There was more mystery than usual coming into the first week of the NFL’s 2020 regular season, with no preseason to go on. How well would Joe Burrow fare starting the first game of his rookie season in Cincinnati? Would the San Francisco 49ers suffer from Super Bowl hangover? What would Philip Rivers do for his new team in Indianapolis?
As quarterbacks go, so go their teams, so let’s take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from the NFL’s signal-callers from the first Sunday of the 2020 NFL season.
NFL Betting News:
Quick Rundown of Quarterbacks on Sunday’s NFL Games in Week 1
Top Performances
Joe Burrow
Cincinnati Bengals
How about Joe Burrow, anyway? He looked far from intimidated in his first game since leading LSU to a national championship. He went 23 of 36 for 193 yards and a pick. He didn’t throw a touchdown pass, but he did run for one. His pick came in the fourth quarter, but then Burrow led the Bengals to a late rally and almost became the first QB to win his debut as a rookie since David Carr led the expansion Houston Texans to a win over the Dallas Cowboys in their very first game. On his last drive, he was 7 for 10 for 60 yards and looked calm. Cincinnati may, for the first time since Boomer Esiason, have a franchise quarterback that can take them more than one round into the playoffs.
Lamar Jackson
Baltimore Ravens
Lamar Jackson shows that he is ready to take the next step as an NFL passer. In a 38-6 shellacking of the Cleveland Browns, Jackson went 20 of 25 for 275 yards and three scores. He also ran the ball seven times for 45 yards. On passes at least 10 yards down the field, he was 9 of 10 for 180 yards. His numbers were just as gaudy as those that Patrick Mahomes II put up on Thursday night against Houston.
Russell Wilson
Seattle Seahawks
Then there was Russell Wilson. In a 38-25 win in Atlanta, he went 31 of 35 for 322 yards and four touchdowns. In 25 first-half plays, he threw the ball 18 times, which was a departure from the usual Seahawks’ plan to set up the run first. Wilson made that approach pay off, and the rest of the NFC should be on notice as he torched the Falcons’ defense.
Worst Performance of the Day
Baker Mayfield
Cleveland Browns
We kept hearing that Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns were going to have a turnaround season in 2020. They had finally revamped their offensive line. Then they went to Baltimore and put up six points. Mayfield threw an interception on the team’s first drive, and the Browns would turn the ball over three times altogether. On the day, he went 21 of 39 for 189 yards and took two sacks. Obviously, it didn’t help that Cleveland’s secondary had injuries, but Cleveland fans are still waiting for Mayfield to live up to the hype that he built in his rookie season. He’s still making those television ads for Progressive where he pretends to live in the stadium and take care of it; you have to wonder if the Browns’ fan base is ready for him to make fewer ads and spend more time preparing for game day.
Biggest Letdown
Kirk Cousins
Minnesota Vikings
The Minnesota Vikings started their season by hosting the Green Bay Packers, and Kirk Cousins had a chance to establish himself as the alpha quarterback in the NFC North. He had finally shed the stigma of failing in big games when he led the Vikings to a wild card playoff win in New Orleans back in January. While he eventually led the Vikings to 34 points, with two touchdown passes to Adam Thielen, Cousins blinked once again in this rivalry with Aaron Rodgers. He went 19 of 25 for 259 yards and put up solid numbers, but he had a slower start than Rodgers, and he just couldn’t get the Vikings back over the top.
We have the lines for NFL Week 2 lines ready for you, so start getting into the Week 2 mindset because before you know it… It’s Thursday Night Football with Sunday right after it.
Remember, don’t forget Monday Night Football today!
