DeMarco Murray, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota fortunes differ as the NFL season begins
Monday 14 September 2015 18:38, UK
The NFL returned with a bang but what did we learn in the opening games?
We have analysed the big names and their differing starts to life in the fast lane...
Mariota wins battle of rookie QBs
Fortune and the fixtures calendar put the top two 2015 draft picks in a head-to-head in Tampa Bay. Their own fortunes couldn't have been more mixed.
Jameis Winston's first pass in the NFL was a pick-six - but at least he's in good company as the last guy to do that was Brett Favre.
Marcus Mariota, meanwhile, was near-perfect for the Tennessee Titans. By half-time he'd thrown four touchdown passes and joins Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton as the only QBs to throw for four or more TDs on debut.
By the time he was withdrawn at the end of the third quarter he was 13 of 16 for 209 yards and four touchdowns. It's hard to see how it can get better for the boy from Oregon.
For the Buccaneers, Winston showed signs of better things to come with touchdown passes in the second and fourth quarters but there's no doubt the battle of the rookies was won by Mariota.
Colts and Patriots on the run
The Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots were the pre-season tips for the AFC Championship but the opening weekend gave everyone else in the conference reason for hope as both struggled against the run again.
Rewind to week one last season, and Knowshon Moreno ran for 134 yards and a touchdown in a Dolphins' win against the Patriots. In Thursday night's opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers it was DeAngelo Williams, back-up for the suspended Le'Veon Bell, who found space up the middle against the Patriots and ran for 127 yards.
As for or the Colts, with the 18th-ranked rushing defense last season, they allowed the Bills to run 36 times for 147 yards and two touchdowns in their 27-14 opening-day mauling.
Johnny Turnover?
It's an unkind headline but, brought into the Browns-Jets game early on following the injury to starting Cleveland QB Josh McCown, it will be the turnovers and not the touchdown that will be talked about for Johnny Manziel.
It all started so well with a 22-yard run and then a 54-yard touchdown pass to Travis Benjamin. But he followed that with an interception and two fumbles that fuelled the fire for the doubters who say Manziel may never fulfil his potential, or as they put it, hype.
Extra points an extra effort
Only four extra points were missed in the whole of the regular season in 2014. The NFL moved the snap from the two-yard line to the 15-yard line and, so far in week one, we've seen four missed already.
It remains to be seen if this will encourage more two-point conversion chances from the more adventurous franchises, as the NFL hopes, but already it's shown that the extra point is no longer a foregone conclusion.
Dallas' dilemma
Faced with the prospect of expensive contract extensions for two of their most prized assets, running back DeMarco Murray and wide receiver Dez Bryant, the Dallas Cowboys opted to keep the former and let the latter go to NFC East rivals Philadelphia Eagles.
How's that decision looking after week one? Well, the Cowboys won but in doing so they not only lost Bryant to a broken bone in his foot that will keep him out for four to six weeks, they also struggled to move the ball on the ground.
Murray's successor, Joseph Randle, managed 65 yards on 16 attempts and the Cowboys managed 80 in total. Replacing Murray's 1,845 yards last season - a number which surpassed Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith's single-season franchise record - is going to be harder than the Dallas hierarchy thought.
And with Bryant out for at least a month, the need to find a solution just became more important.
