Editor's note: The game recaps below are transcripts from the Harris Football Week 1 film review podcasts. We would encourage you to listen to the full episodes right here. Chris has bravely accepted the burden of watching every game each week, capturing details and context not available via box scores. Here's a taste of this week's review...
Tampa Bay 23, Atlanta 20
Let’s do the Buccaneers/Falcons barnburner. I’m not sure it was all that well played, but it had some peak moments and also insane stupidity. It started pretty awesome for Bijan Robinson — he was split wide on the Falcons’ very first play, caught a slant. And then a third play, a little checkdown screen that should be a short gain but Bijan can scoot. He was gone for 50 yards and the first touchdown.
Unfortunately, the other 16 touches went for 63 yards, including some really frustrating side-to-side usage near the Tampa goal line. I think with better red-zone play-calling you get at least one more touchdown out of Robinson, though certainly we can stop talking about him. His speed was obvious, they set him up to make a big play and he did — and Tampa’s run defense looks really good again. Tyler Allgeier played only 18 snaps, so how in the world did he have 10 carries? Again, Tampa’s run defense is good, probably, so I'm not terribly mad at 10 carries for 24 yards. There were several plays where Robinson was split wide with Allgeier in the backfield. I just think some over-cleverness on Atlanta’s part cost them this game.
Michael Penix was pretty good, started hot (6 for 7), got colder (7 for his next 16). He got multiple roughing the passer calls, but when the Buccaneers did what they do, which is blitz, Penix stood in and played well. Multiple times it seemed like the refs were bailing Penix out near the goal line, first taking away a potential game-losing fumble, then he scrambles up the middle on fourth down and it was a good ruling — he was in for the rushing TD. Because Tampa’s kicker missed a late extra point, Penix only had to lead the Falcons to field goal range with no timeouts, which he did.
And honestly, on that last drive, a lotta Kyle Pitts — pretty clutch, didn’t do anything dumb, knew when to get out of bounds. Penix almost threw the game-winning touchdown to super-deep sleeper Casey Washington, but Antoine Winfield knocked it away at the last second. Then of course the Falcons kicker blew a 44-yarder with a chance to send it to overtime. Drake London hurt his shoulder late in the game, certainly got peppered with targets, dropped a late touchdown. I think we’re giving the side-eye to Atlanta’s red zone offense, but giving Penix credit for looking like a good starting quarterback.
Baker Mayfield, he tried to throw two interceptions in this game, one deep in his own territory with :30 left in the first half, then at 10-10 in the second half after a big punt return, again, throws it right to a defender and it’s dropped. Most of the way through the third quarter, Mayfield was 10 for 20 for 112 yards — but he’s got moxie, that kid, you know and I know it. In this case, it took the form of a couple really big scrambles. Mayfield was actually the leading rushing in the game — granted only 39 yards, but a huge first down on a long scramble followed by a little red-zone screen to the Sprinter Soldier, Bucky Irving. He made a wonderful play beating three guys to the pylon to take the lead 17-10.
Just honestly not that much offense for Tampa, scrappy when they needed to be, but the two touchdowns to Emeka Egbuka were big-league. The first, it was the route combo we always see Chris Godwin do with Mike Evans, the dagger with Evans running the clear-out, and Egbuka catches the underneath ball for a 30-yard touchdown. That was really good. The winning score was a deep post where…that’s a pretty baller route, and a really good throw by Mayfield. Mike Evans had a big catch on that drive, too. He only goes 5 for 51, but was plenty involved and should be fine. Like, this was a 260-yard performance for Tampa, no individual player had more than 67 yards, but they found a way.
The Tampa backfield, I definitely questioned the consensus that Bucky Irving was taking over what passes for every-down work in the NFL — and for one week, that questioning was wrong. The snap count: 43 Irving, 14 Rachaad White and 1 for Sean Tucker.
Tucker’s one offensive snap was even a carry that came before White ever touched the ball. An 18-3-1 touch advantage for the Sprinter Soldier, who didn’t do much (it’s true) and a few times looked super-miscast trying to get short yardage because he’s small. But when a guy has that kind of touch advantage, all you need is the one play — and Irving made the one play, a brilliant quick move to score that receiving touchdown. Obviously, without an insanely dumb roughing the passer call on the Falcons, Mayfield never gets the chance to throw the winning score. But it’s Buccaneers/Falcons; insanely dumb stuff is gonna happen.
L.A. Rams 14, Houston 9
And then a couple games, y’know, I watched ‘em live, so I gotta talk about ‘em. Texans/Rams, not what you’d call a fireworks display. The Rams were pretty much truth in advertising, even though it didn’t lead to a lotta points. There was drama, there were so many penalties, both teams. The Rams were grabbing receivers on just about every dropback, three of which were called. Meanwhile, the Texans were false starting and holding like crazy on offense. I think both quarterbacks could’ve sued for offensive line non-support, though in the Rams’ case I think that’s because Houston has a sick pass rush. In the Texans’ case, I think it looks like they didn’t exactly fix the line — though the starting center and the starting left tackle got hurt. Left tackle Cam Robinson came back in the game, but I mention all this by way of saying: it was a slog. A lot of long drives that didn’t really go anywhere and a lot of penalties
In his first game as a Ram, Davante Adams got absolutely drilled on his first catch but he was okay. He had a drop late first quarter, but had two awesome catches in the second half — one a pluck off the turf, one showing great chemistry with Stat Padford. On Puka Nacua's last play of the first quarter, he took a head shot and was taken off bleeding, missed most of the second quarter and came back wearing a bandage. They immediately took two more seam throws his way, he took another big hit and had to be taking out because he was bleeding too much — which is tough, because he missed the play where Davis Freaking Allen scored a receiving touchdown.
