NFL Week 1

Ah yes... it's back baby!

So let's get on with it....

49'ers at Giants - Didn't get much of a chance to watch the Thursday night opener cause I was at work, but I work at a bar so I did get to watch it off and on. But that's a great idea to have one game to open the season in a big city, and throw a big party. Good job Tagliabue! But from the looks of it, minus the final 6 seconds, what a boring game. In retrospect, the opener should have been.......

Chiefs at Browns - Holy crap! I don't think I've ever seen a more exciting regular season game the last few years with the exception of the Dolphins/Jets monday night game with that montrous comeback by the Jets a few years back. There was 10 lead changes in this game I believe and one of the quirkiest endings I'd ever seen. If you didn't get a chance to see this game, catch the highlights later on tonight. Neither team had any defense at all, but the offense shown by both teams, especially Priest Holmes and Quincy Carter was really impressive. It looked pretty gloomy for the Chiefs in the 2nd half after a decent 1st half, but they hung in there and scored 23 points in the 4th qtr. vs. the Browns 12.

I would go ahead and describe the whole quarter for you, but it would take too long, and you can just go read a recap. It was truely amazing to witness being a Chiefs fan myself. So many screw ups accumulated at the end of the game for the Browns that they literally, had the game won with zero time left on the clock, but a personal foul on the play as time ran out gave the the Chiefs a chip in 30 yard field goal when the play started on our own 40 yard line.

It was a shame one team had to lose that game, but being a Chiefs fan, I'm not complaining, and the Browns did it to themselves and can't blame anyone else.

San Diego vs. Cincy: The Chargers decision to pick up Brees and Tomlinson vs. picking Vick is paying off a lot quicker than we thought it would. 34-6! Very impressive, and Tomlinson looks like he's gonna be very dominant in years to come.

Atlanta vs. Green Bay: I really wish I could have seen this cause Vick had one hell of a game. I'd suggest anyone that has any offensive players from the Falcons on your fantasy team, dump them, cause Vick is the entire offense. He'd lead the team in recieving if he could throw to himself. But it wasn't enough as the Falcons lost in OT 37-34.

Miami vs. Detroit: Uh oh folks... watch out, Miami could cause some damage this year and finally make it to the Superbowl. Ricky had a great game garnering 110 yards and two TD's, and Fiedler was 18-27 with 3 TD's. People in Miami are now saying... "Marino who?" And Detroit, once again, you suck.

Washington vs. Arizona: Ok, I'd like to meet the man who said before this game, "Ya know, I got a good feeling about Shane Matthews being the QB. I'd say he'll throw for 300+ yards, 3 TD's, and no picks. Maybe this will be the year Jake Plummer finally gets good. Some over-hyped first round picks it takes 6+ years to finally come around.

Tampa Bay vs. New Orleans: Wow... talk about a desire to win. It's in OT right now, but I don't think there's much doubt the Bucs don't win this game. I take that back, Bucs just had to punt it away, but they still hold the momentum. I'm so glad Gruden is out of the AFC West cause I hate the Raiders, and he made them too good for my taste. And even though my Chiefs have Vermiel, and the Broncos have Shanahan, and the Chargers have Marty, Gruden would be the best coach in this division right now had he stayed.

St. Louis vs. Denver: Ha ha ha ha... I love watching the Rams lose, and I love watching them suck complete ass. Martz wasn't the genuis behind the Rams, he sucks and is a mediocre coach with too much talent and he's gonna drive this franchise into the ground and I'll be laughing the entire way. One F'ing TD by the "Best show on turf" Hah... that's laughable.

Most impressive performances of the week?
- Move over Faulk, Priest Holmes is the best back in the NFL, and has been for over a season. The Chiefs didn't utilize him right until the 4th qtr. and that's when he exploded and scored 3 TD's. Last year people called him Baby Faulk, this year I think Marshall gets to be called baby Holmes. They are the exact same type of runner, and Holmes is out-running the competition (pardon the really bad pun.)

Most suprising performances of the week?
- Shane Matthews' 3 TD 300+ yard game nobody saw coming. People thought he'd embarass himself out there.
- Kelly Holcomb's performance against the Chiefs' D was quite impressive, although it was the Chiefs' D and most of the WR'ers were wide open all day. But still, you can't ignore 326 yards and 3 TD's with no picks.
- Travis Henry with 150 yards and 3 TD's blew everyone's mind as well.

I'm getting pretty excited about seeing the Cowboys/Texans matchup tonight and I hope Dallas gets killed.

 

Yeah, that NO-TB ending was pretty crazy. This first week has been very, very exciting so far, I hope the rest of the season is like this.

And I totally agree in having this thread every week, I was hoping it would catch on and I think it will.

Division winners seeded 1-4, then the best two non-winners get wild cards and are seeded 5&6.

Meaning... Winning your division is the only gaurantee to get into the playoffs. Before you could tell yourself that just as long as you win 11 games you are in, and sometimes even with 10 wins. Not anymore, there could easily be two teams in the same division with 12 or more wins. I really like the way it is set up now, the divisions are small, and the games are really, really important.

Yeah, they really looked like a Super Bowl team today.

