NFL 2022: Five Key Statistics for Week 1

The wait is over. The National Football League takes the field for its 103rd season. And like other sports, there will be plenty of numbers thrown out of the course of the next five months. Some will have to do with matchups and others will focus on the history of the game. Here are a few statistics that bear watching as the NFL kicks off 2022.

38-16-1

On Thursday night at SoFi Stadium, the Los Angeles Rams will host the Buffalo Bills. Sean McVay’s team held off a Lombardi Trophy earlier this year and will now look to become the first team since the 2003 and ’04 Patriots to win back-to-back NFL titles. And history says the Rams have a good chance of winning on Thursday night considering the defending Super Bowl champions are 22 games above .500 in their first game after winning the league title.

7

Only one team in the league has won its season opener the past seven seasons. And perhaps it is no coincidence that the Kansas City Chiefs are the only team in the NFL to reach the postseason each of the last seven years. Andy Reid’s team knows it won’t be easy as his defending AFC West champions travel to the desert to face a Cardinals team that reached the playoffs in 2021. Will there be a shootout between Patrick Mahomes and Kyler Murray?

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0-16-1

A mere 17 years and counting? You have to go all the way back to the 2004 season to find the last time that the much-maligned Cleveland Browns won their first game of the season. Yes, there was a tie in 2018 when the club and the rival Steelers played to a 21-all tie. A year ago, the Browns had the Chiefs on the ropes before falling short, 33-29. Talk about drama? Kevin Stefanski’s club travels to Charlotte and takes on Baker Mayfield and the Panthers.

38

Matt LaFleur has led the Green Bay Packers to 13 wins and an NFC North title each of the past three seasons. But the team has struggled in the playoffs and the franchise hasn’t been in the Super Bowl since 2010. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been named the NFL’s MVP two straight years. He’s feasted on his NFC North rivals over that span. In a dozen divisional contests since 2020, he’s combined for 38 touchdown passes and zero interceptions.

554

On September 28, 1951, the Los Angeles Rams kicked off the season by defeating the New York Yankees by a 54-14 score. The club rolled up an NFL-record 735 total yards in the 40-point triumph. But the game is far more known for one of the league’s most hallowed accomplishments. Rams’ quarterback Norm Van Brocklin would throw for 554 yards, which not only remains a single-game NFL record but obviously the top mark for a season opener.