Issue #4 — NFL Week 1 results, from Europe

A day late — Monday got away from us, sorry — but every score is checked twice, which is the promise that matters.

The weekend in one paragraph

The champions won their opener with their backup quarterback, having lost Sam Darnold five plays in. A hundred thousand people watched the Rams get flattened in Melbourne and then argue about jet lag. Chicago and Carolina put up 96 points between them, the most in any opening game the league has ever played, on the highest-scoring Week 1 Sunday on record. Cleveland's chosen quarterback lost 34–10 and was told it "wasn't all him". And on Monday night Patrick Mahomes, nine months after tearing two knee ligaments, ran 15 yards for a touchdown. Standings at the bottom, alarm clock after that.

Every result, with the story

Winner first. Every score read off ESPN's scoreboard and checked against a second source.

Wednesday night (Thursday morning here)
Seahawks 13–10 Patriots — Seattle's defence intercepted Drake Maye three times in the fourth quarter, the last one in the end zone with 26 seconds left. Maye afterwards: "I just stopped being patient. That was the big thing."

Melbourne (Friday morning here)
49ers 27–7 Rams — Brock Purdy threw three touchdowns, Kyren Williams scored the first NFL touchdown on Australian soil, and Matthew Stafford was taken off late. More below.

Sunday, 18:00 UK
Bengals 33–27 Buccaneers — Cincinnati's rebuilt defence forced four turnovers, including a 27-yard fumble return for a touchdown by Demetrius Knight Jr.
Lions 31–30 Saints (overtime) — Detroit scored on the first drive of extra time; New Orleans scored too, went for a two-point conversion to win rather than a kick to tie, and Tyler Shough's pass fell incomplete.
Jets 23–10 Titans — Breece Hall ran for 102 yards and a touchdown; the Jets held the ball for nearly 39 of the 60 minutes.
Ravens 41–23 Colts — Derrick Henry ran for 144 yards and three touchdowns; Baltimore had 31 points before half-time.
Steelers 20–13 Falcons — T.J. Watt intercepted Cooper Rush and ran it back for the touchdown that settled it, with Atlanta's new starter Tua Tagovailoa out injured.
Bears 59–37 Panthers — the record-breaker. More below.
Jaguars 34–10 Browns — Trevor Lawrence threw four touchdowns; Jacksonville scored on six of their first seven possessions. More below.
Bills 36–31 Texans — Buffalo trailed 31–30 with under two minutes left; Josh Allen found Joshua Palmer for a 34-yard touchdown with 1:36 to go.

Sunday, 21:25 UK
Cardinals 26–14 Chargers — the upset of the weekend. Arizona, under new head coach Mike LaFleur, held the ball for 37 minutes to Los Angeles' 22 and kicked four field goals.
Raiders 27–13 Dolphins — Kirk Cousins, the 38-year-old picked over the number one draft pick, threw three touchdowns, two of them to running back Ashton Jeanty. More below.
Vikings 39–22 Packers — Kyler Murray's Minnesota debut lasted one quarter before a concussion; backup Carson Wentz came on and the Vikings scored 29 unanswered points, two touchdowns to Justin Jefferson, to overturn a 22–10 Green Bay lead.
Eagles 24–22 Commanders — Jalen Hurts threw three touchdowns; Washington scored late and went for two to tie, and Moro Ojomo stopped it with 1:01 left.

Sunday night (Monday 01:20 UK)
Giants 28–20 Cowboys — John Harbaugh's first game as Giants head coach. Jaxson Dart threw three touchdowns and no interceptions; Dallas gave away 85 yards in eight penalties. Harbaugh: "I think we're on our way."

Monday night (Tuesday 01:15 UK)
Chiefs 31–10 Broncos — Mahomes' return, and Kenneth Walker III, signed from Seattle in the summer, ran for 173 yards and two touchdowns in his Kansas City debut, a club record for a first game. More below.

Three things that mattered

1. Melbourne: a hundred thousand people, and a row about the flight
The first regular-season NFL game in Australia drew more than 100,000 to the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and the crowd was overwhelmingly for San Francisco, who had arrived a week early. The Rams flew in roughly a day before. 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel afterwards: "I don't think you can fly 16 hours and be ready to play." Rams coach Sean McVay: "I make no excuses… We just weren't good enough. I didn't coach good enough." The one complaint from the ground was the view: on a cricket oval the front row sits roughly 165 feet from the sideline, and Pro Football Network reported fans online calling the sightlines "awful". Los Angeles, tipped by many as a Super Bowl favourite, are 0–1, and ESPN's Dan Graziano says "Rams could miss the playoffs" is not an overreaction.

2. Chicago 59, Carolina 37: the highest-scoring opener there has ever been
Ninety-six points, beating the 88 that Tampa Bay and New Orleans managed in 2018, and the most the Bears have scored in an opening game since 1948. Caleb Williams threw for 269 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 65 yards and two more; D'Andre Swift ran for 124 yards and three touchdowns days after signing a new $33.75m contract; and Carolina's Bryce Young threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns in a losing cause. It was not a one-off: NFL.com's Kevin Patra counted 53.3 points per game across Sunday's 13 games, the highest-scoring Week 1 Sunday on record. Williams: "That's how we want to look each week."

