The first week of the 2023-2024 season is in the books, marking the first leg of the long race to the playoffs.
Week one is always a little hard to predict. The jitters are in full effect, not everyone had an entire training camp, and the playbook isn’t broken in yet. Everything can and probably will go wrong in week one, and that’s what we saw this week.
The games were hectic, completely contradicting the six months of research done by the media. Seven of the 16 games ended in contrast to the pregame odds laid out by FanDuel.
The Seahawks, Chargers, Vikings, Bears, and Broncos all lost and were favored going into the game. Both teams that participated in last year’s AFC Championship got upset in their opening matchup. The Lions took down the Chiefs in the season’s opening game, and the Bengals lost in frankly embarrassing fashion to their division rival Cleveland Browns.
Although powerhouse teams like the Eagles and Ravens came out on top, neither of their offenses looked 100% put together. But that could be a testament to the defenses run by Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and newly hired head coach of the Houston Texans, DeMeco Ryans.
Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, and Jalen Hurts are making a combined $158 million this year and combined for only one touchdown. Obviously, this isn’t what to expect from these massive names. They will all put it together and prove they deserve the money. Burrow and Lamar are two of the top 10 fantasy quarterbacks in the league and combined for only 9.5 points in week one.
The Bengals traveled to Cleveland to play ‘The Elves’ in a rainy Sunday game. The Browns defense and their newly hired defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, impressed by holding the electric Bengals offense to just three points on two sacks and four TFLs. But Burrow had missed the past month of practice due to a calf injury, and the rain halted the passing game for both teams.
The Bengals have a proven track record, having made the AFC Championship game two straight years, and just made their quarterback the highest-paid NFL player of all time. It is almost a guarantee that they will get things back on track.
The Bengals weren’t the only team with a shotty week one performance, as the Steelers and Giants got obliterated in the first week of the season. But, to be fair, the two teams faced two of the best defenses the league has seen in a long time.
The 49ers defense held second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett and the Steelers offense to -3 yards deep into the second quarter. The 9ers waltzed to an easy week one over the Steelers, who had an immense amount of hype entering the season. The boys in Pittsburgh have a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball, and eyes are starting to gaze toward the offensive coordinator, Matt Canada.
Canada, now in his third season operating the offense for the Steelers, has failed to score more than 20 points in 75% of his games. The Steelers are the only team in the NFL not to gather 400 total yards in a game since 2021, the year Canada got hired.
Contrarily, the Steelers have one of the best head coaches in the league, Mike Tomlin. Tomlin has been the head coach of the Steelers since 2007, and in 16 years of coaching the Black and Yellow, he has never finished under .500. The Steelers will always be a contending team if Tomlin is captaining the ship.
The Giants are coming off a surprise Divisional Round appearance and an interesting offseason. First-year head coach Brian Daboll took home the Coach of the Year honors. They brought in TE Darren Waller to support their new $40 million man, QB Daniel Jones. The Giants even resigned Saquon Barkley despite some drama. The potential to have two good football teams in New York was overwhelming.
It may have overwhelmed the G-Men, as they got walloped by the Cowboys on National TV 40-0. It seemed as if the football gods were toying with the Giants, making every ball bounce the wrong way. It started from their first drive when they stalled in field goal range.
The field goal was blocked and taken back for a touchdown by Dallas, and that was just the start. The rest of their drives for the half went as so: Punt, Pick-Six, Punt, Interception, Missed field goal, and the clock ticked down on their last drive. It was heartwrenching to watch.
The Giants season outlook is still up in the air. They can be just as good if they can show the same commitment and determination as last season, and although the Giants take solace in the considerably more open NFC, they call the NFC East home. The notoriously vigorous division guarantees a photo finish down the stretch.
Week one is never a good way to judge a team. No one is entirely prepared on their first day of work. The world around the NFL is so eager to write off a player and trash them into oblivion, but showing faith in your favorite players when they are struggling is the best thing for their confidence.
With such a small sample size, there is no way of telling what will happen on the next page of the ’23-’24 script. The only way to find out is to tune in next week.