 

Did anyone else feel like they were watching a college game tonight? I mean the atmosphere there was just incredible (kinda helps that it's got a roof), it seemed like the average age of the fans was 25, they were standing what seemed like the entire game, and the players are for the most part, all really young themselves and very energetic, and then the fact that no one gave the Texans any chance to win, and how often is a game over before it starts in the NFL? Never. Reminded me of a Div. 1-AA team beating the likes of Nebraska or Oklahoma or something.

I saw one of the most beautiful passes I have ever seen in that game, the dropped Carr pass that he rocketed about 40 yards. I saw one of the most beautiful catches I have ever seen, Bradford's. And I also saw one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen, the Cowboys making fools of themselves on Primetime.

I don't think I'd ever laughed so hard from SportsCenter when Stuart Scott and Dan Patrick led the show off talking about past Superbowl champions blowing openers or something and then....
[Camera to Scott with Cowboys/Texans logos on monitor behind him]

"Speaking of blown openers"

pause, with a smirk on his face...


Oh man it was classic if you hate the Cowboys as I do!

I've always been a big Carr guy, and the rest of the Texans are a lot like him so as of now, I think I'll be rooting for them. Though I don't know how long I'll actually be able to support a team from Texas, let alone one called the "Texans".

Anyways... Great opening weekend. Parity has reached a whole new level in sports and it's great, it's exciting and fresh and will seperate the NFL even further than it already is from the American professional sports landscape.

Go Texans, Go Chiefs, and Go Dolphins. Today was a good day for my teams.

 

And how about these....

- Totally slipped past me until I saw it on Berman's top 10 plays of the week. His #1 pick, deservedly so was... Robert freaking Edwards! Yeah, the phenom rookie who's career "was" over, rushed for two, TWO, TD's today! I was always a fan of his, and I love the 'Phins, so that freakin rocks! Great story there, something to replace the downer of the Terrel Davis saga.

- Two of the best hits I've seen QB's give happened today...
1) Oakland vs. Seattle - Shawn Springs recovers a fumble deep in Seahawks territory. Runs 71 yards before being tackled by Gannon. It wasn't just a normal tackle that forced him OB though, Gannon grabbed the 200 pounder by the back of the jersey and flung him out. It was great!
2) But and even better one happened here... Buffalo vs. Jets - I can't recall the play exactly, but Bledsoe made a nice blocking tackle for the runner and absolutely laid out a Jets player! He nevr saw it coming.

- Out of six inter-conference games, the "inferior" AFC won 5 of them.

- The AFC West, which even I believed was going to be a pretty bad division (and it still can, though I'm doubting that now) went 4-0. The AFC North, with a Pittsburgh loss tommorow, will go 0-4.

- If you are having trouble remembering which teams are in each division, I don't blame you, I can't get it straight either. Though these make a lot more sense geographically so it shouldn't take too long to get it straight.

- Also... I hate the Broncos, I hate the Rams, Broncos fans hate Brian Griese, so naturally I started rooting for Griese when Shanahan threatened to pull him because....
a) it would mean a Rams loss
b) it would mean Broncos fans feel stupid
So that performance from him late in the 2nd half made me pretty happy.

- We saw the start of three great careers in this league by Carr, Vick, and Brees. They all played great, especially Vick. He would have had two more TD's but two wide open recievers had to drop easy touchdown passes. I love that kid.

So how'd everyone's fantasy teams do? I had Culpepper, Vick, and picked up Shane Matthews (I started Dante), and all had huge days, so I'm lookin to do some trading. I struggled with the decision to either draft A. Green or P. Holmes with the #2 pick in my draft... guess which one I picked? Yeah, the one who didn't rush for 4 TD's today. But Green had a good day yardage-wise, though I still don't know how he had 200 yards, and the Pack had 37 points, and he didn't score once? Oh well I blew out my opponent 93-61 so I'm happy.

Today was great, I don't know how many times I have to say that, but it really was. I love this league.

 

Oh, and last thing... was Suzy Kolber crying when she was interviewing Carr right after the game? That's pathetic.

I have absolutely no problem with eye-candy such as Bonnie Bernstien or Mellisa Stark doing reporting, and I have no problem with non-eye candy Linda Cohn or that chick that does play by play on NCAA football games for ESPN. Women in sports journalism is totally cool with me, I actually did a paper in my journalism class in defense of women in sports media. But c'mon, seriously, I do not need to see some chick crying while trying to interview a QB after a game.

I don't know that she was for sure, but her voice sure sounded like it, she looked like it with her facial expressions, and she appeared to be on an emotional high in her reporting throughout the game.

 

Hell, there was even talks that his leg might need to be amputated! Jesus... how tragic would that be?!?!? Kinda interesting, I haven't seen any rookie beach football games lately.

I hope this guy goes on to be a productive back again, he deserves it.

Definately read this from Len Pasquarelli, Faith, hard work pay off for Edwards. Truely a great story.

The key part...

[snip]

More than three years after he opened up the damaged left knee of Robert Edwards in an operating room at the Straub Clinic and Hospital in Honolulu, surgeon Dean Soto can still remember his initial concerns.

"It looked," said Dr. Soto a few weeks ago, "like someone just threw a hand grenade in there. It was a devastating injury. At that point, I was much more concerned with saving his leg than his football career. We figured, 'Well, he might be able to walk with a cane someday.' That was the upside."

[/snip]

And this guy just ran 4 rushes for 20 yards and a TD?