Year: 2021

Are three night primetime TV games each week plus a doubleheader game or two each Sunday afternoon too much of a good thing?

With ratings going up, the format seems to be working for the NFL. The problem is that some weeks, they don’t have enough good attractions for the primetime slots.

This seems to be one of those weeks.

The byes started this week with four teams having their bye week so the NFL has 14 games instead of 16.

The prime time scheduled started Thursday night with Tampa Bay going to Philadelphia. The Bucs won 28-22, but the game wasn’t as good as the final score. The Bucs had a 28-7 lead midway through the third period.

The Sunday night game is Seattle at Pittsburgh, which looked like a good attraction until Russell Wilson was sidelined with a finger injury last week, so Geno Smith will get the start for the Seahawks.

The Monday night game will feature Buffalo at Tennessee, a game the Bills figure to dominate if they don’t have a letdown after the big win against Kansas City last week.

—The two best games – Chargers at Baltimore and unbeaten Arizona at Cleveland – won’t get national coverage. The Chargers-Baltimore is a CBS early game and the Arizona-Cleveland game is a late Fox game, but CBS has the doubleheader games this weekend. The CBS doubleheader games are Dallas at New England, which figures to be an easy Dallas win, and Las Vegas at Denver.

—The Las Vegas game will be interesting because it will be the first game since Jon Gruden stepped down after disturbing emails he wrote several years ago became public. It remains to be seen how the Raiders react to the distraction. The Broncos-Raiders is an old rivalry, but Gruden’s departure adds another element to the game.

—The Patriots are desperate for an upset victory over the Cowboys. If the Patriots lose, they will fall to 2-4 with rookie quarterback Mac Jones while Brady is 5-1 in Tampa Bay.–The Chargers-Baltimore and Arizona-Cleveland matchups will feature four young quarterbacks –Justin Herbert vs. Lamar Jackson (although he was ill during the week) and Kyler Murray vs. Baker Mayfield.

—London will host a game for the second week in a row when the 0-5 Jaguars face the 1-4 Dolphins. The NFL has yet to stage a game in London featuring two winning teams.

—The only other winless team besides Jacksonville is Detroit, which is likely to fall to 0-6 when the Lions play 3-2 Cincinnati. The other one win teams besides the Dolphins are the Jets, who have a bye, Houston and Indianapolis, who play at Indianapolis, and the Giants, who are big underdogs against the Rams.

—Kansas City is desperate for a victory and should get it over a Washington team that dealt with a lot of off the field issues. Including their decision to announce three days before the game that they were honoring the late Sean Taylor along with Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell. The late announcement was criticized for not giving fans much notice and the suggestion was they were trying to change the subject from the emails that Gruden sent to former Washington president Bruce Allen.

—Green Bay can take a two game lead in the NFC t in the NFC North. The Packers come in at 4-1 with four wins in a row while the Bears are 3-2. This will be the 201st game in this long rivalry but the Packers have dominated it the last decade, winning nine of last 10 and 18 of last 20.

The Arizona Cardinals are still the only unbeaten team, the Kansas City Chiefs are in a freefall and the Buffalo Bills, the Los Angeles Chargers and Baltimore Ravens are on top of the AFC with 4-1 records.

That’s the surprising way the NFL looks after the fifth weekend of the season. Here’s a closer look at last weekend:

—Buffalo’s easy takedown of Kansas City may mean a passing of the torch in the AFC. Kansas City was looking for its third consecutive Super Bowl appearance but is now 2-3 and even Patrick Mahomes can’t seem to overcome the team’s defensive woes, although it didn’t help he threw two picks. Meanwhile, Buffalo is now 4-1, tied for best AFC record with the Chargers and Baltimore.

—The Chargers pulled off a 47-42 victory at Cleveland as Justin Herbert passed for four touchdowns and ran for a fifth. The Chargers are a gambling team, too. They went for it on fourth-and-2 at their own 24 early in the fourth period while trailing by two touchdowns and made it to start their comeback.

—Lamar Jackson had a career game, leading the Ravens to a come-from-behind victory over Indianapolis in overtime even though Carson Wentz threw for 400 yards in losing effort.

