The first Sunday of the NFL season is done. It was filled with crazy results, exciting moments, and, well, football. Every year, Week 1 produces results no one saw coming, and people overreact to them. Just a reminder: last season, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks started off this season 0-1, and we all know they made Super Bowl runs.

Week 1 doesn’t define a team; for most players, it was their first live action outside of practice. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore the results. Some teams got off to hot starts, and some got off to ones that could raise questions. It’s not time to hit the panic button, but it’s good to highlight what went wrong, or right, for teams in Week 1.

Chicago Bears Dominate Panthers

Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson wasn’t lying. He said he wanted to lead the league in scoring, and he got off to a hot start. 59 points against Carolina’s defense to start off the 2026 season.

The Bears led the league in EPA/Play, points per drive, and third-down conversion rate. Not only that, but they were third in success rate and sixth in explosive play rate — utter dominance from this Chicago offensive line at the line of scrimmage.

Taking a closer look at the Bears’ rushing attack, they ran outside zone at a rate of 62.5 percent. Running back D’Andre Swift executed the scheme perfectly, with 13 of his 18 rushing attempts coming on zone plays.

Swift finished the day with 124 yards and three touchdowns. He was second in the league in forced missed tackles and helped the Bears to a second-best yards-after-contact carry.

It wasn’t only the running backs; quarterback Caleb Williams did his fair share of damage. He had over 60 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

In the passing game, Chicago had the league’s fourth-best success rate and third-best EPA/Pass. The Bears did all of this with tight end Colston Loveland having zero catches and yards.

Ravens Offense Shines Over Colts

It’s a fresh new look for the Baltimore Ravens with Jesse Minter taking over. He’s a defense-minded coach, so the Ravens needed a new offensive coordinator.

Enter Declan Doyle. Oh, and he came from the team that scored 59 points in Week 1.

Doyle led the Ravens to 41 points of their own in a 41-23 win over Indianapolis. It sure helps when you have Derrick Henry on your roster, because he went for over 140 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

The performance helped lead the Ravens to a top-five finish in the league in EPA/Run, explosive run rate, yards after contact per carry and designed rushing yards. But it wasn’t just the run game hitting on all cylinders for the Ravens.

In the pass game, they ranked top-five in EPA/Pass, success rate, yards per attempt, explosive pass rate and passer rating. Zay Flowers was Lamar Jackson’s best friend, with him having five receptions for 150 yards and one touchdown.

Indianapolis played man coverage against the Ravens 65 percent of the time, and the Ravens absolutely shredded it — great first outing for the Doyle and Jackson duo.

Worried about Texans’ Defense

It’s Week 1, so remember, don’t overreact to results. That’s what Houston Texans fans are thinking right now. All offseason, the media hyped the Texans’ defense as the league’s best; I did too.

Against Buffalo, the unit gave up 36 points, over 400 total yards, a 25.5 percent explosive play rate (highest in the NFL) and 0.26 EPA/Play (fourth-highest in the NFL). We’re just not used to seeing numbers like this from this unit.

Still, the one upside was Houston allowed -0.26 EPA/Run, ranking fifth-best in the league. The issue was the defense gave up an explosive run rate of 14.3 percent. So, for the most part, the front seven kept the running lanes tight, but when they let up, it was for a big gain.

The pass defense was the issue. They were in the bottom five in EPA/Pass, explosive pass rate, yards per attempt allowed, and passer rating allowed.

The takeaway from this? Josh Allen is pretty good. It’s the first week, and it’s concerning, no doubt, but Houston should settle in as the season goes on.

Brian Flores is a madman.

The Minnesota Vikings defense plays with its head on fire. Blake Cashman and Dallas Turner dominated Green Bay on the blitzes defensive coordinator Brian Flores called.

Flores blitzed a ton, resulting in a league-high pressure rate of 54.3 percent and total pressures of 25. They did that while running zone 100 percent of the time and allowing a 50 percent completion percentage, which ranked first in the league.

The madness helped Green Bay come back from a 22-10 deficit and gave Minnesota a 1-0 start.

Time to Panic about Chargers

Well, no one saw that coming. The Los Angeles Chargers were heavily favored to beat Arizona in Week 1 with the debut of the Mike McDaniel offense. Los Angeles lost 26-14 and totaled 268 yards of offense compared to Arizona’s 393.

By the numbers, the Chargers ranked 25th in EPA/Play, 22nd in points per drive and 22nd in third-down conversion rate.

Not exactly what you’d want to see from this offense; it even got worse when receiver Ladd McConkey got hurt midway through the game. With McConkey on the field, the Chargers averaged 8.9 yards per pass. With him off, they averaged 3.9 yards per pass.

Watching the game, it just felt like no one on the Chargers’ offense had a rhythm with Justin Herbert outside of McConkey.

The rushing offense was even more concerning. Los Angeles’ rushing attack was 27th in EPA/Rush, 20th in rushing success rate and 30th in yards before contact per carry.

Not numbers you want to see out of a rushing offense that was hyped up throughout the entire offseason due to the hiring of McDaniel. You could say it’s just Week 1, and it is. But against an opponent like Arizona, you’d hope to see more dominance from this Chargers unit with playoff aspirations.