LOS ANGELES — The NFL averaged 21.0 million viewers per game during the league’s opening week, making it the most-watched Week 1 on record. The league and Nielsen said Wednesday morning that the per-game average on TV and digital platforms was a 12% increase over last year. Nielsen began electronic measurement of viewing in 1988.

The network's "National Game," which included Chiefs-Bengals for most of the country, averaged 27.9 million viewers, an increase of 8 percent over the comparable period last year. The national game was the most-watched telecast on a single network since the Chiefs' Super Bowl victory.

As a result, the Bengals plummeted to 20th overall in the latest edition of the Sporting News power rankings from Vinnie Iyer. It is a steep drop for the team that began the seaso