Monday Morning Cornerback

After a blowout victory over the Giants yesterday, fans in Philadelphia probably think that Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens are going to become the most prolific quarterback-receiver tandem since Montana and Rice.
Meanwhile, a little further south in Baltimore, some Ravens fans have probably given up on the season after their team laid an egg against the lowly Browns.
Fans in every NFL market in the country are either experiencing the highest of the highs or the lowest of the lows this morning.
Minnesota travel agents are probably getting besieged with calls asking for plane tickets to Jacksonville for the first weekend in February, while Bucs fans are already counting down the games until Chris Simms replaces Brad Johnson.
Either way, everybody is putting way too much stock into week one results.
Think about it this way, if the Ravens lost 20-3 to the Browns in week seven, would there be panic in Baltimore? Of course not. People wouldn’t be happy that Jamal Lewis ran for only 57 yards or that Kyle Boller looked like… well, Kyle Boller, but there wouldn’t be a city-wide panic. And if Daunte Culpepper threw five touchdowns in week nine versus the Cowboys, everybody in Minnesota would be thrilled that their quarterback shredded a heralded Dallas defense, but they wouldn’t assume the Vikings are the best team in the league.
It’s easy to look at the first week of NFL games and think that the results will be indicative of future success. But in reality, week one is just another week. Yes, it’s the first week, but that doesn’t make it any different than the eighth week.
Seasons aren’t made or broken in early September. It’s nice to get that first win in the books, but wins and losses mean nothing more in week one than they do in week fourteen.
If playoff berths were decided the first week, then the Eagles, Cowboys, Ravens and Packers all would have missed the playoffs last season. And the eventual Super Bowl champion Patriots? They would have had the inside track to Eli Manning or Robert Gallery after getting pummeled by the Bills 31-0.
So if you root for the Eagles or Vikings or Redskins or Lions or Jets, savor your team’s victory in week one. And if you prefer the Bengals, Bucs, Saints, Colts or Cowboys, don’t worry, your season isn’t over yet. There’s hope yet for those 16 teams sitting at 0-1.
Well, except the Giants.

Sunday Thoughts

- Nearly every major player that switched teams in the off-season had a fantastic debut with their new clubs. Clinton Portis ran 64-yards for a touchdown the first time he touched the ball in a Redskins uniform, Terrell Owens had three touchdown catches in his Eagles debut while on the other side of the ball Jevon Kearse put pressure on Kurt Warner and recovered a fumble. Champ Bailey had an interception, Jeff Garcia led his Browns team to a win over the hated Ravens and Eddie George ran for 143 yards and had three scores in his first game with America’s team. What? He only had eight carries for 25 yards for a meager 3.1 yard-per-carry average? Simply shocking I say.

- Speaking of George, has the blond hair dye seeped into Bill Parcells brain? How could the Tuna possibly go into the season with a running back depth chart that reads: Eddie George, Richie Anderson, ReShard Lee, Julius Jones. Those backs probably couldn’t even start on a Top 25 college football team, and Parcells expected to go back to the playoffs with them?
Last year the Vikings gave up 4.86 yards-per-carry, which was second-to-last in the NFL. Their defense really didn’t improve too much in the off-season, yet the Cowboys backs made it seem like Carl Eller, Jim Marshall, Alan Page and the rest of the Purple People Eaters returned for a 30th reunion yesterday at the Metrodome.
Parcells and the Cowboys are going to be in rough shape this season unless Julius Jones gets inspired by Notre Dame’s win over Michigan and comes out running like Darius Walker.

- The Redskins proved once again that good coaching trumps everything in the NFL. Joe Gibbs’ return to the NFL was triumphant as the Washington Redskins got a win for the Hall of Fame coach over a Bucs team that is still only 17 games removed from their Super Bowl championship.
The Dirtbags, Joe Bugel’s Hogs: Volume II, shut down a vaunted Bucs D-line that sacked Redskins QB Patrick Ramsey six times in the team’s meeting last season.
On Sunday, the Bucs barely touched new quarterback Mark Brunell and Clinton Portis and Ladell Betts combined for 165 yards.
On the defensive end, Gregg Williams’ schemes flummoxed Brad Johnson and the Bucs running attack. The Skins defense essentially posted a shutout, as the Bucs 10 points came off a fumble return for a touchdown and a field goal that resulted from a long kick return. The Bucs offense is hardly a high-powered attack, but it wasn’t last year either when the Skins allowed 35 points.
The Redskins are the most improved team in the league and it’s entirely because of their coaching staff.
Defense doesn’t win championships, coaching wins championships.
If Gibbs, Belichick or Parcells coached the Falcons, Bengals and Saints, respectively, those teams would win their divisions going away.

