Month: September 2026

The Kansas City Chiefs closed Week 1 by turning back the clock. For at least one night, they looked like the AFC West’s dominant force once again. After missing the playoffs, Kansas City came out of the gates in 2026 with a dominant win over the Denver Broncos, who won 14 games and were the AFC’s No. 1 seed last season. The Chiefs defense caused fits, impressively containing a capable Broncos offense. Here are my takeaways: Would the healthy return of Mahomes also mean the return of the Chiefs as the dangerous postseason threat you knew them to be? Mahomes made that clear from the first drive, taking off from the 15-yard line and diving into the end zone for a touchdown and an early lead on the Broncos. He got up in the end zone, brushed the proverbial dust off his chest and was back at home with the Arrowhead faithful. Overall, though, this was big-money acquisition Kenneth Walker’s night, with a 60-yard touchdown on the way to the best rushing game by a Chiefs running back in 14 years. In his Kansas City debut, Walker rushed for 173 yards and scored two total TDs. Was it vintage Mahomes? Of course not. He completed two of his first 12 passes for 14 yards but found a spark before halftime, and his defense really took care of the rest. Even a bad interception out of his own end zone that set Denver up at the 5-yard line only resulted in a field goal for the Broncos, with the Chiefs defense again stepping up to help the QB out. There was punctuation as well: On the first play of the fourth quarter, Mahomes found rookie running back Emmett Johnson for 25 yards on a third down, setting up a flip-toss touchdown to Walker for a 31-10 lead to put the game out of reach. Mahomes improved to 8-0 at home against Denver in his career, one of the longest home streaks for any quarterback against any opponent. After his shaky start, Mahomes went 11-for-13 for 145 yards and two touchdowns to pull away. Exactly one year earlier, the Chiefs had lost at home to the Eagles to fall to 0-2. They’d dig out of that to get to 5-3 before losing eight of their last nine in a wholly disappointing season. Are the Chiefs back as a pop-culture phenomenon? Taylor Swift was perched in a suite to cheer on her husband, Travis Kelce, on a 59-yard catch that was his longest in five years. Tom Cruise was sitting next to Swift, drawing cheers when he was shown on the stadium video boards. A surprisingly resounding Week 1 divisional win, combined with the Chargers’ wobbly start losing to Arizona, and just like that, the AFC West goes through Kansas City again. Denver gave up a first-round pick to land receiver Jaylen Waddle from Miami, and the hope was that Bo Nix would have more of a downfield passing game in 2026. That didn’t take shape Monday night, as the Chiefs — despite losing rookie corner Mansoor Delane after one drive — effectively took Waddle and Courtland Sutton out of the game. Midway through the fourth quarter, the two receivers had combined for 13 yards on eight targets. Nix threw an interception on the opening drive, and there seemed to be a hesitation to gamble downfield, even with the Chiefs down a corner. A 19-yard touchdown to tight end Evan Engram was the only pass play longer than 13 yards entering the fourth quarter. Nix will get a better feel for Waddle, and they’ll connect as you’d expect. That didn’t happen when the Broncos needed it to on Monday night, though. So much of Kansas City’s offseason was about departures in the secondary. Cornerback Trent McDuffie was traded to the Rams for a first-rounder, and fellow corner Jaylen Watson joined him in L.A. in free agency. Meanwhile, safety Bryan Cook signed with the Bengals. And yet the Chiefs’ defense controlled the Broncos the entire game, even after losing Delane early. Kristian Fulton stepped up at corner, Nohl Williams had a sack, while L’Jarius Sneed had a great open-field tackle on Waddle on third-and-short. You go to seven Super Bowls, you’re going to get raided in free agency. For at least one game, though, the Chiefs don’t seem to be worse off at all. We’ll get to know these new players elevated into major roles, but they made a name for themselves keeping the Broncos in check Monday night. 3 ½. What’s Next? Denver went 14-3 last year, and its upcoming schedule is daunting enough that it might have four losses by mid-October, without even really playing poorly. The Broncos’ next five games? Home vs. the Jaguars and Rams, at the 49ers and Chargers, then home against the Seahawks — all 2025 playoff teams expected to do the same this season. You could argue that the Chiefs, even at Arrowhead, were an easier opponent than any of those five. Denver could go from the top seed in the AFC and hosting a conference championship game to being under .500 at Halloween, unless they step up to a wildly difficult level of competition. Kansas City, meanwhile, will play next Sunday night at home against the Colts, who are 0-1 after a loss on Sunday to the Ravens.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

