New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley (26) celebrates after rushing for a second-half touchdown against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday in Nashville, Tenn. AP Photo/Mark Zaleski
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Daniel Jones hit Chris Myarick for a 1-yard touchdown pass, then found Saquon Barkley on a shovel pass for the 2-point conversion with 1:06 left, giving the New York Giants a 21-20 win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday and making Brian Daboll a winner in his coaching debut.
Daboll didn’t hesitate to keep his offense on the field for the 2-point conversion, which snapped the Giants’ skid of five straight losses in season openers.
The Titans, the AFC’s No. 1 seed with a 12-5 record a year ago, had a chance to win as time expired. But Randy Bullock pushed a 47-yard field goal wide left after making two field goals earlier against one of his former teams.
Barkley ran for 164 yards and a 4-yard TD, his best game since Dec. 22, 2019, after topping 100 yards rushing only once in 13 games last season. He got the Giants going with a 68-yard run to set up his TD.
BUCCANEERS 19, COWBOYS 3: Tom Brady and Mike Evans connected on a punctuating touchdown, Leonard Fournette ran for 127 yards, and visiting Tampa Bay dominated Dallas, while Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott departed because of a hand injury.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said after the game that Prescott needs surgery on his throwing hand and will miss multiple weeks, a season-altering blow to a team that won the NFC East last year.
A rough night for Prescott got worse after his right hand struck a defender when throwing a pass in the fourth quarter. He was checked on the sideline before jogging to the locker room.
STEELERS 23, BENGALS 20: Chris Boswell kicked a 53-yard field goal as time expired in overtime and Pittsburgh overcame T.J. Watt’s injury late in the fourth quarter to win at Cincinnati.
Watt had one of four interceptions off Joe Burrow, who rebounded from a lousy start and rallied Cincinnati from a 17-6 halftime deficit. His 6-yard touchdown pass to Ja’Marr Chase tied it at 20 with 2 seconds left in regulation, but the game went to overtime after Minkah Fitzpatrick blocked Evan McPherson’s point-after try.
McPherson and Boswell missed potential winning field goals in overtime before Steelers quarterback Mitch Trubisky completed passes of 9, 26 and 10 yards in the final 56 seconds.
Watt, the Defensive Player of the Year, left the field and headed to the locker room shortly before the game went to overtime with a pectoral injury. Before that, he was his usual disruptive self, with a sack and a pick.
Burrow’s four interceptions were a career worst, and he was sacked seven times in front of what was supposed to be an improved offensive line.
SAINTS 27, FALCONS 26: Wil Lutz kicked a 51-yard field goal with 19 seconds remaining to cap a stunning fourth-quarter comeback by New Orleans, which overcame a 16-point deficit to win at Atlanta in Coach Dennis Allen’s debut.
After struggling through most of the game, Jamies Winston guided the Saints to three straight scoring drives. The first two ended with touchdown passes of 3 and 9 yards to Michael Thomas. The Saints converted one 2-point try, but failed on the other, leaving the Falcons clinging to a 26-24 lead.
Allen took over for Sean Payton, who coached the team for 15 years and led New Orleans to its lone Super Bowl title before surprisingly stepping down after last season.
CHIEFS 44, CARDINALS 21: Patrick Mahomes threw for 360 yards and five touchdowns, lifting Kansas City to an impressive win at Arizona.
The game was never in doubt after the opening minutes, with Mahomes picking apart the Cardinals’ defense with his usual array of good decisions and deft passing touch. The quarterback was playing his first NFL game against Kliff Kingsbury, who coached Mahomes in college at Texas Tech and now leads the Cardinals.
The student put on quite a show for his mentor: The 2018 MVP threw three touchdown passes on Kansas City’s first three drives.
Tight end Travis Kelce caught eight passes for 121 yards and a touchdown. It was his 30th career game with at least 100 yards receiving. Clyde Edwards-Helaire hauled in two touchdown passes.
Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray was playing his first game since being rewarded with a $230.5 million, five-year contract during the offseason. He finished 22-of-34 passing for 193 yards and two touchdowns, though much of that production came when the Chiefs already had control of the game.
BROWNS 26, PANTHERS 24: Rookie Cade York kicked a go-ahead 58-yard field goal with 8 seconds left, Kareem Hunt scored two touchdowns and the visiting Cleveland spoiled Baker Mayfield’s bid for vengeance.
Nick Chubb ran for 141 yards and Hunt had 70 total yards from scrimmage as the Browns won their season opener for the first time since 2004.
Mayfield overcame a slow start by leading the Panthers back from a 13-point fourth quarter deficit by running for a 7-yard touchdown and finding Robbie Anderson for a 75-yard touchdown strike. He then led the Panthers on a 64-yard drive in seven plays to set up Eddy Pineiro’s go-ahead field goal with 1:13 left in the game.
