The NFL is back in full swing, and so are quick exits.
We’re kicking off the season with a bang:
- Jordan Love and Brian Flores threw haymakers for 60 minutes.
- Will the entire league become more aggressive by throwing the football?
- Josh Allen lost on the Texans… and I’m not that worried about Houston
- The Giants took full advantage of the Cowboys defense by working through some kinks
Let’s start with that Packers-Vikings showdown…
The Vikings rallied late to beat the Packers
QB chart: Jordan Love
His love affair with the Minnesota Vikings was a special football match. Truly.
Love blitzed on more than 70 percent of his drops and averaged more than 10 yards per attempt, according to TruMedia. It’s the only such quarterback performance since at least 2019 as far as TruMedia’s database goes with that air yardage statistic.
Flores is a crazy defensive play caller; Love is the type of quarterback who doesn’t back down from a challenge.
In the end, both Flores and Love got theirs. The Green Bay QB was pretty good, all things considered, in three quarters. He found open zones against the Blitz often enough and put them on the field. He also made a couple of close calls against some incredible blitz looks, including a tight 81-yard touchdown pass to Christian Watson over the middle behind a Vikings defender flying behind the line.
Those were the margins that love had to manage. Flores bet neither Love nor the Packers offensive line could handle all that for 60 minutes.
He was right. Flores’ defense forced 16 tight window passes, and Love was accurate on just five of them. The two touchdowns, including Matthew Golden’s third goal late in the game, resulted in a crucial one. Another was a contested ball to Marshawn Lloyd, but I don’t consider it a “drop”.
Flores was forcing too many tight windows with his blitz, getting blocked on one of those throws and letting the momentum go Minnesota’s way — miscommunication, errant throw, uncharacteristic drop. Again, he was right.
Jordan love week 1 numbers
| COMP | b | TD | INT | WR ADJ | Pass DEF | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
General accuracy |
24 (2 drops) |
42 (2 overs) |
2 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
|
Under pressure |
13 |
22 (2 thrown) |
2 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
|
Out of pocket |
4 |
6 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
5-plus pass forks |
20 (1 drop) |
32 (1 throw) |
2 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
|
Human cover |
2 |
3 (drop 1) |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
Zone coverage |
22 (1 drop) |
39 (1 dropped) |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
|
Throwing a narrow window |
5 (2 drops) |
16 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
Window open throws |
19 |
24 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
With just five minutes to go, Flores warmed Love with a five-man push. Love caught a defender in his face and tried to throw quickly to Watson, but he put the ball behind the receiver, allowing Harrison Smith to hand it to teammate James Pierre. Except that interception shut it down for the Packers’ hopes.
It was fun to watch Flores and Love go head-to-head for four quarters. Flores is as relentless as a defensive play caller, and Love is one of the few in the league willing to fight fire with fire.
Anatomy of a game: Devin Singletary TD
The season opener was a disaster for anyone banking on the Dallas defense. is not Being the worst defense in the NFL for the second straight season.
In the year Things were supposed to feel different in 2026. Former Eagles teammate and Vic Fangio disciple Christian Parker was hired to lead the defense and bring some fresh ideas.
In addition to last year’s moves to acquire Kevin Williams and Kenny Clark, the Cowboys drafted two defensive backs in the first round, another in the third, seconded Kobe Durant and Jalen Thompson, and traded late-round draft picks for Rashaan Gary and DeWinter to bolster their front seven.
Yet in Week 1, the Cowboys failed to do something as simple as cover the running back in the plate. The Giants consistently picked them up in that area, including going down for Devin Singletary.
Jaxson Dart swings to Devin Singletary for another Giants TD!
DALvsNYG on NBC/Peacock
Stream is on. @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/Z1q4jAeBkY— NFL (@NFL) September 14, 2026
Just before the snap, the Cowboys turn the strong safety (at the bottom of the screen) to the flat and play a “matchup” version of Cover 3.
In this example, the strong safety is technically a flat defensive back, but is responsible for matching the tight end vertically. The linebacker on that side (rookie Jashawn Barham, No. 55) is responsible for bringing the run back out of the backfield. However, Barham stays in the zone rule as if this were a standard coverage, never having anyone single before scoring.
Kudos to the Giants for making such a call, knowing how the Cowboys like to play coverage. Clearing the flat area with other vertical routes and having an out of position linebacker run into the flat is a great way to beat matchup coverage. Bonus points for attacking the starting linebacker.
On the flip side, this should be fixed for the Cowboys. Either they need to be better at understanding the rules in their coverage, or they need to rely on the drop zone more often to make things easier. I suspect they’re going to bet on the former, which is a reasonable and measured response. After all, this was just one game for a new play caller on a young hodgepodge defensive roster.
We will see how long these problems continue.
Stats: Offenses were kidding him in Week 1.
Week 1 always sends up some incredible signs, but I’m keeping an eye on how far the fielding offense gets – and especially how many of the offenses throw the ball.
The league’s average passing yards per attempt was 7.7 (even with Cooper Rush and Bo Nick setting that number high), the highest Week 1 mark since 2019. Then the offensive numbers have recently gone into the jilted before the defensive revolution. Last year’s Week 1 average yards per attempt was 7.4, per TruMedia, and the season before that was an even shallower 7.0.
What’s more telling is the sheer number of teams that were solving it. Seven of them averaged at least 9.5 yards per 1st attempt: Bills, Dolphins, Chargers, Packers, Ravens, Jaguars and Bears. The last time at least seven teams had that number in Week 1 was 2020.
The Chargers have been trailing for much of their game, and the Dolphins have little choice given the offense they’ve built. As for the other five teams, it could just be who they are.
Week 1 was unusually aggressive for a few explosive offenses trying to make a statement. I’m keeping my eye on it, though, and if it means more explosive passing plays, you should too.
Scramble drill: not hitting the eye on the Tex defense
I believe two things to be true about scoring a 36 on Tex.
First, Josh Allen is a singular force.
Second, I really don’t care Texans gave 36 points, most of the first point account.
What happened to the Texans wasn’t really a scheme failure — the Bills only had a 44.2 percent offensive success rate, tied for 22nd in Week 1. Instead, the Bills worked their way through the big moments by being better individual football players than the Texans. They hit explosive game after explosive game, thanks to Allen being a special beast.
For example, Allen ripped off a 21-yard rushing touchdown on a scrimmage. He bailed out on the right side, went down the middle of the field and crashed through several Texas defenders to finish. What else makes that game safe? Who has the size, speed, playmaking ability and risk of rib cracking to get into the end zone?
Bill Texans in week 1 thriller
And then all the Buffalo mines are on the field.
Just before the play, Allen threw a deep corner route from his own end zone to Dalton Kincaid, which ended up crashing into Kincaid’s Derrick Stingley Jr. You can count the quarterbacks who can make that throw on one hand.
Fast forward to the final moments of the game. After a short drive, Allen scampered from midfield safety to Josh Palmer at the back post on the other side of the field. It was a bold throw, to say the least, and one Allen himself admitted “He’s never had the ball go there once.” He just felt right in the moment and lasered it in there.
All those crazy plays have been incredibly encouraging for the Bills offense as they hope to take another leap this season.
At the same time, this won’t happen every week against the Texas defense. An elite cornerback duo in Stingley and Kamari Lassiter isn’t giving up each backbreaking plays; Other quarterbacks don’t throw the best Cover 2 hole shot of the week at them or scream straight up the middle in a scramble to find the end zone.
That’s exactly what happens when you play with Allen.
