Gridiron Voice

Football Opinions, By the Fans, For the Fans

Tale of the Tape, Week 1

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Now that the games have been played and reviewed (yes I’ve watched the game film on every game from Week 1) it’s time to discuss what happened. And I mean the things that matter to the fans, not the silly points made by game commentators or the clip show highlights on every sports broadcast. Tale of the Tape is where I take a look at each game and try to get an understanding of the why behind each team’s performance. Not every team is going to get a review every week. Some games (New Orleans and Carolina) just don’t have enough quality minutes to really get a feel for how each team is performing.

Anyway, here’s my first stab at our weekly “Tale of the Tape” column!

Before I get to the games, I wanted to write about something I felt watching the games live and then really noticed on my review. Quarterback play, in general, has taken a big step backward. I don’t think this is a trend that will last all season, some quality quarterbacks just had a bad week. But in general, I think the standard of quarterback play was so mediocre this week that I am a bit worried about the quality of football we are going to see each week.

I expect quarterbacks to be accurate with their throws, protect the ball, and be able to find the open receiver. Very basic things. But beyond that, quarterbacks need to be able to read defensive alignments. They need to recognize coverage, be able to audible to a play that takes advantage of the defensive alignment, and most importantly of all, recognize the blitz and be able to protect himself from unnecessary hits. These are definitely higher level skills, but still something every professional quarterback should be able to do if they are starting in the NFL. This week was a clinic in how poorly these quarterbacks rank in all of these categories.

The NFL did a great job scheduling the primetime games for the first week. Some of the best quarterbacks in the league were highlighted in all of these games. But Sunday afternoon/evening was a trainwreck. The rookies can be excused, they are still trying to figure out the pro game. But there were so many times when you could tell the quarterback had no idea where the blitz was coming from. Overthrows were abundant, as were throws in the dirt. Bad interceptions, four yard throws on 3rd and 8, just poor decision making in general. In an offensive league, where the rules favor the passing game, we should expect more from our quarterbacks, offensive coordinators, and head coaches. The teams that won this week pushed the ball downfield, had good quarterback play, and were aggressive on offense.

On to the games.

BAL @ KC and GB @ PHI

I’m combining these two games because they were on primetime and most people were able to watch them (if you have a Peacock sub).

Baltimore lost this game because they forgot their identity. Too often in big games, Baltimore chooses to become a pass first offense instead of relying on their dominant run game. Teams that win against Mahomes are able to keep him on the sideline. Baltimore is capable, they just choose not to. This game wasn’t lost on a toenail out of bounds. It was lost when they got away from what makes them special.

Philadelphia showed the importance of staying balanced on offense. Jalen Hurts started slow and the offense struggled to get things moving in the pass game. Relying on Saquon Barkley powered the Eagles offense. Jordan Love was inaccurate throughout the game, missing his receivers on critical downs. If he had been more efficient, Green Bay likely builds a big lead and keeps the Eagle offense on the sideline. Neither defense was great, and both teams will need to clean up their coverage mistakes if they want to make a run.

TEN @ CHI

Caleb Williams and Will Levis were wildly inaccurate passers. Williams had several overthrows and balls tipped at the line of scrimmage. It looked like his throwing motion was low/sidearm on a few throws that got tipped. He’s going to need to focus on his fundamentals in the pros. Levis locked in on his primary receiver and rarely moved through his progressions. By the second half, the Chicago defense easily anticipated throws and made it a rough outing for the Tennessee QB.

Both defenses looked good, but I’m thinking it was more about the poor offenses than anything of quality from the defense. One thing that jumped off the screen was the defensive tackle play in Tennessee. If they can get a better pass rush from the edge, that defensive line could be very good this year.

NE @ CIN and CAR @ NO

These games were atrocious. The Cincinnati and Carolina offensive lines chose not to play on Sunday. They just kind of hung out, played patty cake with the guys across from them and walked around a bit. They did not do much blocking at all. New England played marginally better than Cincinnati and got the win. There’s really not much more to this game. New Orleans jumped out to such a quick lead that Carolina looked like they quit playing to win before the second quarter. Body language was horrible, receivers were giving up on their routes and the defense stopped attacking. All four of these teams still have something to prove next week. I don’t think any of them are as good or bad as this Sunday showed.

PIT @ ATL

I don’t expect much from Justin Fields anymore. And he delivered exactly what he used to do in Chicago – a couple good runs, a couple good passes, and a lot of frenetic energy with little production. Kirk Cousins looked old. His passes were low for the most part. He was bouncing them across the middle and had almost zero movement in the pocket. If this is what post injury Cousins is going to be, Atlanta will be proven smart for taking Penix in the draft.

