Latest / Sports History Network / Exploring the Historical Significance of Week One NFL Matchups

Transcript

Exploring the Historical Significance of Week One NFL Matchups · Sports History Network

• 0:47
  Hello, my football friends.
• 0:47
  This is Darren Hayes of pigskindispatch.com welcome once again to the Pig Pen, your portal to positive football history.
• 0:52
  And as we approach the NFL season coming up in about a week, we want to talk a little bit about the history of some week one games.
• 1:01
  And who better to do that with than Ed Cleese?
• 1:04
  Our fan who loves to come on here and talk football and give us some history, gives us some insight.
• 1:10
  Ed, welcome back to the Pig Pen.
• 1:11
  Hey, Darin, how are you?
• 1:13
  I'm doing great, Ed.
• 1:14
  How about yourself?
• 1:15
  I am doing good.
• 1:16
  Week one is just around the corner, so I am ready.
• 1:20
  Yeah, I know.
• 1:21
  Talking before we came on.
• 1:23
  You are pumped up.
• 1:24
  You've done some homework here and you've got some history to tell us about these week one games coming up for 2026.
• 1:30
  Yes, I like to go down rabbit holes that are super, super weird.
• 1:35
  And so what I started thinking about was there's 16 matchups in week one of 2026.
• 1:42
  And I wonder how many times each of these matchups has happened.
• 1:48
  And so I went down this rabbit hole big time.
• 1:51
  So I researched every matchup going all the way back to 1980, and I came up with what I think is a pretty interesting list, if I guess you are a total football nerd like me.
• 2:05
  All right, well, let's hear it.
• 2:06
  All right, so we're going to start.
• 2:08
  There are actually three matchups that are happening this this year in week one that have never occurred before in week one.
• 2:17
  Again, I'll keep saying it going back to 1980.
• 2:20
  So, oddly enough, the rematch of the super bowl, the Patriots at the Seahawks, this is the first time those two teams will have ever played in Week one.
• 2:30
  And.
• 2:31
  And that's, you know, it's an AFC team and an NFC team.
• 2:34
  So, you know, I think maybe that's not that crazy, but if you remember, Darren, for many, many years, the Seahawks were also in the afc.
• 2:41
  They were in the AFC West.
• 2:42
  So first time this one's ever happened.
• 2:45
  Yeah, probably what, the first 20 years of the Seahawks exist.
• 2:48
  Yeah, about.
• 2:49
  Approximately.
• 2:50
  Yes.
• 2:50
  Yep.
• 2:50
  Yeah.
• 2:51
  And then the.
• 2:52
  Another one.
• 2:52
  The Bears and the Panthers have Never played Week 1 before.
• 2:56
  2026 will be the first time they have played.
• 2:59
  And obviously, the Panthers history only goes back to 1995.
• 3:03
  But one kind of interesting thing that I found here is that's 30 years, and the Bears and the Panthers have only actually played 12 times total in those 30 years and only five times in Carolina.
• 3:17
  So this is only the sixth time in history that the Bears will play in Carolina at all in the regular season.
• 3:24
  And it is obviously the first time it's ever happened in week one.
• 3:29
  And then the last matchup that's never happened before, this one really surprised me.
• 3:34
  And that is the Dolphins and the Raiders have never before played in week one again since 1980.
• 3:41
  And it's really weird because they have met 28 times during that period, but just never in week one.
• 3:51
  Wow, that is amazing.
• 3:52
  You would think that they would want, especially like in the early 70s when they, these teams were probably two of the top teams in the NFL, that they would want these marquee matchups almost like you have, you know,
• 4:02
  the Patriots and the Seahawks playing, you know, so.
• 4:04
  And.
• 4:05
  And they may have.
• 4:05
  Remember, I'm only going back to 1980.
• 4:07
  Oh, that's true.
• 4:08
  Okay.
• 4:08
  Okay.
• 4:09
  Yeah.
• 4:09
  So I'm only going back to 1980.
• 4:10
  So may have dated back to the seventies.
• 4:12
  I had to stop somewhere, Darren.
• 4:13
  So I figured five years was enough.
• 4:16
  I gotcha.
• 4:17
  So now we have several, several times where these teams have only played once pro prior.
• 4:21
  And the first one goes back as far as we can go back because we're going all the way back to 1980.
