Week 1 of the 2021 NFL Season is officially in the books and it culminated with an absolutely bat-shit crazy Monday Night Football game. The Raiders rallied back, after being down 14-0 in the 1st quarter, to beat the Baltimore Ravens, 27-24, in overtime in front of a sold-out crowd at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
I had already lost both my fantasy matchup for the week and my pick ‘em league. I managed to avoid a losing week going 8-8 overall while Christen hung around at 7-9, but I got wrecked vs the spread (6-10) and the over/under (4-12). At least I learned and even the weekly pool winner only went 9-7. So, I was just watching MNF to see how a couple of waiver wire players were going to fit into their respective offenses. However, it was a much more wildly entertaining game than it started off as. It wasn’t a great game in terms of football quality, but there was drama to spare and all the other primetime games moving forward have a lot to live up to.
Despite the deluge of catastrophic injuries in the Ravens’ backfield, they can still run the ball pretty damn well. Unfortunately, their passing attack doesn’t seem to have made any significant progress from last season. Even so, it was Baltimore who gave this game away on a pair of Lamar Jackson fumbles and he’s going to be in the crosshairs all season long. Credit to the Raiders for hanging tough after a very rough start. Derek Carr found the big throws when it mattered late and Darren Waller roasted the Ravens’ defense down the stretch. Maxx Crosby, who I’ll be calling “Mad Maxx” from now on, had a tremendous game for the Raiders’ D-line as well and it was the defense that kept them in it. That was a huge early-season W for Las Vegas and a back-to-the-drawing-board kinda game for Baltimore.
The two teams that played in the Super Bowl last season, the Buccaneers and the Chiefs, both picked up home wins as favorites but faced more adversity than expected. The Dallas Cowboys gave Tampa a run for their money in the NFL Kickoff Game on Thursday night, narrowly losing 31-29 on a last-second field goal. The Boys showed a lot of heart and Dak is back. Kansas City had to rally in the 4th quarter to overcome a Cleveland team that was dead set on revenge. The Browns learned from their Divisional Round loss to KC in the playoffs last year and were up 29-20 in the 4th quarter before a late interception by Baker Mayfield sealed their fate (again). Cleveland did a lot of things well but folded down the stretch as their last three possessions went turnover on downs, 3 & out, interception.
The biggest surprise of Week 1 had to be the Packers getting spanked up and down the field by the new-look Saints, playing in Jacksonville. Green Bay didn’t really play any starters throughout the preseason and it showed big time. Aaron Rodgers’ offseason frustrations appeared to carry over onto the field and he and the rest of the team looked disinterested. Jameis Winston played his best game in a couple of years and did so with little resistance. He only completed 14 passes but 5 of those were TDs en route to a 38-3 drubbing.
The other Conference Championship runners-up, the Buffalo Bills blew a 10-0 halftime lead and gave up 20-unanswered-point to lose at home to the Steelers, 23-16. It was a winnable game for BUF as they had the lead in the 4th-quarter before a blocked-punt return-TD basically ended it. Josh Allen fumbled twice and struggled the whole game, but he usually has a tough time against a difficult PIT defense. The Steelers made all the right half-time adjustments and Big Ben showed his veteran leadership, reminding the league that he’s not done yet.
In other matchups pitting 2020 playoff teams against one another, the Seattle Seahawks went into Indianapolis and beat the Colts with relative ease, 28-16. The Hawks started off a little slow but the “Let Russ Cook” era is alive and well as Wilson tossed 4-TDs. The Colts’ Carson Wentz era didn’t get off to a great start although the numbers were mostly ok. However, the QBR of 26.0 is alarming. Considering how porous the Seahawk’s pass defense was last season, the Colts’ running backs leading the team in catches and yards is a problem. Elsewhere in the NFC West, Matthew Stafford made his Rams debut and looked great throwing for 321-yds and 3-TDs against a Bears team that was barely a playoff team last season. Justin Fields did come in and run for Chicago touchdown, so the clock on Andy Dalton as the starter is running.
In a game between a lowly playoff team and a playoff hopeful, the LA Chargers came from behind in the 4th quarter to beat the Washington Football team, 20-16. The sad news is that WSH quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who found a home as a starter, has been placed on injured reserve after suffering a hip injury. It was a competitive game the whole way and Chargers’ QB Justin Herbert’s lone TD pass turned out to be the game-winning score in the 4th quarter. The Titans also had a disappointing exit from last year’s playoffs and were looking to establish themselves as serious contenders with the offseason acquisition of Julio Jones, but Kyler Murray and the Cardinals came to town and absolutely smacked them up, 38-13. Every time I looked up it was getting worse. Even with the additions of Janoris Jenkins and Bud Dupree, the Titans defense has a lot to work on.
