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The NFL in Review: Week 1
Posted by Dr. Tom on Sep 14, 2004, 14:20
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NFL REVIEW: WEEK 1
Labor Day has come and gone, and the summer heat is giving way to a gradual autumn cool. The baseball regular season is winding down, with a few good races still to be determined. Basketball is still a ways away, which is probably a good thing after the latest phony �Dream Team� proved they excelled only at bricklaying. Hockey is . . . well, it�s safe to say that hockey�s still a ways away, too. Maybe a couple of ways. FOOTBALL~! season, however, is just getting started.
The Patriots, fresh off another Super Bowl win, have thirty-one other teams gunning for them. Many teams made significant trades and free-agent signings in the offseason, while others did little and still crowed about how much they improved. The 49ers decided to spend about a third of their salary cap figure on players no longer with the team � certainly not the wisest way to return your franchise to glory, in the opinion of this salary cap non-expert. Not every team has playoff aspirations, but those that are still a year or two away are eager to play the role of spoilers for those whose time is now.
Whether your team won or lost this weekend, here�s a free piece of advice from me to you: don�t get too high or too low. Even after seeing my Ravens look horribly flat against a Browns team they owned last season, I can�t get too down on them. Remember week 1 of the 2003 season? Look at this one score in particular: Buffalo 31, New England 0. New England, of course, went on to win the Super Bowl, while the Bills sputtered and missed the playoffs. One week does not a season make.
But it does a column make, so away we go.
But First, A Plug
We kicked off the NFL season here at TSM with a preview article, contributed to by yours truly, among others: Ten (and a half) Burning Questions for the 2004 Season. Assembled by Peter Kostka, the column features NFL opinions from one of our esteemed TV recappers, a brilliant football fan and all-around renaissance man (who may be the author of this column), straight shooter Brandon Truitt, and former news delinquent Byron Vester. Check it out if you haven�t already.
The Week That Was
at New England 27, Indianapolis 24: NFL fans were treated to an excellent game to start the season, a rematch of last year�s AFC Championship clash. New England struggled against the run � as many said they would without Ted Washington anchoring their defensive line � but Edgerrin James fumbled twice in the red zone. Mistakes in the red zone are inexcusable, and mistakes in general against the Super Bowl champions are inadvisable. Peyton Manning didn�t play poorly, but he seemed to have no idea where Willie McGinest was on the key sack that occurred on the game�s penultimate play. Mike Vanderjagt, perfect on field goals all last season, then missed the 48-yarder that ensued, honking on the chance to send the game into OT.
Tennessee 17, at Miami 7: Steve McNair�s stat line was far from impressive (who passes for 73 yards?), but the Titans won. This game was moved up a day because of the threat of the 200th hurricane to batter Florida this year. (Brief aside: Florida�s lovely, but I could never live there since I wouldn�t want to reside in a state that takes such an annual paddling from Mother Nature. It�s the same reason I couldn�t live in Alaska.) Jay Fielder turned the ball over twice in the first half, and as a result, turned the game over to AJ Feeley, who couldn�t lead the Dolphins past the physical Titans D.
San Diego 27, at Houston 20: Houston, we have a problem: you just lost to the league laughingstock at home in your season opener. For a team that�s supposed to be much improved, the Texans showed few signs of being anything other than a recent expansion team. Domanick Davis had a good game for Houston, but it wasn�t enough to match the one-two punch of LaDanian Tomlinson and Drew Brees, who needed a good game and had one. I expect Houston to do better than San Diego over the rest of the season, but this was not an auspicious beginning for Dom Capers� squad.
at Cleveland 20, RAVENS~! 3: I know Kyle Boller missed half of last season, so he�s effectively still a rookie QB. I know All-World LT Jonathan Ogden didn�t play, and Mike Flynn was also absent from the offensive line. Still, Boller did little to fill me with anything approaching confidence. The Browns have a decent defense, but it�s not a superb one. Boller was unable to generate any offense after the Browns showed they could stop JAMAL~! with their 4-4-3 defensive looks. Boller was never able to capitalize on the three-man secondary, and the Ravens� playcalling was typically atrocious. Twice in the first half, on third-and-short, they threw the ball 40+ yards downfield. Didn�t JAMAL~! run for over 2000 yards last season? If the #1 rushing offense in the league can�t gain 1 or 2 yards on 3rd down, then they�re going to have problems. Offensive Coordinator and Cretin Extraordinaire Matt Cavanaugh � who should have been fired two years ago, IMO � still hasn�t learned what to do with a 2000-yard back. Look at the Ravens� horrible showing in the playoffs last season: who passes twice as often as they run with a guy who gained 2000 yards in the backfield.