• 4:27
  The only time that the Buccaneers and the Bengals have ever previously played in week one.
• 4:33
  And this was kind of interesting.
• 4:35
  This was talking about the rabbit hole, right?
• 4:37
  So this is a game in 1980.
• 4:38
  The 1979 Buccaneers went to the NFC Championship game.
• 4:43
  The 1981 Bengals went to the Super Bowl.
• 4:47
  In between in 1980, neither team wound up being very good.
• 4:51
  So this is kind of a weird game.
• 4:53
  Believe it or not, the whole thing is on YouTube, the whole game.
• 4:56
  And it starts off in Cincinnati, just like they'll be playing in 2026.
• 5:00
  It is a bright, beautiful, sunny day.
• 5:02
  And then somewhere in the third quarter, the skies darken and it is an absolute downpour to the level that I would imagine in today's football.
• 5:12
  They probably would have delayed it because it was such a massive thunderstorm.
• 5:16
  You can barely even see anything.
• 5:18
  And then by the end of the game, it's bright and sunny again.
• 5:21
  So it's like this really weird thing to go check out on, on YouTube if you want.
• 5:26
  It is a very good game.
• 5:27
  Doug Williams brings the Buccaneers back late in the game.
• 5:30
  He throws a touchdown with about two minutes left to give them the lead.
• 5:34
  The Bengals drive down, but fail on a fourth down conversion.
• 5:37
  The Buccaneers win.
• 5:38
  So the Bucks have the one win over the Bengals in week one.
• 5:42
  And here's a little history question for you.
• 5:43
  Any idea who the.
• 5:45
  Speaking of the 1970s dolphins.
• 5:47
  Hint hint.
• 5:49
  Any idea who the kicker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was in this game in 1980?
• 5:54
  Was it Garo your Permian?
• 5:56
  Yes.
• 5:57
  Garo your premium made a appearance in my YouTube deep dive into the 1980 Bucks Bengals game.
• 6:03
  Wow, that is some deep research.
• 6:05
  Great job.
• 6:06
  There you go.
• 6:07
  So another one that's only happened once is the jets and the Titans and Ike included the Oilers history in this.
• 6:14
  So this, this does go back to 1980.
• 6:17
  These two teams are both AFC teams, yet they've only met one time in week one.
• 6:23
  This was in 2006.
• 6:24
  They were in Tennessee by then.
• 6:27
  The jets actually beat the Titans on The jets led 16 nothing in the fourth quarter.
• 6:32
  The Titans came all the way back and tied it and then Chad Pennington threw a touchdown late in the game and went it for the Jets.
• 6:37
  So the jets obviously have the one win.
• 6:39
  The Browns and Jaguars have only played one time previously.
• 6:43
  That was in 2000.
• 6:45
  The Browns lost 27 to 7.
• 6:47
  So the Jags had that win.
• 6:49
  The Bills and Texans also have.
• 6:51
  Now this only goes back to 2002 when the Texans were born.
• 6:55
  They have played once previously against the Bills.
• 6:58
  That game was in Buffalo in 2005 that the Bills won.
• 7:02
  And then the Cardinals and Chargers have only also played one time.
• 7:08
  That was in 2014.
• 7:09
  And a Monday Night Football game that wound up being a one point game in Arizona.
• 7:14
  The Cardinals won 18 to 17 on a fourth quarter comeback.
• 7:18
  And our last game that's only happened once and it's kind of funny because it's the cities, they share a connection, the Ravens and the Colts obviously the current Baltimore team and the old Baltimore team.
• 7:30
  So this one could have only happened since I think 1996.
• 7:33
  6.
• 7:35
  I think that's when the Ravens went back to Baltimore.
• 7:37
  It's happened one time before.
• 7:39
  It was a Sunday night football game in 2005.
• 7:43
  The Colts won 24 7.
• 7:45
  The Ravens avoided the shutout with a touchdown with like 10 seconds left.
• 7:49
  So those are your games that have only in 2026 will be happening for the second time.
• 7:55
  Wow.
• 7:56
  Now some interesting matchups if you think about the history here.
• 8:00
  You mentioned the Baltimore vs.
• 8:02
  Indianapolis and the Colts coming out of Baltimore.
