NFL Week 1: Looking Back on What We Learned

Week One is in the books, so what did we learn?  

First The Saints are still the Saints.  Playing against a team like the Vikings, I expected the game to be very high scoring, but the Saints did what they needed to do.  Brees managed the game very well with the help of a strong run game.  The Defense looked great, holding Favre to 171 yards.  Granted the Vikings were hurt, and Favre hasn't had enough time to get used to his new wide receivers.  It is clear he misses Sidney Rice, but he is leaning on V. Shiancoe for now.  It helps when he can just turn and hand the ball off to somebody like Adrian Peterson or Percy Harvin.

The Patriots look like a team to push for a Super Bowl run.  Welker appears to be in tremendous shape, coming back from an ACL tear in 8 months.  I am convinced that he is part robot to be doing the things he did against the Bengals.  8 catches, 64 yards and 2 touchdowns is a day any wide out would be happy to have.  The Bengals on the other side had some bright spots.  "Batman and Robin" combined for 212 yards and a touchdown.  Ochocinco might want to be called Batman after the game he put up though, 12 catches, 159 yards and a touchdown.  

The AFC South is no longer guaranteed to the Colts.  The Texans came and showed that they are for real.  They did something they only did one other time since they played the Colts, win.  A lot of it came from the help of a name that every fantasy owner now knows, Arian Foster.  Foster ran for 231 yards and 3 touchdowns.  Before the matchup everybody expected the Texans to lean on Matt Schuab and Andre Johnson.  Schuab was 9 for 17 for 107 yards and 1 touchdown.  Manning still looked good though, and if I told you that he threw for 400 yards most people would assume the Colts killed it.  The Colts will still be a playoff team, but they may not be able to rest their starters again like they did last season.  

CJ2K showed he hasn't lost a step since last season.  He ended up getting 142 yards, and 2 touchdowns.  Vince Young also threw another 2 touchdowns, including a 56 yard strike to Nate Washington who was wide open.  The Raiders, who were the other end of this game, looked just like well the Raiders.  They had bright points, including the fact that they did bottle up CJ2K except for his one big run.  Stanford Routt was embarrassed in this game, VY just attacked him including on that 56 yard pass to Washington. Routt bit on the fake to go after CJ2K which caused Washington to be open by about 20 yards.  On the offensive side, new QB same problems.  Campbell looked nervous in his start, and it looked like he was scared.  Granted the offensive line didn't help, giving up 4 sacks.  Campbell fumbled twice, lost one of them, threw an interception but he did throw 1 TD pass to Darren McFadden. McFadden looked solid.  He looked like the player the Raiders drafted him to be. He had 18 rushes for 95 yards, and caught 6 passes for another 55 and 1 touchdown.  The biggest thing might of been that he came out healthy.

The Seahawks had a lot of new faces on their team.  Former first round pick Mike Williams showed that he can play football, and play well.  The Seahawks look like its their division to lose and they looked like the Seahawks from 2005.  Hassleback threw 2 touchdowns, and ran for a 3rd.  Doing this against the "favorite" of the NFC West, and just destroying the 49ers sent a message.  That message was the Seahawks are for real

The Eagles clearly miss McNabb, who did get his victory against the Cowboys, and it showed this week against the Packers.  When Kolb was in the Eagles looked horrible.  Kolb suffered from a concussion when Clay Matthews sacked him, and this caused Vick to come into the game.  Must be nice to have a threat like Vick as your backup.  Vick brought the Eagles back in the second half, rushing for 103 yards, and throwing for 175 yards and a touchdown.  The Eagles might think long and hard about playing Kolb if Vick is truly back.

The Dallas Cowboys and the New York Jets are already being viewed as "overhyped."  After the games these two teams played, who can really disagree?  The Cowboys just beat themselves, and Alex Barron proved it.  Final play of the game Romo throws to Roy Williams for what would be a game winning touchdown, and surprisingly Williams caught it.  Only reason why Romo was able to get it off was because Barron put Brian Orakpo in a choke hold, and Orakpo still almost got Romo. The Jets sounded off a lot this offseason, including Cromartie calling them "The Miami Heat of the NFL."  Maybe the Heat when they just had Wade, but no Cromartie you are not the Heat with Lebron, Bosh, and Wade.  The Jets had more yards against them in penalties then the offense got the entire first half.  Some things remain the same, teams will not throw to Revis Island, but Flacco had no problem throwing to Boldin, Housh, or Mason, when they were covered by Cromartie or Wilson.  

The biggest thing I learned came on Monday night, and that was the Chiefs are fast.  Nobody in their right mind was picking the Chiefs over the Chargers on Monday night.  Jamal Charles looks ready to take the next step in the NFL breaking a 56 yard touchdown run.  The rookie Dexter McCluster broke a 94 yard punt return for a touchdown, and blazed by people when he did it.  Even though Cassel did not look good, and Rivers did out preform him, the Chiefs may have just shown the NFL that they are back

With such an exciting Week 1, I cannot wait for Week 2 to get here.  NFL is back, and they are showing the fans how great of a sport Football really is.