The Five Best NFL Moments from Week One

Matt Bevins highlights his five most talked about moments from the week one NFL games!

Matthew Bevins
Things I Loved 3 Years Ago

The best part of the year has ascended on us, seemingly out of nowhere. The NFL season seems to start out of nowhere and detail to us that the cold weather is upon us, pumpkin spice is brewing from suddenly every corner of the world, and your giant uncomfortable boots will ceremoniously be pulled out from under your furniture. Without much further ado, I welcome you to my corner of QB List for the season. In the same vein as the Pitcher List moniker, I will be the lucky one to bestow upon you the exciting/sometimes awe-inspiring, or just downright confounding moments of your weekly NFL season.

 

When Will Brady Age, And Why Is Dak Aging Quicker?

 

In the opening salvo to the season, we got to watch as Tom Brady continued his torrid NFL career, opening up the season and making his 300th career start. The man has a sense of pure, easy, and relaxing NFL knowledge that we likely will never see again that both comforts us and quiets us. Upon his entry into the matchup with Dak Prescott, many were wondering if Dak would have the legs under him just a season removed from a horrifying injury where his leg basically shattered like a Thanos snap. Good for all of us football fans that this ended up being a classic and the all-around best game of the week. Brady and Prescott traded blows, with Brady hedging his bets on former Patriots’ teammates Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski, and Dak made hay with his new potential favorite in Ceedee Lamb. This was an amazing game that ended up with the Bucs edging it out 31 to 29. What a start to week 1!

 

 

The Ky-Flyer Rolls Out In Supreme Fashion!

 

Kyler Murray is sometimes covered in a biased light. Often, he’s given the opportunity to become a “top 5 NFL quarterback”, but the caveats just continue to be stockpiled. Kyler silenced those critics on Sunday, and they were amplified with a Deandre “Nuk” Hopkins toe-tap in the back of the end-zone.

 

 

The Cardinals took it to the Tennessee Titans and their lauded offense with ferocity, as Chandler Jones completely mocked the lineman of Tennessee to the tune of five sacks, and the squad left wheels up from Tennessee with a 38-13 shellacking of the Titans. Kyler Murray was 21-32 with just short of 300 yards, depositing 4 touchdowns with two of them going to DeAndre.  This team ended up showcasing that the Ky-flying passing game of Arizona may just be able to be worked out after all. This team is energetic and fun to watch, and I look forward to all national games they’re involved with!

 

Raheem Mostert’s Injury Makes Way For The Anointed Rookie!

 

Raheem Mostert has been legally required to change his last name to “MostHurt”. I saw this in a tweet a few hours back, and while it got a chuckle out of me, it is most disheartening to see a man so talented be unable to show up consistently when he’s given the opportunity. In his short career, he has had 9 separate injuries spelling time on the IR or missing at least a full game. With that in mind, many squads drafted a pairing of Mostert and highly drafted niner back Trey Sermon. Sermon came with the pedigree and high draft stock, so it was an absolute shock that roughly an hour before kickoff Sermon was inactive, and with an early injury to Mostert, most wondered how invested anyone really should be in San Francisco, when their potentially most talented back in waiting is sitting on the bench.

Well, we’re going to have a battle for the next 4 to 8 weeks while Mostert is on the IR. Elijah Mitchell was the sixth-round pick of the Niners, and it’s clear that while the coaching staff has spoken well of both Sermon and Mitchell, they’ve favored Mitchell recently, and it seems he may have won at least a large portion of the share in this backfield.  Mitchell had prowess, he had speed, he was ripping off defenders like he had honey on his shoulder pads. Sermon is absolutely going to get a chance, but Mitchell is going to make a huge case for playing time, and as they’ve shown in San Fran before, if you produce, your draft spot doesn’t matter in the least. Check out this amazing showcase by Mitchell below!

 

 

Jameis And Rodgers Play Freaky Friday

 

Jameis Winston was essentially given the quarterback job to run with when future HOF’er Drew Brees retired in the offseason. The leash seemed short, however, and it was more discussed how often Taysom Hill would ruin his value by wildcatting all over the place. The offseason was more speckled with Aaron Rodgers disdain than it was exciting for the Saints play-callers, and maybe just maybe, we were missing huge fantasy potential right under our noses.

At the end of the game whistle on Sunday, Winston had wheeled off five touchdown passes with under 150 passing yards. No, I didn’t include the wrong quarterback from this boxscore with that stat line. Rodgers sat on the sideline for the majority of this game, looking like a spitting image of Rustin Cole, and with likely as much malice towards the Saints as Cole was to flat circles. Winston didn’t hook up much with your preseason darling Marquez Callaway, but it’s early on in the season and we’re likely just looking at an early glimpse at what Winston and Sean Payton can figure out over the course of the season. Alvin Kamara was mostly stifled in the receiving game, but the majority of the Saint’s offense got their lunch tickets punched. Winston may have just found the perfect offense to maximize his “high flying, Jimmy Snuka” all-or-nothing NFL gameplay. That makes five thus far, Aaron.

 

 

Hey D’arnold!

 

I want to end this week’s column with a major shoutout to Sam Darnold. This is a fella who basically had his career derailed by Adam Gase and the New York Jet’s playcalling department, someone who both saw ghosts in New York, and also lost years reveled in obscurity with the fireman crew watching in the stands. Darnold got to start his season matching up against and winning against his former team in a brand new Carolina Panthers blue, with the arguable best NFL player behind him and center in Christian McCaffrey. It wasn’t the most shootout-worthy game. The score didn’t really change much, but the first game in Carolina for Darnold against his former beau ended with a win and a feel-good story about what’s still to come. The Panthers have invested some draft capital in other offensive pieces, and this could be one team that is looking to be on the upswing. A 19-14 win in Carolina is one that this team could coat in some BBQ sauce and plate for the Carolina faithful!

 

 

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