Rust after preseason rest
Many QBs who didn’t play in exhibitions struggled in Week 1
Preseason rest appeared to lead to a little bit of rust in Week 1 for several of the NFL’s top quarterbacks.
More than one-third of the league’s Week 1 starting quarterbacks didn’t play a single snap in the preseason and most of those 11 QBs didn’t play anywhere close to their usual form.
Whether the poor results were a result of rust or other factors isn’t clear but the poor results are. The only QBs to rest the entire preseason and end up on the winning side in Week 1 were the Vikings’ Kirk Cousins, Justin Herbert of the Chargers and the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson.
Cousins and Herbert bested two other quarterbacks who rested with the Vikings beating Aaron Rodgers and the Packers and the Chargers knocking off Derek Carr and the Raiders.
The other resting QBs who lost in Week 1 were Matthew Stafford of the Rams, the Cardinals’ Kyler Murray, Cowboys’ Dak Prescott, Broncos’ Russell Wilson, Bengals’ Joe Burrow and Titans’ Ryan Tannehill.
The 11 QBs combined for an 86.1 passer rating, 6.9 yards per attempt and a touchdown to interception ratio of 1.38.
Those were steep drop-offs from 2021 numbers when those QBs posted a 100.4 rating, averaged 7.7 yards per attempt and had a 2.65 TD to INT ratio.
The rough openers from many of the league’s top passers led to a downturn in scoring across the league with the 42.1 combined points per game in Week 1 down from 48 last season and the lowest for Week 1 since 2017, when teams combined for 40.4 points per game.
Super Bowl hangover
The Super Bowl teams from last season got off to a not-so-super start to 2022.
The defending champion Rams lost the opener 31-10 to the Bills and the runner-up Bengals fell 23-20 in overtime to the Steelers.
It marked the first time since 1999 when the Broncos and Falcons both lost the opener that the two Super Bowl teams began the next season 0-1.
The only other times that happened were: 1996 (Cowboys, Steelers), 1988 (Washington, Broncos) and 1985 (49ers, Dolphins).
Winning time
The Giants comeback win on the road against the Titans left them in unfamiliar territory.
For the first time since the end of the 2016 season, the Giants have a winning record. They had lost the opener each season since then and never recovered as their 22-59 record (.272 winning percentage) was tied with the Jets for the worst in the NFL from 2017-21.
The Browns also did something new, beating the Panthers 26-24 to win the season opener for the first time since 2004. The Browns were 0-16-1 in Week 1 from 200521 — the longest Week 1 winless streak in NFL history.
The Colts ended an eight-year Week 1 losing streak with a 20-20 tie against the Texans in Houston. But the Colts’ nine straight openers without a win are now tied with Washington (1959-67) and the Eagles (1968-1976) for the second longest streak in NFL history.
Close calls
The bizarre ending to the Broncos’ 17-16 loss to the Seahawks on Monday night in Seattle was the seventh game decided by three points or fewer last week, including the Colts-Texans tie.
That’s the most Week 1 games ever decided by three points or fewer, topping the six close games done five times previously — most recently in 2016.
Five games were decided by a game-winning score in the final 2 minutes of regulation or in overtime, the most in Week 1 since there were six in 2002.
The Colts (17-point deficit), Saints (16), Giants (13) and Bears (10) all overcame double-digit deficits to win or tie, the most double-digit comebacks in Week 1 since there were five in 2002.*