NFL Week 1 Opening Games Recap: The Dingoes Ate Your Superteam

The yearly lull is over. Welcome back, NFL!

There are many reasons why we are always so happy when the NFL returns. For one, the NFL having the shortest season means they have the longest offseason. Seven months between the moment the Lombardi Trophy is awarded and the first kickoff of the season. Granted, the NBA and NHL, as well as early MLB, help fill that void, but once Larry and Stanley are awarded in June, that just leaves baseball... for three months. Some of us do include the CFL as part of our repertoire, with our neighbors to the north giving us a great taste before the NFL gets started.

Also, there's the way the schedule branches out. Football isn't a daily sport like the other three leagues. A week of football bares similarities to a wrestling card. Your three main event spots, on a normal week, are Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, and Monday Night Football, while Sunday's regional coverage serves as the lower/midcard (depending on the matchups). For this year, the season started a day earlier than usual: on the second Wednesday of September.

It's an 18-week season, just like it has been since 2021, but expect more than 18 recaps during the regular season. Depending on how certain games play out, some weekly recaps will be split up. Regarding the later weeks within Saturday games, they'll definitely be split up. So expect at least 25, if not 30, recaps from this regular season.

And here's Recap #1 of 2026:

The 2026 NFL regular season began with the same two teams who ended last season: the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. Seattle's second Super Bowl Championship banner was raised, and the season was underway. Though, it was bumpy for both teams. Let's start with the Champs. Sam Darnold ended up injured after five plays, which drew comparisons to Aaron Rodgers' Jets debut (Rodgers only lasted four plays). He was done for the evening, and it was Drew Lock's time to shine. The game was every bit as low-scoring as Super Bowl LX was, with the Patriots striking first and going up 7-0. That was the score at halftime, and it was 10-0 in the third quarter. A Hawks TD was negated via penalty, leaving Seattle to end up settling for three.

Seattle took over in the fourth quarter, when Jaxon Smith-Njigba finally found the end zone and tied it up. Drake Maye had a chance to regain control, but he threw an interception, giving Seattle a chance to finally take the lead. Jason Myers gave Seattle a 13-10 lead, but Maye still had time. I was hoping for OT in Game One of the season, but Maye wanted to go for it all, and the result: an interception.

Seahawks won it, 13-10, and we have to have a talk:

Don't ever, ever put Drake Maye on an undeserved pedestal again. This is the guy who people thought should have been MVP last year? A QB who benefitted from a soft schedule and injuries to opponents? By the way, Maye's stats on Opening Night: 178 passing yards, a TD, three INTs, and 47 rushing yards. That's a fantasy score of 12.82 points. That's a quarter for QBs like Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, and Jordan Love. Yet people wanted Maye as MVP. Gee, I wonder why?

It was on the following night that anticipated Australia game took place. The first NFL game to ever emanate from The Land Down Under, and it featured a pair of NFC West rivals--the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams. This was it--the awaited debut of the 2026 Rams, who we all expected to burn everything down. It was close. The Niners got a FG to start the scoring, but Kyren Williams gave the Rams a 7-3 lead. Now, we were talking. This is the part where the Rams show us all what they're made of.

Right here.

Any minute now.

Oh boy.

Holy Toledo!

What we saw was the 49ers leading 10-7 at halftime, and they didn't stop there. After former Ram DeMarcus Robinson gave SF their lead back, Mike Evans (in his Niners debut) made it 17-7, and after the Rams were stopped at the one yard line, SF went 99 yards, with the returning Deebo Samuel Sr. finishing the drive. It's 24-7, and a late FG sealed a 27-7 shock win for the Niners. As the game progressed, what we heard was the other 15 NFC fanbases all cheer in unison. The Superteam is one down to start the 2026 season.

We already discussed Drake Maye, now let's take about the QB who took the MVP award. Here's Matthew Stafford's day went (and yes, the game actually kicked off on Friday at 10:35AM local time): 155 passing yards, no TDs, a pick, and -1 rushing yards. A whopping 5.1 fantasy points, less than half of Maye's total from his game. So last year's two top MVP candidates couldn't even rack up 20 combined fantasy points. Stafford shouldn't have been MVP, either. Granted he's better than Maye, but so are about 15 other QBs.

The moral of the story: just because a QB is White, doesn't mean he's automatically MVP. Jalen Hurts had better seasons than both Stafford and Maye, yet people wanted to give the MVP to either a cooked QB or an incompetent one. The cooked one got it. White privilege strikes again, folks.

Two games down, 270 to go! If these first two games of the season are any indication, we are in for a very explosive and chaotic campaign!