Honestly, the first weekend of football is a beautiful, chaotic lie. We spend seven months starving for a snap, only to have our brains scrambled by a single Sunday (or Saturday, if you’re a campus regular) of results. You see a score flash on the screen and suddenly you’re convinced the Super Bowl favorite is a fraud or some backup tight end is the next Gronkowski. It’s glorious. It’s also usually wrong.
Week 1 of the 2025 season was a perfect example of this madness. Remember the collective gasp when the Miami Dolphins—a team many pegged for a deep playoff run—got absolutely dismantled by the Indianapolis Colts? A 33-8 thumping isn't just a loss; it's a crisis. Or at least it felt like one until we realized Daniel Jones was playing out of his mind in a way that defied every scouting report from the last five years.
Why football scores week 1 are rarely what they seem
The scoreboard tells you who won, but it rarely tells you why. Take that Bengals vs. Browns game. Cincinnati "won" 17-16. If you just saw the football scores week 1 on a ticker, you’d think, "Oh, Joe Burrow handled business."
Nope.
The Bengals actually had 141 total net yards. That is historically bad for a winning team. They basically fell backward into a victory because the Browns decided to commit three of the most improbable turnovers in the second half. It was the second-lowest offensive output in a win in the history of the Bengals franchise. Think about that. You can win a game and still be completely broken.
The Aaron Rodgers "Revenge" Factor
Then you had the spectacle in New Jersey. Aaron Rodgers walking back into MetLife Stadium, but wearing Pittsburgh black and gold. The final read Steelers 34, Jets 32.
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It was a shootout that felt like a movie script. Rodgers tossed four touchdowns, two of them in a 50-second blitz right after halftime. It’s the kind of game that makes people say, "He's back," ignoring the fact that he was sacked four times and looked every bit his age between those highlight throws. But in the world of week 1 reactions, the narrative always wins over the nuance.
The Saturday chaos: College football's reality check
College football didn't wait for Sunday to get weird. The biggest shocker had to be the Ohio State vs. Texas showdown. Everyone was waiting for the Arch Manning era to officially detonate the scoreboard.
Final score: Buckeyes 14, Longhorns 7.
It was a defensive slugfest that left Heisman voters scratching their heads. Manning struggled, Julian Sayin looked like a freshman, and the "experts" who predicted a 45-42 track meet were left staring at a game that looked more like Big Ten football from 1984.
Elsewhere, the SEC showed some cracks in the armor.
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- Alabama at Florida State: The Seminoles, coming off a disastrous 2-10 season in '24, somehow pushed the Tide to the brink.
- LSU at Clemson: Brian Kelly’s Week 1 curse continued with a 17-10 loss.
- Miami vs. Notre Dame: The Hurricanes actually held on for a 27-24 win, proving that sometimes the hype is actually real.
Breaking down the Sunday blowouts
Some games weren't close enough to be "surprising." They were just statements. The Washington Commanders putting a 21-6 hurting on the Giants wasn't just about the score. It was about Jayden Daniels looking like he owned the league, throwing for 233 yards and making Deebo Samuel look like the smartest offseason acquisition in years.
On the flip side, the Panthers are... well, the Panthers. A 26-10 loss to Jacksonville isn't shocking, but seeing Bryce Young regress back to his "struggling with vision" phase was a gut punch for fans in Charlotte.
"One week doesn't make a season, but it can certainly ruin your Monday morning." — Common locker room sentiment.
The craziest game of the entire weekend? It had to be Buffalo 41, Baltimore 40. Josh Allen and the Bills were out of sync for two quarters. They looked like they’d forgotten how to play football. Then, a Derrick Henry fumble sparked a fuse, and suddenly Allen was playing hero ball in a way that only he can. It was the highest-scoring game of the week and reminded everyone why Sunday Night Football is usually worth the sleep deprivation.
What you should actually take away from the results
If you're looking at these scores to predict the rest of the year, stop. Take a breath.
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Week 1 is about survival and rust.
The Green Bay Packers looked dominant in their 27-13 win over the Lions, but Detroit was missing key pieces in the secondary. The Rams beat the Texans 14-9 in a game that was basically a punting competition.
Does that mean the Rams have an elite defense or the Texans have a broken offense? Probably neither. It was 90 degrees with 80% humidity. Players were cramping by the second quarter.
Actionable insights for the coming weeks
- Ignore the "Point Totals": Early season defenses are often ahead of offenses because timing takes weeks to perfect. If a team struggled to score 20 points, don't write them off yet.
- Watch the Turnovers: Teams like the Bengals won despite being outplayed. Look at "Success Rate" rather than just the final score to see who is actually good.
- Injury Reports Matter More Than Scores: If a team won by 20 but lost their left tackle, they didn't really win the week.
- Check the Travel: Teams that played international games or crossed three time zones (like Kansas State coming back from Ireland) often have a "jet lag" game that skews their stats.
The reality is that football scores week 1 are a data point, not a destiny. By Week 4, half of these "dominant" teams will be struggling, and the teams we’ve left for dead will be clawing back into the playoff hunt. That’s the beauty of the game. It doesn't have to make sense in September for it to matter in January.
Go back and look at the tape of the Colts-Dolphins game. Don't just look at the 33-8 score. Look at how Indy's defensive line lived in the backfield. That's the real story. The score is just the headline; the trench play is the actual book. Keep your eyes there as we move into Week 2 and beyond.