Do you remember your freshman year of college? You might have been a little confused and overwhelmed in the early weeks as you found your bearings. It takes a while to get used to the shape of a campus and the social flow of college life.
And then you come back sophomore year and things are so much easier. You’ve figured the place out. You know where the parties are, who has the best pizza, where to park your car or catch reliable public transportation.
Most of the early-window NFL offenses for Sunday’s Week 1 stumbled around like confused freshmen. The average team output was a skimpy 16.8 first downs and 283 yards. Thankfully, we had some sophomores (and upperclassmen) to rely on.
Let’s start with one of the buzziest offenses in the league, the Houston Texans. The C.J. Stroud-piloted offense was best in show during Sunday’s 1 pm window, rolling up 26 first downs and 417 yards. It led to a 29-27 victory at Indianapolis, and plenty of fantasy production to go around.
Newcomers Joe Mixon and Stefon Diggs got acclimated quickly; two more hits for the transfer portal. Mixon turned back the clock with a decisive shredding of the Colts defense (30-159-1 rushing, 3-19 receiving), easily getting to the second level consistently. Diggs caught all six of his targets and while they only went for 33 yards, he scored a couple of short touchdowns.
That did it for the end zone, but other Texans were heard from. Nico Collins flashed during a snappy 6-117-0 afternoon (I still think he’s the alpha of this passing game) and Tank Dell offered 59 total yards, even if four of his seven targets went incomplete. Stroud was more efficient than bombastic in the opener (24-for-32, two touchdowns, 7.3 YPA), but he didn’t turn the ball over or make any big mistakes. And when drives stumbled — the Texans did absorb four sacks — kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn was ready, drilling three field goals from 50 yards and up.
So while the Texans left some points on the field, the offense still registered a high octane reading. Stroud looks like an MVP-run waiting to happen, and it was a win to retain highly-regarded OC Bobby Slowik for at least one more season. We’ll all get a good look at Houston next week, when it hosts the Bears on Sunday Night Football.
The Colts were on the other side of Houston’s win, producing some big plays but not enough consistency. Anthony Richardson made a handful of highlight throws — three of his completions went for 50, 57 and 54 yards, two of them for touchdowns — but he didn’t have enough play-by-play consistency. If you take away Richardson’s three home runs (and I get it, they certainly count), he was otherwise 6-for-16 for 51 yards, with a pick. He missed a few wide-open throws (sorry about that, Michael Pittman), and at times was late with processing and decision-making.
The erratic play held the Colts to just 14 first downs. It was a boom-and-bust offense for three hours.
The joy of Richardson, of course, is he can have a so-so NFL game and still be a star for fantasy. He added 56 rushing yards and one ground score to his 212 passing yards and two scores, pushing him up to 27.08 points in Yahoo standard scoring. As always, we’re just in it for the numbers. Imagine what’s possible when Richardson’s game starts to mature. Obviously he’s made just five pro starts.
Maybe the Colts are destined to be one of those carnival teams, with a bunch of indoor games and the potential to play in shootouts regularly. Next week they head to Green Bay and face a Packers defense that played poorly in the Friday loss to the Eagles in Brazil — and the team as a whole is in a bit of identify crisis after Jordan Love‘s injury.
Note: Mull over these notes and maybe grab a sandwich at the student union; I’ll update this article with more Week 1 notes shortly.
