NFC East Week 1 Recap
Week 1 on the NFL season for the NFC East was definitely an interesting one. 3 out of the 4 teams in the division lost, the only winning team being the Philadelphia Eagles. I know across the league, there was and is not much of a hope for any of the NFC East teams to truly be good based on the last few years, and from the way this first week went, it seems like the East is following that pattern. Hopefully, this is something that does not stick and the division as a whole can turn things around break the pattern.
New York Giants
Denver Broncos 27 @ New York Giants 13
In the Giants home opener, they hosted the Denver Broncos. For me, I found this game to be a fairly even match-up and was excited to see what happened in week 1. Overall, looking at the numbers from this game it seems like the Giants struggled offensively. Daniel Jones only completed about 60% of his passes and also had a lost fumble. He was able to avoid throwing interceptions and also ran for 27 yards, which helped them out, but overall the team only had 60 rush hards on 20 rushes. Sterling Shephard and Darius Slayton had very good performances. Shephard had 7 receptions for 113 yards, averaging 16 yards per pass and Slayton had 3 receptions for 65 yards, averaging almost 22 yards per pass. Overall, the Giants defense put up some decent numbers. The Giants defense was able to have 2 sacks and 6 quarterback hits. They also had 72 tackles. Next week, the Giants take on division rival, The Washington FB Team in the NFC East’s first divisional match-up of the season. This game should be a pretty good one and will give one team a chance to redeem themselves from week 1.
Washington FB Team
Los Angeles Chargers 20 @ Washington FB Team 16
Washington got to start off their season hosting the Los Angeles Chargers. I feel like this game was one that a lot of Washington fans were excited about. Knowing that they had Ryan Fitzpatrick as their starting quarterback probably gave them a sense of comfort because Fitzpatrick has performed very well with other teams. Unfortunately, Fitzpatrick was taken out of the game with a hip injury and has since been placed on IR. Due to the injury, Heinicke had to step in and take over the game. Due to having to switch up quarterbacks, their strategy probably changed from a pass-heavy offense to more of a run-based, offense. Heinicke only attempted 15 passes, completing 11 of them and 1 being a touchdown, but the run game had 27 carries in comparison. Antonio Gibson was the lead rusher with 90 yards on 20 carries. Terry McLaurin was the leading receiver with 4 receptions for 62 yards. The team also suffered from a lost fumble. Due to the loss of Fitzpatrick, Washington has a lot of things that they need to figure out and they for sure have to make some adjustments in order to move past this first game.
Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys 29 @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31
The Dallas Cowboys started off their season facing the reigning NFL champions. With Dak Prescott coming off of a season-ending injury, a lot of people were worried about how he would look stepping on the field again. Even though there was a lot of speculation around Dak and his performance, he was on fire Thursday night. He came out and threw for 403 yards, 3 touchdowns, and had a 72% completion rate. He did throw 1 interception, but all of his other numbers completely outweighed that. Dak’s overall rating was 101.4. Dak, Amari Cooper, and Ceedee Lamb definitely carried this team and contributed to the very strong performance against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers. A lot of people, including myself, expected the Cowboys to go out there and get completely blown away by the Bucs, but they put up one fight and made it an intense finish. The Cowboys were definitely lacking in the rushing and kicking departments in this game, though. The Cowboys only rushed for 60 yards, and Ezekiel Elliot only rushed for 33 yards in the game. Zuerlein missed 2 field goals and an extra point in the second quarter that led to 7 points lost for the Cowboys. Even with the lack in the rushing department, they could have won the game if they had not missed those 7 points. The Cowboys do have some issues that they need to address but, they definitely put up a strong fight and if they can continue to play like that then I think a lot of teams will have to look out for them.
Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles 32 @ Atlanta Falcons 6
The Eagles made a trip down to Atlanta to open up their season. For the last few years, and especially over the offseason, the Eagles faced a lot of scrutiny in the media. The big things were the quarterback and coaching issues. A lot of fans and people in the media did not have any faith in Jalen Hurts or Nick Sirianni. This gave the Eagles a fire underneath them to go out and perform the way they know they can, and they did just that. Jalen Hurts put up amazing numbers. He had a 77% completion rate with 264 yards and 3 touchdown passes for an overall rating of 126.4. Hurts took advantage of having former teammate, Devonta Smith on the team, passing to him 6 times for 71 yards and a TD. Overall the team had 173 rush yards, 62 of them being from Hurts himself. Having a quarterback who can run the ball consistently will definitely be a strength for the Eagles this season. The Eagles defense was also playing pretty strong. They had 80 tackles and 3 sacks and 9 hits on Matt Ryan. Having the defense hold the Falcons to only 6 points is a pretty good accomplishment considering the Eagles were expected to lose this game. Overall, the Eagles performance was pretty impressive, and being the only team to win in week 1 gives them an early lead in the division that they could definitely use to their advantage.