3 NFL teams that were surprisingly impressive in Week 1

As you may have expected, Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season was loaded with surprises from individual player performances to teams going out and raising some eyebrows with unexpected wins over quality teams. As a matter of fact, that happened in a variety of matchups and although it’s just one game, you can’t help but wonder what kind of implications some of these games could have throughout the rest of the 2022 season.

Which teams put forth the most unexpected (in a good way) performances in Week 1? Which teams vastly exceeded expectations? Let’s take a look at three of them.

NFL Week 1: 3 surprisingly impressive teams that got wins

Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears stormed back after slow start in the rain

Early on in the Chicago Bears‘ matchup against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 1, it looked like we were going to get an encore of what we’d all seen last season. It was a slow start for Justin Fields and the offense, and the Bears trailed 10 deep into the third quarter.

That was when the Bears caught the 49ers’ defense sleeping. Fields found Dante Pettis across the field wide open, and Pettis was able to sprint 51 yards for the Bears’ first touchdown of the game. From that point on, it just seemed like Fields and the Bears were playing with huge momentum and confidence. They scored 19 unanswered points including this touchdown pass from Fields to Equanimeous St. Brown.

Watching this touchdown drive — a 10-play drive that covered 84 yards — was one of the clearest signs of obvious progression I think we’ve seen from Justin Fields up to this point. The Bears’ defense helped in a big way in this game, holding Trey Lance to under 50 percent passing and forcing two turnovers, but even in sloppy playing conditions, it was Fields that made the necessary plays down the stretch to help get the Bears a big season-opening win. Not to mention, it came against a 49ers team that finished in the NFL’s final four last year.

New York Giants come up big with surprising win in Tennessee vs. Titans

Regardless of which team you root for (okay, unless you root for the Tennessee Titans), how could any football fans not be absolutely thrilled to see a “vintage” performance from Saquon Barkley like we saw on Sunday? It was a tremendous sight to see after three years of battling through injuries.

It’s been three years since Barkley has had a run of 50-plus yards, and this is the kind of explosiveness that made him one of the top picks of the 2018 NFL Draft.

Overall in this game, Barkley finished with 194 yards from scrimmage, averaged over nine yards per carry, looked explosive, got himself into the end zone for a touchdown, and most importantly: The Giants got a nice win on the road against the reigning top seed from the AFC.

On their home field, no less.

The victory by the Giants is even more impressive when you break down other layers. They were obviously not the favorites to win this game. They had to come back from being down 13-0 deep into the third quarter. They had to do it with a brand-new head coach going up against the NFL’s coach of the year.

Playing on the road with a two-score deficit late into the third quarter isn’t easy regardless of who you’re going against, but then you have the added difficulty of having to stop a team with Derrick Henry at the running back position from grinding out the clock. The Giants also had rookies starting on the offensive line. Even with the high expectations from some of those picks, that also was a tough hurdle to overcome as they allowed pretty significant pressure on Daniel Jones all game.

All of this to say, the Giants really overcame a lot to grind out a win against the Titans in Week 1 and their ability to finish the game is commendable.

Justin Jefferson and Minnesota Vikings roll over Green Bay Packers

Even though we had talked about this leading up to the game, I don’t know if there was a more shocking Week 1 upset than the whooping we saw the Minnesota Vikings give the Green Bay Packers. Now, the Packers were crushed in Week 1 last year and they still ended up having a great season, so there’s no need to panic in Green Bay, but I do think Vikings fans deserve to be absolutely ecstatic over what they saw against the Packers.

Kirk Cousins threw a pair of touchdown passes in this game to Justin Jefferson, who looked like the most dominant player on either side of the ball for either team. Jefferson was constantly running wide open against the vaunted Green Bay secondary and the Packers really had no answer for him. He did most of his damage in the first half but still ended with 184 yards on nine receptions for an average of over 20 yards per catch.

The unit that really deserves some kudos for Minnesota, though, is the new-look defense being orchestrated by Ed Donatell. Donatell didn’t get much credit for his role with the Denver Broncos over the last few years because Vic Fangio had been the primary defensive play-caller, but Donatell wasn’t just there as a player motivator. He knows how to scheme a defense.

The Vikings held the reigning back-to-back MVP Aaron Rodgers to 195 yards passing with no touchdowns, an interception, and four sacks. Those four sacks came from four different players on the Vikings’ defense, including 2022 free agent acquisition Za’Darius Smith, a former Green Bay Packer who was clearly relishing his time out there against his former team.

Can the Vikings keep this kind of play up? Time will tell, but it was a great debut for rookie head coach Kevin O’Connell and his staff on both sides of the ball. The Vikings were dominant over the NFC North favorites and that kind of win early in the season can provide a foundation for confidence over the course of the rest of the year.