NFL Week 1: Strange QB play steals spotlight

Football is finally back, which means we have something to get us through the fall. Whether it’s for fantasy or you’re just cheering on your team, football is basically a religion for some fans.

With old faces in new places, quarterback play was all over the place in the opening week.

Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky stole the show in the fourth quarter. Throwing 8/10, for 80 yards and 3 touchdowns, Trubisky led a comeback for the ages for Chicago.

The Bears somehow managed to defeat the Lions. Down 23-6 at the start of the fourth quarter, strong play from the offense allowed the team to pull off an insane comeback.

This is Trubisky’s third year as a full time starter. After a very poor year last season, he’s looking to save his career. The talent is all there; he just needs to stay confident, and I predict Trubisky will have a great bounce-back season.

Lions RB D’Andre Swift dropped a wide open sure fire touchdown with 6 seconds left. The Lions would have won the game on that play, so the Bears needed a little luck to complete the comeback.

Most of the “professional” analysts have the Bears finishing last in the division, but I think they’re going to surprise a lot of people. I have the Bears going 10-6 this year and sneaking into that last wildcard spot for the playoffs.

With defensive pickup Robert Quinn and promising rookies Darnell Mooney and Jaylon Johnson, this team has new life. If Trubisky looks as good as he did in the fourth quarter for the majority of the year, the Bears can easily outperform their expectations.

In the rest of the league, we see a lot of familiar faces in not so familiar places. Whether it’s Cam Newton in New England or Tom Brady in Tampa Bay, there are a lot of things NFL fans have to get used to this year.

Brady’s Bucs lost 34-23 in his debut with the squad. He threw for 23/36, with 239 passing yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 INTs. Fans are already panicking because of Brady’s shaky start. But don’t fear, he just needs to settle in with his new teammates. And don’t forget that the Saints have an elite squad as well.

Cam Newton made his debut in New England, replacing the great Brady there. The Patriots won 21-11. Newton went 15/19, with 155 yards passing. However, his ground game was the highlight of his performance. Newton led all Pats rushers with 15 carries for 75 yards and 2 touchdowns. This is definitely a new sight for Patriots fans.

Despite the strong start for Newton, one week in the NFL doesn’t show a whole lot. The same fans calling for Brady’s head are the ones praising Newton. The Pats played the Dolphins, arguably the worst team in the league, which is probably why they did so well.

Other notable performances were Phillip Rivers’ debut for the Colts and Joe Burrow’s NFL debut in Cincinnati. Despite the loss, Rivers still threw for 363 yards and a touchdown. His gunslinger mentality sadly hasn’t always worked out for the best for him however, and we saw that week one with his 2 INTs.

Heisman winner and National champion Joe Burrow shined in his NFL debut. He threw for 193 yards, but his rushing ability is what surprised everyone: 8 carries for 46 yards and a touchdown; that’s a decent game for an actual RB. An offensive pass interference call on wide receiver A.J. Green and a shanked kick allowed the victory to slip away from Burrow in his first game, but he showed the league that he was well worth the No. 1 pick in this past year’s draft.

The Super Bowl champion Chiefs picked up right where they left off, in an emphatic 34-20 win over the Texans. Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes impressed as always, throwing 24/32 for 211 yards and 3 touchdowns.

One surprising performance was from the usually dominant Giants running back Saquon Barkley. He was held to just 6 rushing yards on 15 carries. Barkley was actually outrushed by the Giants QB Daniel Jones. He was getting stuffed at the line all night long, and the Giants just couldn’t get anything going against the stingy Steelers defense.

The other Super Bowl team, the San Francisco 49ers, got shocked by the Arizona Cardinals. Led by the second year quarterback Kyler Murray, the QB was able to connect with new superstar wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins regularly. In fact, Hopkins set a new career record with 14 receptions in a single game.

So there were a lot of crazy outcomes in week one, but this is a crazy season. Jumping right into a season without any practice games means fantasy is going to be strange, to say the least. However, one week in and the spark is already back on for the NFL. I’m excited to see what the rest of the 2020 season has to offer.