Week 1 was made for overreactions. You wait six months for football to return, only for your team to come out and look completely overmatched. Frustration is only natural, but folks definitely put the cart before the horse by declaring the sky was falling after the Dallas Cowboys' loss to the New York Giants.
Was it an ugly performance? Extremely. But Week 1 has practically become an extension of the preseason for teams like Dallas that don't play their starters in August. With more teams deemphasizing exhibition games, sloppy football has become part of the deal early in the season.
Moreover, the NFL is a week-to-week league by nature. The Philadelphia Eagles were one of the biggest favorites on Sunday and needed a last-second touchdown to scrape by the lowly Tennessee Titans, who got bullied by the New York Jets in Week 1.
Give the Eagles credit for finding a way to win, but they were seconds away from losing to one of the worst teams in football. It can happen to anyone. The Cowboys deserved a little more grace than they were given after losing to a vastly improved Giants team to open the season.
They needed to bounce back in Week 2, and they did just that to improve to 1-1.
The Cowboys' Week 1 loss received way too many overreactions
Good teams find ways to win, and bad teams find ways to lose. As much credit as Philly deserves for coming through in crunch time, the Titans deserve scorn for playing soft coverage late while clinging to a three-point lead.
Jalen Hurts led a nine-play, 65-yard touchdown drive with nine seconds left in regulation to save the Eagles from embarrassment.
Did anyone expect Philly to need late-game heroics to beat a Titans team that has looked anything but organized under Robert Saleh and Brian Daboll? No. Just like nobody expected the Cowboys to look completely outclassed in Week 1 by a rival they've dominated for a decade.
That's the NFL. Anyone can beat anyone on any given Sunday. Acting like the season was already on life support after one game was always premature, especially with 16 more chances to prove Week 1 was an aberration.
And the Eagles' narrow escape wasn't the only example.
Week 2 madness proves the NFL is a week-to-week league
The Ravens lost at home to the Saints a week after dominating the Colts on the road. Granted, Kellen Moore has New Orleans playing inspired football, but everyone expected Baltimore to win that game.
The Browns, maybe the most down-bad team in the league, beat the Buccaneers in Tampa. Widely circled as the Baker Mayfield revenge game, the Browns flipped the script to get their first win of the year.
Furthermore, the Chargers lost by two scores at home to the Raiders. Los Angeles might just be a bad team (they also lost to the Cardinals in Week 1) after they were widely dubbed a contender in a wide-open AFC. The Raiders, meanwhile, are 2-0. Just how we all drew it up.
And finally, the Jaguars lost to the Broncos on Sunday. How many folks crowned Jacksonville as one of the teams to beat in the AFC after they dismantled Cleveland in Week 1? They followed that by losing to a Broncos team that arguably put forth the worst performance of any team in Week 1, losing by 21 points to the Chiefs.
The Cowboys are going to lose more games this season. But given the various wonky results around the league on Sunday, losing a Week 1 road game against an energized division rival hardly looks as ominous as it did in real time.
The defense might be behind schedule, but Dallas is just fine.
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