3. The three quarterback decisions we followed all summer, one week on
Cleveland. Deshaun Watson, picked over Shedeur Sanders after being booed by his own crowd, went 16 of 22 for 205 yards, one touchdown, one interception, a fumble and five sacks in a 34–10 defeat; the Browns trailed 24–0 at half-time and Sanders never left the bench. Head coach Todd Monken: "It wasn't all him. It really wasn't all him. That's unfair." Watson starts again at Tampa Bay on Sunday — Monken confirmed it on Monday.
Las Vegas. Kirk Cousins, 38, picked over number one pick Fernando Mendoza, completed his first ten passes, threw three touchdowns and two interceptions, and passed 300 career touchdown passes. NFL.com's Dan Parr noted he was 1 for 7 with both interceptions on the longer throws, "keeping the Mendoza question alive". Mendoza did not play.
Kansas City. Patrick Mahomes started nine months to the day after tearing his ACL and LCL (two of the four main knee ligaments), wearing a custom brace, threw for 184 yards and two touchdowns and scored on a 15-yard run. "If I was going to say I was nervous for anything, it was getting hit on it."

Injuries & fallout

Sam Darnold, Seattle Seahawks quarterback — hurt his hip on Seattle's fifth play of the season. The scan showed the joint intact and the injury muscular; ESPN reports he is expected to miss Sunday's game at Arizona, with Drew Lock starting. Coach Mike Macdonald called the scan "really, really good news".
Kyler Murray, Minnesota Vikings quarterback — concussion in the first quarter of his Minnesota debut. He is in the league's concussion protocol (a fixed set of medical steps a player must clear before returning, with no set timeline). Coach Kevin O'Connell says Sunday at Chicago is day by day; Carson Wentz would start.
Tua Tagovailoa, Atlanta Falcons quarterback — strained oblique (side muscle) in practice, missed Week 1. Coach Kevin Stefanski had no update on Monday and no timeline for naming a Week 2 starter.
A.J. Brown, New England Patriots receiver — high ankle sprain in his Patriots debut, out four weeks or more.
Myles Garrett, Los Angeles Rams pass-rusher — knee surgery, placed on injured reserve (out at least four games) on the morning of the Melbourne game.
Zay Flowers, Baltimore Ravens receiver — 150 yards and a touchdown, then re-injured his hamstring. Monday's scan showed nothing long-term; day to day.
Ladd McConkey, Los Angeles Chargers receiver — rib injury in the third quarter against Arizona, day to day per Jim Harbaugh.
Alvin Kamara, New Orleans Saints running back — the knee sprain from August kept him out of the Detroit game as a precaution; Pro Football Rumors reports he is expected to play at Baltimore on Sunday, though the club has not confirmed it.
Josh Jacobs, Green Bay Packers running back — no change: still on the Commissioner's Exempt List (paid leave while the league investigates the charges from May), no return date.

The table, minus the noise

Everyone is 1–0 or 0–1, so the table is noise this week. What is not noise: the four teams a lot of people fancied are all 0–1 — the Rams, the Chargers (beaten at home by Arizona), the Packers (led 22–10, lost 39–22) and the Cowboys. The champions are 1–0 with a backup quarterback. Full standings.

This week: stay up for

No game in Europe this week (the first London game is 4 October). US Eastern plus five is UK, plus six is CET.

The one that needs an alarm

Detroit Lions @ Buffalo Bills — Fri 01:15 UK / 02:15 CET — Sky Sports NFL and Main Event (UK); RTL free-to-air (Germany). Thursday Night Football: two of Sunday's narrow winners, and the first proper test for both.

Sunday, 18:00 UK / 19:00 CET — eight games
Carolina at Atlanta, Minnesota at Chicago (Wentz or Murray against the 59-point Bears), Philadelphia at Tennessee, Pittsburgh at New England, Green Bay at the New York Jets, Cleveland at Tampa Bay (Watson again), New Orleans at Baltimore, Cincinnati at Houston.

UK: Bengals–Texans free on 5Action (coverage from 17:30); Vikings–Bears on Sky Sports NFL; Steelers–Patriots on Sky Sports Football.
Germany: Steelers–Patriots free on RTL; Bengals–Texans on RTL+; Eagles–Titans on Sky Sport; the German-language conference of the rest is free on NITRO from 19:00.

Sunday, 21:05 and 21:25 UK / 22:05 and 22:25 CET — five games
Jacksonville at Denver and Las Vegas at the LA Chargers (21:05); Washington at Dallas, Seattle at Arizona (Lock for Darnold) and Miami at San Francisco (21:25).

UK: Commanders–Cowboys free on Channel 5 (from 21:00, also Sky Sports Football); Jaguars–Broncos on Sky Sports NFL and Main Event; Seahawks–Cardinals on Sky Sports+.
Germany: Dolphins–49ers free on RTL; Seahawks–Cardinals on Sky Sport.

The other two night games

Indianapolis Colts @ Kansas City Chiefs — Mon 01:20 UK / 02:20 CET — Sky Sports NFL; RTL. Sunday Night Football, Mahomes' second start.
New York Giants @ Los Angeles Rams — Tue 01:15 UK / 02:15 CET — Sky Sports NFL; RTL. Monday Night Football: Harbaugh's Giants against a Rams side that badly needs a win.

Everything else is DAZN NFL Game Pass only (£179.99 a season in the UK, €199.99 in Germany), with the UK's 24-hour delay on Sky's exclusive Sunday games still in force.

Back on schedule next Monday, 07:00. Confused by anything this week? Hit reply — we read every one.

The Late Window