—The Raiders not only lost their second game in a row when they fell to the Bears, but they also lost their coach, Jon Gruden, after emails of him making inappropriate remarks were leaked. The Raiders are still in the hunt at 3-2 but it remains to be seen whether they can regroup.

—Tom Brady still shows no signs of aging as he threw for five touchdowns in the victory over Miami. The Dolphins now take a 1-4 record to London next week to face 0-5 Jacksonville, which lost to Tennessee. London has yet to host a game when both teams have winning records.

—Green Bay posted its fourth win in a row after their horrid opener by beating Cincinnati and is now one of five NFC teams with the inside track at a playoff berth. The other four are Cowboys, Bucs, Cardinals and Rams. The rest of teams may be fighting for two final spots.

—Six rookie quarterbacks started and two –Mac Jones and Justin Fields – won. Jones beat another rookie Davis Mills as the Patriots came back to beat Houston. Fields, who is now the Chicago starter, led the Bears to the victory against the Raiders. The other three Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, and Trey Lance in his debut, all lost. Lawrence is 0-5 and Wilson 1-4.

The Sunday night Kansas City-Buffalo game won’t have the hype that last week’s return of Tom Brady to Foxboro had.

But it is a critical game for the Chiefs, who are trying to return to the Super Bowl for a third consecutive season.

A loss would drop them to 2-3 in a division with three 3-1 teams. Buffalo has a shot at a fourth consecutive win and a 4-1 record with a win. But a loss wouldn’t be as critical for the Bills since they are in a division with three 1-3 teams.

A look at the rest of the weekend:

—The Los Angeles Rams beat Seattle to go to 4-1 in the NFC West Thursday night while the Seattle loss not only dropped the Seahawks to 2-3, but cost them Russell Wilson, who suffered a sprained finger in the second half and didn’t return. Geno Smith did well replacing him, but he doesn’t have Wilson’s command of the team. It could also lead to Wilson wanting out at the end of the year. The Seahawks may be in a transition period.

—Arizona, the only unbeaten team in the league, takes on2-2 San Francisco but it won’t be a Fox doubleheader game. They are instead featuring Dallas and the Giants even though the Cowboys figure to win easily.

The Jets-Atlanta game will be played in London on Sunday morning and continues the trend that London has never had a game pitting two winning teams. Things won’t get much better next week when Jacksonville plays Miami. Since the games usually sell out, the league doesn’t feel a need to give London premier matchups.

—The Browns-Chargers matchup will pit two young quarterbacks – Baker Mayfield and Justin Herbert. Both teams are 3-1, but Herbert has been outplaying Mayfield.

—The Jacksonville Tennessee game is not a feature matchup but there is interest in the game because the winless Jaguars will be trying to overcome the distraction of the Urban Meyer video. A win would leave the Jaguars only a game behind the Titans in their division.

—The Pittsburgh Steelers are sticking with Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback even though he appears to be struggling as they face the Denver Broncos, who are getting Teddy Bridgewater back.

—Justin Fields becomes the starter full time for Chicago as they face the Raiders. That mean all five rookie quarterbacks drafted with the first 15 picks will be starting along with third round pick Davis Mills in Houston.

—A veteran quarterback (Aaron Rodgers) and a young one (Joe Burrow) will duel when the Packers go to Cincinnati. The Bengals are attracting a sellout crowd but many may be Packer fans since they have a national following. Both teams are leading their division with 3-1 records but Cincinnati is in a three-way tie with Ravens and Browns.

—Baltimore attempts to break the record for most consecutive 100 yard rushing games when they –host Colts on Monday night. The Broncos were furious when the Ravens tied it last week by running a play with three seconds left instead of taking a knee. The record was set by the Steelers from 1974-77. Colts-Ravens games are always big in Baltimore since the Colts left in 1984 and still wear the horseshoes on their helmets.

It rained on the Brady-Belichick parade.

The much-hyped first visit by Tom Brady to New England since he left the Patriots was played in a rainstorm and it seemed to be a metaphor for the game.

