Editor’s note: On Saturday, Ringer senior staff writer Jonathan Tjarks passed away. You can find information about how to support Jonathan’s family here.
Every week of the 2022 NFL season, we will celebrate the electric plays, investigate the colossal blunders, and explain the inexplicable moments of the most recent slate. Welcome to Winners and Losers. Which one are you?
Winner: Sitting on Our Couches, Watching Football
I lie to myself in July. I’ll be in a pool with a refreshing alcoholic beverage, or staring out on a brilliant vista after a rewarding hike, and I’ll think to myself, “You know what? You don’t need football. There’s so much more to life than Sundays spent indoors with junk food on the table and RedZone on the big screen.” And it seems right. I promise to pull back a little from football fandom and see what the rest of the world has to offer.
And then Week 1 hits, and I realize that I was wrong. Yes, there might be a whole world out there—but does that world have seven hours of commercial-free football? I don’t think so. At 3 p.m. EST, as the first set of games of the NFL season hurtled towards ludicrous conclusions, I realized that I was home. (Like, literally—I was on my couch.)
There were nine games in the early slate of the first Sunday of the NFL season. Five of them were decided by three or fewer points. Six of them featured fourth-quarter lead changes. Five of them featured a team coming back from a double-digit deficit to tie or take the lead. Two of them went to overtime.
Everything was golden. The Washington Commanders and Jacksonville Jaguars were both projected to go well below .500 this season—but they put together a thriller with 24 fourth-quarter points, including a spectacular game-winning catch by Washington rookie Jahan Dotson:
The Browns defeated their ex-quarterback, Baker Mayfield, on a 58-yard, game-winning field goal by rookie Cade York. It would’ve been good from, like, 70:
The Saints trailed 26-10 early in the fourth quarter—but the Falcons are incredibly passionate about blowing fourth-quarter leads, and allowed 17 unanswered points to end the game, including the first two touchdowns Michael Thomas had scored in three years:
In the haze of RedZone, even the most boring stuff seems like a blessing. After blowing a 20-3 lead, Texans head coach Lovie Smith decided to take the coward’s way out and punt on fourth-and-3 from midfield with 20 seconds remaining in overtime, ensuring a tie rather than risking a loss. It was an admission of fear and failure—and it seemed like the most thrilling thing ever to happen. “THEY’RE PUNTING FOR THE TIE!” I screamed, to nobody.
Those relaxing pools and rewarding vistas are still out there. I’ll see them next year. My weekends are booked for the next few months.
Winner: The Mahomes-Tyreek Split
The Jacksonville Jaguars inadvertently tore apart one of the NFL’s best teams. After Christian Kirk signed with the Jags for $72 million, all the other, better wide receivers in the league started wondering why they were getting paid so little. Soon, the Chiefs traded Tyreek Hill to the Dolphins, who were willing to make him the highest-paid receiver in the NFL, leaving Patrick Mahomes without his top target. How would the two exes look in Week 1?
Mahomes seemed completely unbothered without Hill, throwing for 360 yards and five touchdowns against the Cardinals. He still has Travis Kelce, who went for 121 yards and a touchdown. And new additions JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling combined for 10 catches and 123 yards in their Chiefs debuts. Maybe Kansas City’s 488 yards and 44 points tell us a lot about Arizona’s defense—but it seems like Patrick Mahomes is gonna keep doing Patrick Mahomes stuff, even without his top receiver. Here he was celebrating his fourth touchdown, unaware he’d soon throw a fifth:
In Miami, Hill led the Dolphins in receiving with eight catches for 94…
Read More: Winners and Losers of Week 1 of the 2022 NFL Season