Week 1 Results [GFL]
'18 Houston vs. '19 Kansas City
The Texans romped over the Chiefs for 3 straight quarters as DeShaun Watson hit 70% of his throws for over 300 yards. Mahomes, who didn't do so bad himself, struggled getting into the endzone until the 4th quarter. By then, it was too late to overcome the 21 point deficit. More detrimental to the Chiefs was their inability to move the ball on the ground, whereas Miller and Blue gathered up over 100 yards for Houston. The Texans take home a W, 38-28.
'07 Indianapolis vs. '05 Jacksonville
After a solid first quarter, the Jags tied with the Colts after solid effort on both teams. Rushing had an impressive 89 yard KO return for Indianapolis, but Jacksonville kept the ball moving fine. What happened for the 3 quarters that follows is anyone's guess. Leftwich and Gerrard both had no issues completing passes, averaging over 80% on the day. But they couldn't come up with any endzone throws, while Peyton Manning found Wayne for a 10 yard TD throw. But even when Manning couldn't make it in the zone, he had Vinatieri to capitalize on the efforts.
Both defenses put together a decent performance, with the Jags putting the Colts in an average of 1 yd / run. But with Manning breaking 325 yards for the day, it would take more than that. Wayne, his primary target, brought in almost 170 yards, averaging almost 19 per catch. So with Jacksonville putting up 3 straight goose eggs after the 1st quarter, the Colts grab an easy win 36-14
'84 Miami vs. '16 New England
Two powerhouse passing teams went head-to-head at Gilette, and the 68,880 fans were not disappointed as both teams totaled over 750 passing yards.
After a low scoring first quarter, New England still had a 3 point lead after a botched PAT and was up 6-3. But in the 2nd quarter, Miami would close the gap after 2 easy TD's setup by Marino deep balls. New England, while doing well, had to settle for a FG and would go into half down just 17-16.
As the 2nd half opened, however, we saw a very different NE team. Despite Brady's arm able to put up some good plays, and the Patriots totaling over 400 yards in the air, they struggled to score. The Dolphin's D kept the Pats out of the red zone enough that Garoppolo saw action late in Q4. But despite a good effort, with a TD to White and a 2-point conversion, Miami's ability to run the ball when needed helped capitalize on the deep balls he is known for.
A look at the stats tells an interesting side story, where Miami had 0 turnovers, 0 penalties and 0 sacks.
Miami 31, New England 24
'01 Green Bay vs. '98 Minnesota
Both teams were well matched here, each putting up very similar numbers for air and ground assaults from all angles. But where Green Bay seemed to struggle was keeping Smith out of the end zone, as he grabbed 3 scores for the day in just the 1st half. This effort gave Minnesota the 21-7 lead at half, but they'd have to fight to keep the lead by the time the 4th quarter rolled around. Both QB's had impressive completion %, with Favre at almost 78% and Cunningham almost 82%, but Favre's 267 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT edged out Randall. But it was Cunningham's ability to establishing a running game that gave the Vikings the final edge. Minnesota 31, Green Bay 24
'06 Chicago vs. '70 Detroit
There Lions and Bears met at Tiger Stadium, but the outcome was anything but a gold-brick road for the home team Detroit. Ahead 13-7 just before the half, Grossman found Bradley on a long 57 yard throw to give Chicago a 1-point lead at half. That momentum seemed to carry the Bears on into the 2nd half. Each team would trade TD's early into 4th quarter, but Grossman's ability to exploit a lax Detroit secondary helped pull in a 2nd 50-yard throw to Berrian. Chicago goes home happy 31-20. Taylor fell just shy of 100 on the day, giving the Lions a reasonable rushing attack, but Munson fell short on passing where Grossman completed 60.9% for 248 yards with 3 TDs and just 1 INT.
'87 Cleveland vs. '06 Baltimore
M&T Bank would host over 67,000 screaming heads as Kosar's Browns flew into Baltimore to try and pick off the Ravens. They would make a solid effort, but things wouldn't necessarily end up in either team's favor. After the Ravens were up 14-0 late in the 2nd quarter, Kosar would connect with Slaughter to put the Browns in the game just before the half. After trading field goals in the 3rd quarter, things weren't looking up much, until Kosar hit Brennan 45 yards out for the 7 points needed to tie. From there, each team would trade TD's, ending in the first tie game of the season in just week 1! Final score 31-31.