The Dolphins were playoff hopefuls last season and they went into Foxborough and pulled off a 1-pt victory over the Patriots. Winning in that environment isn’t easy, especially for young QBs so it shows that Miami’s 10-win season last year wasn’t a fluke. It also shows that the Patriots are still a tough out, even with a rookie QB at the helm. Mac Jones played well but couldn’t find the endzone in the second half. The 49ers are another playoff-hopeful after their previous campaign was derailed by injuries. They went into Detriot and blistered the Lions’ defense for 41-pts with Jimmy G and Trey Lance throwing TDs. However, the once elite Niners’ defense gave up 33-pts (mostly in garbage time) and lost cornerback Jason Verrett for the year with an ACL injury and Raheem Mostert confirmed today that he is also out for the season with a knee injury that was previously thought to be less severe.
One of the best things about Week 1 is that (in most cases) even the bad teams have a shot at starting the season with a winning record. Let’s start with Sam Darnold’s revenge game as the Panthers hung on to beat the Jets 19-14. This was one of the few games where the favorite actually covered and Darnold even connected with fellow former-Jets-teammate Robby Anderson on his only TD pass of the day. Jets’ rookie QB Zach Wilson looked pretty good too but took a ton of sacks. In the AFC South, Jags’ rookie QB and #1 overall draft pick Trevor Lawrence had his debut thwarted by trusty veteran Tyrod Taylor and the Houston Texans. This was an upset game that I actually got right and Houston sits atop the AFC South with all the DeShaun Watson drama (hopefully) in the rearview.
While the Jaguars were the worst team in the NFL last season, I’m giving the crown (for now) to the Atlanta Falcons who looked terrible as they got beat at home up by Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles, 32-6. It wasn’t a great litmus test for Philly but 1-0 leads the NFC East right now. The Denver Broncos contributed to the Eags’ division lead with a mostly one-sided win over the Giants in New York on the 9-11 20th anniversary memorial weekend. There was hope in NY with Saquon Barkley returning from a season-ending injury last year, but he’s not up to speed yet and Steady Teddy Bridgewater just did his thing for the Broncos. The AFC West is undefeated so Denver is in the thick of it for now, but they lost WR Jerry Jeudy on what looked like a very scary injury that turned out to be a high ankle sprain.
Last but not least, the Minnesota Vikings lost on the road to Joe Burrow and the Bengals in overtime, 27-24. The Vikes are far from the worst team in football but I’d label them “Biggest Underachievers”. If you have read me, you’ll know I’m no fan of Kirk Cousins or the deal Minny gave him to make him their starter. They’ve only made the playoffs once during his tenure and are barely over .500 with Kirk under center. It’s not like they don’t have weaponry on offense and to be fair, it wasn’t the offense that let them down in this game. Cousins threw for 350-yds and 2-TDs and spread the ball around nicely, but it wasn’t enough. The Vikes’ defense had supposedly been rebuilt but Joe Mixon absolutely torched them for 150-yds from scrimmage and a score, and rookie WR Ja’Maar Chase toasted the revamped secondary (mainly Patrick Peterson) for 101-yds and a TD. The future is bright in Cincy even though the AFC North is going to be rough sledding but Minnesota, on the other hand, has to figure out what kind of team they are.
Week 2 in the NFL kicks off with a divisional showdown between a couple of 0-1 teams in the NFC East, as the New York Football Giants head to the nation’s capital to take on the Washington Football Team under the bright lights on Thursday Night Football. This should be a good game between two hard-nosed defenses, both looking to get their teams in the win column.
Here are my Power Rankings after Week 1 in comparison to where they finished last season. I’m a firm believer in the notion that you’re only as good as your record and my Power Rankings reflect that even though we know some of these 0-1 teams are much better than others.
| 1. Buccaneers 1-0 (=) |
| 2. Chiefs 1-0 (=) |
| 3. Steelers 1-0 (⬆10) |
| 4. Seahawks 1-0 (⬆11) |
| 5. Rams 1-0 (⬆9) |
| 6. Cardinals 1-0 (⬆15) |
| 7. Saints 1-0 (⬇5) |
| 8. Dolphins 1-0 (⬆15) |
| 9. Chargers 1-0 (⬆20) |
| 10. 49ers 1-0 (⬆21) |
| 11. Raiders 1-0 (⬆16) |
| 12. Eagles 1-0 (⬆28) |
| 13. Bengals 1-0 (⬆27) |
| 14. Broncos 1-0(⬆25) |
| 15. Texans 1-0 (⬆29) |
| 16. Panthers 1-0 (⬆24) |
| 17. Browns 0-1 (⬇6) |
| 18. Cowboys 0-1 (⬆19) |
| 19. Bills 0-1 (⬇3) |
| 20. Colts 0-1 (⬆⬇7) |
| 21. Titans 0-1 (⬇12) |
| 22. Ravens 0-1 (⬇8) |
| 23. Packers 0-1 (⬇4) |
| 24. Vikings 0-1 (⬇17) |
| 25. Washington 0-1 (⬇14) |
| 26. Patriots 0-1 (⬇22) |
| 27. Lions 0-1 (⬇26) |
| 28. Bears 0-1 (⬇13) |
| 29. Jaguars 0-1 (⬆32) |
| 30. Giants 0-1 (⬇23) |
| 31. Jets 0-1 (=31) |
| 32. Falcons 0-1 (⬇30) |