NFL teams ran over 1,800 plays in Week 1. Unless you’re Sean McVay, you’ll probably forget 99% of them by the time Week 2 kicks off. And by October, that percentage will be even higher. But every Sunday gives us a handful of plays that will stick with us for the rest of the season. Those kinds of moments inspired this new weekly feature, where I’ll take a deeper look at three plays that shaped the past week in NFL football. We’ll dive into the strategies, the matchups, and everything else that created Sunday’s most memorable moments – along with what those moments mean for the future. This week, we’ll look at Josh Allen’s game-winner in Houston, Washington’s failed two-point conversion in Philadelphia, and the biggest play of the Bears’ 59-point outburst. Josh Allen went down to Houston and exorcised some demons. The demons, in this case, were a Texans defense that has given him hell over the past two seasons, including last year’s two-interception, eight-sack stinker. Some of the lowest moments of Allen’s career have come in Houston, but Sunday’s win was one of the better games you’ll see out of the Bills star, and it was capped off by a 34-yard touchdown strike to Josh Palmer that put Buffalo ahead for good. Here’s the all-22 angle. As Allen said after the game, the play wasn’t designed to go to Palmer. He was running a “clear out” route to open space for Dalton Kincaid’s intermediate route. “That is not where the ball is supposed to go,” Allen said. “We have never once repped the ball going there. I just felt that those safeties started cheating to DJ [Moore] a little bit.” The Texans played man coverage with just a single safety deep. With Moore isolated to the bottom of the screen, you can see that centerfield safety, Calen Bullock, hovers closer to Moore’s side. Based on the way Kamari Lassiter is cheating to the inside on Palmer, it appears he knows he won’t have safety help in the middle. Credit to Allen for noticing the subtleties of Houston’s positioning. Most quarterbacks see that look and don’t even consider throwing to Palmer. Based on everything they’re taught, it’s an absurd decision. But Allen isn’t a by-the-book quarterback. He’s an artist who specializes in absurdism. He sees a safety who’s out of position and a cornerback who will have to quickly flip his hips to keep up with Palmer’s post route. Still, it requires a high level of trust in both Palmer and his own ability to make the throw. Allen makes it look routine. The takeaway: That play didn’t just decide Sunday’s game; it also provided a promising sign for a passing game that could be bogged down by man coverage a season ago. In 2025, Allen didn’t have receivers who could dictate coverage or deter defenses from playing aggressively in the secondary. Enter Moore. Allen’s shiny, new toy in the receiving corps caught five passes for 100 yards and a score in his debut. Moore gives Allen an answer for man coverage. And if teams want to throw extra safety attention at him, it just makes things easier for his teammates. Even on a play where Moore was helping out in protection, as he did on Palmer’s game-winner, the Texans felt the need to get eyes on him. Houston hardly played any man coverage on Sunday after spamming it in last year’s matchup. If Moore’s presence can just influence how much man coverage the Bills see, he’ll be a valuable addition to the team—and maybe the one who finally gets Buffalo over the hump. (As a Maryland grad, I’m compelled to point out that the last time the Bills traded for a former Terps receiver – Stefon Diggs – Allen and the offense leveled up. We’ll see if Moore has a similar impact.) Philadelphia’s 24-22 win was peak NFC East football. It may have lacked well-executed play for the most part, but it made up for it with a tense ending. After a sleepy performance, Washington’s offense rallied for a late touchdown and could have forced overtime with a two-point conversion. That put the Commanders’ first-year offensive coordinator, David Blough, in the spotlight. He made the bold decision to dial up a shovel pass to the backup tight end. It went as well as you’d expect. Blough and quarterback Jayden Daniels have caught some heat for the outcome of the play, but I’m going to defend both. Let’s start with Daniels, who could have thrown the ball to running back Rachaad White in the flat for what looked like a walk-in touchdown. Sure, that may have been the best option based on how things eventually played out, but Daniels can’t pause the play or peer into the future. And based on the look the Eagles defense gave him – and the design of Washington’s play—he made the correct choice. Philly had three defenders against two Commanders blockers to the perimeter plus linebacker Jalyx Hunt ready to help out. Daniels has only a fraction of a second to make the decision. Daniels saw a 4-on-3 in the Eagles’ favor and moved on before it became clear that White had an angle to the end zone. In the screenshot above, you can see that he’s already looking at Bates for the shovel. And, really, the shovel should have worked. The Commanders have the right numbers and blockers to open up a clear path for Bates to waltz into the end zone. Unfortunately for Washington and Blough, football is not played on a whiteboard with scribbled Xs and Os. Talent and execution matter, and on this play, Eagles defensive tackle Moro Ojomo out-talented and out-executed the Commanders offensive line. Ojomo saw the down blocks and the pulling guard and knew immediately that he’d need to cross the face of the center, Nick Allegretti, to make a play on the ball carrier. Just reading that all out in a second or two is impressive on its own, but then Ojomo pulled off a sweet spin move that left Allegretti blocking air before he enveloped Bates well short of the end zone. The takeaway: Washington’s failed two-point attempt came on a sound play design, with the quarterback