Ninety-six points. That is what the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers scored between them on Sunday afternoon, the most in any season-opening game in NFL history (ESPN). The Bears put up 59 of them, their highest total in a single game since 1980 (NFL.com).
That was the standout moment of Week 1. But it wasn’t the only one that was worth understanding. A game in Detroit came down to the league’s new overtime rule. A team in Philadelphia was stopped one play short of tying a match it had clawed back into. And a couple of defences won games their offences never really controlled.
This was a fun NFL Week 1 for me, so let’s get straight into it and start with the results!
The NFL Week 1 results
Every one of the 32 teams plays in Week 1, so there are no byes and nobody sitting out. Kickoff times are US Eastern, so for anyone reading in the UK, the Sunday-afternoon games land on Sunday evening our time, and Monday Night Football runs into the early hours of Tuesday.
| Matchup (away at home) | Result |
|---|---|
| New England Patriots at Seattle Seahawks | Seahawks 13-10 |
| San Francisco 49ers at Los Angeles Rams | 49ers 27-7 |
| Chicago Bears at Carolina Panthers | Bears 59-37 |
| Baltimore Ravens at Indianapolis Colts | Ravens 41-23 |
| Atlanta Falcons at Pittsburgh Steelers | Steelers 20-13 |
| Cleveland Browns at Jacksonville Jaguars | Jaguars 34-10 |
| Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Cincinnati Bengals | Bengals 33-27 |
| New York Jets at Tennessee Titans | Jets 23-10 |
| New Orleans Saints at Detroit Lions | Lions 31-30 (OT) |
| Buffalo Bills at Houston Texans | Bills 36-31 |
| Arizona Cardinals at Los Angeles Chargers | Cardinals 26-14 |
| Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings | Vikings 39-22 |
| Miami Dolphins at Las Vegas Raiders | Raiders 27-13 |
| Washington Commanders at Philadelphia Eagles | Eagles 24-22 |
| Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants | Giants 28-20 |
| Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs | Chiefs 31-10 |
Following the Raiders? They opened the season with a 27-13 win over Miami. I break their game down properly, and what it sets up for the weeks ahead, in the Raiders Week 1 review.
The Bears scored 59, and the number that frames it
Chicago gained 552 total yards and ran in six touchdowns, which is not a typo (NFL.com). Total yards is just every yard a team gains, running and passing added together, and 552 is an enormous day; a healthy offence might manage 350 to 400. Caleb Williams threw for 269 yards and two scores, ran in two more himself, and finished with a passer rating of 124.1.
Passer rating is one number that tries to sum up how well a quarterback threw the ball, on a scale that tops out at 158.3. Anything above 100 is a strong afternoon, so 124.1 tells you Williams was close to faultless as a passer, before you even count his running. If you want the full picture of what that number rewards and what it quietly ignores, I have it here: QB stats, decoded.
The combined-points record does not tell you Chicago is a contender or Carolina a disaster. It tells you both defences had a rotten afternoon on the same field at the same time. Enjoy it for what it is, and no more.
How Detroit won in overtime, and why New Orleans was not robbed
The Lions and Saints were level at 24-24 when regulation ended, so the game went to overtime, and overtime is where a rule change from last season earned its keep. Detroit got the ball first and scored a touchdown. Under the rule the NFL used until 2025, that would have ended the game on the spot, and New Orleans would have lost without their offence taking a single snap in the extra period.
That is exactly what happened to the Buffalo Bills in a famous 2022 playoff defeat, and it is why the league changed the rule. Now, in the regular season, both teams are guaranteed a possession in overtime, the same as the playoffs (I have the full NFL season and overtime breakdown here). So New Orleans got the ball back and answered with a touchdown of their own, which pulled them within one, at 31-30.
Then came the decision. They could kick a routine extra point to tie the game at 31-31 and play on, or go for a two-point conversion to win it there and then. They went for the win, the pass fell incomplete, and Detroit survived 31-30. Regular-season overtime lasts ten minutes, and if nobody is ahead when it ends, the game is recorded as a tie. New Orleans decided they would rather win or lose than settle.
The defences that showed up like an offence
A defence does not only stop the other team. The defense can take the ball away, and it can score. NFL Week 1 gave clean examples of both.
In Pittsburgh, T.J. Watt put away a 20-13 win over Atlanta with a pick-six, an interception carried all the way back to the end zone for a touchdown (NBC Sports). A defender catches a pass meant for the other side and runs it in to score. It is the most deflating play in football if it happens to your team.
In Cincinnati, the Bengals took the ball off Tampa Bay four times and turned one into points, Demetrius Knight Jr. scooping up a loose ball and carrying it 27 yards for a touchdown (NFL.com). A takeaway is any turnover a defence forces, an interception or a recovered fumble, and each one hands the ball straight back to your own offence. Four in a single game is daylight robbery.
Individual plays are one thing; rating a whole unit’s afternoon is another, and this is where defensive stats come in. The plain ones count what you can see: sacks (tackling the quarterback before he can throw), takeaways, and the points and yards a defence gives up. The cleverer ones roll all of that into a single number so one defence can be ranked against another. Pro Football Network published one such measure after Week 1, their Defense Impact score, and it put Kansas City top, which fits the way the Chiefs smothered Denver on Monday night. Several of the defences from this review sit just behind them, with the Steelers, Bengals, Seahawks, Jaguars and the Raiders all inside the top ten.
A number like that is worth reading for what it is: one analyst’s summary of what already happened, not a verdict on who is best or a hint at next week. If you want to know which defensive stats are worth watching, and what each one is really telling you, defense stats, decoded lays them out.
Two-point conversion decided two games
After a touchdown, a team almost always kicks a short extra point for one point. The alternative is to line up and run a single play from close to the goal line for two points instead. That is a two-point conversion, and it is rarer because it is riskier: come up short, and you get nothing.
Week 1 served up both reasons a team goes for it. In Philadelphia, Washington scored a late touchdown to trail 24-22, which left them needing two points to draw level, since a kick would still have them a point behind. They went for two to force overtime, the Eagles broke it up, and Philadelphia won by that exact margin (Bleacher Report).
Moro Ojomo with a big time stop on the 2-pt conversion 😤
— NFL (@NFL) September 13, 2026
WASvsPHI on FOX/FOX One
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/4xlQSvcuZp
In Detroit’s overtime, New Orleans met the other version of the same sum: a kick would only have tied it and dragged the game on, so they went for two to win outright. Both attempts came up empty. When a team waves away the easy extra point, the scoreboard nearly always explains why. If you want the rest of the ways points go up, how scoring works has it.
The Monday night finish
Kansas City closed the week out on Monday night with a comfortable 31-10 win over Denver, and it was built on defence and the run rather than anything flashy. The Chiefs held the Broncos to 176 total yards, sacked their quarterback four times, and broke a 60-yard touchdown run as part of a 220-yard rushing night. Not a classic match by any means, but a tidy way to end the round. If you are new to why every week finishes with a single prime-time game on a Monday, I have written up what Monday Night Football is and why it matters separately.
One thing before you overreact
NFL Week 1 is a single game out of seventeen, and it lies every year without fail. A team can look unstoppable in the opener and can then go on to miss the playoffs. At the same time another team looks finished and wins its division.
The Bears scoring 59 is real, and it was the most fun anyone had all weekend, but it is not a cast iron guarantee. Enjoy the overreactions this week, mine included. Well done Raiders, and come back next week for the NFL Week 2 review!
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