indy and beat the Colts 31-21 as I expected them too as the Colts are in rebuild mode this season. Bucs with new starter QB Mayfield (no more Brady) traveled to Minnesota to face the Vikings. Mayfield willed his team to a 20-17 win. The Saints were at home and faced the Titans in a close battle as the Saints pulled away at the very end to get the W 16-15. 49ers steamrolled the Steelers 30-7. Cardinals played at Washington as both are rebuilding and Commanders won a close battle 20-16. Bears hosted the Packers as they faced QB Love (no more Rodgers). Packers took control of the game and won 38-20. Broncos hosted the Raiders and new Raiders QB Garoppolo edged out Broncos QB Wilson to get the win 17-16. Dolphins and Charges had a high scoring game as the Dolphins outlasted the Charges to get the W 36-34. Eagles faced the Patriots with Patriots newly acquired RB Elliott. He had a solid all around game with rushing and catching passes minus his fumble. Eagles took care of business winning 25-20. Rams went to Seattle and roasted the Seahawks 30-13. However, the most lopsided win of the day belongs to the Giants vs Cowboys game as the Giants must have forgot there was a game and lost 40-0. Ouch!!!

The night cap was the anticipated Jets vs Bills as QB Aaron Rodgers made his first start as a Jet. Introductions were loud and proud and Aaron got to lead the team onto the field. This would be his most running and production he could give. 4 plays into his season as the Jets QB1 he got tackled and took a bad step which resulted in a ruptured Achilles. His season is over even before it could begin. It is a massive blow to this Jets team as they had free agents sign on to play with Rodgers. Example is his best friend and longtime Packers WR Cobb. Also former Packer WR Lazard. RB Cook also signed on. Bills had their chances but Allen got too wild and threw 3 interceptions and a fumble. That hurt their offense flow and they lost at the end in OT as a punt return TD by undrafted rookie WR Xavier Gipson ran back the game winning TD for 65 yards! QB Zach Wilson is the starter again as he had struggled as he was their former starter. Will he be able to stay consistent to help them get enough wins to be a playoff team? Or will they have to wait until next year to hopefully have Rodgers back and health for at least 1 to 2 more years before he hangs up his cleats for good?

Stay tuned for Week 2 as it begins Thursday night Vikings @ Eagles!!

Lets Go Bengals! WHO DEY!!