10 observations from Week 1 you can steal to impress your friends

The NFL is back, so here’s a grab bag of observations from Week 1 you can siphon to sound smart around the water cooler.

Football is finally back. Rejoice and cherish the infancy of this new season, where no one is truly out of it yet, while it lasts.

After this week, the herd will separate and slowly begin to thin itself out. We have a decent idea of what teams will be in the hunt for playoff spots but until then let’s just be happy that we have football back in our lives and we’re able to huddle up and talk about it with our friends and co-workers on Monday.

We’re all busy people, so it’s understandable if you don’t know all of the best takes from Sunday’s action. Lucky for you, that’s what they pay me for so dig your hand into this grab bag of Week 1 observations to steal for water cooler banter.

Pump the brakes on Cleveland, in all of the ways

To paraphrase the late Dennis Green, we all crowed the Browns far sooner than we should have. Contrary to the hot takes you’ll hear about Cleveland’s 43-13 loss to Tennessee, it’s not their fault we jumped the gun.

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There’s a degree of blame to aim at Baker Mayfield for talking mounds of trash this offseason, as well as the front office for getting us excited by acquiring the likes of Odell Beckham Jr., and then failing to deliver at the first opportunity to do so. But the Browns looked exactly like what they are: an unproven team with a first-year head coach and a second-year quarterback who hasn’t even played a full season yet.

In the excitement to rush the Browns to glory, we all failed to calculate for the growing pains that were bound to happen. Did we forget that this is the Cleveland Browns, a team that has made the playoffs once in two decades and has perpetually filled its fanbase with unimaginable sadness?

It needed to be said then and still needs to be said now: Pump the brakes on the Browns. As much as we want to see long-suffering fans rewarded with success, this team hasn’t proven a damn thing yet and we shouldn’t think otherwise until made to do so.

Kyler Murray was, if nothing else, a ton of fun to watch

The jury is still extremely out on whether the Kyler Murray experiment will work out in Arizona. But if this all ends in crushing disappointment, we at least have Murray’s thrilling Week 1 debut. Much like his ascent from baseball prospect to No. 1 NFL Draft pick, Murray looked pretty unconvincing for three quarters of Sunday’s game against the Lions before turning it on in the fourth quarter to lead an 18-point comeback that turned heads.

Granted, the game ended in a tie but it was the way Murray helped the Cardinals storm back from a 24-6 fourth quarter deficit to force overtime that has us all swooning. With under six minutes left, the rookie effortlessly led scoring drives of 70-yards and 65-yards — including a successful two-point conversion — to erase that 18-point Detroit lead. He also had an absolute dime to Larry Fitzgerald in overtime that set up a go-ahead field goal, which doubled as the Cardinals first lead of the game.

Week 1 is always weird since teams don’t have film on players like Murray in real game situations. But a quarterback picked No. 1 overall hadn’t won his debut since David Carr did it in 2002, so Murray not only kind of ended that streak (he didn’t lose but he didn’t win) but thoroughly entertained us along the way. Whatever happens in his career, it’s impossible to say it wasn’t fun to watch what he did.

Melvin Gordon was one of Sunday’s biggest losers

On paper, the Indianapolis Colts lost to the Los Angeles Chargers but they weren’t the biggest losers from that game. That distinction is reserved for Melvin Gordon, the Chargers running back who is currently holding out for a lucrative long term contract the team is unwilling to give him.

As unwilling as the Chargers were to budge in the offseason, they’re even less likely to cave to Gordon’s demands after Week 1. Los Angeles took his single back role was replaced by the dual backfield of Austin Eckler and Justin Jackson who combined for 121 yards and a game-winning overtime touchdown.

This is bad for Gordon in more than one way, but the biggest one is that he was easily replaced by two mid-level backs. The whole purpose of Gordon holding out is so that he can get paid like a top running back, which he thinks he is (and to a degree isn’t wrong) but the Chargers don’t.

Eckler and Jackson performing the way they did on Sunday was the leverage Los Angeles needed, and it seems that for at least the first week of the season Gordon’s decision to sit looks like a giant mistake. Time will tell if that holds up as Gordon continues to holdout.

Jameis Winston is never going to change

A chief reason the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired Bruce Arians was to fix Jameis Winston. If Arians, a quarterback guru who had whispered in the ears of a young Ben Roethlisberger and Andrew Luck, was unable to correct Winston’s mistakes then the belief is that no one can.

After one week, it appears what’s broken will remain so.

Winston threw three interceptions, including two pick-sixes, in the Bucs 29-17 loss to the 49ers. It was Winston’s second pick-six, which ended up being a dagger that ended any hopes of a last-minute comeback, that stings the most. It was textbook Jameis, throwing the ball straight up into the air (and to a defender) while under pressure instead of A) taking the sack or B) throwing the ball away.

Tampa Bay’s defense, which has ranked at the bottom of the league for basically this entire decade, actually looked good. Todd Bowles still needs more talent on that side of the ball but he has already done what Mike Smith before him was unable to do — make the defense good. That’s what makes Jameis’ inability to not be his usual self so frustrating, and more performances like the one he had today will soon signal the merciful end to his time in Tampa.

The Steelers are going to be fine

Everyone is going to talk about how the Patriots roasted the Steelers on Sunday night, but there are a few things to consider. First and foremost, someone had to have the unlucky draw of playing New England — in Foxboro — Week 1.

