ATLANTA — For first impressions, what a nightmare.

The Atlanta Falcons supplied so much hope and hype in luring Kirk Cousins to town in March with a massive $180 million contract. For those type of bucks, with $100 million guaranteed on a four-year deal, prayers are supposed to be answered.

Instead, Cousins looked too much like his discarded predecessors, Desmond Ridder and Marcus Mariota, as he stumbled and bumbled during his debut in a Falcons uniform.

What an embarrassment.

‘We know he has to play better,’ Falcons coach Raheem Morris said, making his debut, too, with the 18-10 setback to the Pittsburgh Steelers. ‘There’s no doubt about that. I look forward to him bouncing back from a rough game and a rough outing. I’m not overly concerned about it.’

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Sure, it was one week, one game. Overreactions can be more intense than usual in Week 1. It was the first live game action for the quarterback since Cousins, 36, tore his Achilles tendon last October. The rust showed.

Yet the two ugly picks can’t be ignored. The first one, by safety DeShon Elliott, came on the second series in the first quarter, when Cousins said he tried to throw the ball away over the middle as receiver Drake London seemingly stopped running his route. The next one was even worse, near midfield with under three minutes to play and Atlanta looking to go ahead with a touchdown. Cousins, under heavy pressure, threw a wobbly pass toward Ray-Ray McCloud III that Donte Jackson stepped in front of to set up the last of Chris Boswell’s six field goals.

‘Just couldn’t get anything on the ball,’ said Cousins, who finished 16-for-26 for 155 yards, with a paltry 59.0 passer rating.

It wouldn’t get better as the game progressed. The Falcons were shut out in the second half.

‘Need to play better,’ Cousins said. ‘That’s the bottom line.’

The Falcons lost to a team that didn’t score a touchdown while managing just 10 points of their own from an offense with so many first-round weapons. It went deeper than the quarterback merely getting off on the wrong foot. The pass-protection was so suspect, allowing T.J. Watt and several of his defensive brethren to consistently harass and pummel Cousins, who was sacked twice and hit seven other times.

The pressure was even more glaring, given how the Falcons need to protect a quarterback never known for his mobility. While Steelers quarterback Justin Fields escaped several would-be sacks and kept plays alive with his legs (and threw for 1 more yard, with no turnovers), that’s hardly the formula for Cousins.

For Cousins to succeed, he needs a clean pocket and precise timing. Connect the dots. That surely wasn’t the case at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday, and especially on the money downs as Atlanta converted just two of nine third downs (22%).

The Steelers knew. Pittsburgh kept Cousins in check largely with a four-man rush, wary of his knack for beating blitzes. Along the way, the Steelers exposed pass-protection issues. 

‘We had to create pressure in a non-blitz structure,’ Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. ‘We know that about him. Last year, he was good against five or more rushers. Over the course of his career, he’s great against five or more rushers. He’s been good against us, specifically, against five or more rushers. That wasn’t our agenda. We needed to do it with four, and we were able to do that. We were able to pace him. We were able to get him off his spot.’

Watt certainly had a key role in disrupting the timing. The All-Pro linebacker notched a sack, two tackles for losses, three quarterback hits and a fumble recovery – and had two other sacks that caused fumbles, including one that he recovered, wiped out by penalties.

Yet the timing issues were more widespread than that. The most glaring example came just after halftime, when a shotgun snap caromed off tight end Ross Dwelley as he ran in motion. The fumble, recovered by Watt, led to a field goal.

‘The timing was off,’ Cousins said, blaming himself for asking for the ball off the motion. ‘It’s my fault. It’s something that you have to bat 1.000 and you can’t have a mistake, and we paid for it today.’

Cousins was one of 10 quarterbacks across the NFL pegged to start in Week 1 who didn’t play a snap during the preseason. It’s fair to wonder whether some of the timing issues evident in the Falcons’ opening act – when they totaled just 226 yards of offense – might have been reduced had Cousins played during the preseason. Remember, Cousins lobbied Morris to play during the exhibition slate, but the idea was flatly rejected.

‘I think the key is that we’re healthy for Week 1 and that was really the focus,’ Cousins said of the preseason inactivity. ‘There’s never excuses. You have to be ready when your number is called.’

The Falcons surely weren’t ready to start their new era with a bang. The omen may have come with Cousins’ first pass, which was way wide of intended receiver Darnell Mooney (1 catch, 15 yards) and hit Jackson, the Steelers cornerback, in the chest before falling incomplete. Timing or just a bad throw?