- After the first quarter of the Broncos-Chiefs game, where Pat Summerall misidentified three players, got the score wrong and kept asking absurd rhetorical questions (Is anybody better than Jake the Snake?), I think the ESPN production team turned off Summerall’s mic and used his commentary from Madden ’95 to get them through the rest of the game. Still, it was good hearing Pat’s voice back calling the NFL.

- The Falcons probably aren’t feeling too comfortable after they came within a tipped pass of overtime against a team thought to be on the NFL’s worst. Michael Vick looked confused operating the west coast offense and his numbers were very un-Vick like. Jim Mora Jr. says he won’t bench Vick, which is the right decision. But if he is really going to stay with west coast offense, then Matt Schaub, the rookie out of Virginia, is the better choice. But if anything gets benched in Atlanta, it should be the offense.

Superlatives

Best Game: Denver 34 – Kansas City 24 - On a day full of mediocre games, the Sunday night contest was the best of the day. Quentin Griffin made Broncos fans quickly forget about Clinton Portis (although, playing against the Chiefs defense, Mike Shananan himself could have run for 100 yards), but Priest Holmes did his best to get the Chiefs the upset at Mile High. (I refuse to call it Invesco Field. That’s not only a crappy name for a stadium, but a crappy name for a company too.)

Upset of the Day: Detroit 20 – Chicago 16 - It’s always tough to define what is an upset in week one and even harder when most of the favored teams win as they did yesterday. San Diego over Houston was mildly surprising, but it wasn’t exactly Villanova over Georgetown. The Lions victory over the Bears wasn’t all that shocking either, but anytime a team ends a 24-game road losing streak, they deserve a little recognition.

Player of the Day: Daunte Culpepper - Culpepper had one more incompletion (six) than touchdown passes (five) in the Vikes game against Dallas.

Line of the Day: Jerome Bettis – 5 car, 1 yd, 3 td - You read that right. The Bus got in the end zone three times, each from one-yard out. His other two carries were for zero and -2 yards, respectively. Sadly, I bet at least two people in my fantasy leagues put in a claim for Bettis on the waiver wire.

Ryan Leaf Line of the Day: Jamal Lewis – 20 car, 57 yds - This award really could have gone to anybody on the Ravens offense, but Lewis was the only one who was named NFL Offensive MVP last season. In his two games against the Browns in 2003 Lewis ran the ball for 500 yards. Not having a healthy Jonathan Ogden certainly didn’t help Lewis and the Ravens, but I haven’t seen this quick a drop-off since Howard Dean circa February.

Best Fantasy Day (Faulk/Holmes Divison - Best Day by a Big-Time Player): Priest Holmes - 151 yards, 3 TD - 33 fantasy points - It would only make sense that Priest would earn the honor named in part for him. Holmes picked up where he left off last season and scampered into the endzone three times.

Worst Fantasy Day (George/Burress Division - Worst Day by a Big-Time Player): Michael Vick - 163 passing yards, 10 rushing yards, 1 pass TD - 11 fantasy points - Let's keep in mind that this was against the 49ers. Hope those of you that jumped the gun on Vick picked up a solid backup too.

Best Fantasy Day (Boldin/Patten Division - Best Day by a Player Not On Anybody's Starting Roster): Quentin Griffin - 157 yards, 2 rush TD, 1 rec. TD - 33 fantasy points - Griffin is overqualified for this distinction, because he was selected in most drafts and was probably starting in a fair amount of leagues. But, because it was only the second start of his career and there were few other jaw-dropping days, he wins by default.

Predictions

A rough day in the prognostication department, as I went 7-6. After a .500 showing in the first two games of the season, my record stands at a disappointing 8-7 heading into the Monday Night showdown. This is all the weirder considering that I went 10-5 while picking against the spread this weekend and am in the 97th% percentile on ESPN.com.
But hey, that’s what I get when I pick against my 2004 team of destiny (Jacksonville Jaguars) and pick a team playing in the toughest stadium in the NFL (Kansas City).
I tried to kick myself for predicting that the Bears would beat the Lions, but that would have meant picking the Lions, and I just don’t think I’m prepared to do that.

Power Rankings: Top Two

1) New England Patriots – Until they get beat, the Pats will stay atop the list.
2) Philadelphia Eagles – McNabb and Owens are taking an extended honeymoon. That’s an easy thing to do when playing the Giants.
3 – 32) Tomorrow

Monday Night Prediction

Considering my first week predicting swoon, I should play it safe and pick the Panthers at home to beat Brett Favre and the Packers. But that would mean going against my gut, which screwed me in the Jacksonville-Buffalo game. I watched way too many Panthers games last year and still think they’re due for a run of the mill season.
Pick: Green Bay 23 – Panthers 16