Pittsburgh looked pretty rough but playing the Patriots with Week 1 jitters isn’t optimal, nor is it an indication of how the Steelers season is going to go. Keep in mind that while Le’Veon Bell sat out all of last season, Pittsburgh was able to compensate by having one of the other B’s on offense for Big Ben to use. With Antonio Brown gone, there’s going to be an adjustment period.

On the flip side, just how stagnant the Steelers offense looked without Bell or Brown is concerning, but if a bad game is going to be had against the Patriots it’s better to have it now than in January. Pittsburgh is in the rare company of teams that you can’t count out until they give you ample reason to do so. A 33-3 shellacking isn’t a glowing endorsement but it’s also not the death nail that many will make it out to be. If Pittsburgh looks sluggish again next week, then the alarm can begin to sound but until then let’s give a team that has earned some leeway exactly that.

Tennessee might be the best team in the AFC South

Two huge quarterback upheavals over the last few weeks have made the AFC South anyone’s division to win. Andrew Luck retiring seemingly made it more realistic that the Jaguars might piece together a decent season, but those hope broke on Sunday along with Nick Foles’ clavicle.

Now the AFC South is even more wide open than it already was, and the Titans made the most convincing case that they can be the team to capitalize. Indianapolis had a decent outing in Los Angeles, and Houston is always a wild card, but the Titans hanging 43-points on the Browns is something to take note of. Mike Vrabel’s defense has stood out, but Marcus Mariota has left a lot to be desired over the course of his career. That changed, at least for one week, and the Titans looked damn good in Cleveland.

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His three-touchdown, zero-interception performance could be an indication that he can stay out of his way long enough for Tennessee to make something out of this year.

Vikings still have a Kirk Cousins problem

Minnesota stomped Atlanta 28-12, which looks and seems like a very good thing. Despite how well Dalvin Cook looked at full speed and how brutally brooding the Vikings defense was, there was one thing that stuck out and it’s perhaps the biggest thing to be concerned about.

The Vikings scored 28-points, but Kirk Cousins threw fewer than 10 passes and for less than 100 yards.

That’s…a problem.

Chief among the many things that went wrong for the Vikings last season was Cousins looking less like an $83 million savior and more like what Minnesota paid that money to get away from at quarterback. Winning masks the anxiety fans feel about Cousins, but the problem hasn’t really gone away. Throwing for less than 100 yards in a 28-point win is impressive if you’re Drew Brees but when you’re Cousins it makes one wonder when this type of performance won’t be covered up by Cook and the defense.

Allow Lamar Jackson to reintroduce himself (and the Ravens)

Remember when Lamar Jackson was a run-first quarterback? Five touchdowns and over 300 yards passing later, not many people are pegging him with that moniker.

Jackson reintroduced himself in a big way on Sunday, playing so close to perfect in the Ravens 59-10 win over the Dolphins that he was subbed out early for Robert Griffin III. Simply put, he was phenomenal and the polar opposite of the quarterback his critics thought he’d be this year.

To be fair, Jackson didn’t look anything like this last season. He threw for over 200 yards just once, had just eight touchdowns total, and was less than impressive in Baltimore’s Wild Card exit from the playoffs. Of the rookie quarterbacks in his draft class last year, Jackson hands down looked the best and seems to have turned a new leaf — which is dangerous.

Baltimore has historically been a defense-first team, but everything on offense worked against Miami. Mark Ingram looked despite not being in the Saints system anymore, Hollywood Brown was a spark plug, and the offense flowed like a crisp stream of hope. The Week 1 numbers are not sustainable, but the Ravens just became a serious team to watch in the AFC.

Some NFL kickers are still very bad at what they do

When Adam Vinatieri falls victim to the kicking plague, all hope is lost. The usually reliable veteran missed two critical field goals and an extra point in the Colts overtime loss in Los Angeles. Had Vinatieri done what he usually does and make those kicks, we’re talking about how the Andrew Luck-less Colts are 1-0 and priming themselves to take over the AFC South.

Instead, we’re talking about how it seems no one is safe from the kicking epidemic that has been sweeping the league knows no bounds. Even Justin Tucker missed a field goal last year, so no one is safe.

Perhaps the worst day was had by Kaare Vedvik, the briefly-lauded kicker the Vikings traded a fifth-round pick for only to cut him before the season started. The Jets picked him up and paid the price on Sunday when the rookie missed two field goals and an extra point in a one-point loss to the Bills.

It may be a new NFL season, but some things stay the same.

Don’t overreact to anything we saw on Sunday

We had a lot of fun and made a ton of memories on Sunday, but remember that it’s only the first week of the season. Last year the Bears, Cowboys, Seahawks, and Saints all lost their first game and all four of them were still playing football in January. Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jared Cook were the top quarterback and receiver, respectively, and Baker Mayfield was still a few weeks away from making his debut.

This is all to say, we know nothing right now. No team has ever won the Super Bowl in Week 1 and that didn’t change this year. As good as the Patriots looked, or as bad as the Browns did, there’s still a lot of season left. We have the beginnings of a rough sketch for the season but Lamar Jackson can throw three picks next week and go right back to being criticized as a run-first quarterback just as fast as the Falcons can bounce back and get their season on track with a win over the Eagles.

Enjoy the fact that the season we waited seven months for is back and we still have 16 weeks of it left.