In NFL Week 1, J.J. McCarthy went from unwatchable to unstoppable in the span of a quarter, the Browns lost on tipped picks and missed kicks, and Russell Wilson got swallowed whole by Washington’s defensive line. It was a messy, unpredictable start to the season, and the numbers behind it were even messier. Here are 10 stats that stood out from the NFL’s opening weekend.
3: Minnesota Vikings Touchdown Drives in the Fourth Quarter
The Vikings offense had a nightmarish start to the season. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy, the 2024 first-rounder who’s finally making his NFL debut after missing his entire rookie season with a knee injury, looked like a fish out of water through the first three quarters. He went 7-of-12 for just 56 yards, took three sacks, and threw a pick-six. The offense was called for two delay-of-game penalties. It was ugly. On top of McCarthy’s woes, Minnesota averaged just 2.9 yards per carry, and it went three-and-out on six of its first nine drives.
But the switch flipped in the fourth quarter. Trailing 17-6, McCarthy led three straight touchdown drives to steal the game away from Chicago. Suddenly, the Vikings could run the ball, with Jordan Mason ripping off multiple big gains, and McCarthy looked like a completely different quarterback. He went 6-of-8 for 87 yards and two touchdowns and added a 14-yard rushing touchdown on top of that. McCarthy is the first player to have multiple passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in their NFL debut since Cam Newton in 2011, and he did it all in the fourth quarter. It was one game (quarter?) against a Bears defense that’s down three starters, but if this is the version of McCarthy the Vikings get, even these flashes are enough to make you believe.
2: Tipped Interceptions and Missed Kicks for the Cleveland Browns
The Browns should have beaten the Bengals on Sunday. Kicker Andre Szmyt—apparently pronounced “Schmidt,” but “shit” would have sufficed on Sunday—missed two easy kicks: an extra point in the third quarter that kept the score 16-14 instead of 17-14 and a 36-yard field goal that would have given the Browns the lead with 2:25 left in the game. On top of that, Cleveland had two bobbled passes that turned into interceptions. Jerry Jeudy had one go off his hands in the third quarter that put the Bengals in immediate field goal range, and Cedric Tillman lost one on their penultimate drive that pretty much sealed Cleveland’s fate. (Jeudy also dropped an open slant on fourth-and-5 in the fourth quarter, but we don’t have to pile on.) Two tipped picks and two missed kicks is such a bad beat. Joe Flacco deserves better.
6.2: Yards Allowed per Drive for the Denver Broncos Defense Against Cam Ward and the Tennessee Titans
Denver’s defense put Tennessee in a chokehold. The Broncos generated pressure on 53 percent of rookie quarterback Cam Ward’s dropbacks, the highest rate of any defense in Week 1. The Titans had the worst offensive expected points added of the week by a considerable margin—at minus-25.4, they were more than 13 points worse than the Giants. Tennessee running backs averaged minus-0.50 EPA per rush, the worst of any team in Week 1. It was a complete beatdown, so bad that six NFL teams averaged more yards per play than the Titans did per drive.
Ward’s sacks were the true backbreakers. He lost 50 yards on six of them, repeatedly turning bad plays into disasters. He nearly got swallowed for a safety late in the first half. In the third quarter, after a muffed punt set the Titans up at Denver’s 24-yard line—easily in kicker Joey Slye’s range—Ward took back-to-back sacks that lost 27 yards and completely erased a scoring chance. And his day ended fittingly with a sack-fumble. Calling Sunday’s game a case of growing pains would be an understatement.
0: Pressures Allowed by Joe Alt
The Chargers lost All-Pro left tackle Rashawn Slater before the season even started, forcing Alt to flip from right tackle to left. Alt played almost exclusively on the right as a rookie last season. But in Week 1 against Kansas City, Alt made the transition look easy. He allowed zero pressures on 43 pass-blocking snaps, per PFF. Sure, the Chiefs pass rushers aren’t exactly the scariest group in the league, but it’s still a commanding performance that bodes well for quarterback Justin Herbert and the Chargers offense.
