NFL Regular Season Week One Thread

[CU Tiger]

I was strongly opposed to the Newton selection, and still doubt he ever materializes into a top tier NFL QB...but I have to admit he has made a couple of really nice deep throws this game and has looked better in week 1 than I expected him to at any point this season.

[Scoobz0202]

Cam Newton > Peyton Manning???

[Lathum]

Disgusted right now with the Giants and Coughlin. Twice they need one yard and don't go straight on with Jacobs. And now a kick gets blocked.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

Cam Newton > Peyton Manning???

If he played the Cards every week.

[sabotai]

Even when the Giants catch a break (Pierre-Paul causes a fumble), they can't catch a break (blocked FG).

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Disgusted right now with the Giants and Coughlin. Twice they need one yard and don't go straight on with Jacobs. And now a kick gets blocked.

I understand that they'll keep Bradshaw in sometimes to make the defense think that they might throw, but yeah, sometimes you just need to give the bull a straight ahead run and see if he can power his way to a first down on those Down and 1 plays

[General Mike]

I hate Tom Coughlin

[sabotai]

That was an insanely stupid thing for Antrel Rolle to do.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by sabotai

That was an insanely stupid thing for Antrel Rolle to do.

Maybe cost us the game

[Lathum]

looking like this Giants will be lucky to win 5 games this year

[Matthean]

Over/under on McNabb being a starter? 39 yards passing with just under 3 minutes in the game.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Maybe cost us the game

I don't like to say that a single play is what ends up costing a team a game (unless it's the last play of the game), but that comes pretty close. What should have been a 4th down punt becomes a touchdown a few plays latter giving the Redskins a 2 TD lead with 5 minutes left.

Maybe a component of his thinking process on that play was trying to get on ESPN. Well done, Rolle. It probably will be now.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Maybe a component of his thinking process on that play was trying to get on ESPN. Well done, Rolle. It probably will be now.

C'MON MAN!!!!!!!!!!

[stevew]

This dominos commercial with "Jess" the ambiguous pizza maker is puzzling. We assume it's a girl, but it is far from obvious.

[CU Tiger]

A 2 minute drive in his first NFL start...wow.

The kinda stuff legends are made of, I suppose

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

I am looking forward to Real Steel. It will probably be a total piece of crap, but I am going to go see it.

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots: The Movie?

SI

[bulletsponge]

Ted Guinn showed up

[Radii]

Damn, I hate seeing the last drive end that way... throw it in the end zone! Hate that 3 yard pass on 4th and 5 crap, even though it did take a good tackle to bring him down.

Still, its hard to be disappointed with that debut for Cam Newton. I couldn't have expected much better.

[stevew]

Holy shit, that was amazing, Ginn FTW

[bulletsponge]

ginn with his 2nd PR TD

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by bulletsponge

Ted Guinn showed up

And a second time for Ginn

SI

[spleen1015]

Seattle's Special Teams coach just lost his job.

[stevew]

Seattle has to fire their ST coach before the team plane lands tonight?

[stevew]

Lol, jinx

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

Colts will be better than people think. If I was a betting man, I'd be really tempted by the 8 or 9 points they are getting this week.

and, this would be why I'm not a betting man

[Atocep]

Happy to see Chris Neild get 2 sacks in his first NFL game. I still can't believe he didn't get picked until the 7th round. He might not end up as a star in the NFL, but he's the type of guy that could have a very long career as a starter.

[ColtCrazy]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Maybe we're seeing just how good Manning has been all along. I think he's been viewed as a QB who made good teams great, but just not great enough to win it all as often as he should. Maybe his teams have been alot worse than we ever realized.

I agree. People don't realize that all facets of this team, not just the offense, were built around Manning. The defense was built to play with a lead, the offense is built around Manning's skill set. Collins doesn't have the release Manning does to get the ball out fast enough. The defense can't play from behind.

I disagree this was a mail in job. This was a team that simply is mediocre at best and hasn't had a chance to gel together with 4 new position on the offensive line and a new QB.

Will they get better? Yes. Will they be competitive in the division? No. After seeing the Bengals and Panthers play, the 2 easiest games on the Colts sked, it's no unrealistic to think this team could go 4-12. 7-9 is probably a best case scenario.

[Thomkal]

well that was just a crazy Cards/Panthers game. I think both teams suffered from the lockout with their new coaches-Cards with a new def coordinator and then the off coordinator calling plays instead of Whisenhunt and of course the whole new coaching staff at Carolina. The Panthers looked like a totally different team than any of the John Fox coached teams-can you imagine him abandoning the running game completely and letting a rookie QB throw for 420 yards in his first start?

The Cards picked up 5 sacks-I'm not sure they had 5 sacks through the first five games last season. Put so much pressure on Newton and that left an already weak secondary even weaker. Peterson isn't ready to be the starting CB for the Cards, but at least he redeemed himself with the kickoff return for a Touchdown. A rookie QB in his first start with basically no receivers besides an aging Steve Smith (and a couple good TE's) should not be able to pass for 420 yards. That stop on fourth down was huge of course though.