Morris, who replaced Arthur Smith, downplayed a question about his approach in preserving key players during preseason. The Kansas City Chiefs, for example, got exhibition snaps for Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes (although they also lost recently-acquired receiver Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown to a shoulder injury) and other key players. And the Steelers played several starters during their third preseason game. Conversely, Morris is far from the only NFL coach to put key players in bubble wrap during the preseason.

‘I’m not really concerned about that,’ Morris said. ‘I think that is especially about mitigating injuries. So, we wouldn’t be playing nothing but 10 snaps anyway, if we did play. I don’t even value that as much as you do.’

In any event, it doesn’t get any easier. After a Monday night clash at the Philadelphia Eagles – and hey, Cousins is 3-10 on Monday nights – the Falcons host the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in a prime-time game in Week 3.

In other words, the hype and hope could sure use some better bang for the bucks.

Though we’ve only seen two full weeks of results in college football, fans and pundits alike will still try to draw grand conclusions about how the rest of the campaign will unfold. We can’t help it. It’s just human nature.

Ultimately, some of our early impressions could prove to be accurate, while others might be a bit hasty. As always, our aim in this space is to try and bring a little big-picture perspective to some of those quick conclusions.

Here are the top five overreactions from Week 2, in which we explore one of the sport’s endless debates, consider which one-loss teams still have realistic title aspirations, and which presumed contenders have cause for concern.

Texas should be No. 1

The Longhorns have an argument. One could make the case that winning a true road game at Michigan in dominant fashion is the best result to date in the young season. One could also point out, correctly, that a team’s position in preseason polls is arbitrary, and perhaps suggest that voters should make adjustments.

It is equally true, however, that there has been little reason for voters who placed Georgia and Ohio State ahead of Texas to change their opinions on the Bulldogs and Buckeyes. At the end of the day, where a team is ranked in early September will have little to no impact on the season’s final outcome. That’s especially true now that more teams will have access to the playoff. In short, polls are fun to debate for engaged fans, but one shouldn’t lose sleep or start fist fights over them.

Notre Dame has no shot at the playoff now

Any loss for the Fighting Irish was going to be damaging without the fallback position of competing for a league championship. Saturday’s setback to Northern Illinois from outside the power conferences, an all-too familiar pattern for the program, isn’t automatically disqualifying on its own. Should Notre Dame finish 11-1, the team would probably still have worked its way back into a high enough ranking by the committee for inclusion.

But running the table is a tall order for a squad with this much inconsistency. Furthermore, a name-brand program like the Fighting Irish is going to get every opponent’s best shot going forward, beginning next week at in-state foe Purdue.

So you’re telling me there’s a chance? (Insert ‘Dumb and Dumber’ meme here.) Well, the Irish’s chances are slightly greater than zero, but the margin for error is gone.

HIGHS AND LOWS: Winners and losers from college football’s Week 2

Michigan can still repeat

An early loss to a top-five team out of conference can be overcome, particularly given the opportunities for quality wins provided by the expanded Big Ten. But there had been red flags for the Wolverines a week earlier as they struggled to get by Fresno State, and thus far there is scant evidence that this version of Michigan can finish high enough in the conference standings to be considered playoff worthy, even with the expanded field.

Yes, we’ve seen teams turn in bounce-back performances (more on that below), and yes, we’re only two weeks into the season. But followers of the maize and blue have to be realistic. Michigan’s back-to-back bid is now the longest of long shots.

Clemson is just fine

Well, perhaps closer to fine, with apologies to the Indigo Girls.

The Tigers gave a fairly convincing rebuttal to the argument that their opening act had short circuited their season before it got off the ground. Cade Klubnik threw five actual touchdown passes, and the Clemson offense reminded fans what it looked like in its championship years against Appalachian State. We hold this truth to be self evident, however – the Mountaineers are not Georgia.

To be sure, Clemson is to be commended for being ready to handle its business and avoid a hangover Saturday against a program with a known giant-killer reputation. But whether the Tigers can perform like that against more accomplished secondaries remains to be seen. Can Clemson win the ACC? Of course. The Tigers will almost certainly be favored against all of their scheduled conference opponents. But while Saturday’s outing was encouraging, we can’t say the team has regained elite status.

Your favorite top-10 team’s narrow escape is a sure sign of trouble

Several perceived playoff contenders dealt with varying levels of angst against Group of Five opponents. Oregon had to battle Boise State down to the wire before prevailing with a walk-off field goal. Penn State was trailing at home against Bowling Green at intermission and only won by a touchdown. Heck, even mighty Alabama was in a one-score game with South Florida in the fourth quarter before posting a deceptive 42-16 final margin.

