Despite all of the offseason overanalysis, Week 1 of the NFL season is always a mystery. Traditionally, there are more upsets and greater outlying performances as teams are still unsure of each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
This year’s opening weekend was no different, with some teams exploding out of irrelevancy while others massively disappointed.
Here are some of the biggest surprises from Week 1 of the 2014 NFL season.
Shakeup in AFC East standings
With Tom Brady and Darrelle Revis on the same roster, it seemed like the odds of the Patriots’ stranglehold on the AFC East was in no danger of loosening anytime soon.
However, if Sunday’s results are any indication, the AFC East crown is there for the taking.
Not only did the Miami Dolphins have a convincing win over the Patriots, but the Buffalo Bills were able to throw away a month’s worth of awful preseason games with an upset over the Chicago Bears. With the Jets taking care of business against the Oakland Raiders, Belichick’s Patriots the only team still waiting for their first victory.
There is still plenty of time for the Patriots to rebound and the other three teams to fall back to their usual finishing spots, but the Brady Bunch have to be at least a bit concerned about how badly they were outplayed by a seemingly inferior team.
Dolphins offensive line came together quickly
Few position groups have made more headlines for the wrong reasons than the Dolphins offensive line. Not only were they in the news for their off-field issues, but they simply have not been productive on the field since Ryan Tannehill was drafted.
However, the Dolphins’ o-line did not just show signs of turning the corner—they set the tone for the entire game. Tannehill was as comfortable as he has been in quite some time, throwing for two touchdowns—including one over Darrelle Revis. They were dominant on the ground as well, with Knowshon Moreno piling up 134 yards on 24 carries
If the Dolphins o-line has truly turned a corner, their offense can find the balance they need to finally contend in the AFC East.
Browns mounted an epic comeback and almost pulled off the victory
There are few words capable of describing the ineptitude of the Cleveland Browns in the first half against the Pittsburgh Steelers. After falling behind 27-3 and Ben Tate leaving the game with an injury, it seems like the Browns would have just been content to see glimpses of quality football, never mind a full-blown comeback.
For some unexplicable reason, Brian Hoyer was a different player in the second half, leading the offense to 24 unanswered points. Running backs Terrance West and Isaiah Crowell gave the Browns a spark, forcing the game to come down to a late field goal by Shaun Suisham to give the Steelers the win.
As disappointing as it must have been for Mike Pettine to miss out on his first win as a head coach, he has to be encouraged by how his team bounced back from seemingly impossible odds to nearly come away with the win.
Robert Griffin III continued to underwhelm
Remember when there was a the debate as to whether or not Russell Wilson was as good as Robert Griffin III? We were so young and naive.
Griffin struggled throughout the preseason in Jay Gruden’s traditional West Coast offense, and a stingy Houston Texans defense did not make life any easier for him throwing from the pocket. RG III managed to put up 267 yards through the air, but it only resulted in six points thanks to a pair of untimely fumbles.
Perhaps Gruden should stop spending so much time trying to turn RGIII into something he’s not and spend more time working Alfred Morris into the game plan, who averaged 6.5 yards on 14 carries.
It would be easy to chalk this up to a bad outing, but Washington has been too dubious in the preseason to think that this was just an outlier performance. There has to be real concern that RG III is not the quarterback everyone thought he would develop into after his strong rookie season.
Matt Ryan outdueled Drew Brees
The fact that the Falcons vs. Saints matchup wound up being a shoot out hardly comes as a surprise—Matt Ryan outplaying Drew Brees certainly is.
Brees hardly had a bad outing—but Ryan was playing on another level. His three-touchdown, 448-yard performance carried the Falcons to what may wind up being a season-defining win over their fiercest division rival.
Even more encouraging for the Falcons is how good Julio Jones (116 yards) looked in his return from injury. The Falcons have their share of roster holes, but if Ryan and his receivers are this good on a weekly basis, it may not even matter.
Minnesota Vikings waxed the St. Louis Rams
There was no doubt that the St. Louis Rams were going to be an easier team to defend without Sam Bradford in the lineup, but a lot more was expected out of a team that was supposed to have a quality backup quarterback situation with Shaun Hill.
Hill, who only lasted a half after suffering a thigh injury, was far from the only problem for St. Louis. They were gashed against the run, allowing over 170 yards on the ground. Tavon Austin had yet another non-impact game.
Losing Bradford was a big blow, but the Rams need to put up a bigger fight than this, especially against a team that was so inept a season ago.
As bad as the Rams were, it is difficult to ignore how much improved the Vikings looked under new head coach Mike Zimmer. Not only did he get a good, efficient performance out of Matt Cassel—his defense surrendered just six points all game.
Eagles started off slow and out of rhythm
It is hardly unusual for a team to take a few plays to get the early-season jitters out of the way, but it took the tempo-driven Philadelphia Eagles a good half to realize that they were in real danger of being on upset alert against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Give quarterback Nick Foles credit for fighting through adversity to recover from his slow start, but it is still a surprise that a Chip Kelly team that seems to always be one step ahead of their opponents was light years behind the Jaguars, at least for a half.
It would be unfair to ignore the Jaguars’ strong start, as they certainly deserve credit for outplaying the heavily favored Eagles for a good chunk of the game. The Jaguars may still be a few years away from truly contending, but the arrow is clearly pointing up on this young, promising team.
Jamaal Charles was a complete non-factor
After handing him an $68 million extension, one would assume the Kansas City Chiefs would be more apt to get the most for their money and run running back Jamaal Charles into the ground.
Instead, Charles got a criminally low amount of touches in the Chief’s loss to the Tennessee Titans, getting just seven carries.
On the other hand, when considering Andy Reid’s history of refusing to give the ball to his talented running backs in favor of throwing the ball all over the yard, this was bound to happen at some point. Reid’s track record speaks for itself as a coach, but his undying love of the passing game has cost him plenty of wins over the course of his career.
Derek Anderson is a serviceable QB
There are ice road truckers that have had smoother careers than Derek Anderson, but the journeyman quarterback proved on Sunday that he can still be counted on to turn in a professional, winning performance when surrounded by capable talent.
Going against a very good Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense, Anderson went 24-for-34 for 230 yards, including two touchdowns. While he was certainly aided by some spectacular grabs from Kelvin Benjamin, Anderson never turned the ball over and made key throws when needed.
If the Panthers are this good with Anderson at the helm, the sky is the limit for how good they can be when Cam Newton eventually returns to the starting lineup.
New York Jets’ secondary was up to the task
Viewed by many to be the single worst defensive backfield in football, the Jets’ secondary silenced a lot of doubters on Sunday after holding the Derek Carr-led Oakland Raiders to just 151 yards through the air.
Sure, Carr was a rookie making his first career start, but he was only 10 days removed from tearing apart the starting Seahawks defense in the final week of the preseason. If Carr was going to have a big opening day, it was going to be against this razor-thin secondary for Rex Ryan’s defense.
The Jets will face a much tougher task next week when they head up to Lambeau Field, but this was a great start for a position group that was under so much scrutiny in the offseason.
