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We Detail Historic Performances and Records from Week 1 · Sports History Network

• 0:53
  We had points being scored of plenty.
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  Running backs going off, wide receivers going crazy.
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  The NFL Week 1 of 2026 is an amazing week set with multiple records and we're going to cover most of them right here with Ed Cleese who joins us here in just a moment to talk about the week
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  one of the NFL season.
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  What a way to kick it off.
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  Hello my football friends.
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  This is Darin Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig pen and welcome to the end of Week 1 of the NFL season for 2026, a record breaking week.
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  To start the season, we are joined by our co host, Ed Kleese.
• 1:27
  Ed, what did you think about this week's games?
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  Well, as you know, Darin, there was a lot of scoring in this week's games and I've got some historical notes for you on a lot of these games and how it relates to how many points were scored and
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  how many points defenses gave up.
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  Yeah, this was a record tying weekend for the NFL.
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  791 points.
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  With the Monday night game with Kansas City last night scoring those, those points, it tied 2012 for the record.
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  And that's just amazing.
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  That is some great offense.
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  Usually the offenses are sputtering a little bit coming out and the defenses take hold, but not the case this year.
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  Well, it didn't start that way because the last football game we saw last year in the super bowl between the Patriots and Seahawks was quite ugly, as was the first game this year.
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  I am all for a good defensive battle, a game that's played in the trenches, but I would actually say that Wednesday night was bad football and it was the, the second lowest winning total in the history of the
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  kickoff game.
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  So the Seahawks won the game 13 to 10.
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  That was only outdone in 2019 when the packers beat the Bears 10 to 3.
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  Subsequently, that was the only game that we've had that that was, wasn't the super bowl champion repeating.
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  They did a special anniversary game for that.
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  So when the super bowl champions kick off the season, this was the lowest winning total we've had.
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  Wow, that is pretty amazing.
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  But we knew they were good defenses coming in those two teams because they, they had a little bit of a defensive battle through the playoffs.
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  Maybe not the super bowl, but yeah, definitely was on display.
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  But a little bit of sloppiness in that game.
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  And most of the games, as you sort of expect because Most of the starters hadn't played a lick of play on any team until this week.
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  Yeah.
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  And then down under we had.
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  The 49ers really took care of the.
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  Took care of the Rams.
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  And really I think the 49ers might petition the league for more international games, Darren, because they are now, they have the most international wins without a loss of any team in the league.
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  They don't have the most overall wins, but they have the most wins without a loss.
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  They are four and oh, international games.
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  And they'll have a chance this November to make it five.
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  And oh, because they will host, I guess host technically the Vikings in Mexico.
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  So they'll be going to become.
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  They'll try to expand their record.
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  One thing that didn't get expanded this weekend, Darren, was the Steelers offensive prowess because this is now the third time since 2010 they've opened with the Falcons.
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  They have scored a grand total of one offensive touchdown in those three games in regulation.
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  Yet they are three.
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  And oh, but wait a second.
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  I thought I saw TJ Walk, catch a pass and run for touchdown.
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  Offensive touchdown.
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  Oh, okay, okay.
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  Speaking of touchdowns, so we know that that was the Highest scoring Week 1 game in Bears history.
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  But did you know with their 59 points in Carolina.
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  But did you know that is only the fourth highest total in Bears history?
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  Overall they have actually.
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  They made it to 61 points in 1980 against the Packers.
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  They made it to 73 points against the Redskins in the NFL championship game.
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  A very famous one.
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  And then maybe the most famous of all was in 1965 in the Gale Sayers game, they beat the 49ers 61 to 20.
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  In the game the Gale scare, Gail Sayers scored at six touchdowns.
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  So the Bears didn't quite set a record.
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  Who would have thought out of all the teams in the league, the Bears would have three games over 60 points.
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  Yeah, but you talk about six touchdowns.
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  They had six rushing touchdowns.
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  The Bears did in 2026, you know, including Caleb Johnson.
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  I haven't seen, you know, offense like that since maybe Ben Johnson was the OC at Detroit.
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  You know, I think the guy's for real.
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  I've been a Chicago doubter and I'm starting to come around, as are the fans in New York, because this is the first time, Darren, since 2009.
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  And if you're doing some math, that is 17 years that the jets and the Giants both start the season one.
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  And oh yeah, that is an amazing feat.
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  And they both didn't look half bad.
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  Very surprising.
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  I think both teams to many of us.
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  And speaking of not half bad, the Ravens put up 38 points in their home and they're not not home opener in their week one game.