None of those early-season contests are likely to send any of the teams involved into panic mode, nor should they. Boise State is a very good team with an All-America caliber running back that might have a very strong case for a playoff spot when all is said and done. Bowling Green is a well-coached squad with a veteran quarterback that nearly became the second MAC program to shake up the landscape this weekend. South Florida gave the Crimson Tide all they could handle last season as well so wasn’t intimidated by the bright lights in Tuscaloosa.

Watching nervous fan buzz on message boards is a spectator sport in and of itself, but the simple reality is winning in college football is never easy, even when some programs make it appear so on a weekly basis. Those whose favorites were fortunate enough to survive their latest tests will likely be better for it down the road.

The 32 things we learned from Week 1 of the 2024 NFL season:

1. The 2024 campaign was always going to be partially defined by its rookie quarterbacks after six were taken in the first 12 picks of this year’s draft. Three – the Chicago Bears’ Caleb Williams, Washington Commanders’ Jayden Daniels and Denver Broncos’ Bo Nix – started Sunday, marking the fourth time since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger that at least that many rookie passers were under center for Week 1. None of them played particularly well, but they’ve got time to sort out the mistakes … if not as much time as freshman QBs used to be afforded.

2. It wasn’t pretty, but Williams became the first quarterback drafted No. 1 overall to win his NFL debut in 22 years, the Houston Texans’ David Carr the last to manage it. Williams only completed 14 of 29 throws for 93 yards in a 24-17 win fueled by Chicago’s defense and special teams, but the hopeful Bears will take the W.

2a. Fifteen passers were selected atop drafts between Carr and Williams and started with a collective record of 0-14-1.

3. Overall, 10 teams had different starting quarterbacks compared to their 2023 openers – four of them earned victories.

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4. Yards gained by Arizona Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr. (on one reception), who earns this vote for the most disappointing rookie debut.

5. Better than Bill Belichick? OK, OK … but New England Patriots rookie HC Jerod Mayo, 38, who earned a ring with the Pats while playing for BB in 2014, does have the better winning percentage – likely for a very brief moment – after winning his inaugural game as Belichick’s successor in a 16-10 upset of the listless Cincinnati Bengals.

6. In fairness, Cincy rookie P Ryan Rehkow was hardly listless, averaging 64.5 yards over his first four NFL punts, one of them an 80-yarder.

7. As for the league’s seven other head coaches debuting with new teams? They went 2-5, the Seattle Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald and Los Angeles Chargers’ Jim Harbaugh notching the wins – the Bolts doing so against the Las Vegas Raiders and first-year boss Antonio Pierce, whose interim tag was removed in the offseason.

8. Sunday’s costliest mistake? Sorry, Travis Etienne, but that third-quarter fumble – when you were on your way to the end zone and a 24-7 lead for the Jacksonville Jaguars – takes the cake, especially since Miami Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill scored an 80-yard TD on the ensuing snap. The Fins won with a field goal at the gun, 20-17.

9. For Hill, it was a nice moment amid an otherwise challenging day, part of which he spent in handcuffs after committing a traffic violation on his way to South Florida’s Hard Rock Stadium prior to kickoff. While the particulars of an apparently regrettable incident get sorted out – one of the police officers involved has already landed on administrative duty, and Hill’s agent (Drew Rosenhaus) vowed his own investigation Sunday morning – Hill was his typical field-flipping self on the field with seven receptions for 130 yards and the long TD. He now has 12 in his career covering at least 75 yards, two shy of Hall of Famer Devin Hester’s all-time record.

10. Apples and oranges, but Hill’s unfortunate run-in with the Miami-Dade authorities shared the spotlight with the new contract signed by Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, now the highest-paid player in NFL history, as part of a fusillade of Sunday morning news. The league’s first $60 million man after inking a four-year, $240 million extension, Prescott had a quieter day between the lines – passing for 179 yards and a touchdown, modest numbers after he lofted a league-high 36 TD passes in 2023.

11. The big news in Dallas’ 33-17 beatdown of the Cleveland Browns was its defense, now run by veteran coordinator Mike Zimmer, after it allowed just 230 yards, sacked QB Deshaun Watson six times and took the ball away twice.

TB12. Oh, one other bit of news coming out of Huntington Bank Field (that’s Cleveland, btw) on Sunday – Tom Brady’s debut as Fox’s No. 1 NFL analyst. Early returns? What does it matter? Brady’s already clinched another berth in the Super Bowl, Fox set to broadcast the scene from Super Sunday in New Orleans in February.