Minus-0.33: Yards the Cincinnati Bengals’ Chase Brown Averaged Before First Contact
Bengals running back Chase Brown simply had nowhere to go for most of the game against the Browns. He averaged minus-0.33 yards before first contact in Week 1, the worst figure of any back with at least 10 carries (narrowly beating out Las Vegas Raiders rookie Ashton Jeanty at minus-0.32). That means he was getting hit near or behind the line of scrimmage on almost every handoff. Brown recorded just 43 yards on 21 carries, his longest going for just 8 yards. Cleveland’s front was all over him from the jump, with defensive tackle Maliek Collins and linebackers Devin Bush and Carson Schwesinger making plays in the backfield. Cleveland defensive end Myles Garrett was his own one-man wrecking crew, as he so often is, blowing up multiple runs and wreaking havoc against quarterback Joe Burrow. On one possession in the fourth quarter, the Bengals offensive line gave up three sacks (including two by Garrett), and while Cincinnati was able to hold on for the win, its final offensive drive was unimpressive: three straight runs for minus-10 yards. A troubling start for an offense that was expected to produce fireworks this year.
4: Times the Carolina Panthers Pressured Trevor Lawrence
Four. That’s it. Across 32 dropbacks, Lawrence faced pressure just four times. No team generated less heat against a quarterback than the Panthers in Week 1, and they did it against the Jaguars offensive line, which isn’t exactly top-tier. Lawrence didn’t fully take advantage of the clean pockets, finishing the game just 19-of-31 for 178 yards, with one touchdown and a pick. But the lack of a pass rush has got to be concerning for Carolina after it invested a lot of capital in defensive line talent over the offseason.
The Panthers signed Pat Jones, Bobby Brown, and Tershawn Wharton to multiyear deals in free agency, and they drafted Nic Scourton and Princely Umanmielen in Rounds 2 and 3, respectively. Those five players combined for zero pressures on Sunday, with Wharton leaving the game early with a hamstring injury that will reportedly sideline him for weeks. It’s a damning start for the defense, which is desperate for any signs of life in the trenches—especially if Bryce Young and the offense, which really struggled in Week 1, can’t pick up where they left off at the end of last season.
17: Times Russell Wilson Was Pressured Against the Commanders
Russell Wilson was pressured 17 times against Washington—only four other quarterbacks faced more pressure in Week 1—yet it seemed a lot worse than that. He looked jittery from the first series, drifting out of clean pockets and rushing to scramble rather than throw the ball downfield. Wilson doesn’t have the juice in his arm or legs anymore, and now his pocket presence is disintegrating. He went 5-of-13 for 51 yards and took two sacks on his 17 pressured dropbacks. Giants fans deserve Jaxson Dart sooner rather than later. (They’ll have to wait at least another week; head coach Brian Daboll has already confirmed that Wilson will start on Sunday against Dallas.)
James Hudson, filling in for injured star left tackle Andrew Thomas, finished the week tied for the second-most pressures allowed, with six. It wasn’t just Hudson, though, and it wasn’t just bad pass protection. Giants running backs averaged just 2.0 yards per carry, the second-lowest figure of any team in Week 1.
100: Percentage of Drives the Colts Scored Against the Dolphins
Indianapolis scored on every drive in Week 1, and Daniel Jones was rarely touched. He faced pressure on just 24 percent of his dropbacks, tied for the third-lowest rate of any quarterback in the opening week. Jones went 22-of-29 for 272 yards and had three total touchdowns in what was easily one of the best games of his career, thanks in large part to a hapless Dolphins defense. Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips are both back and healthy, but the duo generated just four total pressures between them. The Colts offensive line dictated the game from start to finish, and Miami never found a way to get off the field.
2.2: Bijan Robinson’s and Tyler Allgeier’s Combined Yards Per Carry
The Falcons couldn’t get anything going running the ball against Vita Vea and the Bucs’ vaunted front seven. The highlight of Robinson’s day was a 50-yard touchdown catch, but he was stuck in the mud on his 12 carries: 24 yards total, no first downs, and nothing longer than 6 yards. His backup, Allgeier, was just as bottled up, finishing with 24 yards on 10 carries, with his longest rush going for 5 yards. Allgeier was also one of four running backs with 10-plus carries who didn’t force a missed tackle, per PFF. Together, Atlanta’s backs averaged just minus-0.44 EPA per rush, the lowest figure for any team in Week 1.
4: CeeDee Lamb Drops
I still can’t believe that Lamb dropped four passes in the season opener against the Eagles on Thursday night. And each drop was different. He couldn’t haul in a slant late in the second quarter, the ball went through his hands and hit him in the face on an in-breaker beyond the sticks, and then he couldn’t haul in two deep targets in the fourth quarter when the Cowboys were trying to close out the game. Per PFF, he leads all players in drops after one game; no other player has more than two. Sorry for bringing it back up, Cowboys fans, but it’s still hard to believe that one of the league’s best receivers had such a bad case of the drops.
Source link