I know it�s only one week, and I told everyone else not to get too high or low based on it, but still. We�ve been waiting for the offensive genius of Brian Billick to show up ever since he arrived in Baltimore (and don�t get me started on that topic). It looks like we�ll have to wait at least one more week.
Bah, I don�t even want to write about any more games now. Bloody Ravens.
Detroit 20, at Chicago 16
Jacksonville 13, at Buffalo 10
at Washington Metro Area 16, Tampa 10
at St. Louis 17, Arizona 10
at Pittsburgh 24, Oakland 21
at New Jersey Jets 31, Cincinnati 24
Seattle 21, at New Orleans 7
Atlanta 21, at The City 19
at Philadelphia 31, New Jersey Giants 17
at Minnesota 35, Dallas 17
at Denver 34, Kansas City 24
Green Bay 24, at Carolina 14
Stat Line of the Week
It�s only happened once before in the history of the NFL, so it�s worth mentioning here: Pittsburgh RB Jerome Bettis had 3 TDs while rushing for only 1 yard. His complete line: 5 carries, 1 yard, 3 TDs. If Pittsburgh keeps giving him the ball when they get inside the 5-yard line, Bettis could finish the year with 50 yards and 20 TDs.
Hey, Aren�t You Supposed To Be Old?
Curtis Martin�s line against the Bengals: 29 carries, 196 yards, 1 TD (along with a receiving TD). Martin, who was written off as old and in decline after last season, had the 5th best rushing day on opening weekend in the history of the NFL. It took him until the 4th week last season to have this many total rushing yards, and he didn�t find the end zone until well past the halfway point. Reports of Curtis Martin�s demise have been greatly exaggerated. With another 1000 yard campaign this year (and he�s only 800 yards shy now), Martin will join Barry Sanders as the only back to begin his career with 10 straight 1000-yard seasons.
Not bad for an old guy.
Hey, Aren�t You Supposed To Be Old (Part 2)?
Not just old, but brittle. In week 1, however, Rams uber-back Marshall Faulk looked as good as ever, getting [line]. The Rams might put up flashy passing numbers, and they might still be called �the greatest show on turf� by some, but as Faulk goes, so do the Rams go. Faulk is definitely the most important player in their offense. If he�s healthy the whole season, he�s definitely a Top 5 running back, and the Rams will be a force difficult to contain.
Hey, Aren�t You Supposed To Be Old (Part 3)?
After the departure of Quincy Carter, the Cowboys brought in 83-year-old Vinny Testaverde to be their starter. Vinny, the poster child for immobile pocket passers, had some good years with Bill Parcells in New Jersey, and with Drew Henson at least a year away, Dallas was a good fit. Sunday, Testaverde threw for 355 yards and a touchdown, but his performance was squandered in a losing effort. All along, Parcells has said he believes in his QB, and really, who are we to doubt him?
Maybe the Cowboys would�ve won if they�d used a few more �Jap plays,� though . . .
Honorable mention in the Old Man Derby goes to Emmitt Smith.
Pass For Show, Run For Dough
In this era of SportsCenter highlights and fans with short attention spans, the passing game gets a disproportionate amount of love. Every week, at least one QB goes en fuego passing the ball, and a couple teams live and die putting the ball in the air. Maybe I�m just an old-school ball-control guy, but I think the running game is still the most important offensive ingredient, since it lets you wear down both your enemies at once: the opposing team, and the game clock.
I�m going to chart some rushing statistics this season (as I did last season, until time constraints forced me to scrap this column) and see how important the running game really is. Each week, I�ll tally up the 100-yard rushers and see how their teams did. Also, I�ll look at teams that ran the ball 30 or more times, and teams that ran it 20 or fewer times, and see how they did.
Week 1
100 yard rushers: 12
Team record: 9-3
30 or more rushing attempts: 12
Team record: 10-2
20 or fewer rushing attempts: 5
Team record: 1-4 (New England with the lone win here)
There were two games which featured dueling 100-yard rushers: Denver/Kansas City and Philadelphia/New Jersey Giants. In the former game, the team that rushed more than 30 times beat the team that didn�t; in the latter game, neither team ran 30 times, but the team with more carries came out the winner.