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13. Speaking of Brady, if you didn’t know, his former Patriots teammate, Drew Bledsoe, apparently greatly preferred backing up TB12 to former Cowboys star Tony Romo, who now broadcasts for network rival CBS. But now, we definitively know. ‘Romo, you know this is true,” Bledsoe said on a feature during ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown.” “The minute that he became the starter, he became pretty big in his own mind. He was no longer the curious, inquisitive guy. That was the difference between him and Tommy. … All of a sudden Romo was the guy that had all the answers.’

14. If Pittsburgh Steelers K Chris Boswell doesn’t win AFC special teams player of the week, there needs to be an investigation. Boswell scored all 18 of his team’s points, half of his six field goals in an eight-point win beyond 50 yards. He also stepped in for injured Cameron Johnston to provide a nifty 43-yard punt in the fourth quarter.

14a. Going into Sunday night, 19 field goals of at least 50 yards had been made league-wide, already a record for any week in league history.

15. Atlanta-area native Justin Fields, who was widely speculated to be a target of the Falcons early in the offseason, got the start for Pittsburgh in place of still hobbled QB Russell Wilson (calf). Fields wasn’t otherworldly Sunday but was efficient (17-for-23, 156 yards passing, 57 yards rushing, 0 turnovers) and outplayed counterpart Kirk Cousins. After a captivating – if uneven training camp battle – it will be interesting to see how quickly the Steelers are willing to go back to Wilson, if at all.

15a. Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin said we can ask him Tuesday.

16. Meanwhile, after Cousins’ two-interception debut with the Falcons, you know the Michael Penix Jr. truthers will be calling for the veteran’s job soon enough – fairly or not. (And it’s not. Yet.)

17. Might help if some Falcons fans showed up to support the local team rather than letting Mercedes-Benz Stadium get overrun and pumped up by Steelers stars like OLB T.J. Watt.

18.New Pittsburgh OC Arthur Smith, Atlanta’s head coach the past three seasons before being fired, got a small measure of revenge Sunday. Next weekend could bring Wilson payback – if he’s able to post and beat the Broncos in Denver in Week 2.

19. The New Orleans Saints’ 47 points in Sunday’s win were their most over in an opener … and, yes, it counts even if the outburst occurred against the (still) lowly Carolina Panthers.

20. In another first, CB Alontae Taylor became the first defensive back in the 58-season history of the Saints to register three sacks in a game.

21. The Broncos didn’t win in Seattle, but they did become the first team in seven years to record multiple safeties in a game.

22. The league’s new “dynamic kickoff” has generally been anything but during preseason and opening weekend. But the outlier surfaced Sunday in Orchard Park, N.Y., where the Buffalo Bills got a 53-yard return from Brandon Codrington … who was summarily topped by the Cardinals’ DeeJay Dallas, whose 96-yard TD was the first kickoff returned all the way under a 2024 format heavily influenced by the former XFL’s approach to the dangerous play.

22a. The new rule is having a statistical impact, more kickoff return yards already racked up before all of the openers were complete than in any week in all of last season.

23. What a comeback for Chargers RB J.K. Dobbins, who missed 42 of 51 regular-season games over the past three seasons due to various knee and Achilles injuries in Baltimore. But he’ll never forget his Bolts debut, when he rushed for 135 yards – the second-highest total of his career – on just 10 second-half carries and scored on a 12-yard run in Harbaugh’s victorious debut.

24. Who says a Wolverine (Harbaugh) and Buckeye (Dobbins) can’t collaborate in a positive manner? “It’s good. We are the same side now,’ said Dobbins, who terrorized Harbaugh’s Michigan teams when he played for Ohio State. ‘That’s all I can say, and we’re going to keep working together.’

25. Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield is on pace to throw for an NFL-record 68 TD passes this season after posting four in a 37-20 rout of the Commanders. Incidentally, it’s early.

26. The Philadelphia Eagles offense seems certain to look significantly different in 2024 – and not just because RB Saquon Barkley (3 TDs in Friday night’s win over the Green Bay Packers in Brazil) is there and retired C Jason Kelce is not.

27. A team that used the least amount of pre-snap motion (35.1%) in the league in 2023 essentially doubled it in OC Kellen Moore’s first game calling plays, per Next Gen Stats.

27a. As for Barkley, he became the first Eagles player in 20 years to hit pay dirt three times in his debut with the club, the last being Hall of Fame WR Terrell Owens.

28. No ‘WR1’ for the Pack, Matt LaFleur? Maybe that assessment will prove true. But Jayden Reed definitely became the first player of the Super Bowl era (since 1966) to have touchdowns covering at least 30 yards both rushing and receiving in Week 1.

