NFL Week 1 Recap

Every week (usually on Monday but I pushed it to Tuesday with the Monday night doubleheader this week) I’ll take a quick look back at each of the NFL games’ main storylines from the week that was. To me, the biggest story around the NFL after week one was not the Calvin Johnson non-catch, as bad as that rule is, it was the absolutely terrible coaching that I saw around the league. The Cowboys-Redskins coaching fiasco was the highlight, or shall I say lowlight, of the pathetic coaching jobs performed this week, but I could name ten instances off the top of my head that made utterly no sense even while they were happening. One move that I did not mind was Mike Tomlin attempting the 55-yard field goal. I see both sides of that argument, and in hindsight it cost the Steelers three points, but if your kicker has the distance I cannot fault the attempt. Here we go...

New Orleans 14 – Minnesota 9
Pretty much the entire country watched this one so there’s not much to elaborate on. A sloppy game by both teams finished appropriately with a missed chip shot field goal costing all Saints’ backers the cover. Brett Favre looked a bit rusty in his debut, but I expect both of these teams to be just fine.

Houston 34 – Indianapolis 24
Bob Sanders injured his elbow in the first quarter of the first game and did not return, what else is new. Sanders has missed more games than he has played during his six year career and boy does the Colts’ run defense suffer without him in there. The Colts will bounce back fine from this loss, but the story here is the Texans and running back Arian Foster. Could this be the year that the Texans finally get over the hump and make the playoffs? I thought Tony Dungy said it best when he said they had to win this game for that to happen. It did, so let’s see where they go from here.

Jacksonville 24 – Denver 17
In a battle of two teams headed toward rough seasons, the Jaguars found a way to get an opening day win. From the limited amount of this game that I watched it is no wonder that Jaguars fans don’t come out to the stadium. When you have David Garrard and Kyle Orton flinging balls to the likes of Brandon Lloyd, Mike Thomas, Jabar Gaffney, Kassim Osgood and Eddie Royal, how could anyone want to miss that?!?

Miami 15 – Buffalo 10
Miami was a team that the sharp bettors hammered this weekend and the Bills obliged by giving the Dolphins’ backers a gift-wrapped cover by taking an intentional safety with 1:32 left in the game trailing by three points. In related news, Chan Gailey made his NFL head-coaching return after 11 years. The Dolphins have an excellent offensive line and the two running backs, but if they are going to compete for a playoff spot, Chad Henne and the wide receivers are going to have to make some plays in the passing game.

Chicago 19 – Detroit 14
The catch that wasn’t. Seriously, why in the world does the NFL continue to annoy their fans? This is especially true with a looming lockout in 2011. Fans do not want 18 regular season games. Fans do not want to see their teams lose on some asinine “letter of the law” rule interpretation. It is time for the NFL to drop its holier than thou attitude and bring a little common sense to the game. I didn’t see the catch when it happened but got a text from a buddy who lives in Chicago and is a closet Lions fan. I immediately thought of the Troy Polamalu play in the 2005 playoffs against the Colts. Can you imagine a fanbase’s outrage if and when their team is denied a playoff or Super Bowl berth because of some rule that makes no sense? Come on Roger Goodell, quit worrying about what your players are doing on the weekend and put some common sense into your rulebook.

The loss was doubling crushing for the Lions who lost starting quarterback Matthew Stafford for 4-8 weeks with a separated throwing shoulder. It’s too bad as this Detroit organization is beginning to show signs of life after the disastrous Matt Millen era. On the other side of the ball Julius Peppers made an immediate impact on the Bears as he was the one who sacked and injured Stafford. I still think they gave him too much money, but so far so good. Matt Forte also looks like a tremendous fit in the Marshall Faulk role in Mike Martz’ offense with his ability to catch the ball out of the background. Forte could be a fantasy stud this year if the Bears can only learn how to punch it in from the one.

Tennessee 38 – Oakland 13
Vince Young looked tremendous throwing the ball on Sunday. If he can continue throwing the ball that way with Chris Johnson in the backfield and the threat of his legs, the league better watch out. Many expected the Raiders to be improved this year, including myself, but let’s not overreact after one week in a tough road game, across the country.

New England 38 – Cincinnati 24
I thought the Patriots could be flying under the radar this year. Brady is healthy, Welker appears healthy, Moss is motivated for more money. They embarrassed what is supposed to be a very good Cincinnati secondary. The good news for Bengals fans is that Carson Palmer looked much better in catch-up mode than he had all of last year, throwing for 345 yards.