• 8:04
  Now the Ravens are there and also the jets and Titans.
• 8:08
  The original nickname for the jets franchise was the New York Titans when they were in the afl.
• 8:14
  That's why you're here for things like that.
• 8:16
  Good catch.
• 8:17
  Maybe the NFL did this on purpose.
• 8:19
  Just.
• 8:20
  Yeah, there you go.
• 8:20
  There you go.
• 8:21
  There you go.
• 8:22
  Now we're going to go on to the Games, the matchups that have happened twice previously.
• 8:26
  So this year will be the third time that these teams have met.
• 8:31
  This one was the most surprising to me of all of them, and that is that the 49ers and the Rams, who have been in the same division since 1980 and before, have only met in week one two times
• 8:45
  in that entire 45 year history.
• 8:47
  Very strange.
• 8:48
  Very strange.
• 8:49
  The 49ers are two and.
• 8:50
  Oh, in those games.
• 8:52
  Both of the games were somewhat recent and kind of like innocuous, not really interesting.
• 8:57
  In 2005, it was a close game that the 49ers won that year.
• 9:01
  The 49ers went 412 and the Rams went 2 and 14.
• 9:05
  So two bad teams.
• 9:06
  And in 2016, the 49ers shut out the Rams on Monday Night Football, 28 to nothing.
• 9:13
  The Rams won their next three games and then only won one more the rest of the time.
• 9:17
  So they went 4 and 412 that year.
• 9:19
  So both times this has happened before wound up being really bad years for the Rams.
• 9:24
  So obviously they'll be hoping for a different outcome this year.
• 9:29
  Wow.
• 9:29
  Very, very good.
• 9:30
  I can't.
• 9:31
  Yeah.
• 9:31
  That is unbelievable that The Rams and 49ers have only had that handful of times in, God, what, 60, 70 years that they've been in the same.
• 9:39
  Right.
• 9:39
  Again, I only went to 80.
• 9:41
  You know what I mean?
• 9:42
  But.
• 9:42
  Yes, that's right.
• 9:43
  Yeah.
• 9:43
  But still, 40, 40 some years.
• 9:45
  Yes.
• 9:46
  So.
• 9:46
  So it's very strange.
• 9:48
  I.
• 9:48
  I would.
• 9:48
  I didn't.
• 9:49
  I did not do this.
• 9:50
  I did not go back and check every single divisional matchup of all time.
• 9:54
  But I'm guessing that that's got to be near the bottom of the.
• 9:59
  Or the top, however you want to look at it, of divisional matchups that have happened the least often in week one, sticking with the nfc, we have the Saints and the Lions.
• 10:09
  That's going to be a game.
• 10:10
  That's a week one game for us this year.
• 10:12
  They've only outplayed twice prior.
• 10:14
  That series is tied 1 1.
• 10:16
  In 2000, the Lions beat the Saints in New Orleans.
• 10:20
  And in 2009, this is an interesting year for the Saints.
• 10:24
  As you might Remember, they won 45 to 27.
• 10:27
  Drew Brees at 358 yards and six touchdown passes in Week 1.
• 10:33
  Of course, the Saints went on to win the super bowl that year and The Lions went 2 and 14.
• 10:40
  So Saints fans are hoping for a repeat of what happened in 2009.
• 10:45
  Probably don't want to cross their fingers too much on that.
• 10:49
  Yeah, I bet they are.
• 10:51
  How about we go to your neck of the woods, Darren?
• 10:55
  Kind of strange.
• 10:56
  I wouldn't have think this had happened more than once, but the Falcons and the Steelers have met twice in week one before.
• 11:03
  Both somewhat recent.
• 11:05
  And let me just ask you, so in 2010 and 2024, so just two years ago, how many touchdowns have the Steelers scored in these two games in regulation combined?
• 11:19
  In regulation combined, I'll say maybe four.
• 11:23
  I know, I know.
• 11:23
  The 1 00.
• 11:25
  Really?
• 11:26
  These two games, the Steelers scored zero touchdowns.
• 11:30
  The 2,010 was a Michael Vick game,.
• 11:32
  I think, and they won them both.
• 11:34
  Darren.
• 11:35
  The Steelers are 20 in this matchup.
• 11:38
  They haven't scored a touchdown in regulation and they've won both games.
