NFL First Week
Ryan D’Amico
Staff Writer
There were plenty of games in this first week of the 2024-25 NFL season. Since a couple of seasons ago the NFL has been trying to spread football around the world and to start the first week. For the first Thursday night football game, we had a recent AFC Championship rematch with the Chiefs and the Ravens. The next night when there usually isn’t football on Friday night was the Eagles vs Packers in Brazil. Unfortunately for the Ravens, they still couldn’t finish the job against the Chiefs even with Derrick Henry this year. They were very close with a last-second TD from Likely, but it didn’t count due to his foot being out. The Packers and Eagles were both balling but within the last 2 minutes of the game, Packers QB Jordan Love goes down with a sprained MCL and will be out for a few weeks. For the Eagles, they loved their offseason move in Saquon Barkley with him having 3 TDs, a receiving touchdown and 2 rushing.
Skipping Saturday and jumping into Sunday having 13 games from 1 to 8 pm even more action-packed than the next. You have the first games in Steelers at Falcons both with new quarterback situations, the Cardinals at Bills having Allen vs Kyler, and both teams having some new good-looking rookies with a huge comeback from the Bills, then the Titans at the Bears with the number 1 overall pick in Caleb Williams vs a disappointing Titans team. The new look Patriots at the Bengals, the Patriots not playing their rookie quarterback the Bengals not having Mixon and Tee Higgins, and a late start for Chase. Then the two second-year quarterbacks went head-to-head with the Texans at the Colts, with Anthony Richardson out all last year and Stroud winning OROY this was going to be a good match and was. Both QBs slung the ball to their variety of star targets which ended in a close game 29-27 to the Texans. The Jaguars at the Dolphins was another close one at the end and a comeback from Miami to kick a game-winning FG. The Saints against the Panthers was disgusting with Bryce Young still not looking like a number 1 pick in last year’s draft and throwing a pick on his first throw also the score was 47-10 Saints won. From the last of the 1 pm games, and the Vikings beat the Giants 28-6 with Sam Darnold having 2 passing touchdowns while JJ McCarthy is out for the season.
The 4 pm games were the Raiders at Chargers, Seahawks at Broncos, Cowboys at Browns, and Commanders at Bucs. The Chargers with a new and old head coach Jim Harbaugh who was the 49ers’ head coach under a decade ago. But the Chargers got their act together and put up 22 against the Raiders. The Broncos and the Seahawks was a close sort of back-and-forth game with Geno Smith and Bo Nix each not looking their best with the Seahawks coming out on top 26-20. The Cowboys v Browns game was an interesting one with Deshaun Watson playing his best and looking out of touch with football and Dak almost looked the same he had some good plays but didn’t look like last year’s MVP self. The Cowboys dominated on both sides and won in Clevland 33-17. In the last of the 4 o’clock games the new rookie on the Commanders Jayden Daniels who had 2 rushing touchdowns went up against Baker Mayfield who threw 4TD in a win 37-20.
In the 8 pm game on opening week, the Rams played at Lions and the game came down to the wire with old team player rivals coming to play each other you know it will be a thrill. The game was back and forth with everyone from the running backs to the tight ends and the wide receivers in play. Brown had a slow start in the first week but he will bounced back and Puka went out with a late-game knee injury. The game finished in the 4th quarter to go to Overtime 20-20, but the Lions came out on top with their duo running backs.
Then comes Monday Night Football with a huge game in the Jets vs the 49ers in San Francisco. The Jets have needed a QB for a while with a top 5 defense for the past couple of years on top of having receivers and running backs, but no QB, and Rodgers. The 49ers over the past 5 years have had a Super Bowl loss, COVID, 2 NFC championship game losses, and a Super Bowl loss so they have been right at the top of the league in the top 3. So, a great matchup to start a season off with but the 49ers came without the best running back in the league in Christian McCaffrey and still won 32-19 with a TD from Jets backup in the final 25 seconds. Rodger still getting back into play with a good Garrett Wilson connection and a great Niners defense holding Breece Hall and other receivers.
Contact Ryan at ryan.damico@student.shu.edu