Looking at the best teams in the league and reviewing some of the stand-out performances in an effort to try and wrangle these teams into an order of some sort. Very scientific.
Week 1 is in the books and with it, half the teams in the NFL are bound for greatness while the other half is in perfect position for the first draft pick next April.
The Patriots managed to win on the road without Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and Rob Ninkovich. As much as most are wont to pat the Pats on the back, the story should be about Bruce Arians dropping the ball. The Cardinals are good enough to lose 23-21 to a fully stocked New England team in Gillette Stadium. There’s no way they should have dropped this game. This is just like the Lions/Colts game except if the Lions were the team with all the injuries.
The Cards are still going to rip off some wins and should make the playoffs, but when they look back at their schedule in December, this game will be the one they look at when they don’t win the division.
Something else that has been lost in all the craze of Week 1, the Seahawks managed only 12 points at home. Against the Dolphins. Russ will have to knock off the rust as Seattle heads to LA to face the Rams on the road in Week 2.
Don’t look now, but Tampa Bay leads the NFC South after beating the Falcons. The Saints and Panthers both lost in devastating fashion, and Jameis Winston threw four touchdown passes and looked really good. I expect the division lead to be short lived though, as the Bucs travel to Arizona to take on the Cardinals while the Panthers host the 49ers in Week 2.
The Packers and Vikings face off this week for first place in the NFC North and neither team looked very good in Week 1. The Vikings relied on two defensive touchdowns to defeat a bad Tennessee team and the Packers needed a late fourth down stop to keep the Jaguars at bay. Elsewhere in the North, the Lions look to make it to 2-0 for the first time since 2011. The Chicago Bears, reeling after a loss to the Texans, get to host the Eagles on Monday Night Football.
That Eagles team surprised many with their ability to score against the Browns. With all the injuries and unknowns, the NFC East will be a tough division to predict. I still think it’s the Giants’ division to lose.
Week 1 was exciting in the AFC West. As the Broncos and Raiders spoiled the season openers for half of the NFC South, the Chargers went out and flipped the script on their 2015 season opener. Last year, the Lions jumped out to a 21-10 halftime lead against San Diego only to blow it in the second half. The Chargers came back by scoring 23 unanswered points en route to a 33-28 victory. This year, the Chargers were up 21-3 at halftime. Early in the fourth quarter, the Chargers led 27-10. Guess how many points Kansas City went on to score unanswered? 23. Poor Chargers.
Some other notes:
The Steelers looked great on Monday night.
The Bengals eeked out a road victory against the Jets.
Blaine Gabbert looked surprisingly competent against the Rams defense.
Here is my attempt to rank the best 9 teams.
And I figured we should also take a look at this week’s bottom dwellers.
They are: