NFL Week 1 Winners and Losers: Bears offense looks every bit as good as Ben Johnson said it would be

Based on the season opener, it might happen.

The Bears offense was just as impressive as Johnson said it would be in a 59-37 win over the Carolina Panthers. Caleb Williams had a fantastic game, including as a runner. He had two touchdown runs. One was a 29-yarder, which tied the longest run of his career.

Nearly everyone got involved as the Bears put up 552 yards and almost 60 points. Kyle Monangai had a 61-yard touchdown. He and D’Andre Swift both had 100 yards rushing. Williams threw touchdowns to Cole Kmet and Jahdae Walker, who are far from the Bears’ biggest stars. Everything clicked. The Bears went off despite a catch-less game from tight end Colston Loveland, who should still have a big season in Chicago’s offense. It just wasn’t his turn on Sunday.

Caleb to Kmet for SIX 🎯

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Johnson is so confident in his offense, he went for it on his own 21-yard line in the first half. The Bears didn’t get it. The offense made sure it didn’t matter.

Still, there are some things to clean up. The Bears started with a 31-point first half. The defense started by giving up 31 points in the first 36 minutes of the season. The game was tied 31-31 with 9:02 left in the third quarter. You can expect a lot of Bears games to look like that this season. Bryce Young ended up with 361 passing yards and three touchdowns. And the Bears won by more than 20.

The Bears’ offense is tremendous. Nobody questioned that coming into the season. What was in doubt was if the defense could keep up. Last season the Bears survived a mediocre defense by leading the NFL in turnover margin by a wide margin. That’s hard to replicate. But in the end, the Bears defense did enough to win and that’s what matters. They’ll win plenty of games in which they give up a lot of points, like Sunday.

The Bears won the NFC North last season. And from the first glance, it looks like the offense is even better. If nothing else, every Chicago game will be a wild ride.

Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 1 of the NFL season:

WINNERS

Lamar Jackson: Jackson was the first-team All-Pro quarterback in 2023 and 2024. He was hurt in 2025 and everyone seemed to forget how good he was.

Jackson is great when he’s healthy, and it didn’t take long for the Baltimore Ravens’ quarterback to show it. He had a 5-yard rushing touchdown to start the Ravens’ scoring, and there was a flood of it after that. Jackson had 321 passing yards and 40 more rushing. Zay Flowers had 150 first-half receiving yards, though he left the game with a hamstring injury. Derrick Henry looked good too, with 144 rushing yards and three touchdowns. The Ravens had 31 points in the first half. They beat the Indianapolis Colts 41-23.

ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!?

ZAY FLOWERS WITH A 54-YARD TOUCHDOWN!!!!!

Tune in on @NFLonCBS and @ParamountPlus. pic.twitter.com/rWxOm3QUZV

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) September 13, 2026

The Ravens need Jackson to stay healthy, and they need their receivers to be healthy too. Flowers could be a big loss. But Baltimore’s defense looked pretty good in Jesse Minter’s first game as head coach. And, no surprise, Jackson looked like he could be an MVP candidate again.

Josh Allen: The Houston Texans still could have the NFL’s best defense this season. Allen carved it up.

The Texans gave up their most points since the 2023 season as Allen went off in a 36-31 win. The Bills defense clinched the win with a strip sack of C.J. Stroud in the final seconds.

Allen gave the Bills the lead with 1:36 left with a 34-yard pass to Joshua Palmer on third-and-11. That avoided a long Tyler Bass field goal attempt with the Bills trailing. It also came after Allen caught a break when his wild throw to the end zone was almost picked off, but dropped. Allen had 334 yards and two touchdowns, with two touchdowns rushing.

Josh Allen and Joshua Palmer put the Bills in front ❗️

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— NFL (@NFL) September 13, 2026

The Texans’ defense will be fine. Allen was just that good on Sunday.

Mike McCarthy: McCarthy got the call to go home to Western Pennsylvania and lead the Pittsburgh Steelers as Mike Tomlin’s replacement as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach. His first game was a success.

The Steelers will face tougher opponents than the Atlanta Falcons, who were down to their third quarterback in Cooper Rush because of injuries, and Pittsburgh will need to play better than they did Sunday. The game was a little too close against a depleted Falcons team, and a defensive touchdown on an interception by T.J. Watt saved the Steelers in a 20-13 victory. A win is a win and the Steelers will be happy to start 1-0.

OH MY T.J. WATT WITH THE PICK-6 🚨

ATLvsPIT on FOX/FOX One
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— NFL (@NFL) September 13, 2026

McCarthy has a lot to live up to, because Tomlin always at least dragged Pittsburgh to a .500 record when he was coach. Avoiding a loss to the Falcons is a good start.

LOSERS

Bumbling Buccaneers: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were one of the NFL’s worst teams in the NFL over the second half of last season. They lost seven of eight games after their bye before winning the finale, but it wasn’t enough to win the NFC South, one of five divisions in NFL history to have a champion with a losing record.

The bad vibes continued Sunday. The Cincinnati Bengals took advantage of many Buccaneers mistakes in a 33-27 win. Their first touchdown came when Myles Murphy stripped Baker Mayfield and Bengals linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. scooped the fumble and scored. Three of the first four Buccaneers possessions ended with a fumble, including Mayfield fumbling at the Bengals’ 4-yard line. They lost four fumbles in all, three by Mayfield.

BENGALS WITH THE SCOOP AND SCORE!!!

TBvsCIN on FOX/FOX One
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— NFL (@NFL) September 13, 2026

The Buccaneers played well enough to win. Despite all those mistakes, they lost by just six points on the road. But they did make those mistakes. Just like the second half of last season.

Cam Ward: If Ward can’t have a decent outing against the New York Jets at home, is it going to happen at all this season?

Ward’s preseason struggles carried over to the regular season. He and the Tennessee Titans looked awful in their season opener against a Jets team that was 3-14 last season. The Jets won 23-10. Ward was 19 of 32 for 140 yards.

Ward came into this season with some pressure to be better than last season, when he was the No. 1 overall pick and struggled. He largely got a pass for a horrible rookie season because he was in a bad situation. That situation improved. In the season opener, Ward didn’t.

Deshaun Watson and the Browns: Watson’s first drive of the 2026 season ended with an interception. Everyone could see that coming, except the Browns.

It doesn’t matter if Watson can get the team in and out of the huddle OK and he might know the offense better, because he is not a viable NFL quarterback anymore. Don’t tell the Browns that, however. They started him even though it made no sense from any angle, other than perhaps that was their way of tanking. The Browns lost 34-10 to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 1, and it never felt that close.

.@Jaguars INT ALERT 🚨

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— NFL (@NFL) September 13, 2026

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p style=”text-align:left”>The Browns trailed 24-0 at halftime of their opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Trevor Lawrence is a real NFL quarterback and he had three touchdowns in the first half. Watson had 75 yards at halftime, 91 fewer than Lawrence. Watson finally had a nice play when he threw a deep touchdown to Denzel Boston, but it came with 1:52 left in a 34-3 game. It was a stark contrast: The Jaguars are pretty good, and the Browns can’t get out of their own way. Just remember, the Browns voluntarily made Watson their QB1 to start the season.