I�ll keep a running tally as the season goes along and see what the stats hold.
News From Around The League
-- Detroit WR Charles Rogers is going to miss several weeks, and perhaps the whole season, after breaking his collarbone for a second consecutive season. Rogers, a highly-touted rookie last season, played in only 5 games before the broken collarbone sidelined him for the rest of the season. Rogers was on his way to a 70-catch, 8-TD year last year before the injury derailed him. This season, he was expected to be part of a talented young offense, along with fellow WR Roy Williams. It was recently announced that Rogers will miss the rest of the 2004 season. This is an unfortunate setback for Rogers and the Lions.
-- Jay Fiedler will be riding the pine for now. Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt announced that AJ Feeley will be the starter � for now � after playing well in relief of Fiedler in Sunday�s loss to Tennessee. Fiedler is 36-18 as Miami�s starter, but has never been popular with Dolphins fans, and always seemed to have a tenuous hold on the starting QB job. Feeley is inexperienced, so it may just be a matter of time before Fielder gets his job back. Stay tuned, Fish fans.
-- The Packers signed CB Al Harris to a "five-year" contract extension Saturday. Financial terms were not immediately available. The 29 year-old Harris is best known for his key interception of Matt Hasslebeck in the playoffs last year, returning the pick for a TD in overtime � the only time an NFL playoff game has been decided by a defensive TD. Harris has impressed Green Bay coaches with his work ethic and willingless to mentor young DBs in the preseason. Perhaps holdout CB Mike McKenzie could learn something from this approach. Personally, I hope Green Bay lets McKenzie sit out the whole year with his infantile demands for a new contract - the Packers didn't seem to miss him terribly against Carolina.
-- You�ve all heard about the new contact rules (or at least rules enforcement) regarding receivers and DBs, right? Well, if week 1 is any indicator, those rules look to be a complete non-factor. Going into Monday night, no receiver had 10 or more catches, and only 7 chaps broke the 100-yard barrier. The Patriots and Colts, the two teams at the center of this new crackdown, had a game that was remarkably free of illegal contact penalties: the Pats went until the 4th quarter before drawing a flag for it, after both teams drew a combined zero flags for it in the first half. Other games featured flags for illegal contact and holding, but no more than expected.
-- More injury news: Panthers WR Steve Smith is out for the foreseeable future after breaking his left fibula in last night�s game against the Packers. Hannibal Navies fell on Smith�s leg when he tackled the speedy receiver from behind. Smith�s absence robs the Panthers of their deep threat, who caught over 1100 yards� worth of passes in the regular season, and the game-winning 69-yard TD against the Rams in double overtime in last year�s playoffs.
-- Browns RB Lee Suggs has been cleared to return to practice. Suggs, who was expected to be the starter after an excellent preseason, has been sidelined for two weeks with a neck stinger. During that time, it has been both confirmed and denied that Suggs has a neck condition called stenosis, which is a narrowing of the spinal column. It has been confirmed that Suggs has a neck, but given how coy many teams are with their injury reports, the Browns could deny this at anytime.
(All news is credit NFL.com or ESPN.com.)
Week 2 Picks
Last week: I didn�t publish any picks for week 1, so we�ll say I was 0-0.
Carolina 13 at Kansas City 27, 1:00 pm
Chicago 14 at Green Bay 21, 1:00 pm
Denver 17 at Jacksonville 20, 1:00 pm
Houston 14 at Detroit 16, 1:00 pm
Indianapolis 26 at Tennessee 21, 1:00 pm
Pittsburgh 17 at Baltimore 24, 1:00 pm
San Francisco 13 at New Orleans 24, 1:00 pm
St. Louis 30 at Atlanta 24, 1:00 pm
Washington 27 at N.Y. Giants 14, 1:00 pm
Seattle28 at Tampa Bay 14, 4:05 pm
Buffalo 10 at Oakland 20, 4:15 pm
Cleveland 16 at Dallas 21, 4:15 pm
New England 24 at Arizona 10, 4:15 pm
N.Y. Jets 27 at San Diego 17, 4:15 pm
Miami 13 at Cincinnati 23, 8:30 pm
Minnesota 34 at Philadelphia 30, MNF, 9:00 pm
See you next Tuesday, and hoist one for me on Sunday.
Dr. Tom Fowler
dtomfowler a!t yahoo d%ot com (you're bright, you'll figure it out)
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