The second-best day of the year has arrived for NFL fans, only behind Superbowl Sunday, week one has finally arrived. It has been a long summer but now the best part of the year has started, and although there were some boring games, there was plenty of action to keep any fan glued to their seat all Sunday long.

Our Minnesota Vikings have started week 1 of the new season with an impressive start, beating the Atlanta Falcons 28 – 12. The Vikings defense has been a staple of the team, ranked number three overall by Bleacher Report. They continued to show dominance through safety and NFC defensive player of the week Anthony Harris. He picked off Matt Ryan, the Falcons quarterback, on two different occasions. Defensive end Everson Griffen added insult to injury by bringing his career sack total to 67.5, making him seventh all-time on the Vikings career sack list.

Ryan still had an impressive game by going 33/46 in the air with 304 yards and a pair of touchdowns. It wasn’t enough to beat the Vikings offense with running back Dalvin Cook dominating the field, he had 111 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Kirk Cousins had a less impressive showing, throwing for only 98 yards and a lone touchdown to star wide receiver, Adam Thielen. With this win, the Vikings are now second in the NFC North sitting behind the Green Bay Packers who opened the season with a win against division rival Chicago Bears.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, cornerback Mackenzie Alexander will most likely miss week two against the Packers in Wisconsin. Alexander left the game on Sunday with a dislocated elbow and has not been practicing since. In a press conference earlier this week, Mike Zimmer, head coach of the Vikings, seemed optimistic about his return to the rest of the team. The much-anticipated Vikings Packers game at Lambeau field should be interesting and football fans all around the country will be glued to their TV’s for this classic rivalry.

In other week 1 news, some stars stepped up and some had fairly absent performances. One example of this was Baltimore and more specifically quarterback Lamar Jackson, who steamrolled the Miami 59 – 10. The Ravens quarterback went through the air for 324 yards and an incredible five touchdowns. Jackson only threw for 6 touchdowns last season and will look to break his personal single-season touchdown record next week in Baltimore against the Arizona Cardinals.

The Dolphins struggled to get anything going offensively with new quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. He struggled throughout the game by throwing 14/29 through the air with only one touchdown and an interception. This is not the way the Dolphins wanted to start the season and with the New England Patriots on the horizon, there is a high possibility for a 0 – 2 start to the season.

But do not count out the Dolphins just yet. They have an unusually impressive record in Miami which is the location of their week two rivalry game against the Patriots with 16 wins and 38 losses. This is the opposite of the Dolphins record at Gillette with only 17 wins and 35 losses.

Another week one game that had fans on the edge of their seats was the Monday night game, Houston Texans versus the New Orleans Saints. A nail biter until the end, the Texans drove down the field in the final minutes of the game to take the lead with some beautiful passing from Deshaun Watson. Unfortunately for Texan fans everywhere, there was enough time on the clock for Drew Brees to drive down the field and give his kicker Wil Lutz a chance to win the game in the closing seconds. He proceeded to nail the 58-yard kick giving the Saints a slim two-point victory, sealing the week one win 30 – 28.

Although the Texans weren’t able to pull off the win, they are in a good place going forward with the 2019 season. Deshaun Watson looked great the entire game putting up 268 yards along with 3 touchdowns and an interception. NFL fans everywhere cannot wait to see how he comes back in week 2. Catch the first game of the week on Thursday night as the Bucs take on the Panthers on NFL Network.