Jay Biggerstaff – USA TODAY Sports

Matt Mahias – Sports Ed7itor

mcm5909@psu.edu

The NFL is finally back! With matchups from the Kansas City Chiefs versus the Cleveland Browns, to the Dallas Cowboys versus the defending super bowl champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, football fans were in for a treat this past weekend. Once again, fans would be allowed back into stadiums to cheer on their teams as previously, Covid-19 prevented devoted followers from rooting for their teams in person. However, despite these full crowds, nine teams who were considered underdogs won their matchup outright, which includes five of those eight winning on the road, per Adam Scheftner and ESPN research producer Evan Kaplan. They also deduced that this is the most amount of underdog victories on opening weekend in over 35 years.

To begin the week, Dallas and Tampa Bay faced off Thursday night in a competitive and close matchup. It was certainly a shootout between quarterbacks as Dak Prescott and Tom Brady went strike for strike down the field. Prescott finished the game with just over 400 passing yards and three total touchdowns while his counterpart in Brady passed for 379 yards and four passing scores, two of which went to longtime teammate Rob Gronkowski. The final score, decided late in the game by a kick from Ryan Succop, was 31-29 with the Bucs sealing the victory after a close contest. Performing well against the defending champs, the Cowboys should have a promising season if this keeps up.

Another big matchup from week one includes The Kansas City Chiefs versus the Cleveland Browns. The Browns have been highly anticipated by NFL analysts all preseason giving them AFC championship aspirations as well as even super bowl contention. However, there is one problem with being in the AFC. You have to go through the Chiefs. Rising star quarterback Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs went down to Cleveland quickly in the first quarter with starting quarterback Baker Mayfield looking sharp and running backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt continuing where they left off in 2020 with a steller running game. The Browns were up 22-10 at the half and threatened to solidify their position in the AFC by knocking off the favored Chiefs. However, the Chiefs needed to remind the league why they are always so highly talked about in February. With a 75-yard strike to Tyreek Hill and help from tight end Travis Kelce, the Chiefs were able to secure a victory with the final score being 33-29. Even in defeat, the Browns looked great and definitely showed promise in competing with the best teams in the AFC this season.

The Pittsburgh Steelers faced off against the Buffalo Bills in Buffalo Sunday at 1:00. The Bills are another team in the AFC that have very high expectations going into the 2021 campaign. However, after a stout first half defensive performance, the Bills started to lose their edge. The Steelers offense finally got moving in the third and fourth quarters as their defense, led by recently resigned outside linebacker T.J. Watt, and special teams, led by T.J. ‘s brother and special teams captain Derek Watt, forced a huge turnover as well as a blocked punt respectively that was returned for a touchdown. In the end, the Steelers offense had some trouble getting started, but Ben Roethlisberger and his young offensive line did enough to get the job done as the Steelers walked away with the upset victory with the final score being 23-16.

The Monday night game shown on ESPN preliminarily posed questions, mainly about the Baltimore Ravens. With the Ravens being plagued by injury in the preseason, many wondered how they would fill the voids left by their injured starting caliber players. Their opponent would be the newly relocated Las Vegas Raiders, who previously were positioned in Oakland, California. This game went down to the wire as both teams fought to reach overtime. In a wild finish, the Raiders won the game on a touchdown pass, had the call turned over, threw an interception to Baltimore in the red zone, the raiders stripped quarterback Lamar Jackson of the football, and then emphatically ended the contest with a 31-yard touchdown to wide receiver Zay Jones. The final score was 33-7.

Personally, my hunger for NFL regular season games was satisfied this week with the amazing matchups and great performances. Quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals Kyler Murry had an exceptional day as his team defeated the Tennessee Titans behind his five total touchdowns. 2020 league MVP Aaron Rodgers struggled immensely against fellow quarterback Jameis Winston and the New Orleans Saints as the Green Bay Packers were blown out with the score being 38-3. The NFL is back and ready to roll. Spectators can look forward to action every single weekend from now until February, which is indeed something to be celebrated for fans around the world.