Week 1 Recap Show: Game-by-Game Review 2026-2027

Pat Daugherty (0:16)

Hello, everybody, welcome to the Rotoworld Football Show. It's a Sunday evening, September 13th. We're going to put a bow on week one, not including Monday Night Football. Denny Carter and I will talk about that on Tuesday. But Denny is now joining me off the jump as we begin our comprehensive recap of the season's first Sunday that includes the Bears scoring 59 points against the Carolina Panthers. Denny had the pleasure of watching that one. We both had the displeasure of witnessing the Chargers absolutely no showing against the Cardinals, a 26-14 loss. Denny is going to ask me about a rather bizarre Bengals-Bucks game where Baker Mayfield could not stop putting the ball on the ground, could not stop taking sacks. Three pretty interesting games off the jump. We're going to get to the whole slate as we go through this evening's marathon show.

Denny, we're leading the show with 59 points for the Bears. I think we would have to do that no matter who had this game. Thankfully, you had it. You're here to talk about it. It turns out a pretty important summer data point is when the head coach of an NFL team says he wants to set the single season scoring record.

Surely, though, 59 points for the Bears. Everyone's eating in this game. Colston Loveland going nuts. Luther Merton going nuts. That's right. Just confirm that for our listeners and tell us how nuts they were going.

Denny Carter (1:36)

Yeah. 59 points. I mean, yeah, everybody got there. I am seeing that Colston Loveland posted a zero.

Pat Daugherty (1:44)

I am seeing that. Just like I'm already got a great character.

Denny Carter (1:48)

A zero. A zero?

Pat Daugherty (1:50)

points.

Denny Carter (1:51)

What? I mean, okay.

He, Caleb Williams did miss our guy Loveland in the middle of the field on what would have been like a 30-yard reception. That happened. Then he missed him in the end zone on what would have been a difficult catch. Granted, it was tough, but he could have made it. It could have been okay.

Here's the good news about Colston Loveland. He ran all the routes. I would hope so. Well, last year that wasn't really the case until the playoffs.

Rivers McCown (2:24)

That's true.

Denny Carter (2:26)

I think that's a good sign. Don't freak out, please. Just keep playing them.

Colt Comet caught the touchdown.

Pat Daugherty (2:34)

I'm curious. He ran all the routes, Colston Loveland, and yet Colt Comet nation rises up.

Denny Carter (2:40)

Yeah. Comet had a great sideline grab too. One of the plays of the game. So Loveland, I think, will be okay. But today was pretty devastating, I would say. You know, Luther Burden, five catches on eight targets, was out targeted, out caught, out yarded by Caliph Raymond.

But here's the thing, Pat. Caliph Raymond only ran about half the routes. So that can't happen again, right?

Pat Daugherty (3:15)

Or he's just that much better than Luther Burden. He only needs to run half the routes to have twice the production.

And I'm not sure if you had asked me this morning, like in our chat, what team is Caliph Raymond on?

Aditya Foldeore (3:26)

I don't know if I would have remembered the Bears.

Denny Carter (3:28)

I mean, we know a lot of players and who they played for. And I did not know Caliph Raymond played for the Bears.

Pat Daugherty (3:37)

You're unfamiliar with his Bears game.

Denny Carter (3:39)

Eight catches on nine targets for 84 scoreless yards.

I don't think we need to overreact too much, because like I said, 50% route rate is just not what you're looking for. You can't bank on a guy like Caliph Raymond being targeted on 40% of his routes going, you know what I mean? And you know, Burton was fine, 63 scoreless yards. What are you going to do? Roma Dunze had two catches for 52 yards. One of those was a 47 yarder down the sideline. He's going to be high variance. Caleb scored two touchdowns on the ground. And that is half of his rushing touchdown total from last year. Wow.

It's clear, I think it's clear that they have given him the green light to just take off. And it makes sense. I mean, you and I talked last year a few times about how fast he is.

Pat Daugherty (4:32)

Yes, stunningly so.

Denny Carter (4:34)

He he was blowing people away on on the field today. I mean, just cruising past people. So I think we could see more of that.

It's not necessarily it's not good for the pass catchers in this offense, but it makes Caleb Williams really interesting.