Kosar, who tossed over 400 yards against the Ravens, ended up proving the only weapon Cleveland needed to pick at the Ravens. With an astonishing 4 TD's and 26/34 completions, McNair was overshadowed in the air. Slaughter and Byner each had over 100 yards receiving on the day. The browns racked up a near record 11 penalties and still managed to come out strong.
'80 Philadelphia vs. '83 Washington
In a classic matchup of Green vs. Red, in a matchup that almost could have happened, RFK Stadium hosted the much anticipated first week game between these Super Bowl champs. The Eagles would stay steady in their scoring attempts, holding up well against Washington. But it was the way Philadelphia fell apart in the 2nd quarter that will have fans talking for eons. After their first score early in the 2nd quarter on a Moseley field goal, the Redskins would end up with the ball quickly again, for which Theisman would capitalize on to give the 'Skins a lead.
But after that point, the trading of scores for each team would be a matchoff between Riggins and Franklin. Clearly Riggins came out ahead in that game, since Franklin's efforts can only yield 3 points per try. Try as they might, the Eagles couldn't run the ball. Jaworski completed several great throws for 10 and 20 yards but never established a long game. Brown had a big day for the skins, grabbing 118 of Theisman's 164 yards across 10 catches. Washington 38, Phila 27.
'00 Oakland vs. '08 Carolina
In another close shootout, the guns of Gannon faced off against Delhomme, but it was the latter who would come out on top. Nailing over 78% of his passes, Jake threw for 288 yards, 4 TDs and an unbelievable 0 picks. Offense was all over the ground as well. Both teams broke 140 yards rushing, but it was Wheatley's 3 scores that made him stand out from the pack. Smith had over 140 yards from air balls, but him and Muhammad shared scoring efforts for Carolina.
With both teams literally trading TD's, it was an early forcing of Oakland to go for 3 that would give Carolina the winning edge in the long run. Panthers 35, Raiders 31.
'05 Seattle vs. '10 Atlanta
After a slow moving first quarter, it quickly became obvious that the Seahawks had Atlanta's number this Sunday. Hasselbeck tore apart the Falcon's normally astute defense, and Matt Ryan simply couldn't come up with any big plays. Hasselbeck completed 80% on the day for just over 200 yards, but made 2 great throws in the end zone and had the support of over 100 yards rushing with some help from Alexander. The Seahawks grab a big W and the Falcons come away with just 6 points for the day for their effort. Seattle 31, Atlanta 6
'98 NY Jets vs. '80 Buffalo
In one of the closest, lowest scoring games ever, the Bills hosted Testaverde's Jets at Rich Stadium. The road team would get the first score early with a simple 36 yard FG by Hall. But both defenses would show up strong for more than a full quarter, when Buffalo took the lead on a Ferguson-Gant connection in Q3. The Jets would return the effort with another FG on their next drive, but both teams would see stalemate from there on out. Buffalo 7, NYJ 6.
Both teams just barely broke 200 yards offense, with Buffalo's rushing game almost matching Testaverde's passing efforts. Cribbs averaged over 7 yards per carry as he broke 100 on the day. Each team had a missed FG attempt, giving many Jets fans reason to blame Hall for their loss. But if your team gets 3 picks and doesn't turn them into points, that says more about the offense to me than the kicker.
'06 San Diego vs. '81 Cincinnati
The Bengals were fired up at Riverfront Stadium for their opening week, giving 62,000 screaming fans the excitement a 5 TD day as Cincinnati dominated the Chargers, 44-28. San Diego had a strong showing in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, but it was too little to recover from the first quarter explosion of the Bengals. Anderson would be all over the scoreboard, after scoring on a 7 yard keep play and later on a deep ball to Collinsworth. But what had everyone stunned was his 70, yes 70 yard run from scrimmage late in the 1st quarter. The Chargers just looked dead as QB Ken Anderson had nobody near him.
With 84 rushing yards of his own and over 400 yards passing, Ken Anderson was the clear superstar for the day. He threw 3 TDs without any picks and a longest throw of 76, which went to Curtis (who easily broke 100 yards on the day). But San Diego's Tomlinson showed up with over 100 yards rushing and 1/2 of the Charger's scores. The Chargers put in a good effort, but it was just no much for the explosive efforts of Anderson.
'74 Cardinals vs. '94 San Francisco
The rivalry between these 2 teams is as old as the league itself, and as usual there was no disappointment on either side. Both teams gave a great effort - just at different points in the game.
After a scoreless first quarter, St. Louis got 3 scores in just after the 2 minute warning of the 1st half, on the strong efforts of a run attack that totaled 184 yards on the day across 33 carries. San Fran would squeeze in a TD pass 30 seconds later, down 15-7 at the half.