Brady wasn’t at the top of his game and a questionable coaching decision by Bill Belichick decided the game.

Instead of going for it on fourth-and-3, he had Nick Folk try a 56-yard field goal. Even if he made it, Brady would have had a minute left to come back for a game-winning field goal, but it hit the left upright and the Patriots lost.

Brady and Belichick met after the game although the conversation was obviously very private. Now they go their separate ways.

Belichick is 1-3 in the midst of a rebuild and Brady is 3-1 and trying to repeat. And the Patriots have now lost their first three home games for the first time since 1993. Times are changing in Foxboro.

Meanwhile, Brady now finds himself in a conference with the Cardinals and Cowboys. Returning to the Super Bowl will be no easy task.

—Arizona, which is the only undefeated NFC team after beating the Rams, and Dallas, which went to 3-1 after taking down a 3-0 Carolina team, appear to be the two best teams in the NFC. Kyler Murray of the Cardinals and Dak Prescott of the Cowboys have their teams on the right track and both have good rushing games.

—Baltimore boosted its record to 3-1 by rushing for 102 yards. It was the 43^rd game they rushed for over 100 yards, tying the record set by Pittsburgh in 1974-77. But the way they did it upset the Broncos. With the game in hand, they ran a play to go over 100 instead of taking a knee. That kind of tainted the record.

—Ben Roethlisberger appears to be nearing the end. The Steelers fell to 1-3 with their third consecutive loss, a 27-17 defeat at the hands of Green Bay as Aaron Rodgers threw for two touchdowns and ran for a third. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season. This could be his first.

—Two rookie quarterbacks, Justin Fields and Zach Wilson, posted their first victories to give the rookie QBs three wins this year. Mac Jones has the other one. Fields led the Bears to the win over the Lions after struggling in his debut a week ago. Wilson got his first win as the Jets upset the Titans. Still, Bears coach Matt Nagy said Andy Dalton will be the starter when he’s healthy.

—The two New York teams, after each started 0-3, both posted their first wins. While the Jets upset the Titans, the Giants beat the Saints. Both teams won in overtime.

—Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt again for the 49ers in their loss to their loss to the Seahawks as Russell Wilson became the fastest quarterback to get to 100 wins. Trey Lance struggled but with Garoppolo sidelined with a calf injury, Lance is likely to make his first start next week.

—The Buffalo Bills won their third consecutive game, crushing the hapless Houston Texans, 40-0, as rookie David Mills was ineffective in his second start. The Bills were expected to be contenders and they look like they are. During the Brady era, the Patriots rarely had to face a team as good as the Bills in their division.

The most hyped game of the week, the year and maybe the decade will be played Sunday night when the Bucs go to New England for the first game Tom Brady has played against the Patriots since he left last year.

Unfortunately, the game may not live up to the hype. The Pats are a touchdown underdog at home with a rookie, Mac Jones, at quarterback. And Bill Belichick has a losing overall record in the eight previous years he has been a head coach without Brady and made the playoffs just once.

Now a look at the rest of the weekend, including the real best game:

—The best game will feature a pair of unbeaten teams – the Cardinals at the Rams. Kyler Murray is 0-4 against the Rams, while the Rams will go with Matthew Stafford at quarterback. This is a late game on Fox, but Fox doesn’t have the doubleheader game so it won’t get a wide audience.

—The winner of the Rams-Cardinals game will go to 4-0 and three other 3-0 teams will be trying to go to 4-0. The Panthers play the 2-1 Cowboys and it will be no surprise if they suffer their first loss. The Raiders also have a tough task against the Chargers while Denver hosts Baltimore. If Panthers, Raiders and Broncos all lose, the Rams-Cardinals winner will be the only unbeaten team.

—The Jaguars became the first team to drop to 0-4 Thursday night even though they had a 14-0 lead and had the ball on the Bengals one in the final minute of the first half. Trevor Lawrence tried to run it in from the shotgun and was stopped inches short. The Bengals rallied to win 24-21 in the second half. The two New York teams – Giants and Jets – figure to fall to 0-4 against the Saints and Titans. The Lions and Colts play the Bears and Colts in division games.

