Analysis: Few surprises among NFL’s top teams a quarter into the season

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The NFL’s top preseason contenders played like it in the first quarter of the season.

Defending champion Kansas City (3-1), Philadelphia (4-0), San Francisco (4-0), Dallas (3-1) and Buffalo (3-1) are 17-3 combined. The Chiefs, Eagles, 49ers, Cowboys and Bills are, in Dennis Green’s words, who we thought they were.

Of the six teams with the best Super Bowl odds entering the season, only the Bengals (1-3) haven’t lived up to expectations. Cincinnati is struggling because Joe Burrow is playing hurt. A calf injury has severely limited the NFL’s highest-paid player.

If Burrow can get healthy and get the Bengals going, they can’t be counted out because they’ve won road playoff games against Kansas City and Buffalo in the past two years.

Most of the frontrunners are winning despite not playing their best football.

The Chiefs barely escaped with a 23-20 victory over the New York Jets on Sunday night.

Their only loss came against the Lions (3-1) in the season opener – a game played without Travis Kelce and Chris Jones.

Patrick Mahomes posted the fourth-lowest passer rating (63.6) of his career against New York’s tough defense but the two-time Super Bowl MVP made critical plays with his legs on a final drive to ice the win.

“It’s not always going to be a pretty four quarters, especially against a good defense, but it’s about, when the opportunity arises, going down and finishing,” Mahomes said.

The Eagles needed overtime to beat the Commanders 34-31 behind Jalen Hurts’ best game of the season. They’re undefeated even though they haven’t hit their stride. Philly’s passing attack took four weeks to…