Sep 09, 2025 - 15:33
By espn.com

NFL Week 1: What was real, and what was just a mirage? - ESPN

Sunday afternoon of Week 1 is the best sort of chaos. After months of projecting, speculating and believing, the opening afternoon of the NFL season is a seven-hour reality show. That quarterback you spent six months talking yourself into has to deal with blitzes at NFL speed. The Day 3 pick who wowed everyone in camp has to go up against the first-round stars. The coach who talked a big game about his team's philosophy has to actually stick with it when the game's on the line.

And some of what you see in Week 1 actually turns out to be meaningful. Just not everything.

Go back to Week 1 last season, for instance. The league's top scorer was the Saints, who dropped 47 on the Panthers. The Patriots upset the Bengals with a great performance from their defense. The Commanders got blown out by the Buccaneers. And fresh off their run to the Super Bowl, the 49ers signaled that they were ready to go on another charge by beating up the Jets on Monday night.

Subscribe: 'The Bill Barnwell Show'

Obviously, some of what happens in Week 1 is something closer to a mirage — some combination of talent, luck and small-sample variance. Let's try to sort through what was real and what wasn't from the first full slate of the season. And naturally, although this isn't normally the case, I have to start with what I saw Sunday night.

I normally don't cover the Sunday night game in my Monday morning column, since I'm usually writing and recording my weekly hit with «The Domonique Foxworth Show» during the game. (I catch up and watch the