All fans of football will be recovering after a frantic opening week. To say that Week One of the new NFL season was full of drama and great games is an understatement! While the NFC had some great match-ups, the AFC also is worth looking at more. Whether it is to work out how to bet on NFL online for Week Two or simply to catch up with how things stand, checking the divisional tables is a wise move.
Not many people have the time to sift through all the tables and games to see exactly how things look after the first week of games though. If you are wanting a quick rundown on what happened in Week One in the AFC and how the tables currently look, then the below should help.
AFC East
Our rundown begins with the tough AFC East, which has the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, Miami Dolphins and New York Jets in it. Currently, the Bills and Patriots lead the way with one win each after the opening games. Unfortunately, the Jets and Dolphins sit below them with no points as yet. The big winner from the opening games were the Patriots, who crushed the Pittsburgh Steelers 33-3. Putting in a great performance, they were inspired by QB Tom Brady to run riot. If they can stay in similar form, then it looks likely to be another great year for the team. Perhaps the team who should worry most after their first game are the Dolphins. They were shredded 59-10 by a rampant Baltimore Ravens side and looked to have little answer to the power of Lamar Jackson.
AFC West
Proudly atop this division are the Oakland Raiders, who recorded a fine 24-16 victory over the Denver Broncos. Many had picked the Raiders out preseason to do well and make a dark horse play for the tough AFC West title. With new players seemingly fitting in well from the off, fans will hope that they can carry on in the same form. The Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers both had reason to celebrate in this division with wins of their own. The Chiefs’ 40-26 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars was particularly impressive, as was Patrick Mahomes’ performance in it. This leaves the AFC West delicately poised moving ahead. With at least a couple of teams looking like they have it in them to challenge for the top spot this year, fans are in for a real treat.
AFC North
After the opening games, it seems that the Ravens are set to dominate AFC North. Their impressive win over the hapless Dolphins gave them top spot and really made an impact. If they can keep playing like that, then they will be hard to beat in this division. The other three teams here made a bad start, with none managing to win!
The Steelers were blown away by the Patriots and must recover quickly to put in a better performance next game. The Cincinnati Bengals were only narrowly beaten by a single point, however, and should not be too worried after a solid display. Perhaps the biggest question here is what happened to the Cleveland Browns? Hyped up for a good season by many, they got thrashed 43-13 by the Tennessee Titans. This included 18 penalties in-game, which must be cut out to give them a chance to compete going forward.
AFC South
In the South, the Titans reign supreme for now. Their hugely impressive victory over Cleveland saw them take full advantage of the gifts they were offered. If their other games are so easy, they can look forward to staying in top spot until season end. As the other teams in the division failed to win, this may happen! The Jaguars looked less than stellar when losing to the Chiefs, and the Indianapolis Colts fell to the Chargers also. With the Houston Texans narrowly losing to the New Orleans Saints, it leaves the Titans sitting pretty and the other teams needing to make up ground to reach them.
The AFC looks set for another exciting year
Everyone who likes to follow football knows how thrilling and exciting the AFC can be. Now that the first games have been played, we can begin to see how each division is taking shape. Of course, it is far too early to make concrete predictions to how it will all pan out, but it can sometimes give a good indication of how a team will do over the whole season. One thing that you can rely on is the remainder of the NFL season bringing lots of fun and surprises our way!
As our second lead editor, Anna C. Mackinno provides guidance on the stories Great Lakes Ledger reporters cover. She has been instrumental in making sure the content on the site is clear and accurate for our readers. If you see a particularly clever title, you can likely thank Anna. Anna received a BA and and MA from Fordham University.