—The struggling Steelers, who won their first 11 last year before collapsing now appear to be in rebuilding mode. Ben Roethlisberger is showing his age and doesn’t have a good line in front of them. They have a tough game against the Packers. Even Steeler fans understand they are rebuilding. There were 11,000 no-shows for the Cincinnati game. Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season in Pittsburgh. This could be the first.

—The 1-2 Seahawks are another struggling team and face a tough task against the 49ers, who suffered their first loss against the Packers last week because they were guilty of poor clock management. They let Aaron Rodgers have the ball with 37 seconds left.

—The Chiefs, off to a surprising 1-2 start, figure to get back on track against the Eagles, who had a mismatch against the Cowboys Monday night.

—The Bills figure to go to 3-1 when they face the Texans and rookie quarterback Miles Davis. Rookie quarterbacks are 1-11 this year.

It is often called a game of inches. It also can be a game of mistakes or bad judgments.

Just look at some of the games Sunday:

—Justin Tucker set a record with a 66-yard field goal to give the Ravens the victory over the Lions after Lamar Jackson put them in field goal position with a 4^th-and 19 pass 36-yard pass to Sammy Watkins. With seven seconds left, they tried a pass that was incomplete before Tucker kicked the record game winner. But on that play the play clock expired and the Ravens should have been pushed back five yards. The officials missed it.

—The Dolphins, who tied the game with a touchdown and two point conversion, faced a 4^th-and-2 in overtime at the Raiders 32. Instead of going for it, they kicked the field goal to tie with just less than three minutes left. That gave the Raiders enough time to come back and win the game Even if they hadn’t made it, the Dolphins were settling for a tie. As Bruce Arians likes to say, no risk it, no biscuit.

—Charger coach Brandon Staley went for the biscuit and got it against the Chiefs. Facing a 4^th and 4 with 48 seconds left in a tie game, he decided to go for it rather than try a field goal. After a false start penalty pushed them back five yards to make it fourth and 9 to put them in position to try a 52-yard field goal. Instead, they went for it and got a pass interference penalty at the 20. Staley still refused to settle for the field goal and got the touchdown. Mahomes had a half minute but threw three incomplete passes and a failed Hail Mary. The Chargers got the biscuit.

—Is the magic gone for Mahomes and the Chiefs? Are they the latest Super Bowl loser to struggle the next year? On top of that, coach Andy Reid was hospitalized after the game, apparently with dehydration. Can the Chiefs come back?

—Mahomes couldn’t come back in the last half minute, but Aaron Rodgers did against the 49ers to set up game-winning field goal. The 49ers gave Rodgers enough time to come back when Jimmy Garoppolo left 12 seconds on the clock as he took the snap to throw for a go-ahead touchdown. Kyle Juszczuk bulled his way in the end zone. If he had gone down on the one or Garoppolo let the clock run down before taking the snap, the Packers wouldn’t have had time to come back.

—There are five teams with 3-0 records and the surprise is that Tampa Bay isn’t one of them after the defending champions lost to the Rams. Besides the Rams, the other 3-0 teams are the Raiders, Broncos, Panthers and Cardinals.

—There are also five 0-3 teams, including the Jaguars and Jets, the two worst teams last year who seem to be vying for the first pick again. The other three are Colts, Giants and Lions. Since only six 0-3 teams have made the playoffs since 1980, they are long shots although seven teams now qualifying. The Jaguars have now lost 18 straight.

—The growing pains of rookie quarterbacks: Four started Sunday and all lost, including Justin Fields, who made his debut for the Bears and had one passing yard. The rookie quarterbacks are now 1-10 with Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson, the first two selected, are both 0-3 and Mac Jones is 1-2 and has posted the only victory.

Carolina became the first team to get to 3-0 this season when it started the third week with the victory over Houston Thursday night.

The winner of the only game pitting two 2-0 teams against each other this weekend — the Bucs and Rams is the late game on Fox Sunday — will also be 3-0.

