If you thought the offenses looked bad across the NFL on Sunday, you were correct.
Yesterday’s 12 NFL games averaged just 37 points and 593 yards of total offense. That’s a far cry from what fans came to expect in 2016, when the average NFL game had 46 points and 701 yard of offense.
Offenses were down both passing (an average of 420 yards yesterday, compared to 483 yards last season) and rushing (173 yards per game yesterday, compared to 218 yards last season).
The Bengals were shut out in their loss to the Ravens, while the Giants and 49ers scored just three points each. In the NFL last year there were only three shutouts all season, and only seven games in which a team was held to just a field goal.
So what does it all mean? Quite possibly nothing. The 12 games played on Sunday are far too small a sample size to draw any big conclusions -- especially considering the fact that Thursday night’s Chiefs-Patriots opener had 69 points and 908 yards of offense. More likely, it just means that some teams played some good defense and some bad offense on Sunday. Given that the vast majority of fans prefer high-scoring games, it wasn’t the way the NFL wanted to open its season.