Photo via Kansas City Chiefs/Facebook
Football is officially back! The games now mean something and all the players fans were waiting to see are now in uniform (unless they're hurt or suspended). The more things change, the more they stay the same. Here's how I saw week one of the 100th NFL regular season:
The Good
-Chiefs quarterback Pat Mahomes and their offense picked up where they left off last sason. They beat the Jags 40-28, and it wasn't even as close as the 12 point difference would suggest. Losing Tyreek Hill early in the game didn't make a difference as Sammy Watkins filled that big play role with nine catches for 198 yards and three touchdowns. Chiefs are still scary.
-The Ravens beat the Dolphins 59-10 behind Lamar Jackson's huge day. He went 17/20 for 324 yards and five touchdowns with a perfect 158.3 quarterback rating. "Not bad for a running back" was his comment in reference to some suggesting he should play wide receiver in the NFL coming into the draft last year.
-The Vikings offense looked like a well-oiled machine with a healthy Dalvin Cook. 23 touches for 120 yards and two touchdowns helped the Vikings beat the Falcons 28-12. Kirk Cousins only passed the ball 10 times in the victory. Getting a plus three mark in the turnover margin will help you win big when you're outgained by 76 total yards.
The Bad
-The Lions went up 24-6 13 seconds into the fourth quarter. How they let the Cardinals back into the game and allowed it to end in a 27-27 tie is beyond me. The Cardinals are an awful team. Kyler Murray is a rookie quarterback playing behind a bad offensive line. Could be the makings of a long season for the Lions.
-The Steelers put up a shade over 300 total yards against the Patriots in a 33-3 loss Sunday night. I'll be looking closely at the team who lost arguably the best running back and wide receiver this past offseason. This offense looked flat to say the least. They keep this up and fans will long for the days when they had divas as playmakers.
-The Redskins were up 20-7 over the Eagles at halftime. The Eagles won the game 32-27. If there ever were a game to steal in your division, it was this one and the Redskins blew it. Biggest contributing factor: the Redskins only had 28 yards rushing, but had 96 yards in penalties. Mind you, there were no turnovers committed by either team.
The Ugly
-The Dolphins lost by seven touchdowns and reportedly some players have asked for trades. They will be historically bad because some of those players didn't step up and play better. How can you ask for a trade when you're apart of the reason why the team played so poorly? Sure they're tanking, but those guys are all pro football players. Play better.
-The Jags lost quarterback Nick Foles to a broken clavicle. He was placed on injured reserve with a designation to return and isn't eligible for a return until week 11 at the earliest. Losing your season opener is one thing, but to lose the guy at the position you thought was going to carry you beyond purgatory in that opener is totally different.
-13 teams on opening weekend scored as much or less than the Astros scored on Sunday in their 21-1 romp over the Mariners. As much as the league has changed the rules to promote more scoring, it still amazes me that some are unable to generate points. The Bears and Packers combined to score only 13 in the Thursday night game. I wonder how many prop bets were won on weird stats like this?
Week one is in the books. We don't have another week without NFL football for another five months. If this week is any indication as to how the rest of the season will go, we should all be encouraged. We should also drink plenty of water, diet and exercise because it'll test our health with as exciting as it was.
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The overreaction to the Astros’ miserable first week of offense was amusing. Yes they were pathetic, but the instant verdict from more than a few that it’s a horrific lineup, come on now! It’s definitely not a great lineup, and it pales in comparison to multiple others during the Astros’ run over the last eight years. That’s a long way from horrific. For six games, it was horrific. Not once did the Astros manage to score more than three runs. Last season, as they were stumblebums in suffering through a 12-24 start, the Astros never failed to reach four runs in more than four games in a row. In fact, all season they never had five straight games scoring three or fewer runs. So, perhaps their very worst for 2025 is already out of the way. The 1906 “Hitless Wonders” Chicago White Sox had the worst team batting average in the American League. And won the World Series!
By resume, the Astros lineup should be solid one through five, shaky six through nine. Well, the solid end has largely stunk so far. Except for the double he mashed to plate the game-winning run in a win over the Mets, Yordan Alvarez has looked awful so far. Very few good swings much less good results. Alvarez is three for 24 for a .125 batting average. But only silly people would be worried that at 27 years old he has suddenly tumbled over the hill. Christian Walker is batting .185. Isaac Paredes is batting .130. So is Jeremy Pena. Yainer Diaz is at .111. None of that is going to continue. For much longer anyway. We can add in that Cam Smith is two for 14 (.143). Once the regular season starts batters don’t face a diet of largely double-A minor league level pitching. Cam has a learning curve to navigate. We’ll see if all of it is with the Astros or if at some point a little more minor league seasoning is in the cards.
Jose Altuve striking out in all five of his at bats Thursday was something. A five K game was unprecedented in his career. Only twice previously had he struck out four times in a game. Altuve in 2024 shattered his career high for strikeouts in a season with 119, 28 more than his next worst total. He’s also batting .321 through the first seven games.
The Astros enter the weekend with a team batting average of .191. Check out the rest of the American League West (Worst?) thus far. The Seattle Mariners’ team average is .172. The Texas Rangers sit at .192. The Los Angeles Angels are also sub-Mendoza Line at .198. The Athletics lead the way with an underwhelming .219 mark. There’s a lot of woeful offense to be found in the early season. While the Astros’ lackluster output bears watching, it should not yet be inducing panic.
High heat
The Astros’ starting rotation is the strength of the team. It’s just two starts in but Hunter Brown is building toward genuine ace status. After his miserable start to 2024 that with better available depth could have seen Brown demoted to the minors, over his last 23 starts Brown pitched to a 2.48 earned run average. The Tigers’ Tarik Skubal was the rightful unanimous American League Cy Young Award winner with a 2.39 ERA.
If an Astro pitcher is to throw a no-hitter this season Brown would seem the best bet. Cristian Javier and the bullpen combined on one in 2022 at the Yankees (the postseason is a separate category so the World Series no-hitter Javier started in Philadelphia is excluded). Framber Valdez no-hit the Guardians in 2023. Ronel Blanco got the Blue Jays last year. None of that makes another likely this year, but should Brown or any other pitcher (or pitchers) throw a no-hitter this season, the Astros would become just the second franchise ever to throw a no-hitter in four consecutive seasons. The Dodgers pitched a no-hitter in each of 1962, ‘63, ‘64, and ‘65. Sandy Koufax threw all four of them, and as a cherry on the sundae the last of the four was a perfect game.
Dress to impress
Two other quick opening homestand observations. The new City Connect uniforms are fabulous. A matter of personal taste of course, but I think they're a huge upgrade. The NASA-style font on the previous ones names and numbers was excellent, but I thought the all-dark blue looked a bit like pajamas.
Annoying tacked on fees aside, the Astros had a fabulous offer available where you could get a standing room ticket for 12 home games through the end of April for just 99 dollars. The come on said “for as low as $69!” but that excluded fees. Nevertheless, that was just $8.25 per game. Phenomenal value. Now they have introduced a Wednesday “your first drink is on us!” promotion for three upper deck sections. Cool. Also indicative of ticket sales not going fantastically. Wednesday’s announced attendance (the announced attendance is tickets distributed, not people through the doors) was the lowest for an Astros’ home game since June of 2022.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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