NFL Week 1: Frankenstein's, er, Peyton's Return

I would take Archie Manning over the Cardinals' QBs.

 

Terrible offensive line play in Green Bay. Rodgers might get killed behind that line.

 

None of the other teams will be fine if their starting QBs go down.

Yet I would put Manning's risk of injury higher than the average. He is a cement statue back there in a league where you don't hand off the ball 40 times anymore. He will need a ton of slant routes and quick releases to not get carted off.

 

I love Twitter/Facebook on the first week of any sport, but particularly, the NFL.

My team is _______!

A) going to win the Super Bowl!
B) going to suck ass and get the first draft pick!

Player X is _________!

A) the greatest player of all-time!
B) the most horrible football player to ever play the game!

So-and-so's (cough Peyton Manning's) injury problems ________!

A) are gone! In your face Colts!
B) Meh. There is no B. I just have a lot of Colts fans on my feeds.

The truth of all above of the above is ...

C) One-sixteenth of the season is over. If it were baseball we'd still be somewhere in April.

Unfortunately, I also follow a lot of writers who fall into the same traps.

 

I hated that Al Michaels used that to take a shot at the officials.

They got it wrong. But I mean, at the end of the day, who really gives a shit whether the two-minute warning comes before or after a PAT?

 

The Lions won the game with the most ludicrous play-fake of all time. Down three, 15 seconds left, ball on the Rams 5 with no timeouts left. Stafford takes the snap and fakes to Kevin Smith.

Rams Defense: "OK, that's just insulting. They can't possibly think we are stupid enough to bite on a play-fake here. Just ignore him."

Smith: "Wasn't someone supposed to tackle me? No one's paying any attention to me, so I'll just wander out into the flat."

Schwartz: "Don't take a sack - the game will be over! Throw the ball away!"

Stafford: "They are getting close and no one's open. I should probably get rid of this ... hey, look. Kevin appears to be standing all by himself on the two-yard line. Wasn't someone supposed to tackle him? I guess I'll toss him this here football and then pull out my Tiger Woods fist pump. This is going to impress the hell out of Lolo Jones."

Smith: "If I catch this, people might remember that I'm not Kevin Jones. There. Touchdown! We win! Where's Lolo?"

Lolo: (on Twitter) "The NFL broke history today with the first female ref at The Lions game. I was impressed, she didn't take off her heels till the 3rd quarter."

(Lolo is friends with Ndamukong Suh and his sister, and was their guest at the game.)

 

My favorite moment of the night, though did not happen on the field.

Collinsworth was talking about how hard it was to play in Denver, and spoke about a game early in his career where he just laid down on the field following a game and could not walk when the final whistle sounded.

Michaels said that must have been a great game because Collinsworth caught 11 passes in the game.

"Atta boy," was all Collinsworth said.

That made me laugh very hard.

 

Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth are the best in the business, and second is not even close.

The Titans can afford to lose their starter without missing a beat; in fact, they may be doing just that this coming weekend, pending Locker's shoulder injury status.

 

Might I direct you all to not-so-young Mr. Weeden's line today and ask you if you think it's a sincere drop to Colt McCoy?

He was Tim Couch, Redux.

 

You and me both..
Loved that moment!

 

Collinsworth might not be the worst, but he's right up there.

 

Great quote right there.