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What’s happening with NFL offenses in 2022?

By Russell S. Baxter

DENVER, COLORADO - OCTOBER 06: Russell Wilson #3 of the Denver Broncos is sacked by DeForest Buckner #99 of the Indianapolis Colts during a game at Empower Field At Mile High on October 06, 2022 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Tafoya/Getty Images)
DENVER, COLORADO - OCTOBER 06: Russell Wilson #3 of the Denver Broncos is sacked by DeForest Buckner #99 of the Indianapolis Colts during a game at Empower Field At Mile High on October 06, 2022 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Tafoya/Getty Images) /
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It’s the early stages of the National Football League’s latest campaign. And there have been some disturbing numbers when it comes to the offense.

All told, the 2021 NFL season proved to be quite exciting. There were certainly its share of wild games featuring plenty of points. The final three rounds of the postseason saw six of the seven contests decided by exactly three points. The lone exception was the Kansas City Chiefs 42-36 overtime triumph over the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Divisional Playoffs at Arrowhead Stadium.

NFL offenses struggling so far in 2022 season

But in the early stages of 2022, the league hasn’t really picked up where it left off. During the first five weeks of the season, scoring around the NFL appears to be down a bit. As it turns out, appearances are not deceiving.

In this season’s first 80 games, there have been only 26 occasions in which a team scored at least 30 points. That was in stark contrast to the first five weeks of 2021 when there were 44 performances of 30 or more points.

In Week 5, a season-high seven clubs reached the 30-point mark. In fact, the Seahawks scored 32 points vs. the Saints but didn’t manage to win. But there haven’t been too many games of this nature to date this season.

A year ago, 24 teams had scored at least 100 points after five weeks of action. This year, only 21 clubs have reached the century mark in this category. All told, the league’s 32 teams were averaging 119.0 points in their first five contests in 2021. This year, that figure is down to 109.2

What is evident is that teams in general have not taken care of the football as well as they did a year ago at this time. Again, after five weeks of play and 80 contests this season, the 32 clubs have combined for 215 turnovers. That’s up from a season ago at this time when the same number of franchises combined to give away the football 192 times in the same amount of games.

So will these issues be something that will be a season-long trend? Or are teams starting to get into an offensive rhythm? Only time will tell. But to date, there has certainly been some very sloppy football.

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