We did it! After seven long months, we’ve made it to Week 1 of the 2025 National Football League season.

The opening slate of games offered plenty of narrative potential and, for the most part, it delivered. We saw the two best regular season quarterbacks in the game take lumps out of each other; another pair of signalcallers swap teams and show that both franchises might have made the right call. We had a redemption arc in Indianapolis, while one of the league’s premier defensive talents announced his arrival in a new city with a big inter-divisional win.

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WEEK 1 SCORES
(excl. Monday 8th Sept)

Thursday

Dallas Cowboys 20 @ Philadelphia Eagles 24

Friday

Kansas City Chiefs 21 @ Los Angeles Chargers 27
(International Series: Sao Paolo)

Sunday

Miami Dolphins 8 @ Indianapolis Colts 33

Pittsburgh Steelers 34 @ New York Jets 32

Carolina Panthers 10 @ Jacksonville Jaguars 26

Arizona Cardinals 20 @ New Orleans Saints 13

New York Giants 6 @ Washington Commanders 21

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23 @ Atlanta Falcons 20

Cincinnati Bengals 17 @ Cleveland Browns 16

Las Vegas Raiders 20 @ New England Patriots 13

San Francisco 49ers 17 @ Seattle Seahawks 13

Tennessee Titans 12 @ Denver Broncos 20

Detroit Lions 13 @ Green Bay Packers 27

Houston Texans 9 @ Los Angeles Rams 14

Baltimore Ravens 40 @ Buffalo Bills 41

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Game of the Week
Baltimore Ravens 40 @ Buffalo Bills 41

When two of the consensus top five teams in the NFL are drawn against each other in the first week of the season, there’s a nagging sense that the game may come too early. To draw a football comparison, when Arsenal and Liverpool squared off in a relatively drab affair last week, you felt both teams were content to play for a draw, to wait for a moment of brilliance or a clanger.

Neither Buffalo nor Baltimore played this game in that manner. Perhaps it helps that neither side has had to undergo any meaningful upheaval on offense. They still have two of the best quarterbacks in the game; the top two vote-getters from 2024’s MVP race.

Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry remain an almost impossible conundrum to solve. The backfield running mates combined for 239 yards and three scores on 24 carries on the ground. Jackson was also lethal through the air, routinely finding Zay Flowers for chunk plays and allowing the newly-acquired Deandre Hopkins to demonstrate his otherworldly catching ability on a 29-yard score. That score appeared to be the death knell for the Bills, as they fell behind by 15 heading into the fourth quarter.

However, it was also the moment that Josh Allen simply went nuclear. Joe Brady abandoned the run game completely, putting the ball in the reigning MVP’s hands — for better or worse. Allen totalled 251 yards on 16-for-21 passing and contributed three touchdowns (two rushing, one passing to Keon Coleman) in the fourth quarter alone. When Matt Prater’s go-ahead field goal split the uprights in the dying seconds, we’d been treated to an all-time classic game and individual performance by Allen just days into the nascent season.

This will provide ammunition for the Ravens doubters of course. Baltimore gave up a two-score lead with 11:42 on the clock, thanks in part to a Henry fumble, but also John Harbaugh’s decision to punt on 4th-and-2 with 3:10 left on the clock, an eight-point lead and the ball on his own 39-yard line. The metrics say he should have gone for it, but ignore the data for a second. When you have Jackson in this form, surely you keep the ball in your best player’s hands with the game on the line.

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MVP of the Week
Daniel Jones (Indianapolis Colts)

A penny for Giants fans’ thoughts this Monday.

The G-men faithful had to sit through a harried performance by Russell Wilson, as Malik Nabers cut a dejected figure a little over two hours into the new season during a maddening loss against the Washington Commanders.

Meanwhile, in Indy, their previous ‘franchise QB’ was putting together a perfect game. Daniel Jones achieved a feat no other quarterback of the past 25 years has accomplished. The sixth-year pro led his new franchise to a score on all seven of their possessions.

Yes, Jones was taking advantage of a Dolphins franchise with nigh-on the worst PR in the league heading into the season, but it was still a performance of remarkable surety. Danny Dimes was composed, completed tight throws, traversed pressure and used his legs sparingly but effectively to the tune of 22/29 for 272 yards and a score in the air, as well as two rushing touchdowns. It is probably Jones’ best performance of his NFL career. Is this a flash in the pan? Or a sign of things to come for him and his new employers?