The 2nd half saw the Niners momentum rise just as much as the Cardinals fell. Harris struggled to connect most of his passes, while Young hit 69% of his targets on almost the same # of attempts. But the real star of the Niners was Ricky Watters, who broke 110 yards for the day, over half of that on a spectacular 65-yard play to setup for a Niners TD. The Cardinals had several chances to put points on the board, but fell short. Bakken missed most every chance he had to even things out, missing his only 2 PAT's and nailing only 1 of 4 field goal attempts. St. Louis 15, San Fran 20
'79 Tampa Bay vs. '92 New Orleans
The Superdome was all lit up like a parade for the season opener as the Buccs met the Saints. The Buccs made the only score of the 1st half early on, showing how well these 2 defenses were matched. The 3rd quarter almost went scoreless as well, until Dunbar got a late run into the end zone to capitalize on a good effort from Bobby Hebert. Later, Hebert would find the opportunity he had looked for all game, hitting Martin on a pass that would be taken 60 yards to give the Saints their first lead in over 48 minutes of gameplay.
After another field goal to go up 17-7, 8 minutes seemed like enough time for Tampa to get 2 scores. But the Saints defense held up, only crumbling at the last minute of the game as Rae hit Owens. It was one of only 6 passes completed by the Buccs, telling the story of how they missed several opportunities to score.
'77 Cowboys vs. '99 Rams
The Greatest Show on Turf hosted a hungry Cowboys team at the Trans World Dome, but the events that transpired would prove showmanship is only half the battle. What some may have thought would be a defensive show by Dallas ended up being a shootout up until the final seconds of the clock to determine the winner.
Despite an early Dallas lead 10-3 in the first quarter, Faulk and the Rams would get 2 TD's to shoot ahead, and Warner would find Williams on a 3rd to all but scare most teams. But Staubach, a proven leader, fired back in the 3rd quarter and found Richards open for a 21 yard TD to come within 4 of the Rams. Faulk would run for his 3rd TD of the day on the next possession, but Staubach continued to lead the Cowboys into the 4th quarter, keeping the ball for a much needed TD with just 14 minutes to go.
As St. Louis settled for a FG much later in the game, just 7 points would separate the teams and 4 minutes would remain on the clock. But as the game wound down, Staubach not only fired a TD pass to Pearson, but after the Dallas D gave him the ball back, he got in range for Herrera to try a last second FG for the win. Cowboys 37, Rams 34. There was almost 750 yards of offense, with no 1 player standing out but the Rams rushing attack tallied over 200 yards, most split between Faulk, Holcombe and Watson. Pearson for Dallas had 98 yards receiving and Staubach's 270 yards on 15 throws was well above average.
'04 Pittsburgh vs. '08 NY Giants
Roethlisberger's Steelers had no problems rolling over Manning and the Giants. NY, despite grabbing over 250 yards offense, only grabbed 1 TD on the day. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, grabbed over 400 yards offense, and 2 TD runs by Staley. Ben Roeth threw for almost 294 of the 400 yards, averaging over 18 yards per catch. The Steelers D clearly showed up for the game, but the NY Giants are still looking for theirs. Pittsburgh wins 23-7.
'93 Oilers vs. '15 Broncos
Few would have known what to expect between these 2 passing powerhouses, but when Mile High hosted Moon and the Oilers, Manning had a clear goal in mind to set himself up as the better passer. In just the first 8 minutes of the game, he had 2 TD passes, 1 for 61 yards to Green.
The 14-0 lead wouldn't last in the 2nd quarter, however, as Moon would toss his way into the end zone and also setup for a Del Greco kick from 21 out. The Oilers defense would hold off Denver, and the game was 14-0 at half.
As fans of both teams looked on in the 3rd quarter, a stalemate ensued that added some tension in the air for Oilers fans. But that tension would turn to horror early in the 4th quarter, as Manning would exploit the Oilers secondary again for a 3rd TD pass. The nail in the coffin came much later, as Moon struggled to get his offense moving but even Denver's rushing game yielded another TD. The once close 14-10 game turned into a 28-10 nightmare, Broncos win. Manning had over 300 passing yards to go with his 3 TD's, but he did pay a price with 5 picks on the day from the Oilers. Proving at the end of the day, Moon's inability to complete more than 40% of his throws jeopardized a great opportunity for the Oilers; one that would lead to Carlson taking several snaps near the game's end.
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