• 11:42
  In 2010, Rashad Mindenhall had a 50 yard run in overtime.
• 11:48
  The game went to overtime tied at nine nine.
• 11:50
  So three field goals apiece.
• 11:52
  He broke the tie in overtime.
• 11:53
  So they did score a touchdown.
• 11:54
  It was not in regulation.
• 11:55
  And then you probably remember in 2024, the Steelers won that game 18 to 10 on six field goals.
• 12:03
  And that was when Kirk Cousins threw a couple picks there, a little bit rusty from his injury, right?
• 12:09
  Yeah.
• 12:10
  So now we're going to round it out with all divisional matchups, which you would probably sort of assume would be the case.
• 12:16
  Now.
• 12:17
  This is kind of weird, though.
• 12:18
  Similar to the 49ers and the Rams, the Chiefs and Broncos have only met three times in week one since 1980.
• 12:27
  The Broncos are three.
• 12:28
  And oh, in those matchups, nothing really stuck out in terms of the game so much.
• 12:33
  But one thing that did stick out to me is they've never opened in Kansas City.
• 12:37
  These two teams have not played week one in Kansas City since 1980.
• 12:41
  And this is really weird.
• 12:43
  I went back farther on this one, Darren, because I was curious.
• 12:46
  They've only played each other in September seven times in 63 years.
• 12:52
  Wow.
• 12:53
  So not very many early season matchups between the Broncos and Chiefs, for whatever random reason it might be.
• 12:59
  And the first time they've ever opened against each other in Kansas City will be this year.
• 13:05
  Nope, should be a good one.
• 13:06
  And this might be what, the last year for?
• 13:09
  Arrowhead, Right?
• 13:10
  I can't remember when that's slated to open, but you might be right.
• 13:14
  Okay, well, if it's not the last year, it's the second last year, correct?
• 13:18
  Yep.
• 13:19
  So now we end with it.
• 13:20
  Now we're going to go up the ladder a little bit.
• 13:21
  This matchup has happened six times previously.
• 13:24
  It's an NFC north battle.
• 13:27
  Used to be the NFC Central of course, that is the Green Bay packers and the Minnesota Vikings.
• 13:33
  This series is tied three games apiece.
• 13:35
  So the winner this year will break the tie there.
• 13:39
  The.
• 13:39
  The very.
• 13:40
  It didn't happen the first time until 1992.
• 13:43
  And it's funny, Brett Favre became the starting quarterback two weeks later.
• 13:48
  So this was like the last season that they started the season without far for forever.
• 13:55
  And the Vikings won that game in overtime.
• 13:57
  Kind of interestingly, in 1992, they started the season against each other in Green Bay.
• 14:03
  Vikings won.
• 14:04
  They ended the season against each other in Minnesota.
• 14:07
  Green Bay needed to win that game to get into the playoffs, and they lost.
• 14:13
  And the game did not mean anything to Minnesota.
• 14:16
  And that put the Washington Redskins into the playoffs, who then went into Minnesota and beat them.
• 14:22
  So they had.
• 14:23
  So that's kind of an interesting twist on 92 in 2020.
• 14:27
  These teams opened the COVID year in Minnesota.
• 14:30
  Aaron Rodgers had four touchdowns in that game.
• 14:33
  And then most recently was 2022.
• 14:35
  The Vikings smoked the Packers 23 to 7 in Minnesota.
• 14:41
  All right, wow, that is quite the rundown there, Ed.
• 14:44
  That's a great, great research on that.
• 14:47
  Now we're going to end Aaron with the best because the last two are both come from the best division in football, the most interesting division in football, the most historic division in football, the NFC East.
• 15:00
  So that's where we're going to end both of our last two.
• 15:03
  The Commanders, formerly Redskins, of course, play the Eagles.
• 15:08
  This will be the ninth time these two teams have played on week one since 1980.
• 15:13
  Obviously that means eight previous.
• 15:15
  It is also tied four games to four.
• 15:19
  It kind of interesting, in 1982, they opened in Philly, Washington won in overtime.
• 15:26
  Washington won the super bowl that year.
• 15:28
  In 2017, they opened in Washington, the Eagles won, and the Eagles won the super bowl later that year.
• 15:35
  So we've seen some.