But Puka was back for the second half and played very well with the game-sealing catch at the end. The backfield, late second quarter, Kyren Williams had a carry down to the 1. On a third and goal they somehow sneak a sore-backed Matthew Stafford and he gets stuffed, then they go on 4th and 1 and pitch it to Kyren and he gets in easily. Blake Corum played 10 snaps, had 2 touches, and the rookie Jarquez Hunter was a healthy scratch. This was still obviously Kyren’s gig all the way.
The Texans offense, I think it’s fair to have questions about the rebuilt o-line. I think the new guards were mostly okay, but the tackles were once again a problem and C.J. Stroud was certainly feeling heat. But this game also laid bare the worst of worries over any Houston player. I mean, the main one we care about — who we’re starting in all leagues — Nico Collins, 3 for 25, I didn’t really even notice him until he made a first-down catch in the third quarter. Ten different guys got targets, nobody topped 32 yards.
Collins got one single downfield throw very early in the game, simply not open and not close. I think the most generous thing we can say is that because they were winning for a good while in this game, and because it was always a one-score game, the Texans were not stubborn with Nico Collins ... which … we would definitely like them to be more stubborn with him.
I can’t tell you he was doubled on every route, I can’t really see that in real time, but also: nobody gets doubled every route. So we know he’s a really good player, but this wasn’t good. Stroud blew one throw, third quarter, a 2nd and 23 after another holding penalty, he forced it into traffic on the sideline and the defender made a really athletic play on it. But the ball was thrown too high — but, like, I’m about to talk about Drake Maye, and trust me when I tell you that C.J. Stroud wasn’t nearly as bad as Drake Maye.
For the Houston backfield, it was a truly nauseating standoff for most of this game, the snap count wound up being 28 Nick Chubb, 15 Dare Ogunbowale, 7 Dameon Pierce and 7 for Woody Marks. Through three quarters, Nick Chubb was stuck on 10 carries for 40 yards. But they do play four quarters, and Chubb had two good runs in that last frame. He also had a good power run partway through the second quarter, but the very next carry, Chubb had to swerve rather than run straight ahead. And you can just see there’s not a lotta juice left anymore when he’s not running through a big alley in a straight line.
They tried Marks a couple times in the third quarter. Put it this way: okay, Chubb looked far short of electric, but they all did. This looked like a bad backfield that would only ever get what was blocked. The Texans might have been about to go in for the winning score, but Ogunbowale fumbled the game away.
Las Vegas 20, New England 13
Drake Maye was terrible. He looked absolutely hyped to the moon for the game. On a third and 8 on the first series, he airmailed it 10 feet over his receiver’s head. There were multiple Maye passes to Hunter Henry down the seam where Henry was not open and the ball should not have gone to him, one of which Henry impressively caught. There was a fourth and 1 cross-‘em-up bomb to Mack Hollins where the Patriots got bailed out by a shaky P.I. call. First drive of the third quarter, looking for Stefon Diggs under pressure, just lofts it up for an easy pick.
The funny thing is: Geno Smith wasn’t that much better. Geno is always too hyped up and when you get him in unfavorable down-and-distance, he’s just as likely to throw it to your team as his. Geno kept this came closer than it should’ve been for a while. New England couldn’t run and the Raiders were obviously well prepared for the TreVeyon Henderson screen game, which resulted in 6 catches for 24 yards. Can’t wait for people who only read box scores to declare this a big win for Henderson, a truly terrible offense throwing him hopeless dump-offs on third-and-forever.
Diggs had a long catch on a third and 2 late in the second quarter, then it was all just short ones on the sideline where he was almost not even running a route. Kayshon Boutte had 4 targets in the first half and those 4 catches he made were probably Maye’s four best throws into intermediate coverage. But the saddest part about all of this is that all these horrendous Patriots stats include a drive losing 20-10 that took forever, where eventually Mike Vrabel just said screw it and kicked a field goal to onside kick. This was bad. Maye didn’t run effectively; he is not a single-QB-league starting quarterback at the moment. The backfield goes 45 snaps for Rhamondre and 23 for Henderson. The Dolphins gave up a lot of points Sunday, but I don’t think any Patriot is close to a “must-start” in Week 2.
The Raiders, their first drive, that offense looked like everybody’s best case. First play is play-action to Brock Bowers for 23, Ashton Jeanty a gash run for 10, Dont’e Thornton for 9, Jeanty for 5, a couple incompletions and then Tre Tucker runs past blown coverage by himself for a long touchdown, 7-0. How is this not gonna happen all day? And I am touching my fictional earpiece and being told it did not happen all day.
The game announcers were slurping Geno pretty good at that point, and then on the second drive on back to back plays he throws it directly into coverage, gets intercepted on the second. Bowers had a drop in the 2-minute drill at the end of the half, they miss a field goal, they’re actually down 10-7 at halftime. But then another good drive to start the second half, Jakobi Meyers back to back good catches in the middle of the field, leading to Jeanty on a nice power run to score and take a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
This was a bit of a rain game. If you wanted to tell me Jeanty wasn’t quite ready for it, okay. But yeah, if you took him in the first round, definitely need to wipe this one away. I don’t think the Patriots are gonna be world-beaters on defense and I didn’t see Jeanty making crazy lateral moves — showed good power and we’ll take the touchdown, but not the explosion you were hoping for.
Bowers limped off the field late third quarter and didn’t return, but told reporters he was fine and would be okay in Week 2 against the Chargers. I did think — just to circle back to Jeanty — second half, New England was selling out to stop the run, play-action started working better later as a result. On a third and 1 late, Jeanty tried to bounce outside and failed to get it. Not a display that makes you think either of those teams are particularly good.