Week 1's 6 Yards of Separation: Connecting Danny Amendola to Colin Kaepernick

Each Sunday, 32 teams and 1,696 players weave webs of statistics, results and headlines. It’s only natural that, at some point, those webs intertwine.

"Six Yards of Separation" is my ploy on the classic six degrees of separation theory, which, by definition, means that everyone and everything is within six happenings of meeting another person in the world. Hardly anything in the NFL remains the same week to week, but any six players, coaches or teams could share a slew of similarities on any given Sunday. 

And so, this column connects one player to another player who has absolutely nothing in common if not for the four other players sandwiched between them. 

The Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers each had a safety, but then the Steelers scored a trash-time touchdown at the last minute: disqualified. America’s favorite cyborg Adrian Peterson effortlessly sprinted for a 78-yard touchdown on his first carry of the season to connect 2013 Adrian Peterson to 2012 Adrian Peterson, but comparing the same person is cheating. The only problem with Peyton Manning’s seven touchdowns on Thursday night was that no other quarterback can throw seven touchdowns in a game.

You get the point. There were a lot of options that could have made the debut of Six Yards, but the following six players were eerily linear on Sunday.

Danny Amendola, Wide Receiver, New England Patriots

During his first four seasons in St. Louis, Danny Amendola mastered the art of changing question marks to exclamation points. Amendola packed that narrative in his suitcase and brought it with him to New England.

In his regular-season debut with the Patriots on Sunday in Buffalo, Amendola wasted no time in parlaying inevitable injury with indisputable success. A groin injury as time wound down in the first half left Amendola limping into the locker room—only to return in the second half and finish with a line of 104 total receiving yards on 10 receptions. Twenty-six of those 104 yards came on New England’s final drive —ultimately leading to a game-winning 35-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski—which proved Amendola’s significance to the Patriot offense this season pending his health.

Another wide receiver with prior injury concerns played a vital part in his team’s comeback victory on Sunday as well.

Brandon Marshall, Wide Receiver, Chicago Bears

Brandon Marshall disputed any concern surrounding his hip and looked plenty healthy on Sunday versus Cincinnati.

Marshall, like Amendola, had 104 receiving yards and contributed to the Chicago Bears' game-winning drive. Jay Cutler found Marshall for a 19-yard touchdown midway through the fourth quarter, giving Chicago a 24-21 lead and the eventual win. Marshall’s eight receptions paved the way to his eighth 100-yard receiving game as a Bear, the eighth most by a Bears receiver in franchise history. 

Eight was a popular number among wide receivers on Sunday, which takes us to Indianapolis.

Reggie Wayne, Wide Receiver, Indianapolis Colts

Reggie Wayne hauled in eight lasers from Andrew Luck in the Colts’ 21-17 victory over the Oakland Raiders. Wayne, coming off of his eighth 1,000-yard receiving season in his career, was responsible for 96 yards and a touchdown at Lucas Oil Stadium in Week 1.

Wayne and Marshall share more than statistics in Week 1 of this season, though. Last year, each No. 1 receiver averaged around 12.8 yards per catch for his team.

Another Reggie in blue made an impression in his 2013 debut.

Reggie Bush, Running Back, Detroit Lions

Reggie Bush began his eighth season in the NFL by revving up the Detroit Lions offense in the Motor City in a 34-24 win over the Minnesota Vikings. A football in the hand equaled 77 in the Bush, as Bush scored his only touchdown of the day on a 77-yard screen pass from quarterback Matthew Stafford to give the Lions a 10-point lead in the third quarter.

Bush’s ability to take some pressure off of Calvin Johnson in the passing game is a bonus to the balance he provides to the offense as a whole. With 90 yards on the ground—the longest run of the day being 12 yards—Bush looked like he should have been in the Lions offense from day one.

The No. 12 takes us back to Indianapolis, to a player who has looked comfortable in the NFL from the first day.

Andrew Luck, Quarterback, Indianapolis Colts

Andrew Luck started his 2013 campaign connecting on all 10 of his first 10 passes, finishing the day 18-of-23 with 178 yards and two touchdowns. In addition to those two touchdowns through the air, Luck's third touchdown of the day was a scramble from 19 yards out, sealing the deal for the Colts and making Terrelle Pryor cry. Luck’s game-winner mounts his career total to eight come-from-behind victories in the fourth quarter or overtime in just 17 games. Andrew Luck is anything but luck.

Another second-year starter reached new heights in his 17th game as an NFL quarterback.

Colin Kaepernick, Quarterback, San Francisco 49ers

Colin Kaepernick played for the 17th time as an NFL quarterback on Sunday as the San Francisco 49ers hosted and beat the Green Bay Packers. Eleven starts and Kaepernick has already found himself in the same sentence as Joe Montana: Kaepernick became just the second quarterback in 49ers history to throw for 400 yards, toss three touchdowns and sacrifice zero interceptions in the process since 1960. 

Anquan Boldin helped. Boldin donned a Niners uniform for the first time on Sunday and stitched magnets into his gloves, corralling 13 receptions for 208 yards and a touchdown.

Boldin nor Kaepernick was intimidated by the Packers defense, despite Clay Matthews' best efforts, and Kaepernick gave the best quote of the weekend to NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal post-game as a result: “If intimidation is your game plan, I hope you have a better one.”

Let us all carry that quote with us into this week.

You can follow Megan on Twitter at @meganKarmstrong.