Finally we can all rejoice as the NFL is officially back in action. The 2015-16 regular season began last Thursday and the road to Super Bowl L is underway.

The first game of the season featured the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers in a showdown on Thursday Night Football. The big story line going into the game was Patriots QB Tom Brady winning the appeal on his 4 game suspension set forth by commissioner Roger Goodell for the infamous Deflategate scandal last season. Both the Patriots and Brady picked up where they left off with a 28-21 win over a strong yet somewhat understaffed Steelers team. Brady went 25/32 with 288 yards and 4 touchdown passes in the win. Superstar tight end Rob Gronkowski had another stellar performance with his 5 catches for 94 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Patriots are yet again a strong contender for the Super Bowl.

Sunday afternoon’s games saw many exciting matchups and gave a good look at what we can expect from many teams this season. The New York Jets came out and dismantled the Cleveland Browns and Johnny Manziel 31-10 with strong contributions from the whole team. The Indianapolis Colts and Seattle Seahawks, who both made deep playoff runs last season, now find themselves 0-1 after being the victims of upsets to the Buffalo Bills (27-14) and St. Louis Rams (34-31 in overtime) respectively.

Sunday Night Football was a showdown that took place between NFC rivals New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys. After leading most of the game the Giants found themselves on the one yard line late in the fourth quarter with a three point lead. The Cowboys had no timeouts and star player Dez Bryant left the game due to a foot injury. On third down QB Eli Manning made a very questionable move by throwing the ball away, leaving a minute and 40 seconds for Tony Romo and the Cowboys’ offense to drive down the field. This was no problem for Romo as he shredded through the Giants’ defense, connecting with veteran tight end Jason Witten on a game-winning touchdown to stun the Giants 27-26 and take an early lead in the NFC east.

Monday night was no letdown when it came to excitement. The Philadelphia Eagles fell to the Atlanta Falcons 26-24 and the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Minnesota Vikings 20-3. One clear star performance of the night came in the first game from wide receiver Julio Jones as he torched the Philadelphia defense with 9 receptions for 141 yards and two touchdowns. Another great performance was in the second game when Carlos Hyde emerged from the shadows and took 26 carries and rushed for 168 yards and two touchdowns.