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Winners: Aaron Rodgers and Justin Fields

Who doesn’t love a Week 1 revenge game? Now, imagine that both starting quarterbacks have a shot at getting one over on their most recent predecessor? Add in the extra narrative juice that one of these men is an ageing superstar seemingly more interested in the health effects of wearing wireless headphones and the provenance of the pyramids… This is the stuff of Stephen A. Smith’s wildest dreams.

Neither Aaron Rodgers or Justin Fields deserved to be on the losing side of a gripping 34-32 victory for the Pittsburgh Steelers over the New York Jets. Fields showed the athletic ability that he flashed at times during his three-game stint as the Steelers’ starter last term, but he allied it with markedly improved pocket presence and accuracy. His 266 passing yards and three touchdowns will give new Jets’ coach Aaron Glenn plenty of hope for the season ahead.

There were moments where Rodgers looked unable to avoid the pass rush but, when the offense stayed in structure, he cut the Jets secondary to pieces. Crucially, he seemed willing to work within the confines of Arthur Smith’s offense, something he was reticent to do during his stay in East Rutherford. Rodgers took the time to rub salt in the wound after the game. “I was happy to beat everybody associated with the Jets,” he said. Another year removed from an Achilles injury and the fires of vengeance providing further motivation, Rodgers is ready to prove the doubters wrong.

Losers: Atlanta Falcons fans’ hopes and dreams

How many times can one fanbase be punched squarely in the gut?

When Michael Penix Jr. capped a promising performance with a go-ahead scramble touchdown with just two minutes remaining in the Falcons’ NFC South tilt against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Dirty Birds faithful could be forgiven for thinking they’d finally got a leg up over their intra-division rivals. The Falcons looked like the vaunted offense they’ve long promised to be. Bijan Robinson announced his arrival in the 2025 season with a 50-yard catch-and-score in the first quarter, Drake London and Kyle Pitts snagged 15 catches between them. Penix’s score came as the result of a veteran-coded crunch-time drive that saw him convert two fourth downs with his legs.

The young signal caller was let down by the other phases, however. The Falcons defense allowed Baker Mayfield and the stellar rookie wideout Emeka Egbuka to retake the lead just 70 seconds later. The Falcons were remarkably passive, sitting back in a soft zone that Mayfield dissected with minimal fuss. The speed at which the Bucs scored left the door open however. Penix again was up to his side of the bargain, positioning Younghoe Koo for a 44-yard field goal. Of course, because it’s the Falcons, Koo’s kick leaked wide right, consigning Atlanta to a gut wrenching 23-20 defeat that could well have postseason implications.

Winner: Brian Gutenkunst

Jared Goff must be cursing Jerry Jones’ name right now, as Micah Parsons played a bit part in the Packers statement 27-13 win over the Detroit Lions. He logged just 22 pass rush snaps, taking to the field in obvious passing down situations as he learns a new defensive system. But, in those 22 snaps, Parsons generated three pressures and a sack. He routinely cooked Penei Sewell when left on-and-one on the outside, but also lined up at defensive tackle on occasion. When the defensive superstar was off the field, Goff and the Lions averaged 6.0 yards per dropback. That number dropped to 3.3 when Parsons was involved.

Brian Gutenkunst has built a deep and talented roster predominantly through the draft over the past few years, but his willingness to go and acquire top level talent, either in the free agent market (Xavier McKinney and Josh Jacobs) or through trade, are the moves of a top level executive.

Loser: Mike McDaniel

The pre-season noise around Miami was overwhelmingly negative. The fallout of Tyreek Hill’s end of season comments on quitting the franchise set the table for a summer where McDaniel’s authority and future were routinely questioned, and the abject performance in Indy will do little to quiet the naysayers — in fact, the fourth-year head coach’s odds to be fired have been slashed even further.

The hallmarks of McDaniel’s offence which terrified the league over the first two-and-a-half seasons of his tenure were largely missing. Yes, the run game did generate more than six yards per tote, but that did little to create space for Jaylen Waddle and Hill out wide, and seeing as the ‘Fins were playing from behind from the jump, it was quickly abandoned in favour of a pass-heavy game script. Tua Tagovailoa looked indecisive and slow to release the ball, turning it over three times and averaging just 5.0 yards per attempt.

When the Dolphins had the tactical edge over their foes, they could cover for a perceived lack of toughness. Now, when the league seemingly has them worked out, it will take an evolution from their coach and some steel on the field to drag them out of this predicament. While McDaniel’s sardonic and dry sense of humour in press conferences has been a breath of fresh air, it might be time to park the humour in favour of honest and frank assessments. Because nobody involved with the franchise, especially not his employers, will have found anything about Sunday’s performance to be remotely funny.

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