Tennessee Titans at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

For the first time in NFL history, we got to see the first two picks of the draft face off in a battle that was sure to be a showdown of epic proportions, well, at least it started that way. Marcus Mariota threw a touchdown for the Titans on his first drive of the game, how would Jameis Winston respond? By also throwing a touchdown pass on his first drive, unfortunately for Winston and the Bucs, that touchdown also went to the Tennessee Titans. Mariota threw for 4 first half touchdowns in his debut, only Fran Tarkenton had 4 touchdown passes in a rookie debut, but Tarkenton needed the whole game to accomplish this feat. Winston also had a debut comparable to a Hall of Famer: Brett Favre, as Favre’s first professional pass was a pick-six. Titans win in a blowout, 42-14

Seattle Seahawks at St. Louis Rams

Talk about a crazy game, Rams take an 11-point lead into the 4^th quarter after a dominant performance by their defense and special teams as the Rams got 6 sacks of Wilson and a punt return touchdown from former first round pick Tavon Austin. Seattle proceeded to score 18 straight points in the 4^th after a strip sack of newly-acquired Rams QB Nick Foles from newly acquired cornerback (and former teammate in Philly), Cary Williams put the Seahawks up by 7 with only four and a half minutes to go. Foles proceeded to drive the Rams down the field against the vaunted Legion of Boom secondary, minus Kam Chancellor, and tied the game on a pass to Lance Kendricks over Chancellor’s replacement. Seattle called a bizarre onside kick attempt to start the overtime period, which set up a Rams field goal. The play of the game came on 4^th and 1 from the Rams 41. Wilson hands the ball to Lynch and he…. Gets stuffed for a 2 yard loss, ball game over, Rams win 34-31

Indianapolis Colts at Buffalo Bills

We all expected to see stellar quarterback play from one team and expected mediocrity from the other, but no one expected Tyrod Taylor to outplay Andrew Luck in a game that was 24-0 at one point before two garbage time touchdowns made the score 27-14. Luck was intercepted twice and harassed all day by a ferocious Buffalo defense lead my defensive mastermind Rex Ryan. On the other side, Tyrod Taylor was very impressive in his first NFL start, as he lead his team out to a big lead over a preseason darling, seemingly destined to contend for the Superbowl.

Detroit Lions at San Diego Chargers

When this game was 21-3 in the early goings, Detroit appeared ready to make a statement to the rest of the league that they would be just fine on the defensive side of the ball without Ndamukong Suh. Enter Keenan Allen, who broke out of last year’s sophomore slump in truly dominant fashion: to the tune of 15 catches for 166 yards, the return on Danny Woodhead also contributed to San Diego’s comeback bid, adding 2 touchdowns to his 42 yards rushing. The Chargers outscored the Lions 23-7 after halftime, leading San Diego to a 33-28 victory.

Cleveland Browns at New York Jets

This matchup promised us a thrilling QB duel between Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh McCown and within the first quarter of action we see McCown try to do his best John Elway impersonation which leads to a concussion for McCown, and a fumble in the endzone, resulting in a touchback. Enter Johnny Manziel, who looked great early on, throwing a nice touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin, but otherwise seemed to struggle with the Jets defense. The real storyline in this game, however, was the play of Jets RB Chris Ivory, who rumbled his way to 91 yards and 2 touchdowns on the day.

Carolina Panthers at Jacksonville Jaguars

Jacksonville’s defense appeared to be much improved over last year, as for most of the day, they were able to hold Carolina’s offense in check for most of the day, only giving up 13 offensive points (the other 7 were from a pick six thrown by Blake Bortles), however, the offense continued to struggle as they were only able to muster up 9 points in their home opener. The biggest story coming out of this game is the loss of Panthers star linebacker Luke Kuechly, as he left the game with a concussion. Kuechly is the heart and soul of the Panther defense, if he’s forced to miss any time; that could have a huge impact on this team. Panthers win 20-9

Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears

No one expected this to be a close game, Aaron Rodgers normally demolishes the Bears (93-31 in their last 3 meetings). However, this time proved to be a little more challenging for Green Bay, as Chicago did not go quietly into the mid-afternoon, as they pulled within 8 before their onside kick attempt failed with 34 seconds left in the game. Chicago showed a lot of fight in them in this game, as they did take a 13-10 lead into halftime before falling at the hands of their hated rivals 31-23 in Green Bay’s 700^th with in franchise history.

Kansas City Chiefs at Houston Texans

With high hopes in Houston at the start of this season, to see Alex Smith’s Chiefs race out to a 27-9 lead on 3 touchdown passes from Smith, 2 of which landed in the arms of a rising star at tight-end: Travis Kelce. Brian Hoyer of the Texans started out very slowing, throwing a touchdown to DeAndre Hopkins in the first quarter, but after 2 turnovers and all around ineffective play gave way to Ryan Mallett, who hammered away at the Chiefs lead, putting up 11 points in the 4^th quarter alone. Could we see Mallett under center next week? Maybe JJ Watt should start taking snaps, he can do just about everything else after getting 2 sacks and 6 tackles for loss (out of 7 tackles for loss the entire Houston defense mustered up.) Chiefs win this one 27-20 in Houston.