• 15:37
  When these teams meet in week one, there's been some good turnouts in 2013.
• 15:42
  Michael Vick Absolutely lit up the Redskins on Monday Night Football.
• 15:47
  And then my favorite note of all of these, Darren, is if you go back to 1986, week one, RFK Stadium, the Redskins beat the Eagles 41 to 14.
• 15:56
  So a happy memory for me.
• 15:58
  But the Eagles in that game, Darren, they had a second and 40 at one point and they punted.
• 16:06
  They punted the ball on second down in that game and it was blocked.
• 16:13
  Oh my gosh.
• 16:15
  That takes you back to over a hundred years ago when they used to punt.
• 16:18
  When you had bad field position, even on first down, they would punt.
• 16:21
  So there you go, so there was second and 40.
• 16:23
  It was I think this May 86.
• 16:25
  I think it was Buddy Ryan's first game as coach.
• 16:27
  He was probably frustrated.
• 16:29
  He said, yeah, get out there.
• 16:31
  And then it was blocked anyway.
• 16:32
  So kind of a disaster of a day for the Eagles, which warms my heart.
• 16:37
  I'm sure it did.
• 16:38
  All right, so we're going to end with the one that.
• 16:41
  Now this probably will not surprise you because it feels like these teams play week one every single year.
• 16:47
  And it's because recently they kind of have, and that is the Giants and the Cowboys and Giants fans, hide your eyes, plug your ears because you do not want to hear this.
• 17:02
  They have met 10 times in week one since 1980 previously.
• 17:05
  This will be the 11th.
• 17:06
  The Cowboys are nine and one in those games.
• 17:11
  They have dominated this week one matchup.
• 17:14
  The one game the Giants won was in I think 2018.
• 17:19
  I'm sorry, excuse me.
• 17:20
  2016, they won by one point.
• 17:23
  So they won that game 20 to 19.
• 17:27
  This the Cowboys wins run the gamut.
• 17:30
  There are some really amazing last second dramatic WINS.
• 17:34
  There are two shutouts, one that was 35 to nothing.
• 17:39
  One that was 40 to nothing.
• 17:42
  Interest.
• 17:43
  Now if you say, hey, it's just bad luck because the Giants haven't had good teams that have played big Cowboys in week one.
• 17:48
  Two of the Giants super bowl winning teams played in week one in 1986 and 20.
• 17:55
  I'm sorry, one of their Giants super bowl teams is one that I was looking at 2011.
• 17:59
  So the 86 giants lost week one to the Cowboys and then they've played six out of eight years in week one starting in 2012.
• 18:09
  Romo completely dominated this these games.
• 18:12
  And this is also kind of interesting, Darren.
• 18:14
  Eight of these ten games have been played at night, either Monday night or Sunday night.
• 18:19
  That will be the case again in 2026 and not one time was this game ever a noon Sunday kickoff.
• 18:28
  So this has always been like a featured game and now we have the eighth time since 2013 that these two teams will meet in week one.
• 18:37
  And I guess you could say Giants Cowboys is your winner of this countdown.
• 18:43
  I guess so.
• 18:43
  But Ed, tremendous job folks.
• 18:46
  You can see Ed and hear him each week here during the season just like we did last year.
• 18:51
  We'll have a prediction show on the podcast.
• 18:53
  We'll talk about the week priors games was a little bit of History on YouTube and the podcast coming up for your 2026 season.
• 19:01
  Ed, thanks a lot for joining us and we will talk to you again next week.
• 19:04
  Thanks Darren.
• 19:06
  That's all the football history we have today, folks.
• 19:08
  Join us back tomorrow for more of your football history.
• 19:13
  We invite you to check out our website, pigskindispatch.com not only to see the daily football history, but to experience positive football with our many articles on the good people of the game as well as our own football comic
• 19:26
  strip cleat marks comics pigskindispatch.com there's also on social media outlets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and don't forget the Big Skin Dispatch YouTube channel to get all of your positive football news and history.
• 19:39
  Special thanks to the talents of Mike and Gene Monroe, as well as Jason Neff for letting us use their music during our podcast.
• 19:47
  This podcast is part of the Sports History Network, your headquarters for the yesteryear of your favorite sport.
• 19:52
  You can learn more@sportshistorynetwork.net that.