II for Dorsett II. #PITvsNE | #GoPats pic.twitter.com/jEQJvDAha7
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) September 9, 2019
I was satisfied watching the New England Patriots beat the Pittsburgh Steelers worse than they’ve ever beaten them at Gillette Stadium. After holding the Patriots to 10 points at Heinz Field in December, I thought the Steelers would benefit from a New England offense that ultimately only targeted the TE twice.
WRONG! New England’s pass offense was in midseason form, featuring WR Phillip Dorsett looking like the former first round pick that he is. No need to bring up the former Pittsburgh WR that New England acquired 1. QB Tom Brady found Dorsett deep, found WR Josh Gordon for another score, worked the middle of the field with WR Julian Edelman and kept RB James White involved underneath.
Tom Brady has thrown 232 passes at Gillette Stadium against the Steelers, including playoffs. He has 21 TDs, and *zero* interceptions.
Oh, and the New England defense that held the Los Angeles Rams to three points in Super Bowl LIII did the same to Pittsburgh’s offense. Let’s move on…
First NFL TD pass for @K1 ? pic.twitter.com/ubF0bax2ft
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) September 8, 2019
For the second Week 1 in a row, the team with the top pick in the draft tied their opponent at home! But unlike last year, when Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield watched from the bench while K Zane Gonzalez had his potential game-winning FG blocked, Arizona Cardinals QB Kyler Murray started against the Detroit Lions. Murray looked terrible through three quarters: 9/25, 70 yards, no TD, 1 INT. That’s a passer rating of 27.9.
But in the fourth quarter, with Detroit leading 24-6, Murray came back on them. Overall for the fourth quarter, Murray went 15/19 for 154 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT and a 135.5 passer rating. The TD passes went to WR Larry Fitzgerald and RB David Johnson, who accounted for half of Murray’s targets in the fourth quarter. There wasn’t a winning team in this game, but it was an encouraging debut for Murray in the end.
I had a similar note last year on bad debuts by new head coaches. Last year, new head coaches went 0-7 in Week 1. This year, they went 1-6-1. The one winner was Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, and let’s just say that his offense didn’t exactly get rave reviews.
TEAMS OF THE WEEK:
NE, BAL, TEN, KCDAL, GB, NO, LA
TOP PERFORMERS:
GB pass rush (OLB Preston Smith)LA run offense (RB Todd Gurley)
TEN offensive line (QB Marcus Mariota)
KC run offense (RB LeSean McCoy)
BAL pass offense (WR Marquise Brown)
MIN offensive line (QB Kirk Cousins)
BUF run defense (SS Jordan Poyer)
PHI run offense (RB Darren Sproles)
SEA pass rush (DT Quinton Jefferson)
ARI offensive line (QB Kyler Murray)
DAL pass offense (WR Amari Cooper)
SF offensive line (QB Jimmy Garoppolo)
NE pass offense (WR Phillip Dorsett)
NO run offense (RB Alvin Kamara)
OAK run defense (SS Karl Joseph)
Looking ahead to Week 2
Buccaneers at Carolina: When you look at Bruce Arians’ offenses in Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Arizona, you will notice a boom-or-bust dynamic in quarterback play. QBs Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck and Carson Palmer were asked to drop back, hang in, and throw deep. Big numbers, but sacks and interceptions were thrown in there too. Tampa Bay QB Jameis Winston is in a new offense for the first time in his career, and he debuted with three sacks and two of his three INTs returned for TDs. That was against a San Francisco defense that had two interceptions all of 2018. Can Tampa run the ball more effectively, and can they rush the passer well enough? The Buccaneers dominated Carolina QB Cam Newton in their most recent meeting, sacking him and intercepting him four times each. The Panthers will look to get RB Christian McCaffery going for 25 touches, and this is a #RevengeGame for DE Gerald McCoy.
Vikings at Green Bay: Minnesota won a game with 38 rushing attempts and only 11 dropbacks in Week 1. It’ll be a real statement if they can go on the road and control the Green Bay front seven with what promises to be a more balanced approach. The Packers went into Soldier Field and completely wrecked Chicago’s offensive line. Minnesota QB Kirk Cousins hit the Packers for 7 TDs and more than 72% completions in two meetings last season.
Saints at Los Angeles Rams: Ah, the rematch of the NFC Championship. The Saints are at a logistical disadvantage and will have to travel to California after beating the Texans Monday night. This game may come down to which run game is better. New Orleans got 169 yards out of RB Alvin Kamara on 20 touches in Week 1, while the Rams got 101 yards on 15 touches out of RB Todd Gurley. Hopefully this game isn’t decided by the officials, for everyone’s sake.
Eagles at Atlanta: The last two meetings between these two teams have come down to Philadelphia’s defense stopping Atlanta in the red zone. Philadelphia’s secondary is suspect, and now they have to deal with newly-paid WR Julio Jones. But the Eagles have deep speed now in WR DeSean Jackson, while Atlanta is coming off a week where they barely even got to rush the passer. If Philadelphia’s offensive line performs as well in Georgia as it did at home in Week 1, the game may not come down to a goal line stand.
Browns at New York Jets: The Browns looked like hot garbage in the fourth quarter, capping their home opener against the Titans by giving up 28 unanswered points. Cleveland’s defense didn’t force a single turnover, and the team was penalized 18 times. But at least their QB doesn’t have mononucleosis. The New York Jets have had a lot of unfortunate things happen to their QBs, but Sam Darnold will have to wait to bounce back from an underwhelming performance against the Buffalo Bills that saw him fail to break 200 pass yards despite 41 attempts. Jets RB Le’Veon Bell is banged up, but he’ll be playing and will be relied upon to take pressure off of QB Trevor Siemian. The Browns are more talented, but they need to show it over the course of an entire game.