The San Francisco 49ers, considered a possible Super Bowl team, lost on the road to the Chicago Bears, who are far from it.
The Houston Texans and Indianapolis Colts tied in a game that the Texans essentially dominated.
The Cincinnati Bengals lost an overtime game to the Pittsburgh Steelers thanks to a blocked extra point on the final play in regulation, a game that started with Joe Burrow looking awful.
The New Orleans Saints needed a late kick to beat the Atlanta Falcons as their supposedly dominant defense certainly didn’t look like it in that game.
It was just a strange opening to the season. The only two constants were the dominance shown by the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs. Both opened on the road with statement wins that featured high offense with their pass rushers putting on impressive shows.
The Bills remain at the top of my Power Rankings, with the Chiefs now in second place. Just remember, though, it’s only one week for all 32 teams. That means overreactions all this week leading into week two.
Such as:
The Packers are done.
The Patriots can’t score.
The Eagles are going to the Super Bowl.
Maybe one or two of them are true, but not yet. It is too early. We can’t get a real gauge on this league until October. We really won’t know the true contenders until November when the split really begins.
So keep that in mind when reading these power rankings. Just because a team has a turnover doesn’t mean they have to score 10 spots. Let it play for a while.
The Bears won’t finish with a better record than the 49ers, even if they beat them. Or will they? This league is crazy at times, as Week 1 reminded us yet again.
The biggest movers
Rk
Team’s
Chg
Rcrd
1 Bills After their performance against the Rams, there’s no doubt they should be in first place. They sent a message to the rest of the league with this win. — 1-0-0 2 Chiefs Patrick Mahomes showed against the Cardinals that he can still play at a high level without Tyreek Hill. This offense will be fine. 1 1-0-0 3 Buccaneers The defense really impressed against the Cowboys. But the offensive attack was on display at times. The offensive line has injuries, which is not good for New Orleans. 4 1-0-0 4 Eagles If Jalen Hurts can play like he did against the Lions, this could be a deep playoff team. But the defense was not good, which should be a concern. 4 1-0-0 5 Chargers With that passer in Justin Herbert and those passers in Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa, they have the two main things they need to win it all. Now they have a chance to show the Chiefs this week in a big early game. 4 1-0-0 6 Saints They found a way against the Falcons, but it wasn’t pretty. What happened to a defense that was supposed to be so dominant? They better do it against Tampa Bay. — 1-0-0 7 Vikings Get off to an impressive start by beating the Packers in dominant fashion. The defense really impressed and Justin Jefferson was unstoppable. 5 1-0-0 8 Ravens It wasn’t always pretty against the Jets, but Lamar Jackson got it going in the second half. It’s going to get a lot tougher on this offense going forward. 8 1-0-0 9 Packers Looked awful in loss to Vikings. Aaron Rodgers was beat and didn’t play well. A defense that was supposed to be dominant was not. 7 0-1-0 10 Rams Shut out the Bills in a big way. Let’s just call it a bad game. This team will bounce back coached by Sean McVay. 6 0-1-0 11 Bengals Joe Barrow looked like he lost the preseason early against the Steelers, but he’s back. The line still has issues that need to be fixed to protect him. 6 0-1-0 12 Dolphins The Dolphins beat the Patriots and were never really threatened, thanks to the defense. Tua Tagovailoa was good, but the offense only scored one touchdown. 6 1-0-0 13 49ers Trey Lance was very bad against the Bears. This is not good. But let’s look at it with the conditions and see how he does this week. 3 0-1-0 14 Colts Looked awful for much of their first game against the Texans, but fought back to tie. They have to be better than that, but now they face another road game in Jacksonville, where they haven’t been playing well. 3 0-0-1 15 Raiders The offense showed against the Chargers that it will be fun to watch. The defense needs to be better. 2 0-1-0 16 Titans Losing to the Giants after dominating most of the game will sting. They just didn’t do enough offensively to put them away. 2 0-1-0 17 Commanders Carson Wentz did some good things in the win over the Jaguars, which is a good sign for this team. They have playmakers on offense. 3 1-0-0 18 …