Newton looked a lot better than expected, but I'd like to see him against a real secondary or two before I'm willing to say he's going to be the franchise QB the Panthers were hoping he'd be.

Kolb looked fantastic-no INT, great timing with his receivers, threw for over 300 yards. The offensive line (I'm looking at you Levi Brown!) has to do a much better job of prorecting him because I'm not sure how many times I can watch him run 10-15 yards back from the line of scrimmage because the defense is on him from the snap basically. Beanie Wells ran for almost a 100 yards and a TD but he too was basically forgotten in the second half.

It should have been a much easier win for my beloved Cards, but they held it together when it counted and escaped. Kudos to the Panthers for playing a lot better probably than anyone on the planet thought they would.

[Vince, Pt. II]

The Seahawks - 49ers game was awful. Neither team could get out of their own way. The 49ers got away with one thanks to some nifty special teams plays. Not very excited about the beginning of the season like that.

The offensive playcalling was suspect, the execution was suspect, and it's hard to even be excited about the defense with how awful Seattle's offense is.

But a win is a win is a win.

[MJ4H]

Dez Bryant looks amazing so far.

[Ksyrup]

There was a quickly shot down tweet about 3:30 that McNabb was not active for the game. Perhaps someone knew something.

[Atocep]

I've always thought Rex could be a serviceable NFL starter. I think his problems in Chicago had a lot to do with Ron Turner. I hope he does well in Washington.

[RainMaker]

The Bears problem has been they bring in a QB, give them absolutely no support with WRs and a line, and then throw the blame on them when it goes wrong. Rex had his issues and you'll see them pop up throughout the year, but his best receiver was Bernard Berrian.

I was surprised at how well the team performed today. Cutler looked much more comfortable in the offense and made some great throws. Martz is still maddening with his desire to throw the ball all the time. The team is up by 3 scores in the 4th quarter of a game that the defense is dominating and he has Cutler dropping back on 1st and 2nd down.

The D-Line looked scary good. Reminded me a bit of the 2006 Super Bowl team. It was clear that the team waited far too long to dump Tommie Harris. Melton looks like a potential Pro Bowl tackle and Peppers can still cause a ton of havoc. That Cover-2 is really a difficult defense to beat if you only have to rush 4 guys.

I don't want to get too high after one game, but I feel much better than I did going into the season. This was a team last year that played well against Green Bay's offense.

[RainMaker]

Shouldn't there be a camera at the goalline? This happened at the Bears game too and it's just odd that they don't have a single camera setup along the goalline to see if someone broke the plane or not.

[spleen1015]

Rex looked alright today. I've never thought he was any good. Funny how having a decent game for your favorite team starts to change things.

[Danny]

Really dumb playcalling there. 9 minutes left, even a FG puts you up two scores. Why not run it on 2nd and 3rd down as well. Especially on 3rd down after you almost had a pick 6.

[Bigsmooth]

When are teams gonna stop going up the middle on 3rd/4th and very short? Seems like it's time to start running sweeps and pitches similar to Felix Jones TD play.

[RendeR]

What a bonehead move by the coverage team.

[Matthean]

I'm not really sure how much even decent teams know how to use the running game. Jets have 2.9 ypc and Dallas is at 2.5.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Bigsmooth

When are teams gonna stop going up the middle on 3rd/4th and very short? Seems like it's time to start running sweeps and pitches similar to Felix Jones TD play.

The Giants tried sweeps with Bradshaw today and it didn't work either.

[RendeR]

Just read this entire thread and had a few thoughts.

New Orleans playcalling was just stupid to end that game. Spread the field for fucks sake.

Really mystified with Minnesota, they seemed to be in control and then *piffed*

Cincinnati has a bright future, I honestly didn't expect them to win today. Gradkowski isn't much but at least he's smart and sees opportunities.

Fitzy looking impressive for Buffalo. new Uniforms == new era in Western NY?

Must admit that Newton shocked me. He actually looked good. I expected utter crap.

Could this be a sign that shitz-burgh is going under? Or were the Ravens truly that dominating *shudder* Either way, always thrilled to see the squealers get their asses handed to them.

Always a Bengals fan, but I'm definitely watching Detroit, Houston and San Diego.

[Bigsmooth]

Vintage ROMO!

[Radii]

What the hell did Romo think he saw on that play? Wow.

[kingfc22]

Romo may have just cost me a victory in fantasy as my opponent has the Jets D, but it will be WELL worth it if the cowgirls go down in flames here.

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by Radii

What the hell did Romo think he saw on that play? Wow.

$$$$ is about the only thing I can think of. Wow.

[kingfc22]

Ummm Al, it's only 50 yards. Of course they are going to kick it!

[Matthean]

The Jets have two timeouts. Don't you run the ball to work the clock and then use a timeout for the FG?