Jacoby Brissett, filling in for suspended Browns star Deshaun Watson, completed passes for 13 yards to Donovan Peoples-Jones and 9 yards to Amari Cooper to set up York’s winning kick, the longest for the franchise since 1984.
Mayfield, who spent four seasons with Cleveland prior to being traded in July, finished 16 of 27 for 235 yards.
VIKINGS 23, PACKERS 7: Justin Jefferson started his third season with Minnesota by smashing visiting Green Bay for 184 receiving yards and two touchdowns, giving new Vikings Coach Kevin O’Connell a victory in his first game.
After accumulating the most receiving yards (3,016) in a player’s first two years in the NFL, Jefferson set an all-time Vikings receiving record with 158 yards in the first half against a stacked Packers defense.
Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins completed 23 of 32 passes for 277 yards without a turnover, targeting Jefferson on more than a third of his throws and keeping the Packers on their heels for most of the afternoon.
Aaron Rodgers’ first game without Davante Adams was a struggle, and the three-time defending NFC North champion Packers fell flat in their opener for the second straight season.
CHARGERS 24, RAIDERS 19: Justin Herbert threw for 279 yards and three touchdowns, Khalil Mack had three sacks in his Chargers debut and Los Angeles defeated visiting Las Vegas, spoiling Josh McDaniels’ first game as the Raiders’ coach.
Herbert completed 26 of 34 passes and had a 129.4 passer rating despite Keenan Allen leaving with a hamstring injury in the first half and Mike Williams not having a catch until the fourth quarter.
Raiders quarterback Derek Carr was 22 of 37 for 295 yards and two touchdowns but was picked off three times. He connected 10 times with former Fresno State teammate Davante Adams, who was acquired from Green Bay in the offseason. Adams had 141 receiving yards, including a 2-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
COMMANDERS 28, JAGUARS 22: Carson Wentz threw four touchdowns and led Washington to a comeback victory over visiting Jacksonville.
It was his first four-TD game since the day he tore the ACL in his left knee while with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2017. And it came with former Eagles coach Doug Pederson on the sideline in charge of the Jaguars for the first time.
Wentz finished 27 of 41 for 313 yards and produced enough points to make up for two bad mistakes on interceptions earlier in the fourth quarter.
BEARS 19, 49ERS 10: Justin Fields threw for two second-half touchdowns, Eddie Jackson set up a TD with an interception and Chicago gave Matt Eberflus a win in his head coaching debut at a rain-soaked Soldier Field.
Fields shook off a rough first half, throwing a 51-yard TD to Dante Pettis in the third quarter and connecting with Equanimeous St. Brown for an 18-yarder early in the fourth to put Chicago on top 13-10. Jackson then picked off Trey Lance near midfield for his first interception since 2019 and returned the ball to the 21. That led to a 6-yard touchdown run by Khalil Herbert, making it 19-10.
San Francisco outgained the Bears 331 yards to 204.
COLTS 20. TEXANS 20 (OT): Matt Ryan rallied Indianapolis in the fourth quarter to force overtime at Houston in his debut for the Colts, but neither team could score on two overtime possessions each and the game ended in a tie.
The Texans led 20-3 entering the fourth quarter in coach Lovie Smith’s debut, but Ryan led three successive scoring drives, culminating with his 15-yard touchdown pass to Michael Pittman with 1:54 remaining in regulation.
In overtime, the Colts moved into field goal range with a 13-play drive that chewed up 6:30, but Rodrigo Blankenship’s 42-yard attempt sailed wide right with 2 minutes left.
RAVENS 24, JETS 9: Lamar Jackson threw three touchdown passes, including two to Devin Duvernay, and visiting Baltimore rolled past the New York.
Jackson went 17 of 30 for 213 yards, including a TD to Rashod Bateman, and an interception. The performance came hours after ESPN reported that Jackson turned down a five-year extension offer worth more than $250 million.
Jackson didn’t run much on Sunday, just 17 yards on six carries, but he didn’t need to because the Jets’ offense struggled to get anything going.
EAGLES 38, LIONS 35: Jalen Hurts accounted for 333 yards and a touchdown and A.J. Brown had a career-high-tying 155 yards receiving in his Philadelphia debut at Detroit.
The Eagles scored 24 points in the second quarter and had a 17-point lead in the fourth that was cut to three when Jared Goff threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to DJ Chark with 3:51 left. Philadelphia sealed the win with Miles Sanders’ 24-yard run on third-and-2 from the Eagles 27 just before the two-minute warning and Hurts’ sneak that converted a fourth-and-1 from the Detroit 40 with 50 seconds left.
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