In the long tradition of young athletes stepping into the weight of enormous expectation, Jeremiyah Love answered on the very first play that mattered — a touchdown on his opening NFL drive, helping the Arizona Cardinals upset the Los Angeles Chargers 26-14 in Week 1. Drafted third overall out of Notre Dame and handed one of the richest running back contracts in the league, Love arrived as both a symbol of a franchise's ambition and a test of its judgment. On a Sunday in Los Angeles, where the Cardinals were dismissed as heavy underdogs, the rookie offered the rarest of reassurances: that beli
Cardinals' Love delivers on hype with TD in NFL debut as Arizona upsets Chargers
He bounced the play left, found daylight, outran the defender
Mark
So Love scores on the first drive—is that the whole story, or does the performance tell us something about whether Arizona's draft strategy actually works?
Mimi
The touchdown matters because it's not just a highlight. It's validation of a controversial choice. The Cardinals were underdogs, and they won by 12. Love was part of that.
Luke
But he had 41 yards on 11 carries. That's 3.7 yards per carry. One touchdown doesn't make the draft pick right or wrong yet.
Mimi
True, but the point is he showed explosiveness when it mattered. The ankle injury in camp was a real concern—would he even be ready? He was.
Mark
What does it mean that he's splitting carries with Allgeier? Is that a sign the team doesn't fully trust him yet?
Mimi
Probably some of both. Love's a rookie coming off an injury. Allgeier is a veteran they brought in. It's smart to ease him in, but it also means Love hasn't won the backfield outright.
Luke
We should be careful here. One game against one defense doesn't tell us if this pick was right. The Chargers' run defense could be weak. We don't know yet.
Mark
Fair. But LaFleur's reaction—the celebration—that seemed genuine.
Mimi
It did. And that matters for a new coach trying to build culture. He's showing his players he believes in them.
Luke
Which is good coaching, but it's also Week 1. Let's see if Love is still getting celebrated in Week 10.
Mark
So the real test is consistency.
Mimi
Exactly. One drive doesn't make a season. But it's the kind of start that keeps the conversation alive.
The Pulse
- A franchise staking its rebuild on a single offensive weapon faced immediate scrutiny — and Love's debut was the first real answer to whether that gamble was wise.
- An ankle injury in training camp had cast doubt over how much Love would even play, leaving the opening game shadowed by uncertainty before it began.
- On the very first drive, Love took a handoff, bounced left, found the edge, and outran a defender to the pylon — silencing doubt with a single play.
- The Cardinals, 10-point underdogs, rode that early momentum to a 26-14 upset, turning a skeptic's narrative into a statement victory.
- Love's final stat line — 41 yards on 11 carries — was modest, but the moment itself carried the full weight of a third-overall pick justified in real time.
- New head coach Mike LaFleur celebrated openly on the sideline, a signal that a locker room still finding its identity had just found something to believe in.
In the long tradition of young athletes stepping into the weight of enormous expectation, Jeremiyah Love answered on the very first play that mattered — a touchdown on his opening NFL drive, helping the Arizona Cardinals upset the Los Angeles Chargers 26-14 in Week 1. Drafted third overall out of Notre Dame and handed one of the richest running back contracts in the league, Love arrived as both a symbol of a franchise's ambition and a test of its judgment. On a Sunday in Los Angeles, where the Cardinals were dismissed as heavy underdogs, the rookie offered the rarest of reassurances: that belief, sometimes, is simply early knowledge.
Jeremiyah Love's first touch in the NFL ended in the end zone. On Arizona's opening drive against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium, the rookie running back took a handoff, bounced the play left, and outran a closing defender to the pylon — a touchdown that announced his arrival and set the tone for a 26-14 Cardinals upset over a team that had been favored by 10 points.
The moment carried weight far beyond the score. Love had been selected third overall in April, pulled from Notre Dame into one of the most lucrative running back contracts in league history. He was meant to be a cornerstone of Arizona's rebuild under new head coach Mike LaFleur, who replaced the fired Jonathan Gannon with a mandate to accelerate the franchise's return to relevance. Critics had questioned whether investing that much draft capital in a single offensive weapon was wise given the team's broader roster needs — but the Cardinals had made their bet.
Training camp had complicated the picture. An ankle injury limited Love's availability and raised real questions about his role in the opener. The team had signed veteran Tyler Allgeier as insurance, and a shared backfield seemed likely, at least early on. Love finished with 41 yards on 11 carries — numbers that won't dominate a highlight reel — but the opening drive, all 70 yards of it, delivered exactly what a third-overall pick is supposed to promise.
LaFleur celebrated with his players on the sideline, Love among them. It was a small gesture in a large stadium, but it meant something in a locker room still learning to trust its new direction. One game proves nothing across a long season, but on this Sunday in Los Angeles, the hype surrounding Jeremiyah Love met its first real test — and held.
Jeremiyah Love's first touch in an NFL uniform went for a touchdown. On the opening drive of the Arizona Cardinals' Week 1 matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium, the rookie running back took a handoff from quarterback Jacoby Brissett on second-and-goal from the 5-yard line, bounced the play to his left, found daylight, and outran a closing defender to the pylon. The Cardinals were 10-point underdogs that Sunday, but Love's statement score on the team's first possession set the tone for what would become a 26-14 upset victory.
The weight of expectation had been substantial from the moment the Cardinals selected Love third overall in April, pulling him out of Notre Dame into one of the league's most lucrative running back contracts. He was supposed to be a cornerstone piece—not just for Arizona's rebuild, but a face of the entire league. The franchise had just fired head coach Jonathan Gannon and brought in Mike LaFleur with a mandate to turn things around. Investing that much draft capital and salary-cap space in a single offensive weapon signaled confidence that the team was closer to contention than some observers believed, though critics questioned whether the Cardinals' deeper need was for more playmakers across both sides of the ball.
Love had carried that weight into training camp, where an ankle injury limited his availability and raised questions about how much he would actually play in the season opener. The team had hedged its bet by signing veteran Tyler Allgeier as a free agent, and the expectation was that the two would share backfield duties, at least initially. Love finished the game with 41 yards on 11 carries—solid but not spectacular on the stat sheet. What mattered more was the moment itself: a 70-yard opening drive that ended with the rookie delivering exactly what the draft pick promised.
Mike LaFleur, in his first year as head coach, was visibly energized by what he saw. He joined his players in celebration, Love among them, a small gesture that carried weight in a locker room still learning to trust its new direction. The Cardinals' controversial investment in an offensive weapon at the expense of addressing other roster gaps had just produced immediate, tangible results. Whether that pattern holds across a full season remains to be seen, but on this Sunday in Los Angeles, the rookie made clear that the hype surrounding him was not misplaced.
Notable Quotes
Love's explosive abilities were evident from the start, and he made his presence known right away in Week 1— Reporting on the rookie's debut performance
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