Baltimore Ravens (0-1) @ Kansas City Chiefs (1-0)
The exact type of opening game you wanted to see. The game set an NFL kickoff game record with 28.9 million viewers.
Lamar Jackson falls to 1-5 vs Mahomes despite being 60-19 against the rest of the league. He and the Ravens need to solve their Chiefs problem. In terms of optimism for the Ravens, Lamar plus Derrick Henry should be a problem for other teams, especially as the year goes on. I love the 2 TE set the Ravens are using. Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely are both so talented that this formation will be lethal for their running and passing games.
The Chiefs look scary. Last year in their opening game, and for much of the season, they looked lethargic offensively and still won the Super Bowl. This year, their explosiveness is back. Rashee Rice continues to get better and develop into their WR1, Isaiah Worthy looks like he could be the next Tyreek Hill with his track star speed, Travis Kelce is gonna be Travis Kelce, Isiah Pacheco continues to get better, and Marquise Brown is going to come back from injury. I’m sure all the sports media will say that the Chiefs three-peating is a given for the next week and a half. One word of caution is that Brady’s Patriots teams that won the Super Bowl were often the ones who were “boring” like last years Chiefs. Those boring teams fared better than his ones with explosive offenses, so nothing is guaranteed.
Stats of the game: Mahomes became the Chiefs all-time leading passer this game at just 28 years old. Jackson moved to third all-time on the QB rushing list and could break Michael Vick’s record this year.
The league is sending a message with the illegal formation calls. It’s annoying right now but teams will learn and it will make the game better.
Green Bay Packers (0-1) vs Philadelphia Eagles (1-0) (In Brazil)
The playing surface was very slippery. That plus first game rust led to a sloppy game.
Saquon was on full display. It was a reminder that when he is on, he is one of the best RBs in the league. Him plus a great offensive line, two star WRs, and Jalen Hurts gives the Eagles an offense that can go toe to toe with any other in the league. Jahan Dotson and Dallas Goedert are good compliments too.
Jayden Reed looked electric for the Packers. They have so many good young players that it might be hard to keep them all happy and develop them like they want to. Their biggest current concern is Jordan Love. He sprained his MCL and should be back in a couple weeks. The Pack need to keep it together during his absence.
New England Patriots (1-0) @ Cincinnati Bengals (0-1)
An absolute shocker of a game. The Pats defense absolutely stifled the Bengals and they had no momentum or fire as a team whatsoever. For the Pats, I don’t think wins like this are sustainable because the defense completely carried and the offense was not very good. Still nice to get a W though.
For the Bengals, this is concerning. It’s one thing to lose and its another thing to lose and have the team not look like it gives a fuck. They had a loud offseason and have let the Ja’Marr Chase drama spill into the season. They are 1-5 in Week 1 the past six years, so this is familiar territory. They normally start slow and build momentum, but they need to sign Chase and have some passion as a team.
The one bright spot for the Bengals was that their rookie punter, Ryan Rehkow, had the best game by a punter I have ever seen. He had 4 punts and his AVERAGE punt went 64.5 yards (an NFL single-game record), including an 80 yard punt. The first and, probably, last time we hype up a punter on this blog.
New York Jets (0-1) @ San Francisco 49er (1-0)
The 49ers look motivated to get back to the Super Bowl. They went out and dominated the Jets without their best player Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey missing the game is probably good long term, as now the Niners know Jordan Mason (147 yds rushing), can help take some of the burden off McCaffrey. The one area they needed to be better was finishing drives, as Jake Moody made 6 field goals last night.
Rodgers and the Jets looked rusty last night. They clearly have the talent, but they need to mesh. Realistically, this was the first full regular season game they have played with Rodgers, so some kinks need to be worked out.
Game/Betting Picks Results
Game: 2-2 (2-2 This Season) (40-18 All-Time)
Spread: 2-2 (2-2) (41-16-1)
O/U: 3-1 (3-1) (32-25-1)
