Week 1 saw the first AFC South battle win the Colts taking on the Texans. The Jaguars and Titans both had out of division games against the Washington Commanders and the New York Giants, respectively. How do things look in the division after week 1?
Colts and Texans
Look, there’s no other way to word this – this was an ugly game. It ultimately ended in a tie and saw the much-favored Colts down by 17 points entering the fourth quarter. Yet somehow the Texans were unable to score or hold the Colts from scoring 17 unanswered points to send the game to overtime. Then during overtime neither team could get points on the board to take an ugly win. Jonathan Taylor came as advertised; he notched 161 yards and a touchdown on his way to 5.2 yards per carry.
Matt Ryan ended up throwing the ball 50 times for the Colts and grabbed a touchdown and a costly interception in the first quarter that lead to a Texans touchdown. The Colts put themselves in a position to win the game with around two minutes left, but Colts’ kicker Rodrigo Blankenship missed a field goal wide right. This seemed to be a pattern in the AFC South for Week 1. The fourth quarter Colts didn’t look half bad and will still likely be favored to win the AFC South.
Davis Mills on the other hand threw for 240 yards with two touchdowns in an impressive showing against a good Colts defense for three quarters. In the fourth quarter, however, Mills fumble and failed to move the Texans down the field on a few key possessions. The Texans defense, which held the Colts to three points over as many quarters, gave up two back-to-back touchdowns over a six-minute stretch.
Overall, the Texans looked like a decent team for three quarters while the Colts looked good for the 4th quarter. Neither team looked like they will be a serious contender after Week 1.
Jaguars Drop a Close One to the Commanders
The Jags dropped a close game to the Commanders in a game that echoed what much of the AFC South looked like throughout the week – one half or less of good football. The Commanders jumped out to a 14-3 in the first half in what looked like an impending beatdown of the lowly Jags. At the beginning of the third quarter, Lawrence found Christian Kirk on a 49-yard pass that set up a James Robinson touchdown a couple of plays later. A pair of Wentz interception led to a Jags touchdown and field goal 22-14 with just under 12 minutes left in the game.
The Commanders went on to score two unanswered touchdowns to go up 28-22 for good. Jags QB Trevor Lawrence tried to move the Jags down the field inside of two minutes before being picked off by the Commander’s safety Darrick Forrest. It’s not how the Jags wanted the game to go, but there were some promising signs for the 4th youngest team in the NFL.
Titans Drop a Close One
The Titans entered their game with the opportunity to make a statement in the AFC South, and that’s exactly what they did… just not in the best way. After a second half rally by the Giants, the Titans lost by a single point. That’s right, the Giants. This hurt almost as much as Landry’s season-ending injury. Like much of the AFC South throughout Week 1, the Titans looked fine for one half of football. Not great, but fine. They jumped out to an early lead with a pass from QB Ryan Tannehill to RB Dontrell Hillard and finished off the first half with a pair of field goals.
At the start of the third quarter things started to fall apart. Saquan Barkley broke off a big 68-yard run to set up a Giants touchdown with 11 minutes left in the third quarter. The teams then traded touchdowns before the Titans made perhaps the worst play call since Pete Carroll’s Superbowl pass call.
On third and one with just over six minutes left in the game, the Titans decided to steer away from tried-and-true methods such as a QB keeper up the middle or feeding the massive running back to pick up the first down. Instead, they tried for a trick play that lost yards and ultimately lead to the Giants game winning touchdown. The Titans last ditch efforts failed as Randy Bullock missed wide left on a 47-yard field goal. Overall, I would say the Titans looked like the worst team in what could end up being the worst division in the league. I could also be biased because I expected more from our team.
State of the Division
No team stood out in a good way. None of them looked like a complete team on both sides of the ball for an entire game. The Jags are as close as it got and that’s because their expectations were not particularly high heading into the season. The Colts and Texans showed small signs of being able to win the division, but when the AFC South ended Week 1 without a single win despite two of the teams playing each other, this could end up being a tough season for all of us.