making the right decision; the Commanders just didn’t have enough talent to execute. Based on Sunday’s game, this won’t be the last time that’s the case. The offensive line might be worse than advertised without Laremy Tunsil at left tackle, and the wide receiver group didn’t make Daniels’ job easier. A change at play-caller isn’t going to make up for the talent deficiency. Without any clear avenues for improvement, it could be a long season for Daniels and this offense. I could have picked any of the 10 explosive plays Chicago hit Carolina with on Sunday, but Monangai’s big run that stretched the Bears’ lead to double digits and put the Panthers away for good is a perfect encapsulation of what makes Ben Johnson’s run game so damn hard to defend. Johnson had been setting up that run all afternoon. The Bears aligned in that same formation twice earlier in the game and had Luther Burden motion across the formation both times. Chicago ran “outside zone” to the weak side on both snaps. On Monangai’s big run, the Bears come out in the same formation but snap the ball just as Burden starts his motion. And instead of running outside zone to the weak side, they run their “duo” play to the strong side. You can see the hesitation by the backside safety, who is expecting Burden to motion across the formation and for a run in the same direction. He takes one false step, but in a game of inches, that makes the difference between a 10-yard run and a 61-yard touchdown. We also have to give credit to the Bears receivers, who put on a blocking clinic and bullied Carolina’s secondary all afternoon. Burden makes an impressive mid-play adjustment to block safety Tre’von Moehrig and create crease for Monangai, while Kalif Raymond clears out the second level with a pancake block on Chau Smith-Wade, who was not a stationary target. Those blocks even offensive linemen would be proud to make. The Bears’ skill players made those plays all afternoon. The takeaway: Johnson says Chicago’s goal is to break the scoring record, and I’m not doubting him after what I saw Sunday. The Bears have a dynamic talent at quarterback, a strong offensive line, cutting-edge play calling, and skill players who have fully bought in. “No block, no rock” isn’t just a gimmick in Chicago. These receivers live it, and Johnson rewards them with play-making opportunities. Raymond graded out as the team’s best run blocker on Sunday, according to Pro Football Focus, so it’s no surprise that he also led the team in targets. The bigger names like Rome Odunze, Luther Burden III, and Colston Loveland had quiet games in the box score but were still blocking their tails off in the second half. If they keep blocking like that, this won’t be the last 50-burger the Bears serve up this season. 1. I’m pretty sure Justin Jefferson went off script on his 39-yard touchdown catch. Based on the other routes on the play, Minnesota looked as if it was running a “dagger” concept, with Jauan Jennings running a deep crosser to clear out the coverage and T.J. Hockenson sitting down underneath. That’s a staple of Kevin O’Connell’s passing game. But the superstar receiver saw the penalty flag, realized the Vikings had a free play, and took off for the end zone. Credit to Carson Wentz for also noticing the flag and giving Jefferson a shot to make a play. 2. New Ravens offensive coordinator Declan Doyle is a star, and he won’t be in Baltimore for much longer if he keeps up the pace he set in Sunday’s win over the Colts. I could highlight so many plays from that game, but wide receiver Zay Flowers’ long touchdown stood out. Doyle had Flowers lined up in the backfield, which complicated Indy’s coverage assignments. All of the corners are playing outside, and you don’t want a linebacker on a receiver in space, so the Colts dropped a safety down to pick up Flowers, who was running an option route. Staying in front of Flowers is difficult enough. Doing so when he’s got a two-way go is even harder. And doing it from depth is downright impossible. 3. Honestly, I think Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer showed restraint when reviewing his defense’s performance after Sunday night’s loss to the Giants. The young defense was botching even the most routine concepts. As Schottenheimer points out, the Cowboys didn’t “push three times to the f***ing flat route,” and two of them came on consecutive plays. With the running back running out to the flat fast, the linebacker, Jashawn Barham, has to follow him out there. You can even see the safety pointing that out to him on the first play, only for it to happen again on the next one. That’s the type of thing you’d expect to see from a high school defense. The Cowboys have a lot to clean up.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports

