Just one week into the NFL’s 107th season, and injuries are already playing a starring role in the league’s $23.5 billion production.

Wednesday night in Seattle, in a Super Bowl rematch between two rosters built for the showdown to be a simultaneous Super Bowl preview, Sam Darnold suffered a hip injury on the game’s fifth play from scrimmage that threatens to sideline him for a month. Then, Patriots wide receiver A.J. Brown went down with a high-ankle sprain, putting him on the shelf for up to four weeks.

Thursday night, in Melbourne, Australia, of all places, San Francisco 49ers All-Pro tackle Trent Williams rendered Myles Garrett irrelevant, holding the Rams’ prized offseason addition without a sack, without a hurry, without a quarterback hit.

We might now know why, in addition to stumbling through jet lag, Garrett looked like a husk of himself against the Niners.

Sunday morning, NFL Insider Tom Pelissero reported Garrett will undergo microscopic knee surgery and Los Angeles will place him on injured reserve, meaning he’ll miss at least four games.

Before Sunday’s action even kicked off, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback, a wide receiver the Patriots hoped would ignite its offense, taking quarterback Drake Maye to the next level, and the reigning Defensive Player of the Year are all on the shelf.

Suboptimal for three teams who began last week with visions of running out of the SoFi Stadium tunnel next Valentine’s Day.

Injuries are the brutal reality of life in the NFL, and the great equalizer for teams built to win immediately.

For as difficult as it is to glean anything meaningful from a Rams loss where head coach Sean McVay bungled the travel plans so terribly that Los Angeles seemed a half step slower than the 49ers at the jump and almost two steps slower by game’s end, losing Garrett is the first tangible sign of trouble for the prohibitive preseason Super Bowl favorites.

“It’s a tough league,” a Rams front office executive told Between The Hashmarks. “People, and certainly other teams, don’t like when teams or players get anointed without having done anything yet. We’re about to get everyone’s best shot.”

After Sunday, it isn’t going to get easier for the Rams, just like traversing the mountaintop again became far more difficult for both the Seahawks and Patriots Wednesday night.

So it goes in the Not For Long.

Sunday, though, delivered everything we love about this sport and what makes 22 Sundays per season the last vestige of shared culture and appointment viewing this country has to offer.

There were five games decided by one score or fewer, an enthralling 59-point outburst from one of the league’s most exciting offenses, Deshaun Watson was bruised, battered, and rendered less than relevant in the Jaguars’ bombastic opener.

Inside this column, we tackle the biggest moments, from Josh Allen’s electrifying comeback powering the Bills, with insight from Eric Moulds, go inside Brian Flores’ unyielding fourth-quarter assault on the packers, read between the lines (and the numbers) of the debut of Sean Mannion’s offense in Philadelphia, and so much more.

Houston had been a house of mirrors for Josh Allen to this point in his career, but the Buffalo Bills’ quarterback brought a sledgehammer to the festivities Sunday at Reliant Stadium and swung it wildly at the Texans’ defense.

That sledgehammer’s name is DJ Moore.

It’s well documented that the Bills entered Sunday just 1-4 against Houston in Allen’s career, as the former MVP averaged just .6 total touchdowns per game against the Texans.

That was Allen and the Bills BDJ (Before DJ), and Sunday Allen smashed all the mirrors in sight in a 36-31 win.

Allen was absolutely prolific, and the Bills needed every bit of his best efforts, as he completed 20-of-29 passes for 334 yards with two passing touchdowns while adding a pair of rushing scores, willing Buffalo to his 18th career fourth-quarter comeback and a statement Week 1 victory.

A playcaller’s unicorn, ESPN Insights points out that Sunday was Allen’s ninth of his career with two passing touchdowns, and two rushing touchdowns, which is five more than any other player in NFL history.

Still, Moore may be the weapon Allen has been missing.

In a game where both teams left their defenses in the locker room, Moore’s impact was sudden and significant for a Bills team that dealt away a sixth-round pick to the Chicago Bears in what may be the most lopsided trade in recent memory.