—Four other 2-0 teams — Raiders, 49ers, Arizona and Broncos – will be going for 3-0. Arizona and Denver will be facing winless teams (Jaguars and Jets) so they have good shots at 3-0. The Raiders, facing Miami and the 49ers, taking on Green Bay, will have tougher tasks. The 49ers-Packer game will be on Sunday night.

—Two of the seven 0-2 teams – Giants and Falcons – will meet so unless they tie, the loser will go to 0-3. The Jets and Jaguars figure to go to 0-3 because they play 2-0 teams – Cardinals and Broncos. The three other 0-2 teams –Lions, Vikings and Colts – will be playing the Ravens, Seahawks and Titans. All three are 1-1.

—The Bucs-Rams game is the most interesting game of the day. Tom Brady, who 20 years ago became the Patriot starter when Mo Lewis of the Jets knocked out Drew Bledsoe, will go against Matthew Stafford, who is trying to resurrect his career with the Rams, after playing on mostly losing teams in Detroit. Brady was held to 13 points by the Rams defense in the Super Bowl three years ago, but won 13-3 because Jared Goff, who was shipped to the Lions in the Stafford deal, put only three points on the board. But last year the Rams beat Tampa Bay and Brady, 27-24, with Goff so it is up to Stafford to match that.

—The Chiefs, coming off a surprising loss to the Ravens, will try to get back on track against the 1-1 Chargers. With the Raiders and Broncos off to 2-0 starts, the Chiefs can’t afford another stumble.

—Davis Miles, the Houston rookie, became the 34th quarterback and the fourth rookie to start Thursday night in place of injured Tyrod Taylor. The Texans lost, so rookie quarterbacks are now 1-6. The fifth rookie quarterback and the 35^th quarterback to start, Justin Fields, gets the nod in Chicago when he replaces Andy Dalton against the Browns.

—Jameis Winston faces a big test when the Saints go to New England. He was in the opener against Green Bay but then didn’t look good against Carolina last week and is looking to bounce back. Mac Jones, the only rookie quarterback to get a win this year, will try for a second one.

—Carson Wentz, who has ankle injuries, will be a game time decision for the Colts against the Titans, who will be having a reunion for the old Oilers. If Wentz can’t go, the Colts will go with second year player Jacob Eason or Brett Hundley.

—The MNF game will feature Dallas playing at Philadelphia in the renewal of an old division rivalry. The Cowboys look like the best team in the division and want to show it in their first division game this year.

—One thing to watch this weekend is the number of penalties that will be called. Rick Gosselin reports that last year the officials never called more than 198 penalties in a game. This year they called 214 and 221 the first two games. No explanation for the increase but the Washington Post reports the league isn’t yet ready to examine how the games are being called so far this year.

With the first two weeks of the NFL season in the books, seven teams are off to a 2-0 start, including three NFC West teams – Arizona, Rams and 49ers.

Of the other four, the surprise is that Carolina and the Raiders are two of them and that Kansas City, going for its third consecutive Super Bowl appearance, isn’t one of them after losing Sunday night to Baltimore.

The other two are defending champion Tampa Bay and Denver, which is now off to a 2-0 start seventh time in last nine years.

On the other hand, seven teams are 0-2 including the two worst teams from last year, Jacksonville and the Jets, who are both starting rookie quarterbacks selected with the first two picks.

Three of the 0-2 teams, Atlanta, Indianapolis and Minnesota – had higher expectations but now the odds are against them making the playoffs.

Since 1980, only 11.6 percent of the teams that started off 0-2 made the playoffs.

So after two weeks, there are 18 0-1 teams along with seven at 2-0 and seven at 0-2.

—The Buffalo Bills showed they have a defense as they blanked the Dolphins, 35-0, who lost Tuo Tagovailoa early to a rib injury. Jacoby Brissett took over but wasn’t effective. If Josh Allen overcomes his slow start, the Bills still seem to be the team to beat in the AFC East.

—Patrick Mahomes had never thrown an interception in September and was 3-0 against the Ravens before the Ravens posted a 36-35 victory Sunday night even though Lamar Jackson threw a pick-six early and the Ravens were down 11 points in the third. The Chiefs were in position for a game-winning field goal before a fumble killed their comeback. With both the Raiders and Broncos at 2-0 and the Chargers a threat, they may not have an easy road to another division title.