The vaunted Rams … What happened?! Drake Maye … What are you doing?! Brian Flores … brings the heat! That Cowboys defense … yikes! The Chiefs are … back? After Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season, I know you have strong reactions from the football you watched — both positive and negative. And it’ll be that way all year long. That’s why I’ll be giving you my best and worst superlatives every week. I’ll drill down into the best and the worst in a number of categories. For Week 1, let’s talk plays, coaching and defense: In the Commanders’ Week 1 loss to the Eagles, special-teamer Tyler Owens produced one of the best gunner reps you’ll ever see. He fought his way through a double team at the snap from Philly’s Jonathan Jones and Darius Cooper. He stiff-armed Jones about five yards downfield. Then he stiff-armed Jones and Cooper simultaneously. He threw Cooper to the ground. He threw Jones down about 10 yards later. And if all that wasn’t enough, he took down Eagles punt returner Britain Covey with a textbook tackle, driving him to the ground. On an individual basis, regardless of the phase of the game, it’s one of the most impressive plays in recent NFL history. The clip will be on a loop for football teams at all levels all week and referenced for years to come as an example of the kind of effort and finish coaches want to see on the field. Each of Maye’s three picks were bad in the Patriots’ 13-10 season-opening loss to the Seahawks, but his final one, which sealed New England’s loss, was particularly puzzling. The Patriots faced a third-and-5 from the Seahawks 16 with 26 seconds left, trailing by three points. That’s where Maye forced a throw to a tightly-covered Mack Hollins in the end zone. Seeing that Hollins wasn’t open, Maye should’ve thrown the ball away, giving New England a chance to tie the game with a field goal. That’s quarterbacking 101. You cannot have a turnover (or take a huge yardage loss on a sack) in that situation. For a quarterback of Maye’s caliber to make a rookie-level mistake like that is baffling. His track record against great defenses isn’t good, so that will be something to watch as his third NFL season unfolds. Flores concocted a brilliant defensive game plan to help the Vikings to a 39-22 season-opening victory over the Packers. The veteran playcaller was relentless in harassing Packers quarterback Jordan Love, who was blitzed on 78.3% of his dropbacks, according to Next Gen Stats. That’s the fourth-highest rate by a defense in any game in at least eight years. Minnesota generated four sacks and an interception on second-half blitzes. Vikings linebacker Black Cashman had seven quick pressures (under 2.5 seconds), which was the most by a player at his position in a single game since at least 2018, per NGS. Third-year edge rusher Dallas Turner registered a career-high 10 pressures. Flores, the former Dolphins head coach, has been in the mix for head coaching openings for years only to be passed over — to the benefit of the Vikings. His complex defense has consistently ranked among the league’s top units since he became Minnesota’s defensive playcaller in 2023. I’m banking on that continuing in 2026. Next week, Flores takes on Ben Johnson and the Bears, the NFL’s highest-scoring offense in Week 1. The Rams’ decision to take a 16-hour flight and arrive in Melbourne, Australia, the day before their opener against the 49ers didn’t seem to make much sense. Sure enough, the Rams looked flat in their 27-7 season-opening loss in what’s being called “The Jet Lag Game.” Even if you chalk that up as an organizational decision based on advice from experts in sleep study, McVay fell short in other ways. His decision to call a goal-line quarterback sneak with 38-year-old Matthew Stafford, who has a history of back issues, was puzzling (Stafford was stuffed). But what stood out the most to me was McVay’s poor handling of star edge rusher Myles Garrett’s knee issue. After the Rams’ loss, a game in which Garrett went without a tackle for the first time since Week 11 of the 2024 season, McVay said the reigning Defensive Player of the Year’s knee was 100 percent to his knowledge. A couple of days later, it was announced that Garrett, who was held out for much of training camp due to his knee, would have arthroscopic surgery and be placed on injured reserve. That means he’ll miss at least four games. The Bengals’ new-look defense lived up to the hype. Cincinnati generated a league-high four turnovers, including on three straight possessions in the first half, to help the team to a 33-27 victory over Tampa Bay. Those four takeaways led to 24 points, including a defensive touchdown by linebacker Demetrius Knight, who registered the team’s first fumble recovery for a TD since 2022. All four of the turnovers forced by the Bengals were fumbles, which came from four different Cincinnati defenders — linebacker Barrett Carter, safety Bryan Cook, defensive ends Myles Murphy and Boye Mafe. That speaks to the depth of the defense, which gave up just 89 rushing yards. After finishing 31st in total defense last season, don’t be surprised to see Cincinnati be top-10 good defensively this year. Yes, the Panthers gave up 59 points. But I think that says more about Ben Johnson, Caleb Williams and the dynamic Bears offense. So my focus here is on the Cowboys, who spent all offseason telling us that this year’s defense wasn’t the same as last year’s only to … look like last year’s. They appeared to be completely overwhelmed and unprepared against the Giants in Week 1. Dallas gave up 165 rushing yards and three drives of at least 12 plays to end the game. New York went 9-of-10 on third down, excluding the game-ending kneel down. Quarterback Jaxson Dart completed 79.3% of his passes. There were coverage lapses everywhere. The Cowboys had a four-man pressure rate of just 10.0%, their lowest in a game in five years, according to Next Gen Stats. I think Christian Parker, the Cowboys’ 34-year-old defensive coordinator, is a good young coach. Defensively, Dallas is better on paper. But Monday’s performance was putrid.​Latest Sports News from FOX Sports