With 2:10 remaining in the first half, and leading by three, Allen heaved the ball deep downfield from the shadow of his own goalpost to tight end Dalton Kincaid for a 38-yard gain, setting up Moore’s first signature moment in a Bills uniform.

Two snaps later, Allen lofted a pass down the sideline that Moore climbed the ladder to pull down after safety Reed Blankenship sold out trying to intercept it, toe-tapped along the sideline before reversing course and sprinting into the end zone for a 43-yard touchdown, his first in a Bills uniform.

If you’re keeping score at home, the Bills’ two-minute offense went 96 yards in three plays that took all of 41 seconds. That’s called efficiency.

“He’s a strong player and pro’s pro,” legendary former Bills receiver Eric Moulds tells Between The Hashmarks, of Moore. “And, he doesn’t beg for the ball. Just plays his role and is a great teammate.”

Moore caught five passes for 100 yards and a touchdown in the first half alone. Perhaps as a harbinger of his ability to level up the Bills’ passing. game this season.

As prolific as Moore was, and while he might ultimately be a missing piece for a franchise that has been banging its skull into a glass ceiling the past half-decade, Sunday was about Allen coming up big in the biggest moments and his supporting cast rising to the occasion.

In a game between two teams with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations in a loaded AFC that saw eight lead changes, Allen proved to be the ultimate weapon.

The last thing you want to do when facing Allen, especially in crunch time, is to allow him extra chances to beat you, and the Texans learned that the hard way.

With the Bills trailing 31-30, and driving, Allen threw a YOLO ball in the area of Josh Palmer, who didn’t seem to know it was coming, as Houston cornerback Kamari Lassiter flat-out dropped what would have been a game-sealing interception, for the Texans, in the end zone.

On the very next play, though, Allen drilled Palmer on a deep crossing pattern for a touchdown with 1:36 remaining to give the Bills a 36-31 lead after they failed to convert the two-point conversion.

Suddenly, all of Buffalo’s investments on that side of the ball paid the ultimate dividends for coordinator Jim Leonhard, for Allen, for new head coach Joe Brady, and the Bills.

"I live for those moments," Brady told reporters after the game. "I coach for those critical moments. I expect our guys to be at their best. I have to be at my best. Seeing Josh, 'Hey, look, I'm taking a shot.' Josh Palmer, trusted. That's who we have to be. Making sure they have to play us and not the other way around."

After C.J. Stroud drove the Texans deep into Bills territory, looking to steal the victory and send the Houston faithful home happy, Leonhard’s defense slammed the door.

With 20 seconds remaining on the clock, Deone Walker sacked Stroud at the 19-yard line.

Two snaps later, after a deep incompletion down the right sideline intended for Nico Collins, Buffalo edge rusher Greg Rousseau called game, flying off the edge, sacking Stroud, and stripping the ball that Terrel Bernard jumped on to preserve the victory.

Make no mistake, this was as significant a Week 1 win as the Bills could ask for, against a fellow Super Bowl-caliber roster.

But, more than that, it was an exorcism for Allen against arguably the premier defense in football.

Houston only allowed 24 points or more three times last season; on Sunday, the Bills put up 24 by halftime.

Similarly, Buffalo’s 36 points are the most the Texans have surrendered since December 2023.

The stakes have never been higher in Buffalo, few teams have haunted Allen more than the Texans, so this was a big first test passed. More importantly, it’s an early victory tucked away for safekeeping, should the Bills need it for any playoff seeding battles to come later on.

The Packers rode a wave of explosive plays to a 22-10 lead over their bitter rival Vikings with 5:12 remaining in the third quarter, before Brian Flores did his best Thanos impersonation and snapped his fingers, laying every last one of Green Bay’s fundamental flaws bare for the world to see.

In one of the most frenetic fourth-quarter momentum swings you’ll ever see, Flores’ defense launched an all-out assault.

Sensing and seeing a patchwork Packers offensive line wilting on the vine, Flores turned up the heat, sending the front seven on so many of his trademarked exotic blitz concepts that one NFL scout texted Between The Hashmarks that the maniacal defensive coordinator was “deep in his bag right now.”