2017 Week 1 Score Report: Are They Throwing In The Towel On Ratings This Year?

I'm going to do the ratings as a separate post.

That said, this was a VERY un-Goodell-esque Week 1 on a number of different fronts.  Makes me wonder if Goodell IS, in fact, doing a full rewrite on the season as we speak (as I posit after New England went from probable 19-0 to actual 0-1 -- and looked quite bad, vulnerable, and exposed in so doing!!!), a rewrite which could take several weeks to crystallize...

So here's the Score Report for Week 1:

• The average game for Week 1 this year scored a total of 41.067 points.  This is a field goal or more down from the last three years (44.875 2016, 45.25 2015, 44.75 2014).

This, after a 69 point opener and a 58 pointer with Detroit and Arizona.

By late in the goings, though, your three late-game totals were 55 (Rams putting 46 on Indy), and two games at 26 (CAR-SF and GB-SEA).  The Sunday nighter was the second-lowest-scoring game of the week at 22 (DAL-NYG).  There was even a game at 20 (BAL-CIN).

• Home teams were 7-8 Week 1.  (7-9 to start last year, 10-6 two years ago)

Here's the kicker:  In the late games and prime-time ending games, the home team was 5-1 to get the total to that 7-8.  From the Thursday opener and the early games, home teams were 2-7!!!

• Not surprisingly, only 5 games went Over the total this week.  (9 last year, 8 the year before)
• Favorites were 8-7 against the spread this week, 10-5 straight-up.

The problem with this:  They needed six consecutive covers and seven consecutive straight-up wins to get there.  At only point this week, the favorites were 2-7 against the number and 3-5 straight-up.

• Another bizarre reality that might signal something here:  It took two of the late games in the afternoon (Carolina beating San Francisco while San Francisco had more penalties) before we had the first game this weekend where a team with more penalties actually lost the game.
• The team with more penalties won the first nine such games on the schedule this week.  The team with fewer penalties won the last four.  (There were two with the same number -- so 9-4-2 overall.) (8-8 last year, 6-9-1 two years ago)
• Also, the number of penalties called is interesting:  207, meaning about 14 a game.

And then we get to the real meat and potatoes of this:  The Cliffhanger Index.

• There were ZERO games decided by a lead-changing or tiebreaking score in the last two minutes.  None.  Nada.  Zilch.  And, in fact, it appears only one game (ATL-CHI) was even that remotely CLOSE to having one.  (5 opened the season last year, 2 the year before)
• Only two games (the aforementioned ATL-CHI and the Chargers falling just short against Denver Monday night) ended with a Last Chance Miss (a reasoned opportunity at a Cliffhanger result).  (4 last year)
• Only FOUR of the fifteen games this week ended with margins within or at eight points.  (Last year had ELEVEN, the year before had nine!)
• Last year had only two non-competitive games (to that point, the least in a full 16-game schedule the last three years).  This year, with one fewer game, they had SIX. 

And there's the real question as to whether the league is going to largely throw in the towel, accept the hit the boycotts are going to make, and move on:  No effort was made this week to make games dramatic.  There may have been some efforts in shaping a larger narrative (there was controversy to give Philadelphia a win over Washington, and Brian Tuohy has pointed out potential bullshit in Green Bay's win over Seattle!), but no real effort to glue you to the edge of your seat this week.

Tuohy, on his NFL season page, has called to attention the called-back pick-six in the first half in Green Bay-Seattle, including a phantom ejection that will probably see Friday's Fine Blotter, as well as a missed Packer facemask (which might've led to the ejection!) and a later missed pass-interference call.  Maybe the Seahawks should've shut their traps vs. the NFL this offseason?

And the result could be seen in at least two Western US stadiums this week.

A lot of people made hay as to the Rams' attendance:  60,128 in the LA Memorial Coliseum that could seat over 100,000!  Not to mention the Rams barely resembled a college football team last year (especially in the second half), and the Colts may be one of the larger tank jobs in the league this year.

From DirtySports podcaster Andy Ruther through Tuohy's page, what kickoff looked like in Los Angeles:

This is just embarrassing. pic.twitter.com/wmCNDJIyvL

— Andy Ruther (@AndyRuther) September 10, 2017

But nothing could compare to the supposed sellout in Santa Clara for the 49ers.

Partially due to the team sucking and partially due to that the stadium just cannot deal with sunny days (I know this from my visit for Wrestlemania 31), Levi's Stadium might've had 5-10 thousand people in it for the start of both halves.

Don't believe me?  Again (though I had seen it before) through Tuohy's page, from Ann Killion of the San Francisco Chronicle:

Second half kickoff pic.twitter.com/sEQgbtfJIq

— Ann Killion (@annkillion) September 10, 2017