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  Did you know that is actually the fifth time in the last 10 years, Darren, that the Ravens have scored 38 or more in week one?
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  So their offense has a tradition of coming out on Fire.
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  They're 4 and 1 in those games.
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  Their one loss was last year.
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  If you remember the wonderful Sunday night game in Buffalo.
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  They lost that game 41 to 40.
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  But it's the 50% of the time last 10 years the Ravens are putting up at least 38.
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  Derek Henry looked like he was had the fountain of youth or something because that man was on a mission.
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  Phenomenal.
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  But you want, you want to know what is not phenomenal?
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  What's that?
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  If you were born, let's say in 1990, then you were about 9 years old when the Browns came back to Cleveland in 1999, right?
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  So that's about when we all can remember things, right?
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  Say about 9, 10 years old.
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  So if you're that guy, that means that you have witnessed 30 now opening days for the Browns and they are 3, 26 and 1 in those week one games.
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  Let me say that again.
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  3, 26 and 1 in week one games.
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  So.
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  So when you're saying the Browns came back 30 years ago, that was the last time they came back in any game.
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  Yes, yes, it really is.
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  And you might say, well, the Browns stink, but that's like a 10% winning percentage, which even for the Browns is pretty bad.
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  So somehow some way, the Browns are even worse to start the season than they are the rest of the season.
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  So if you're a Browns fan, you've had literally three times in your lifetime potentially that they've gotten the season off to a good start for you.
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  So hey, when you start at rock bottom, there's only a way to look is up.
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  Yes.
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  Speaking of rock bottom, the packers gave up 39 points to the Vikings in week one.
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  Darren, that is the.
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  Why I don't know how to do the math here.
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  The last time the packers gave up that many points, week one, we're going all the way back to 1971.
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  They lost a game to the Giants 42 to 40.
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  Any idea the Giants quarterback was that day.
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  Boy, I'm not sure.
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  France Arkington.
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  So, okay, the last time the packers gave up that many points, Fran Tarkington was in week one was the opposing quarterback.
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  Yeah, that.
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  I mean that was an amazing stat on that game.
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  You Know the vikings coming up 15 points back and they were out gained offensively by 150 yards.
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  The packers scored or earned 150 more yards of offense than the Vikings and lost that game.
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  I mean it was pretty wild.
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  29 to nothing run to end the game is also fairly unprecedented.
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  And I don't know if this is unprecedented, but on Sunday night, I don't know if you saw this Darren, but this really stuck out to me that the Cowboys had the ball twice in the second half, two times,
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  two possessions, they scored a touchdown on both of them.
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  So the Cowboys had the ball two times in the second half of the game.
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  The way that There was only five possessions total in the entire second half of the game.
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  The Giants started with a 12 play touchdown drive.
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  The Cowboys answered with a 12 play touchdown drive.
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  The Giants answered with the 13 play touchdown drive.
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  The Cowboys answered With a nine play touchdown drive.
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  And then the Giants ran the clock out on a 12 play drive.
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  So the Cowboys touched the ball two times in the second half, scored a touchdown both times and didn't come really even close to winning.
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  Never got a, never got that third shot.
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  That I think is pretty unprecedented.
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  Yeah, talk about your ball control offense on both sides.
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  Amazing ball control offense.
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  And then my last nugget, I really like this one.
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  This was a little bit of a dig, a deep dig.
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  So we all saw Kenneth Walker make his sparkling debut for the Chiefs Monday Night Football.
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  It was pretty impressive.
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  So he was the Super Bowl MVP last year for the Seahawks, of course.
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  So I did a little digging and I said, okay, let's see all of the running backs that have won the super bowl mvp.
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  Let's see how they did in the first game the next season.
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  Okay, and that would be Larry Zonka in 1974 only went for 62 yards.
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  Franco Harris in 1975 only went for 78 yards.
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  John Riggins, 1983 went for 89 yards.
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  The very next year Marcus Allen went for 81 yards.
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  In 1984, O.J.
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  Anderson won the Super Bowl MVP in 90 and then in 91 went for 45 yards.
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  The one that sticks out here we've got Emmett smith ran for 171 yards in Week 1 against the Steelers the year after the Cowboys won their second super bowl and of that era.
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  And then terrell Davis had 75 yards in week one, the year that he, after he won the super, the super bowl mvp, Walker beats them all.
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  He just edged out Emmett.
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  So 173 yards.
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  So not only does he win the super bowl mvp.
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  But then he has the best debut the next season of all of those other names, most of which I think actually all of which except for Otis Anderson are in the hall of Fame.
