One week of the 2024 NFL season is in the books, and so are a full slate of notable moments and stats. The Dallas Cowboys (1-0) and New Orleans Saints (1-0) meet in Week 2 after both dismantling their opponent to open the season.
Dallas opens the doors at AT&T Stadium for the first time this season, while New Orleans is hoping their offensive firepower will travel to the Metroplex.
Here are the 10 most notable 'big facts' to remember ahead of Sunday's 12:00 CT kickoff on FOX.
Here are the 10 most notable "big facts" to remember ahead of Sunday's 12:00 p.m. kickoff on FOX.
Battle Between Air and Ground
In Week 1, the NFL put up a combined for 6,026 passing yards, the smallest total for the opening week since 2000. Additionally, quarterbacks combined for 787 rushing yards and 8 touchdowns, both were the most across any Week 1 in NFL history. Both Dak Prescott and Derek Carr won their opening game by over 16 points despite neither throwing for over 200 yards.
Don't Throw it to Diggs
Trevon Diggs tallied his 20th career interception this past week and became the second-fastest player in program history to reach 20 (49 games), behind only Everson Walls (28 games). Diggs still leads the NFL with 16 interceptions since the beginning of the 2021 season, despite playing in just two games last season due to an ACL injury.
Welcome to the team Eric Kendricks
The veteran linebacker finished with an interception and 2.0 sacks in his debut with the Cowboys. He became just the third Dallas player since 1982 to have two sacks and an interception in a game, joining Tommy Haynes (Week 4, 1987) and Jim Jeffcoat (Week 15, 1985).
Surging Saints
The Saints have won five of their last six games. Only the Bills (6-0) have a better record, but New Orleans leads the league with a 32.0 ppg mark over that time. Since Week 15 of last season, Derek Carr leads all quarterbacks with 15 passing touchdowns and a 129.0 patter rating, including nine touchdowns and zero interceptions in his last three games.
Keeping the Carr in Drive
Derek Carr has finished with a passer rating above 140 in back-to-back games. He finished with a Week 18 mark of 145.5 against Atlanta and a Week 1 total of 142.5 against Carolina. Carr could become the fourth quarterback since 1970 to have three-straight games with a 140-plus passer rating. The only other streaks were Aaron Rodgers (2011), Kurt Warner (1999), and Roger Staubach (1971).
Dak in Hall of Fame Company?
Dak Prescott needs just 342 passing yards to become the 8th player to surpass 30,000 in their first 116 career games. Kurt Warner, Matthew Stafford, Aaron Rodgers, Dan Marino, Peyton Manning, Jared Goff, and Kirk Cousins were the first seven quarterbacks to do so.
Tank Climbing the Charts
With two sacks on Sunday in Cleveland, veteran DeMarcus Lawrence went up two spots on the Cowboys' all-time sack list, cracking the Top 10. Entering the game and season with 58.5 sacks, Lawrence passed Tony Tolbert (59.0) for 11th place with a third-quarter sack. Then in the fourth, D-Law sacked Desean Watson again, this time passing Larry Cole (60.0) sacks. Lawrence currently sits in 10th place all-time with 60.5 sacks.
Special Trend
The Cowboys have only scored four special teams touchdowns in the Week 1 in franchise history – and two of them have occurred in consecutive seasons. Only a 1992 punt return by Kelvin Martin and a fumble return on a kickoff by Kenny Wheaton in 1998 were the two special teams scores in season openers. But last year, Noah Igbinoghene returned a blocked field goal for a score against the Giants, followed by KaVontae Turpin's 60-yard punt return against the Browns this year.
Aubrey 12 for 12 on 50-yarders
Brandon Aubrey is getting a lot of recognition for his ability to make kicks over 60 yards and nearly got a shot at a 71-yarder last week. But still, a 50-yard kick is the standard for a long field goal and so far, Aubrey is a perfect 12 for 12 on 50+ yard field goal attempts. In comparison, Justin Tucker is one of the greatest kickers in NFL history and is 58 of 86 on his career 50-yard attempts.
Lots of Cooks in the kitchen
Brandin Cooks, who started his career with the Saints, is playing for his fifth NFL team with the Cowboys. But not only has been at four other stops – but he's excelled. In fact, Cooks has a career-high milestone at each of his previous four places. His career-high in catches was 90 with the Texans in 2021, he had 1,204 receiving yards in 2018 with the Rams and his nine TD catches in 2015 with the Saints is a career-high. He doesn't have a single season high with the Cowboys just yet but scored eight TDs last year and already has one in 2024.