Miami Dolphins at Washington Redskins

Miami was expected to waltz into DC and show Washington how to get things done, but in true Washington DC fashion, the Redskins slowed a forward thinking idea in Bill Lazor’s Chip Kelly inspired offense. Kirk Cousins lead Washington out to a 10-0 lead before a Dolphin drive late in the first half cut the lead to 10-7. Miami did tie the game, and found their filibuster in Jarvis Landry, who took a punt 69 yards for the deciding score, making this a 17-10 victory for the Dolphins in a game where Ryan Tannehill appeared to miss several open receivers.

Cincinnati Bengals at Oakland Raiders

Welcome back Tyler Eifert, wow did he have himself a coming out party at the expense of the Oakland Raiders, catching 9 passes for 104 yards and 2 touchdowns, Jeremy Hill also shined as he gained 63 yards and scored 2 touchdowns of his own. As for the Raiders, they lost Derek Carr early to a hand injury on an odd play where he attempted to stiff arm his way to a first down, using his throwing hand to stiff arm. Bengals roll over Oakland 33-13

New Orleans Saints at Arizona Cardinals

Speaking of returning from injury, welcome back Carson Palmer, who came back from a torn ACL to throw for 307 yards and 3 touchdowns against a suspect Saints defense. The good news for the Saints? Drew Brees still looked pretty good for most of the game. The bad news? Brees was only effective until the Saints reached the redzone, where they struggled mightily, as they scored a touchdown only once in 4 trips. Jimmy Graham would have been a huge help for this team in the redzone, as his 6 foot 7 frame has easily boxed out defenders for his entire New Orleans career. Could this be a problem going forward? As for the Cardinals, they looked great for most of the game, however, the injury to Andre Ellington could loom large for their running game, can Chris and David Johnson step up in his absence? Cardinals win 31-19

Baltimore Ravens at Denver Broncos

In a game where we expected quarterback play to be the deciding factor, it turned out to be true… to an extent. It’s week one, so the performances of Joe Flacco and Peyton Manning are not necessarily barometers on how they’ll play all season, but I give all the credit to the ferocious defenses of Baltimore and Denver, as they truly set the tempo is this hard-fought, physical matchup between AFC powerhouses. Each defense scored a touchdown off of an interception, both offenses struggled mightily to move the ball, however, it was Denver that mustered up more offense in the end, and their defense sealed the game with an interception in the end zone after a huge drop by Steve Smith in the endzone. Denver emerged victorious by a score of 19-13.

New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys

Al Michaels summed this game up perfectly by simply saying that it would take about 20 minutes to explain, I’ve got one paragraph, so without further ado: Dallas came into this game as the favorite, despite the many questions surrounding their running game, which were not quite answered against the Giants. Dallas committed 3 turnovers and seemed to be melting down before January had even arrived, and the Giants responded by taking a 10 point lead in the 4^th quarter on a Rashad Jennings 1 yard run for a touchdown. Seemed like the game was over at that time, but the Cowboys did not quit, as they scored a touchdown of their own to make the game 23-20. Dallas failed to stop the Giants until they got into the redzone, that’s when the strangest play in this game occurred: On a third and goal from about the 2 yard line of Dallas, Eli Manning throws the ball away on a play action fake with 1:37 to go. Dallas had no timeouts remaining, 72 yards, and a 6 point deficit after a Josh Brown field goal. 6 plays and 1:30 seconds later, Jason Witten catches the game winning touchdown for the Cowboys in a thrilling 27-26 victory

Philadelphia Eagles at Atlanta Falcons

Chip Kelly’s new look Eagles against Dan Quinn’s new look Falcons featured a lot of stars on the offensive side of the ball for both teams. Everyone expected this game to be barn burner where the teams would combine for a ton of points and the defenses would be barely holding on. So naturally the first quarter ended in a 3-0 lead for the Falcons, who took their lead to 20-3 before the half, which would have been worse if not for a phenomenal interception by newly acquired Kiko Alonso, robbing Roddy White of a sure touchdown. Philadelphia came roaring back in the second half and would eventually take the lead 24-23 in the 4^th quarter, Atlanta would respond with a field goal from Matt Bryant to re-take the lead 26-24. The Eagles took the ball down the field and would attempt a 44 yard field goal to retake the lead, Cody Parkey misses the kick wide right, and after a 3 and out by Atlanta, Philly had another chance to win the game, but Sam Bradford was intercepted by Ricardo Allen to end the comeback bid. Julio Jones made his case for being the best receiver in the NFL on a night where he caught 9 passes for 141 yards and 2 touchdowns, but the Falcons defense deserves a ton of credit for winning them this game, as they were in Sam Bradford’s face all day, forced 2 interceptions, and held Demarco Murray to 9 yards on 8 carries.

Minnesota Vikings at San Francisco 49ers

This game featured a team with a lot of young talent, a strong running game, and a stout defense squaring off against the Minnesota Vikings, a preseason sleeper team for many. Carlos Hyde and the San Francisco 49ers showed that they are not backing down or letting anyone walk all over them, especially not Adrian Peterson in his return from suspension. This game was all about the 49ers showing that they can still compete with anyone in this league, despite all of the “The sky is falling” talk all offseason. Navarro Bowman was playing like a man possessed on defense, and led his team in only giving the Vikings 3 points for the week. 3 points to a team with Teddy Bridgewater, Adrian Peterson, Mike Wallace, and Kyle Rudolph at the skill positions. That’s impressive on any day, but especially after all that the 49ers lost this offseason, this was an emotional win 20-3 over a team that was expected to be a sleeper.