—Only one quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick, was injured the first week, but four of them went down Sunday. Besides Tagovailoa, the other three were Andy Dalton, Carson Wentz and Tyrod Taylor. Dalton’s injury probably opens the door for a fourth rookie, Justin Fields, to start.

—The three starting rookie quarterbacks, Mac Jones, Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson, are now 1-5 after Jones got the win over Wilson. New England’s win over the Jets was no surprise because Bill Belichick is 22-6 against rookie QBs.

—Derek Carr has now passed for 817 yards in two games as the Raiders knocked off Steelers after beating the Ravens in their opener.

—Dallas showed it can win on defense and running the ball instead of counting on Dak Prescott to carry the load. They rushed for 195 yards to beat the Chargers on a 56-yard field goal by Greg Zuerlein. Dallas coach Mike McCarthy got a lot of flak for not trying to get closer on third down instead of letting the clock run down. His excuse was the scoreboard clock went out.

—Tom Brady still refuses to show his age as he threw five touchdown passes in Tampa’s 48-25 win over the Falcons. No 28-3 this time against the Falcons.

—Matthew Stafford is developing a rapport with Cooper Kupp. He caught nine passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns in the Rams’ 27-24 victory over the Colts after catching seven passes for 108 yards and a touchdown in the opener against Chicago.

—Sam Darnold shows what he can do with a better team around him. He is 2-0 in Carolina now that he is backed up by what is currently the league’s best defense. The Panthers routed the Saints 26-7. Getting away from Jets and Adam Gase may be the best thing that happened to Darnold.

—Are the Bengals putting enough emphasis on protecting Joe Burrow? He was hit nine times, sacked four times and threw three picks, including a pick-six, in their 20-17 loss to the Bears.-l

The Cardinals escaped with a 34-33 victory over the Vikings when Greg Joseph shanked a 34-yard field goal attempt.

—The Titans do what they do best against Seattle. They ran Derrick Henry 35 times and he gained 182 yards and three touchdowns for a 33-30 overtime victory.

The big question for the second week of the season is how many teams will come out of the week 2-0 and how many will be 0-2.

The games featuring 1-0 teams in which the winner will come out 2-0 are Steelers-Raiders, Panthers-Saints and San Francisco-Philadelphia.

The New York Giants became the first team to start off 0-2 after their mistakes cost them the game against Washington Thursday night.

A Daniel Jones touchdown was wiped out by a holding call and the Giants gave Dustin Hopkins a second shot at a game-winning field goal when Dexter Lawrence was offsides as Hopkins missed a 48-yarder. Given a second chance from the 43, he nailed it.

The other two games featuring two 0-1 teams with the losers dropping to 0-2 are New England-Jets and Green Bay-Detroit. All the other 1-0 teams are playing 0-1 teams and have a shot at 2-0.

A look at this weekend:

—There are three interesting attractions this weekend – Steelers-Raiders and Dolphins-Bills at 1 p.m. Sunday and the Chiefs-Ravens as the Sunday night prime time game. The MNF game pitting Green Bay against Detroit isn’t much of an attraction.

—Steelers-Raiders was once one of the best rivalries in the NFL when they played in the playoffs five years in a row in the 1970s and the winner won the Super Bowl three consecutive years. But the rivalry has waned in recent years although both teams won their openers. But it will be the featured 1 p.m. game shown in much of the country.

—The Bills, touted as a Super Bowl contender, can’t afford a second loss to drop to 0-2. But the game won’t get much coverage since it is being shown only in southern Florida and the northeast.

—The Chiefs are going for a 2-0 start against the Ravens, who are desperate to rebound after losing the MNF game to the Raiders in a game that had a wild finish. The game features Patrick Mahomes vs. Lamar Jackson, but Chiefs have beaten the Ravens the last three years so they appear to have the edge. Andy Reid is 4-0 vs. Ravens with Chiefs and 6-1 overall.

