Chiefs cooked? Rodgers elite again? Big questions after Week 1
The first week of the NFL season is a time for surprises. Strange new kickoff rules; the Bills using a 41-year-old kicker who looked like he really needed a good sleep; Miami's Tyreek Hill melting down on the sideline. OK, maybe that last one isn't a surprise. Amid all the upheaval, some big questions emerge. Let's consider three of them.
Are the Chiefs cooked?
The easiest answer here is a quick "No," followed by, "Are you serious?" Kansas City has won three championships and represented the AFC in the Super Bowl five of the last six seasons. There's also the recent example of the New England Patriots, another dynasty that had an exceptional quarterback, occasionally looked like it might be on the downslope, and then rebounded to achieve more glory.
The point is that dynasties don't die easily.
But the Chiefs didn't just lose their opener to the Los Angeles Chargers on Friday night - they looked awful. They couldn't run the ball and again didn't seem to pose any downfield passing threat with Patrick Mahomes, although they lost Xavier Worthy to an early injury. On defense, they let Justin Herbert carve them up, and while they kept the game close, they couldn't stop the Chargers when it mattered. Counting the thumping the Chiefs received from Philadelphia in Super Bowl LIX, that's two consecutive underwhelming losses for Mahomes and coach Andy Reid, which hasn't happened in a long time.
Kansas City rarely looked great last season but still went 15-2 during the regular season, thanks to an unprecedented 10-0 record in one-score games that was buoyed by some freakish luck. But the suspicion was that, retooled and refreshed, and with a point to prove after the lopsided Super Bowl loss, the Chiefs would come out firing.
Instead, they came out shooting themselves in the foot, with an offensive line that still loves to take penalties.
It's a long season. Mahomes and Reid are still Mahomes and Reid. And the Chiefs will soon get a chance to show they aren't dead yet: The Eagles visit Arrowhead on Sunday.
Are the Ravens the new Bills?
Entering Sunday night, NFL teams that were losing by 15 or more points with five minutes left were 0-717 since 2017. Teams that scored at least 40 points and rushed for at least 235 yards were 277-0 all time.
Those records are now 1-717 and 277-1 following Buffalo's 41-40 comeback win over Baltimore.
Given all the unexpected things that allowed the Bills to rally, from the surprising Derrick Henry fumble to the deflected Keon Coleman TD catch to the winning kick by just-off-the-couch Matt Prater, it's reasonable to declare this game a wacky one-off that will mean nothing in the big picture. The Ravens looked unstoppable for 55 minutes.
But no team knows better than the Bills that late-game struggles can be self-perpetuating. Buffalo once went almost two decades without a prime-time win, a streak that included some bizarre, self-inflicted stumbles and started to feel very much like fate.
The Ravens aren't quite there, but they've blown a bunch of fourth-quarter leads under coach John Harbaugh. His decision to punt on fourth-and-3 on Sunday night, giving the ball back to a smoking-hot Josh Allen with plenty of time left, was clock-management malpractice.
It's just one loss, however, and the Ravens showed enough Sunday to suggest that they're an AFC contender. But the awkward thing is that the loss will loom over them all season. Even if they roll through the rest of their schedule, questions about the Ravens' ability to close out big games will linger. They'll get a chance to prove they're not a snakebitten franchise, like the Bills. It just might take a while for that opportunity to come.
Wait, is Aaron Rodgers good again?
This is the most surprising question of the bunch. Rodgers, 41, was woeful last season with the New York Jets, a year after blowing out his Achilles on the first drive of the season. The Pittsburgh Steelers already tried using a beyond-his-prime, slow-moving quarterback last year with Russell Wilson - who's five years younger than Rodgers - and it was a mess.
The Steelers also didn't really pursue Rodgers in the offseason but instead let the months roll by before eventually turning to him when there were no other options. The move wasn't exactly inspiring.
And yet, there was Rodgers on Sunday, throwing four touchdown passes and leading a game-winning drive against his former New York teammates. He even displayed his trademark bitterness, saying after the game that he enjoyed sticking it to the Jets organization, which only did everything possible to make him comfortable after he signed there. Classic Rodgers, indeed.
Will it last? That part is iffy. He took four sacks and will only get slower as the effects of that pounding pile up on his creaky bones. Some opposing defenses will game plan for his limitations, but against the Jets, Rodgers showed that he could still sling it just like old times, at least for a day.
That's one more day than many of us expected.
Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.