TJ Watt gets all the press on the Pittsburgh defense, but it was a strong effort across the board. The secondary did a great job disguising coverage and making things tough for Atlanta’s playmakers to get free. Cousins mobility made him a sitting duck in the pocket and his throws were coming out early because he had no chance of escaping the pass rush. Still as dominant as Pittsburgh seemed, they couldn’t get the ball in the end zone and let Atlanta hang around until the very end.

We’ll have to wait and see what this offense looks like with Russell Wilson.

ARI @ BUF

Kyler Murray had a good statistical day. He played with a lot of energy. He ran around, he brought excitement. He’s also short. This has been a story over and over again. But here’s the thing: it was so obvious in this game that he simply cannot play from the pocket. When he’s in the pocket he can’t see the middle of the field. Early in the game he missed open receivers and took off running instead. From the pocket his throws are always to the flats and Buffalo picked up on that in the second half.

The Arizona running game was strong all game long. They are going to be a tough offense to gameplan for, but Kyler is going to have to attack the middle of the defense.

Josh Allen had a slow start, but he put out one of the few good performances of the day. James Cook looks stronger than last year and ready to take on the bulk of the work. Buffalo got better as the game went on. That’s a bad sign for the rest of the AFC. If Allen can find a receiver to step up and make clutch plays, this team looks primed for another deep playoff run.

HOU @ IND

This was a highly entertaining game. CJ Stroud and Anthony Richardson both played really well. Richardson hit some great deep throws which kept the Colts in the game. Stroud was under pressure early but kept his composure and delivered throws all over the field. The difference in this game was the running of Mixon for Houston. They were able to grind up the clock with the running game only allowing Indy to run 4 plays in the 3rd quarter.

Richardson still needs to work on his mid range throwing. He was rifling some passes that ended up overthrows even with wide open receivers. But his accuracy looks much better than last year.

I know Houston is a good team, but I don’t think I gave Indianapolis enough credit before the season. If Richardson can stay healthy, he’s going to be a nightmare for opposing defenses.

Again, loved this game.

JAX @ MIA

This was like watching two separate games. The first half was efficient Jacksonville moving the ball down the field and scoring points. Tua was inaccurate and overthrowing wide open receivers in the first half. They couldn’t get any momentum at all. Even the running game that worked so well last year was getting stuffed. Jacksonville’s defense tackled well in the first half.

But then the second half came and Miami’s speedsters started getting the ball in space. Miami was scoring and Jacksonville couldn’t get anything going on offense. Last year, Miami would have lost this game. They didn’t have the mental toughness to hang in and fight for the win. But this is exactly what Jacksonville did at the end of last year. Losing games they should have won.

Keep an eye on the running backs in Jacksonville. Etienne is the starter, but Bigsby was by far the more electric player.

And I’m not sold on Trevor Lawrence. I need to watch more film on him this year, but it feels like he’s playing in slow motion. The ball isn’t rocketing out of his hand, he’s not running with great speed, and he’s taking an extra beat or two to move through his progressions. It might have been a one week thing, but it could be that defenses have caught up to him and have found a hole in his game. He’s certainly not on the bad quarterback list from this week, but he wasn’t impressive either.

MIN @ NYG

How did Daniel Jones get a contract extension? Turnovers aside, he’s not a good quarterback. He consistently throws the ball underneath the coverage. His completion percentage stays higher because he’s not pushing the ball downfield or across the middle. He runs the ball too much. He’s not an athlete that can run over people like Josh Allen or run around them like Kyler Murray. I just don’t see how this guy is still a starter in this league.

I do like the rookie WR though. I’m sure he wishes he had someone else throwing the ball too.

Sam Darnold is a good fit for this Minnesota system. He doesn’t need to play hero ball, he just runs the system and throws to the open guy. The deep ball to Jefferson early on set the tone for the offense. The guys understood that every play was available to them. This is not the basic offense they were tied to last year because of their quarterback issues.

LV @ LAC

Oy

Quarterback issues continue. But it wasn’t just Minshew and the Raiders. Herbert didn’t look great either.

Both of these defenses are built around getting pressure on the quarterback and that was in full force in the first half. To their credit, the Chargers kept pounding the run game until it finally broke through in the second half. Injuries to the front line made the Raiders’ depth chart thin and you could see them get tired in the second half.

