Author: Michael

It’s not easy predicting how teams are going to perform in their respective season openers, especially the ones with new quarterbacks and coaches.
But it’s also tough on the oddsmakers, and that means there’s money to be made in Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season.
To save time for football bettors, I examined the over/under totals for all 16 games this week. Five stood out, including a low total for two teams with star-studded rosters.
Here are the five best over/under bets for NFL Week 1 (all total numbers are from SI Sportsbook).

1.

Caleb Williams has set some very lofty goals for himself once he hits the NFL.
The 2022 Heisman winner and the USC Trojans are currently 2-0 and ranked sixth in the country. The team has huge expectations on its shoulders.
However, Williams, the presumed top pick in the 2023 draft, also has his sights set on pulling off an incredible NFL achievement:
Winning more Super Bowls than Tom Brady.
Caleb Williams wants to win eight Super Bowls. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
Caleb Williams wants to win the most Super Bowls in NFL history.
“And then first pick of the draft.

The Pittsburgh Steelers pulled off an all-time soft move with the team’s locker room logo.
Pittsburgh went 9-8 last season, and failed to make the postseason. You’d think the team would be focused on that.
A rational person would think there isn’t much time for shenanigans when the team is coming off a disappointing season.
Wrong. Very wrong. Apparently, the team’s priorities include roping off the locker room logo because people stepped on it. I’m not kidding. You can see a photo from Brooke Pryor in the tweet below.

Dan Campbell was fired up following the Detroit Lions upsetting the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Lions pulled off an outstanding 21-20 win Thursday night over the defending Super Bowl champions, and the team appeared to have the same level of grit and toughness Detroit showed down the stretch in 2022.
Detroit simply refused to be bullied by the Chiefs, and Campbell couldn’t have been more excited following a 1-0 start.

Josh Paschal was ready for it #DETvsKC | NBC pic.twitter.

Patrick Mahomes was undone by scrappy Lions and inexperienced teammates on Thursday, but he sent a message to the Chiefs and the NFL in defeat. He’s embarrassed and he’s motivated.

On Thursday night, the Chiefs dropped their championship banner.
Then they spent the rest of the night dropping everything else.
In the NFL’s season opener, the Lions came into GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium and upset the Super Bowl champions, 21–20, led in large part by Kansas City’s inability to catch a pass or convert third downs.
With tight end Travis Kelce sidelined by a hyperextended knee sustained in Tuesday’s practice, Patrick Mahomes and the offense fell flat in the game’s biggest moments.

It matters a great deal that the Lions won their season-opener Thursday night, beating the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs while, at the same time, logging one of the most significant regular-season victories in franchise history.
It matters a great deal that Detroit won with a defensive effort.

Dan Campbell and the Lions left Kansas City with a huge season-opening win after upsetting the Chiefs on Sunday, 21–20.
After the game, Campbell was asked what he learned from Thursday’s victory, to which he had the perfect response.
“I didn’t learn anything. I got verification of what I already knew,” Campbell said in a postgame press conference. “And this is a resilient team. It already was a resilient team, and we added pieces to that resilient team. We’re built to handle some stuff, and we did that today against a very good opponent.

The Chiefs were without their top two pass-rushers and Mahomes’ favorite target in tight end Travis Kelce.

The Detroit Lions rallied and stunned the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs on the road on Thursday to kickstart the 2023 NFL season.