Since February 12, NFL fans have been forced to find other hobbies or look for ways to fill their time in the absence of their favorite sport. <\/p>\n
But no longer. After Thursday\u2019s shocking season opener, Sunday saw the bulk of NFL franchises take to the field for the first time. <\/p>\n
Some sent fans home on cloud nine with victories under their belts, while other supporters might be wishing they had stuck with their hobbies after defeats that could signal a long season ahead. <\/p>\n
With one final game to go \u2013 the Buffalo Bills travel to the New York Jets later on Monday \u2013 let\u2019s have a look at the action from Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season. <\/p>\n
Coined the \u2018Battle of Ohio,\u2019 clashes between the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals have always been tempestuous. <\/p>\n
However, on Sunday, the 100th encounter between the two franchises was far from that, with the Browns thrashing the Bengals 24-3. <\/p>\n
In a game which was dominated by both defenses, Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson ran for one touchdown and threw for another to tight end Harrison Bryant to separate the two teams. <\/p>\n
The rest was done by the strong Browns defense which forced Cincinnati to punt 10 times, restricting superstar quarterback Joe Burrow to just 82 passing yards and its No. 1 wide receiver Ja\u2019Marr Chase to 39 receiving yards. <\/p>\n
Since Burrow\u2019s arrival in 2020, the Bengals have typically been one of the league\u2019s best offenses but looked out of sorts throughout Sunday\u2019s game, being held to just 142 total yards, the lowest in head coach Zac Taylor\u2019s 57 games in charge. <\/p>\n
But Burrow \u2013 playing in the first game since injuring his calf in preseason, which he said felt \u201cgood enough\u201d \u2013 insisted afterwards that \u201cnobody is panicking in here\u201d about the defeat and performance. <\/p>\n
\u201cWeek 1 doesn\u2019t define anybody\u2019s season,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, not very good out there. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody that watched saw that. But we have been in this spot before and come back stronger and had great years. That\u2019s what we are going to do.\u201d <\/p>\n
For the Browns, hopes are high for an improvement on last season\u2019s disappointment. And there were glimpses of positive signs, including Watson\u2019s improvement, running back Nick Chubb running for over 106 yards and the defense\u2019s impressive stoutness. <\/p>\n
But at the end of it all, the game showed there is still that fire between the two Ohio teams, with Chase expressing his frustration at losing to the Browns. <\/p>\n
Before the clash, Chase had fanned the flames of the rivalry, saying he was going to call Cleveland players \u201celves\u201d \u2013 the team has a mascot, Brownie the Elf. <\/p>\n
And after that chastening losss, Chase expressed his frustration at losing to the Browns after all his big talk. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating because I called they ass elves and we just lost to some elves,\u201d said Chase of the Browns. \u201cSo I\u2019m pissed on my part, I\u2019m pissed on that end. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe got missed opportunities, we didn\u2019t capitalize \u2026 and we lost.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Green Bay Packers have a long history of excellent quarterbacks. The period of leadership under Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers saw the team excel during the regular season \u2013 although the team arguably underperformed in the playoffs. <\/p>\n
So following Rodgers\u2019 departure to the New York Jets in the spring, a new era has been ushered in in Wisconsin under Jordan Love. <\/p>\n
And it began in perfect fashion, continuing the Packers\u2019 stranglehold over the Chicago Bears with a 38-20 victory at Soldier Field in Chicago which saw Love excel in his first start having been named the team\u2019s official No. 1 QB. <\/p>\n
The fourth-year quarterback threw for 245 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions in an almost perfect performance as the Packers used a big second half to pull away. <\/p>\n
Running back Aaron Jones had two touchdowns \u2013 one on the ground and one through the air \u2013 as the Packers recorded their ninth straight victory over their NFC North division rivals and fifth straight at Soldier Field. <\/p>\n
With all eyes on Love after spending three seasons as Rodgers\u2019 back-up and the weight of the Packers\u2019 excellent record against the Bears weighing on his shoulders \u2013 Rodgers went viral two seasons ago for shouting \u201cI still own you\u201d after scoring against the Bears \u2013 the 24-year-old said he was just appreciative of an opening-week victory. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew what type of game we were in for,\u201d Love said. \u201cObviously, my first game in this rivalry, so I mean it felt good. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a good team. Obviously, first half was close and, second half, the way we just bounced back and came out there in the second half and just total domination. It felt good. It just feels good to get a win, never take that for granted.\u201d <\/p>\n
In the final game of Sunday\u2019s action, the Dallas Cowboys laid down a serious marker with a dominant victory over their division rivals, the New York Giants. <\/p>\n
It was the defense which was the game changer, with Noah Igbinoghene scoring his first career touchdown on a return of a blocked field goal and DaRon Bland scoring on a 22-yard interception return. <\/p>\n
Dallas sacked Giants quarterback Daniel Jones seven times, with Stephon Gilmore also intercepting Jones. It was the largest shutout victory in Cowboys history, according to NFL Research. <\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, that\u2019s who we are,\u201d Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy said of his team\u2019s pass rush. \u201cI clearly feel like we have taken another step. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou could see that in training camp, but you look at the way teams are going to try to play us. You look at their first series. They\u2019re going to try to pound the ball and challenge our run defense over and over again and try to soften our pass rush. But, yeah, the pass rush was relentless tonight. We gave up contain a couple times early, but after that, it clearly was in total control of the game.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Giants had only 171 yards and three turnovers in the disappointing home season opener. <\/p>\n
They were completely mismatched throughout, with kicker Graham Gano unsuccessful on two field goal attempts and Jones not even finishing the game such was the domination. <\/p>\n
Away vs. home<\/strong> <\/p>\n Detroit Lions 21-20 Kansas City Chiefs <\/p>\n Carolina Panthers 10-24 Atlanta Falcons <\/p>\n Houston Texans 9-25 Baltimore Ravens <\/p>\n Cincinnati Bengals 3-24 Cleveland Browns <\/p>\n Jacksonville Jaguars 31-21 Indianapolis Colts <\/p>\n Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-17 Minnesota Vikings <\/p>\n Tennessee Titans 15-16 New Orleans Saints <\/p>\n San Francisco 49ers 30-7 Pittsburgh Steelers <\/p>\n Arizona Cardinals 16-20 Washington Commanders <\/p>\n Green Bay Packers 38-20 Chicago Bears <\/p>\n Las Vegas Raiders 17-16 Denver Broncos <\/p>\n Miami Dolphins 36-34 Los Angeles Chargers <\/p>\n Philadelphia Eagles 25-20 New England Patriots <\/p>\n Los Angeles Rams 30-13 Seattle Seahawks <\/p>\n Dallas Cowboys 40-0 New York Giants <\/p>\n Buffalo Bills @ New York Jets <\/p>\n\n Since February 12, NFL fans have been forced to find other hobbies or look for ways to fill their time in the absence of their favorite sport. But no longer. After Thursday\u2019s shocking season opener, Sunday saw the bulk of NFL franchises take to the field for the first time. Some sent fans home on <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}