AIDEN HUTCHINSON IS A SUPERSTAR
I’m a big proponent of admitting when you got things wrong. It’s a noble trait, but more importantly, how can you ever hope to learn from your mistakes if you never acknowledge you made them in the first place? So, in that vein, I come to you today to admit that I was wrong about Aiden Hutchinson.
This is not to say I was ever down on the man, mind you, but I wasn’t as high on him as I should have been. When the world was clowning on the Jaguars for taking the perceived higher-ceiling Travon Walker ahead of Hutchinson with the top overall pick in the 2022 Draft, I was quick to defend them.
“Sure, Hutchinson might be more ready from the get-go, but maybe they want to go for the high upside play with Walker!” I might have said. “Who are we to shame a franchise for wanting to swing for the fences with the #1 pick? Seize the day!”
While the Travon Walker experiment is well under way (and proceeding smoothly, by all accounts), Aiden has proved that he himself was the home-run, defense-changing dynamo the Jags hope to one day have. You might not believe it after skimming his 0-sack, 1-hurry statline, but the 2nd-year pass rusher was everywhere in Week One, making life difficult for the Chiefs O-Line and forcing Mahomes out of the pocket on several occasions. He may never have brought him down for a sack, but if the Eagles pass rush of last season didn’t manage to bring him down once in the entire Super Bowl, I don’t think that that’s much of a condemnation on Hutchinson himself.
If their defense is even totally average this season Detroit could be a tough out come the postseason, and after striking gold with Hutchison, they may be well on their way to becoming a team nobody wants to run across come the playoffs.
THE PACKERS OFFENSE MIGHT BE GOOD, BUT I REMAIN UNCONVINCED
Jordan Love’s first start as the face of the franchise for Green Bay couldn’t have gone much better. Not only did he put up a 245 yard, 3 TD to 0 interception game good enough to earn a weeks-best passer rating of 123.2, he did it in the confines of Soldier Field, dashing the hopes of Chicago fans hoping to witness the beginning of a more Bears-friendly era of the league’s oldest rivalry.
He was rarely pressured, read the field well, and converted some crucial 3rd and 4th downs en route to a 38-20 thrashing of the Monsters of the Midway that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate. So why am I not sold?
It’s hard to describe exactly, but something was a little… off about the Green Bay offense. The timing on some routes seemed a fraction out of whack, Aaron Jones was about the only consistent offensive presence on the ground before an apparent hamstring injury sidelined him, and more than one play fell apart after somebody tripped over their own offensive lineman. These can all easily be brushed away as things that a young offense like Green Bay’s will struggle with, especially this early on, and especially in front of over 60,000 fans who well and truly despise you. That may be so, but they’ll need to do some ironing out, and they’ll need to do it quickly before their Week Four matchup against the Lions.
In my mind, one play this game is a great microcosm of exactly what I mean. Early in the 4th quarter, the Packers have the ball at midfield. The snap gets flubbed and the ball hits the turf, but Love does well to corrall it, scramble a bit, and then lob one to rookie Luke Musgrave, who doesn’t have a Bears defender in the same zip code as him. Musgrave awkwardly fields the ball, stumbles over himself, and gets brought down just short of the goal line.
This one play featured so much of what ended up deciding this contest; something going not quite to plan for Green Bay, the Bears hapless defense being unable to do anything about it, and the Packers offense making a play that ends well, but sure could have been a lot better.
DAMN, SAN FRANCISCO IS REALLY GOOD
I was hardly being adventurous when I said that I expected the 49ers to be great this season. After all, some very poorly timed injury luck might have been the only thing that kept them out of last year’s Super Bowl. Their roster stayed largely intact over the last few months, and with the addition of Javon Hargrave, the #1 defense from last season might be even better in 2023.
Even with that in mind, San Francisco was shockingly good on Sunday in their 30-7 dismantling of a Steelers team many presume to be serious playoff contenders.
In a week full of the NFL’s elite playing substandard ball, it was hard not to notice. The Eagles barely scraped by the Patriots in Foxborough, the Bengals offense managed to scrape together just 6 first downs all game, the Chiefs lost to perhaps the most maligned franchise in the sport, and the Bills fell to the Jets, who lost Aaron Rodgers for the season before he could complete a pass. I’d say the 49ers exuding total control like they did against Pittsburgh stuck out like a sore thumb, but that phrase has such a negative connotation. Perhaps they stuck out like a non-sore thumb at an amateur carpenter convention? I’ll workshop that a little more…
Perhaps the best part for 49ers faithful was Brock Purdy’s cool, collected style of play seems to have continued into this season. He averaged over 7.5 yards per attempt, threw no picks, and was utterly in command of a 49ers offense that could cruise knowing that their defense was making mincemeat out of the Steelers whenever they dared to touch the field.
RAPID FIRE THOUGHTS
- Boy, do the Vikings worry me. Losing at home to a Tampa team nobody expects to even be competing to win the lackluster NFC South was a tumultuous way to start a season. They kick off Week Two by taking on the Eagles on Thursday Night Football, then face the Chargers, Chiefs, and 49ers all within a five-game stretch. They might have a lot of ground to cover in the NFC North by midseason if they can’t pull off an upset or two.
- The Giants offense isn’t that bad, the Cowboys defense is just that good. Nine different Cowboys recorded either an interception, sack, or forced fumble in Dallas’ romp over the Giants on the first Monday Night game of the season, and don’t be shocked to see a couple more squads fall victim to them like New York did. They are simply so deep and so talented that somebody on that side of the ball that no one player needs to carry more than their fair share, allowing everybody to play fast, aggressive defense.
- Denver simply had to win that game against the Raiders. Ever since he was brought into the building, Sean Payton has told anybody with a microphone how drastically he’s looking to shake things up with the Broncos. Teams aren’t likely to buy into a big “culture change” mantra if there aren’t any results on the field, and winning teams need to win games at home against divisional rivals when they win the turnover battle and have a lead entering the fourth quarter. Denver plays the Dolphins, Jets, Bills, and the Chiefs twice before midseason. Things might get ugly in Denver really quick.
- Big ups to Matt Stafford and the Rams this week. Los Angeles has been dismissed outright from the jump this season, but the Rams seem to have missed the memo. Stafford was surgical in his dismantling of a talented Seahawks secondary, and did it with Tutu Atwell and rookie Puka Nacua (some real outstanding names on this squad) as his leading receivers. Stafford’s 334 yards through the air and 88.9 QBR (2nd highest of all quarterbacks in Week One) were enough to put themselves on the map in the NFC, at least for the time being.
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