—Fifteen quarterbacks started the season with new teams and one of them, Ryan Fitzpatrick, was sidelined with an injury so Taylor Heinicke became the 32nd quarterback to start this season. The other 31 return for a second game.

—Three rookie quarterbacks will start their second game and two of them — Mac Jones and Zach Wilson — will meet as the Patriots play at the Jets. Considering Bill Belichick’s record against rookie quarterbacks as he tries to confuse Wilson, Jones figures to get his first win. The third starting quarterback rookie, Trevor Lawrence, faces a tough task against Denver after throwing three picks in the loss to Houston last week although the heat in Jacksonville may be a problem for the Broncos.

—The homefield advantage isn’t what it used to be. Road teams won half the 16 games. Last year road teams have had a 128-127-1 edge. No obvious explanation for road teams doing well although it could be the officials aren’t letting home crowd affect them.

—Defending champion Tampa Bay figures to get off to a 2-0 start against Atlanta. With Brady facing the Falcons, it will bring back memories of 28-3.

The Kansas City Chiefs are back, the Buffalo Bills and the Green Bay Packers may not be who they thought they were, the Pittsburgh Steelers can still play defense and the Matthew Stafford showed what he can do with a better team around him.

Those were some of the highlights and lowlight of the first weekend of the new season.

More on that:

—Kansas City now has to be considered to have a good shot at a third straight Super Bowl appearance. Patrick Mahomes, who was running for his life in the Super Bowl last February, had the protection to pull off another fourth quarter comeback and beat Browns, 33-29. Browns were up 22-10 at halftime and 29-20 early in fourth quarter before Mahomet did his thing. The Browns, though, showed they are contenders but have to eliminate mistakes. A fumbled snap and a punt was a dagger and then Baker Mayfield threw a late pick trying for a comeback.

—The Bills were supposed to be ready to make a Super Bowl run after winning two playoff games last year before losing to the Chiefs in the AFC title game. They were favored against a Pittsburgh team that had a meltdown at end of last year. But the Steelers still have a defense that harassed Josh Allen and kept him off balance the whole game while posting a 23-16 victory. T.J. Watt’s strip sack at the end of first half and a blocked punt for a score were keys to the victory. The Bills now have to rebound.

—Green Bay spent the off season wondering whether Aaron Rodgers was going to play. And they were playing a New Orleans team that had to switch their opener to Jacksonville because of the damage done by Hurricane Ida. It turned out Rodgers had the worst day of his career in a 38-3 loss. Meanwhile, Jameis Winston may have resurrected his career with five touchdown passes against the Packers.

–All four NFC West teams won and it is likely at least one wild card will come from that division. Three incumbent quarterbacks, Seattle ‘s Russell Wilson, San Francisco’s Jimmy Garopollo with a cameo role by Trey Lance and Arizona’s Kyler Murray posted victories while Matthew Stafford won his debut for the Rams. Indianapolis, Detroit, Tennessee and the Bears were the four losing teams.

—All three rookie quarterbacks who started – Mac Jones of New England, Zach Wilson of the Jets and Trevor Lawrence of Jaguars – all lost. But Jones and Wilson kept it close against the Dolphins and Carolina (quarterbacked by former Jet Sam Darnold) while losing by one and five points) while Lawrence was blown out by the surprising Texans.

—Only one starting quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick of Washington, was sidelined with an injury. He went on IR with a hip injury and will be out at least three weeks if not longer.

—Four second-year quarterbacks – Justin Herbert of the Chargers, Joe Burrow of Cincinnati, Jalen Hurts of Philadelphia, and Tua Tagovailoa — posted victories over Washington, Minnesota, Atlanta and New England, respectively.

—After one week, Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski are 1-0 in Tampa and Bill Belichick is 0-1 in New England.

—Dallas lost its opener in Tampa Bay, but looked so good that they have a good shot at winning the division.

—Teddy Bridgewater may be resurrecting his career in Denver as he led the Broncos to the win over the Giants. But playing in the same division with the Chiefs and Chargers means he will have some tough ahead games although he goes to Jacksonville this Sunday.