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  Yeah.
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  Wow.
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  That is quite a feat.
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  I knew he had a great game.
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  I didn't realize it was as record setting as that.
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  That's, that's amazing.
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  It is a record setting game.
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  It is a record setting.
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  But Darren, those aren't the only records that were set because you know what we had this weekend?
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  What's that?
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  Did you know that we had two score gamis?
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  No, I did not.
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  Two of them.
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  Wow.
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  Two score gummies.
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  And I've decided, Darren, it's time to take Scoragami to the next level.
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  Do you want to hear about this?
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  Sure, let's go.
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  Okay, so I've just.
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  So for those that don't know score I got me is anytime there is a unique final score in an NFL game, a score that's never happened before, I am obsessed with score.
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  Got me.
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  And I've decided that I'm going to create a score, a weekly score, a ME index and we're going to rate each week based on how rare the scores from that week wound up being.
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  And here's how we're going to do it.
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  So I'm taking each score and if it's a score of gami, that means it's one.
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  Right.
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  So it's the first time it's ever happened.
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  Let's say it's a common score.
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  Let's say it's happened 150 times.
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  Well, that would be scored as 150.
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  The other one would be scored as one.
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  The average of that of course would be 75.
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  So your index would be 75.
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  So we had two score of gummies.
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  We had the Bears beating the Panthers 59 to 37.
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  Now that one's such a weird score.
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  That, that didn't really surprise me too much.
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  But I was surprised that the Vikings beating the Packers 39 to 22 was also the first time that has ever happened.
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  And then there were actually two more scores that were less than 10 times.
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  So you had Baltimore beating Indianapolis 41 to 23.
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  That's only happened eight times.
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  And then you had.
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  Where's the other one here?
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  Buffalo.
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  This one really surprised me.
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  Buffalo beat the Texans 36 to 31.
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  Only happened five times.
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  The most common score from this past week was the Wednesday night game.
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  That is the 171st time that a team has won a game 13 to 10.
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  Darren.
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  Our index score for week one is 53.75 and you might say that's going.
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  To be hard to beat.
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  You might say, ed, what does that mean?
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  And then my answer is I don't know because I just made it up and I have no frame of reference yet.
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  So we'll find out.
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  I don't know where it lands.
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  I don't think you're going to have two score gummies in a week.
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  Again, I would think that's probably a safe bet.
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  We may go we may go the.
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  Rest of the year without a score gummy.
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  So we might go the whole rest of the year without a score gummy.
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  And we'll have to see if any week can go lower because obviously in this case low score wins.
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  We'll see if any game can go lower than 53.75 on the brand newly minted Ed Cleese Scorogami Index all right,.
• 14:17
  Well I want to rattle off some more history that was made this weekend because we had some really record setting things.
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  Jameer Gibbs reached 51 career touchdowns in his 50th career game, becoming just the fifth player in NFL history with 50 plus touchdowns in 50 games.
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  Josh Allen of the Bills became the first quarterback NFL history, 12th player overall to reach 80 career rushing touchdowns by his ninth season.
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  T.J.
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  watt joined Julius Peppers as the only players in NFL history with 100 plus sacks and 10 plus interceptions in their career.
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  Josiah Trotter recorded a sack and a pick six in his NFL debut against the Bengals, becoming the first player to do so since 1982.
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  Just a couple years into the sacks being registered.
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  Zay Flowers tallied a career high 150 yards in the first half before exiting with that hamstring injury, boosting his career Week 1 average to 102 yards per game in Week 1.
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  Jaguars rolled to their ninth regular season win in a row.
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  The the Nick Sirianni of the Eagles.
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  They won their sixth straight Week 1 game, longest active streak in the NFL, making Sirianni the fifth coach to win his first six career season openers.
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  The Raiders has sort of a bad record.
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  They extended their active streak to 38 consecutive games without reaching 30 points in a game.
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  So boohoo on that that offense there.
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  And the Arizona Cardinals.
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  The Mike LaFleur era started off and he became the first non interim cardinals coach to win his debut since don coriel in 1973.
• 15:58
  Wow.
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  Amazing facts that we have in week one.
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  Amazing.
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  It sure just getting started.
• 16:05
  It sure is.
• 16:06
  Well Ed, we will do some more history and next week and stay tuned for tomorrow as we make our predictions on the podcast of Pigskin Dispatch.
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  Ed, thanks for joining us today.
• 16:17
  Thanks Darren.
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  That's all the football history we have today folks.
• 16:21
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• 16:26
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• 16:40
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• 16:52
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• 17:05
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