New York 31 – Carolina 18
Carolina is finding out the hard way in this league that it is very hard to win without a good quarterback no matter how good your running backs and offensive line are. Matt Moore threw three red zone interceptions and lost a fumble, a recipe for disaster against a good team on the road. For the Giants, we may have just seen the superstar coming out party for WR Hakeem Nicks.

Tampa Bay 17 – Cleveland 14
If it was not the first game of the year I would skip saying anything about these two very bad teams. On second thought, this column is long enough, let’s keep going.

Arizona 17 – St. Louis 13
Not such a great start for the post-Warner Cardinals. The play of the game was made by Steve Breaston whose hustle and strip tackle of a Rams defensive lineman, who was about to score on a fumble return, saved the game. Also says something about the quality of play in this one when the play of the game is made by a wide receiver tackling a defensive tackle. Sam Bradford is oozing with talent, but he is going to need to learn how to manage the two-minute drill much better than he did Sunday.

Green Bay 27 – Philadelphia 20
First, I must say that it was fun watching Michael Vick up to his old tricks. Andy Reid was also up to his old tricks foolishly calling time outs with five minutes remaining. I am officially offering my services to Reid as a clock consultant. Does the guy have any clue how to manage time?!? It was not the MVP type performance we were expecting from Aaron Rodgers for the Pack, but it was enough to get a win on the road against a solid defense. I expect this Packer passing game to start rolling here in the near-term, especially with the reported loss of Ryan Grant for the season.

Seattle 31 – San Francisco 6
In what to me was the most shocking result of the first week, the Pete Carroll era in Seattle got started with a bang. The Seahawks’ victory itself was not shocking, but the manner in which they physically dominated the 49ers was. San Fran was held to just 49 yards on the ground and was stuffed short on a key 4th and 1 on the Seahawks’ six-yard line in the first quarter. I wonder if Singletary’s boys were reading a little too much of their press clippings coming into week 1.

Washington 13 – Dallas 7
I really don’t even know where to start on this one. Dallas had 380 yards - Washington 250, Dallas had 24 first downs - Washington 17, Dallas 4.7 yards per rush – Washington 3.7. Dallas, however, had 12 penalties for 91 yards to Washington’s 5 for 42 and Dallas’ one turnover (in quite possibly the dumbest play that will occur this season from the coaches to Romo to Choice) to Washington’s none were the difference between the Cowboys winning by two TDs and losing by three, I mean six, after Shanahan kicked what at the time was a very dumb field goal. The worst part is that I thought Mike Shanahan coached an awful game and yet he looked like Vince Lombardi compared to what Wade Phillips and his staff accomplished. I could go on and on, but let’s just say that Bill Cowher’s phone number is moving up the speed dial list on Jerry Jones’ cell phone.

Baltimore 10 – New York 9
I am sure most of you reading this watched Monday’s game so we won’t go into detail. I will say that I am not quite ready to say ‘I told you so’ on Mark Sanchez, but it’s getting pretty darn close. The Jets also lost nose tackle Kris Jenkins for the season again with a torn ACL to the same knee as last year. This is a big blow to what looks like will be a dominating Jets’ defense once again, and a shame for Jenkins who seemed like a pretty likable guy on “Hard Knocks”.

Kansas City 21 – San Diego 14
In the game that probably did the most damage in your local suicide pools, Kansas City used another early season sloppy performance from the Chargers to squeeze out the only win in week one among the four AFC West teams. Norv Turner punted once in the first half and twice in the second half inside the Chiefs’ 42 while the Chiefs’ punted from the Chargers’ 31 yard line! Are you kidding me! All three of the Chargers punts went in the end zone for a touch back while the Chiefs’ went ten yards, worse than a touch back. This is definitely my number one pet peeve among NFL coaches. (Wade Phillips also punted twice inside the 40 in a game his team was struggling to score.) Someone needs to show NFL coaches the mathematical scoring odds of punting and not punting in those situations or more importantly, someone needs to tell NFL coaches to grow some balls. I also didn’t understand the Chargers’ laissez faire attitude on offense in the second half. They were throwing the ball well and moving it up and down the field, going to a no huddle would have kept momentum going and kept the Chiefs’ defense on their heels. The Chargers’ lack of urgency was what I thought most cost them this game.


That’ll do it for a look back on week one. Overall I thought it was a badly played weekend of football and even a worse-coached one. I expect to see a vastly improved performance from a number of teams this week. Oh, you thought I forgot…I’ll be back on Wednesday with a combined look back on the Steelers overtime win and a look ahead to a very tough road trip to Tennessee.