(The Verge) – From Flacco’s big contract to Chip Kelly’s revolutionary fast-pace offense, this off season has brought forth both high anticipation and excitement. Preseason is finally over, the draftees have earned their contracts (or tried), and it’s time to strap the pads on for four full quarters. Would the Super-Bowl champions come out looking to get a head start on a repeat championship season? Is Adrian Peterson going to break the rushing record this year? Is RGIII really 100% healthy? And will the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets Jets! thrive under the control of Geno Smith or will they butt-fumble their way into last place? Lets take a look at this past week in the NFL:
During the Thursday night season opener, Peyton Manning put on a clinic with an unprecedented 462 yards and 7 touchdown passes versus the reigning super-bowl champion Ravens. Flacco did not necessarily have the showings of the highest paid player in the game completing just over 50% of his passes for 362 yards with 2 TD’s and 2 Int’s. In this opener it proved to be a QB battle, with Manning’s Broncos’ prevailing 49-27.
Colin Kaepernick was another QB puting on a show in the opening weekend as did his opponent, Aaron Rodgers. Kaepernick led the 49ers in a fourth quarter drive to complement his 412 yards in the air and three touchdowns. Rodgers and the Pack came up short as the 49ers won 34-28.
While AJ Green of the Bengals put up big numbers against the Bears, they came up short losing 24-21 to a game winning touchdown pass from Jay Cutler to Brandon Marshall. The Bears victory marks the first win for their new head coach, Marc Trestman. Speaking of coaching debuts, the Dolphins topped the Browns under new head coach Rob Chudzinski. Brandon Wheeden proved to be the downfall of the Browns, completing three of his passes to the wrong team. 23-10 Dolphins. The coaching story of the week was centered in New Orleans. Sean Peyton’s return was another highly anticipated aspect of Week 1. The Saints faced the Falcons at home in what consisted of two solid QB’s, Matt Ryan and Drew Brees. The two threw for almost identical stats each throwing for over 300 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. The Saints would edge out the Falcons at home with a final of 23-17, as the Saints defense again proved to be solid, holding off the Falcons on a last minute fourth quarter drive.
As the Vikings faced off against the Lions, all eyes were on AP to see if he would have another breakout season, but at the end of the game, it was Reggie Bush who stole the spotlight. Although AP had 2 touchdowns, it did not get the job done and the Lions toppled the Vikings 34-24.
With Marc Sanchez injured, the Jets fate lied in the hands of rookie QB, Geno Smith. Smith’s numbers were hardly impressive throwing just a touchdown and an interception, but the drama of the game came late in the fourth quarter. In the last seconds of the fourth, Smith had a big run, but Lavonte David of the Bucaneers pulled a bonehead move by committing a personal foul on Smith at the end of it, putting the Jets in field goal position with two seconds left in the game. Leave it to the Jets for their MVP to be a player from the opposing team. Regardless, thanks to Lavonte David, the Jets edged out the Bucs’ 18-17.
In the Steelers-Titans match-up, Roethlisberger became the 35th quarterback to throw for over 30,000 career yards. An early controversial safety put the Steelers ahead, but with new additions to their defense, the Titans were able to hold off the Steelers and Big Ben 16-9.
We won’t go into much detail in regards to the Giants-Cowboys game other than the fact that the Giants had 6 total turnovers, Eli threw for 450 yards and 4 touchdowns, but the Giants still lost 36-31 in a game that was painful to even watch.
The Eagles-Redskins and Texans-Chargers games wrapped up Week 1 on Monday night. Chip Kelley’s high octane offense came out soaring and drove up and down the field on the Redskins. Despite a controversial lateral pass returned for a touchdown by the Redskins in the first quarter, the Eagles seemed to have found a style of offense to yield results. A shaky Eagles defense later allowed the Redskins to make it a close game, but the Eagles held them off just enough. RGIII threw for 2 TD’s and 2 INT’s, McCoy rushed for 184, and Vick threw for 2 TD’s with no turnovers in the Eagles victory, 33-27.
Week 1 Scores (bleacherreport.com)
