Cowboys come out hot, blast Giants
Noah Igbinoghene returned a blocked field goal 58 yards for a touchdown on the opening series, DaRon Bland scored on a pick-6 later in the first quarter, and the Dallas Cowboys embarrassed the New York Giants again, posting a seasonopening 40-0 victory Sunday night.
Tony Pollard scored on two short touchdown runs, while Dallas forced three turnovers and sacked Daniel Jones seven times in shutting down New York’s supposedly improved offense. The Cowboys beat the Giants for the fifth straight time, the 12th in 13th meetings.
The shutout loss was the largest between the teams, topping the Cowboys’ 35-0 win in 1995, also in a season opener in the Meadowlands. It was also the Cowboys’ biggest season-opening shutout, topping their 38-0 win over the Baltimore Colts in 1978.
This was supposed to be the game that showed whether the Giants had closed the gap on Dallas and defending NFC champion Philadelphia in the NFC East.
Enough said.
The Cowboys didn’t need much from quarterback Dak Prescott and the offense. They got two field goals from new kicker Brandon Aubrey, and Pollard got Dallas’s first TD on offense on a 2-yard run midway through the second quarter to push the advantage to 26-0 at halftime.
Pollard, the Cowboys’ lead running back after the release of Ezekiel Elliott during the offseason, had a 1-yard run in the third quarter. KaVontae Turpin added a 7yard TD run in the fourth.
Jones finished 15 of 28 for 104 yards with a quarterback rating of 32.4.
Ravens 25, Texans 9 — Baltimore lost J.K. Dobbins for the season after he tore his Achilles’ tendon, though that did not prevent them from opening the season with a double-digit win over Houston. Justice Hill scored twice in the second half after Dobbins’s exit, and the Ravens pulled away despite managing only 265 total yards and Lamar Jackson turning the ball over twice. He threw for 169 yards, with rookie and Boston College product Zay Flowers catching nine passes for 78 yards.
Jaguars 31, Colts 21 — Tank Bigsby made up for casually allowing the ball to be punched out of his hands by scoring the go-ahead touchdown, and Travis Etienne Jr. added a 26-yard scoring run to seal a Jacksonville victory, and extend host Indianapolis’s opener losing streak to 10 straight seasons. DeForest Buckner stripped the ball from Trevor Lawrence on a sack, then scooped up Bigsby’s subsequent fumble to give Indianapolis a 21-17 lead late in the third quarter. But with 5:14 to play, Bigsby capped a 10-play drive with a 1-yard TD plunge. Colts rookie Anthony Richardson was intercepted on the next series, then Etienne broke free. Calvin Ridley had eight receptions for 101 yards and the Jaguars’ first score in his first game since Oct. 24, 2021, following both a mental health break and a gambling suspension.
Raiders 17, Broncos 16 — Jimmy Garoppolo threw two touchdown passes to Jakobi Meyers in their Las Vegas debuts to spoil Sean Payton’s first game as Denver’s coach and stretch its winning streak over its AFC West rivals to seven games. Garoppolo and Meyers, both former Patriots, connected 10 times for 81 yards in Denver, including touchdowns of 3 and 6 yards. The second came with 6:34 remaining, erasing a 16-10 deficit. The Raiders’ defense then held Denver to its only threeand-out, and a 15-yard penalty on safety Kareem Jackson — who earlier intercepted Garoppolo in the end zone — for hitting Meyers in the head helped the Raiders run out the clock. Payton’s special teams were the problem, as Denver botched an onside kick to open the game and Wil Lutz missed both a 55-yard field goal and an extra point.
49ers 30, Steelers 7 — Brock Purdy threw for 220 yards in his return from offseason elbow surgery, including scoring strikes of 8 and 19 yards to Brandon Aiyuk, and San Francisco rolled easily in Pittsburgh. The last pick in the 2022 draft was crisp while completing 19 of 29 passes, while Christian McCaffrey ran for 151 yards. Second-year Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett completed 31 of 46 for 232 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions as the optimism of a strong preseason faded quickly. Pittsburgh either punted or turned the ball over on each of its first five possessions as the 49ers built a 20-0 lead.
Packers 38, Bears 20 — Jordan Love looked like he might be ready to follow in the footsteps of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, throwing for three touchdowns to lead Green Bay in Chicago. Aaron Jones ran for a touchdown and caught one, as the Packers scored touchdowns on their first two drives in the second half to break open a 4-point game. (The team announced Jones had a hamstring injury after he came up limping on his 35-yard scoring catch.) It was the Packers’ ninth straight win over the Bears, and Chicago’s 11th straight loss overall. Love completed 15 of 27 passes for 245 yards and posted a 123.2 rating, while Fields was 24 of 37 for 216 yards, a touchdown, and an interception that Quay Walker returned 37 yards for a TD.
Saints 16, Titans 15 — Derek Carr passed for 305 yards and a touchdown in a difficult but successful debut, and the New Orleans defense did not allow a touchdown, both intercepted and sacked Ryan Tannehill three times, limited star running back Derrick Henry to 63 yards rushing, and stopped Tennessee on 10 of 12 third-down plays. Chris Olave caught eight passes for 112 yards, while Rasheed Shaheed had five receptions for 89 yards and the game’s lone touchdown, scored with 1:23 left in the third quarter to make it 16-9. After the Titans’ Nick Folk hit two more field goals from 45 and 29 yards, Tennessee needed one more third-down stop, but surrendered a 41-yard Carr pass to Shaheed and New Orleans ran out the clock. DeAndre Hopkins caught seven passes for 65 yards in his Titans debut.
Rams 30, Seahawks 13 — Matthew Stafford threw for 334 yards even without favorite target Cooper Kupp, Kyren Williams, and Cam Akers combined for three touchdown runs, and Los Angeles pulled off a stunner in Seattle. With Kupp sidelined for the first four games with a hamstring injury, rookie Puka Nacua had 10 catches for 119 yards and was targeted 15 times in the first game of his career. Tutu Atwell had a career-high 119 yards on six catches. The Rams were at their best on third downs, when they converted 11 of 17 chances, leading to long drives and more than 39 minutes of possession. The Seahawks had just 12 yards of offense and one first down in the second half.
Falcons 24, Panthers 10 — Bijan Robinson outshined top overall pick Bryce Young in their NFL debuts, leading host Atlanta as the No. 1 overall pick was intercepted twice by Jessie Bates in a rough start for the former Alabama star. Robinson, selected at No. 8 by the Falcons in defiance of those who say running backs shouldn’t go that high, showed his versatility by taking a swing pass for an 11-yard touchdown. He also broke off a 21yard dash that set up the first of two Tyler Allgeier 3-yard touchdown runs in the fourth quarter.
Commanders 20, Cardinals 16 — In Landover, Md., Sam Howell threw a touchdown pass and ran for another score to make up for two turnovers and Washington came back to avoid what would have been an embarrassing season-opening loss in their first game under new ownership. The Commanders were sloppy, with Howell sacked six times in a jittery first game as the starter, but their defense took over against Arizona. Montez Sweat strip-sacked Joshua Dobbs early in the fourth quarter to set up Howell’s go-ahead 6-yard TD run, and Abdullah Anderson recovered another fumble with under five minutes left. Dobbs, acquired last month in a trade with Cleveland and starting after new Cardinals coach Jonathan Gannon refused to name his No. 1 QB leading into the game, was 21 of 33 for 133 yards.