There were a few plays, here and there, that showed there is some potential in the Raiders’ offense. But does anyone truly believe Minshew and O’Connell were the best/only options they could be looking at in the offseason? Minshew was another example of a quarterback throwing underneath and building up a completion percentage but never making a tough throw down the field. If the Raiders offense is going to be successful this year they are going to have to get chunk plays out of the passing game and sustain drives.

The Chargers weren’t all that impressive other than a couple of long runs in the second half. Herbert is lacking talent outside at the wide receiver position. Against better teams, this offense isn’t going to be able to keep up.

DEN @ SEA

I’m not sure what I watched here. A defense that started out with a sack and an interception, got two safeties (and almost a third), and still gave up 300 yards and 26 points even though they appeared to be faster and more aggressive than the Seattle offense. By the time the second half rolled around this defense was on its heels as Seattle discovered their running game and took control.

Bo Nix struggled from the very beginning. He was inaccurate and under pressure. The only time the offense showed any kind of success was late in the game when he finally decided to run the ball himself. That won’t be a long term solution for him. I’m not sold on the offensive talent around him. If Denver expects Nix to get better, Coach Payton is going to need to script a better gameplan to help him build confidence early. After Nix started playing “backyard football” he looked more comfortable and was getting the offense moving.

One thing to keep an eye on: Nix has a weird throwing motion. He drops the ball before his wind up and it telegraphs his throws. It’s also going to be easier for defenses to strip the ball while he’s in the pocket.

Geno Smith started slow in this game but found his form by the second half. The running game carried the offense and I expect that to continue. The offensive line was terrible at pass blocking on Sunday.

DAL @ CLE

Deshaun Watson is going to be a problem for Cleveland. He doesn’t have the athletic form he showed when he first entered the league. The ball doesn’t have a lot of zip on it. But more than that, he seemed disinterested and flat footed in the pocket. More than once, Watson threw the ball twenty yards past his receiver. It felt like the coaches were telling him to take shots deep and he was protesting those plays. It was not a good look for a team that has playoff aspirations.

Dak played reasonably well. Cleveland has a good defense, so having success against them won’t always look pretty. The Dallas running game was better than most people expected.

But the story was the ineptitude of Watson in this game. Had Cleveland’s offense performed, this game could have been very different. I’m going to wait and see how these teams play next week.

WAS @ TB

Of all the rookie quarterbacks, Jayden Daniels looked the most comfortable on the field. He didn’t play much better, but he gave the impression that he was more aware of what he was seeing from the Tampa Bay defense. His running was exciting, but I still worry that he’s too slender to keep that up over a full season. He struggled early to get the ball to his wide receivers. But as the game went on he started to get more confident driving the ball to the outside. It might take a handful of games, but this offense has potential.

How bad was the quarterback play if Baker Mayfield had the best performance of the day? What I appreciated about Mayfield’s day was his control of the offense and confidence in his receivers. He was letting the ball go as soon as his back foot hit the ground in his drop back.

Keep an eye on the running backs for Tampa. There is a huge difference between White getting a handoff and catching a pass. Handoff: hit in the back field, Catch: ten, fifteen yard gain. The rookie they brought in has great explosiveness from the backfield. Watch him start taking the majority of the handoffs and White becoming more of a third down back.

LAR @ DET

Two heavyweights standing in the middle of the ring just giving and taking punches. Another game where the first half and second half are like different games. Loved seeing the Rams overcome adversity and fight to get back into the game and force overtime. Really loved seeing the Lions come back out and finish the game strong. Last year at Dallas the Lions had the chance to win and a mental mistake cost them. They learned from that, and proved it Sunday night. Teams have to learn how to win consistently – how to win when they shouldn’t. The Lions are learning that and it’s going to help them in the playoffs this year.

NYJ @ SF

Sorry Jets fans, Aaron Rodgers is old.

For the last couple years, we’ve been told the Jets offense is being held back by the quarterback play. That once Rodgers took over, this was a Super Bowl team. Well they certainly didn’t look like that Monday night. The passing game was still anemic.

What should scare everyone in the NFL is how well San Francisco’s offense played without Christian McCaffery. Purdy was efficient, not explosive, but he did his job and distributed the ball to the playmakers.

The defense still looks solid, but we don’t know if Aaron played bad because he’s washed or because the 49ers defense is good. Next week should help clear that up.

Whew!

There we go, our first look at every team. Week 1 doesn’t always tell us much about how a team is going to do over the whole season. But there are definitely some warning signs out there. Fans in Ohio, it might be a year to just focus on the college playoff . . . .