NFL Week 1 takeaways: Bears are serious contenders, Canadians score in bunches

A monstrous 693 points were scored. Every team found the end zone. A thrilling overtime game. Quarterbacks were dealing and defences made game-changing plays.

Talk about a hot start for year two of the Ben Johnson-Caleb Williams duo.

The Chicago Bears offence erupted for 59 points in their win over the Carolina Panthers, which marked the fourth-most points scored in the franchise's history.

The 59 points rank second-most all-time in Week 1, while the total combined score of 96 (the final was 59-37) also set the record for the highest-scoring Week 1 game in NFL history.

Williams was on fire, completing 72 per cent of his passes for 269 yards and two scores while also running in two TDs, and the running back duo of D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai totalled 224 yards and four TDs on the ground.

The 552 total yards set a single-game record for the franchise, and as crazy as it sounds, Williams said post-game that "this is going to be our worst game."

Now, does he truly think 59 points will be the weekly benchmark? Probably not. But operational and execution issues are common in Week 1, plus the Bears didn't even get their stud sophomore tight end Colston Loveland involved in the passing game.

So if the result of an imperfect game is an exceptionally high offensive floor for the rest of the season, look out, league.

Even though the Bears-Panthers matchup marked the highest-scoring game in the NFL since the Rams and Chiefs combined for 105 points in 2018, there were still plenty of points to go around.

The Bills and Texans each reached 30 points in their matchup, as did the Lions and Saints in theirs, while the Ravens dropped 41, the Vikings 39, the Jaguars 34 and the Bengals 33.

Just kidding — defence is still extremely important. But after nearly 250 days since the last full slate of football on a Sunday, it's refreshing to be brought back into the NFL while points are being handed out like candy on Halloween.

Well, unless you're a fan of the Browns, Titans, Falcons, Chargers and Dolphins.

Continuing with the offensive theme, it was quite an afternoon for Canadians on the gridiron.

Chuba Hubbard found the end zone twice for the Panthers, while Buffalo's Joshua Palmer, Cincinnati's Chase Brown and Tennessee's Eric Ayomanor all scored a TD for their clubs.