Plenty of early rust to go with shine
Several NFL teams looked like they needed more pre-season work. Some seemed unstoppable.
It’s only one game, so don’t rush to judge.
Most of the NFL’S Us$50-million men had shaky days, though two ended up on the winning side. The Packers, Dolphins, 49ers and Rams were impressive. The Cowboys dominated despite an average offensive performance.
Eight of 14 games Sunday finished under 40 points combined and 12 teams scored less than 20. Nine road teams won, including five underdogs.
Joe Burrow, fresh off becoming the highest-paid player in league history, had one of his worst games as a pro. Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts, who briefly took turns owning the biggest contract, were rusty in victories. Justin Herbert, who also joined the $50-million club in the off-season, was sharp but couldn’t outplay Tua Tagovailoa.
Daniel Jones, the New York Giants’ $40 million QB, had a miserable game in a 40-0 loss to Dallas.
Burrow threw for a career-low 82 yards in Cincinnati’s 24-3 loss to the Cleveland Browns. Considering he missed most of the pre-season with a calf strain and played in steady rain that made it difficult to throw, it’s no surprise Burrow was out of sync. Myles Garrett and the Browns’ ferocious defence never gave him a chance to get comfortable.
“It’s just some Week 1 stuff that happens everywhere,” Burrow said about miscommunication with receivers. “You see it across the league. That’s something that everybody has to get cleaned up. We have to get it cleaned up and we will.”
Hurts and the Eagles played in similar wet conditions in a 25-20 win at New England. Philadelphia’s dynamic offence sputtered, totalling just 251 yards. Hurts, the NFL MVP runner-up in 2022, lost a fumble late in the fourth quarter that almost cost the Eagles a win. The offence’s only TD drive came after Ezekiel Elliott fumbled at the Patriots 26.
The spotty performance left Eagles coach Nick Sirianni reconsidering his stance on sitting his starters in pre-season.
“I’ll definitely re-evaluate some of the pre-season stuff next year,” Sirianni said. “If I had to do it over again right now, I would say, yeah, I would have played starters one or two drives in the pre-season.”
Jackson was rusty in his first game under new offensive co-ordinator Todd Monken but the Ravens still dumped the Texans 25-9 in C.J. Stroud’s debut. Jackson fumbled twice and threw a pick while also completing 77.3 per cent of his passes.
“I haven’t played since November, didn’t play pre-season, but I feel like it’s the first game and things like that may come up — not just with us (but) throughout the league,” Jackson said about the rust. “But we got the win. Just move forward, focus on practising a little harder on the things we messed up on.”
Tagovailoa and the Dolphins, Purdy and the 49ers and Jordan Love and the Packers came out firing. So did Matthew Stafford and the Rams in a surprise 30-13 upset at Seattle.
Tagovailoa threw for 466 yards and three TDS, including a pinpoint four-yard TD toss to Tyreek Hill for the decisive score in a 36-34 victory in Los Angeles. Hill had 11 catches for 215 yards and two scores.
Purdy, playing his first game since suffering an elbow injury that required surgery only six months ago, picked up where he left off in a brilliant rookie season. He passed for 220 yards and two TDS in San Francisco’s 30-7 win at Pittsburgh.
Kenny Pickett and the Steelers proved pre-season success doesn’t matter. Pickett played five series in the pre-season, leading the offence to five TDS. They managed just 239 yards against the 49ers.
The Packers still own the Bears without Aaron Rodgers. Love had three TD passes in Green Bay’s 38-20 win at Chicago.
Love and the Packers weren’t the only team to have success in the first game without a legendary QB. No Tom Brady was no problem for Tampa Bay. Baker Mayfield played efficiently in a 20-17 win at Minnesota.
The biggest surprise of Week 1 was Stafford and the rebuilding Rams routing the Seahawks, who made the playoffs last season. Stafford threw for 334 yards even without Cooper Kupp on the opposite end of those passes.
Trevor Lawrence and Calvin Ridley had an instant connection in Jacksonville’s 31-21 win at Indianapolis. Derek Carr got off to a winning start in New Orleans. Russell Wilson returned to his old self under Sean Payton but Jimmy Garoppolo rallied the Raiders to a 17-16 win at Denver.