29. Greatest rushing quarterback in NFL history? The Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson rushed for 122 yards in Thursday night’s loss – the 55th time in his career that he’d run for at least 50, surpassing Michael Vick’s league record among quarterbacks. Jackson is the only man at his position to surpass 1,000 rushing yards in a season twice.

29a. Jackson needs 730 more rushing yards this season to break Vick’s all-time record among quarterbacks (6,109).

30. Get used to seeing players wear Guardian Caps in games, Patriots S Jabrill Peppers and Steelers G James Daniels among the early adapters to an allowance made in the offseason.

31. Uniform notes of the week – and remember, as Deion Sanders has been known to say, “If you look good, you feel good. If you feel good, you play well. If you play well, they pay well.”

31a. The Seahawks (throwbacks) and Eagles (new black combination to ingratiate themselves to the São Paulo locals) both looked very good – and won.

31b. The Bengals (newly clad as pumpkins) and New York Giants (100th anniversary, Michigan-and-the-Montreal-Canadiens-bred-a-horrid-alternate) did not look good – literally or figuratively. At all.

31c. Sure didn’t appear Minnesota Vikings superstar Justin Jefferson wanted the Giants jersey of fellow LSU alum Malik Nabers after Sunday’s meeting.

32. MVP of the week (to this point): Bills QB Josh Allen. He accounted for four TDs (2 passing, 2 rushing) in what’s going to be a lower-octane offense given how many wideouts it was stripped of in the offseason.

32a. Allen now has four career games with multiple rushing and passing TDs, tied with Hall of Famer Steve Young for the all-time record.

***

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.

‘Roc Nation, the entertainment company founded by rapper and businessman Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter, is entering into a multiyear partnership with the NFL to enhance the NFL’s live game experiences and to amplify the league’s social justice efforts,’ the NFL said at the time.

What’s happened since? Unless Jay-Z is doing something we can’t publicly see, his ‘social justice efforts’ remain non-existent.

The live game experience part? That’s completely different.

Jay-Z continues to engineer how the NFL presents itself to the public by utilizing the popularity of its biggest event: the Super Bowl.

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Jay-Z in fact is reshaping the image of the NFL in ways no one ever has. He is unabashedly injecting Black culture into the league’s Super Bowl bloodstream. MAGA may hate this. The right wing may hate this. But for now, the NFL’s mostly conservative owners are allowing Jay-Z to have this type of influence. It’s been a remarkable thing to watch.

The latest proof of this came on Sunday when the NFL, Roc Nation and Apple Music announced that Kendrick Lamar will captain this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show.

“Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date. And I’ll be there to remind the world why,” Lamar said in a statement. “They got the right one.”

Yeah, they did.

Jay-Z, who co-produces the halftime show, said in a statement: “Kendrick Lamar is truly a once-in-a-generation artist and performer. His deep love for hip-hop and culture informs his artistic vision. He has an unparalleled ability to define and influence culture globally. Kendrick’s work transcends music, and his impact will be felt for years to come.”

The league doesn’t seem content with a football game, it wants to be a factor in the culture game.

Specifically, the Black culture game. Lamar is an extremely Black choice. Yes, Lamar has appeal outside of the Black community but make no mistake, while Lamar is one of the most culturally significant forces today, he is unabashedly Black, just like the medium in which he excels.

There’s an irony here, of course. The league hasn’t always treated its Black players and coaches well with Kaepernick being one of the key examples of this. Yet, the NFL wants to use Black culture as fuel to attract younger fans who do embrace it.

Even Jay-Z hasn’t always been, well, understanding of the importance of the Kaepernick movement. During his initial press conference in 2019, he sat next to Roger Goodell, commissioner of the league, and said: “I think we’ve moved past kneeling. I think it’s time to go on to actionable items.”

‘I’m really into action – I’m into real work,’ he told the media at the time. ‘I’m not into how it looks. How it looks only lasts for a couple months until we start doing the work. I’ve been in this position many times. Take Tidal as a great example from five years ago. Now, people look at it today, people have a different outlook on it. But at the time, people didn’t see what was going on.

‘So I’ve been in this position many times. I just show up and do the work, I’m not interested in how things look on the outside. If protesting on the field is the most effective way, then protest on the field. But, if you have a vehicle that you can inspire change and you can speak to the masses and educate at the same time.’

Jay-Z has thrown all of his NFL-affiliated resources into the culture part of the game. That part, at least, is working. Probably beyond his wildest dreams.

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