This was an idea that I had for last season, but it never got off the ground. I didn't want to start mid-season in writing my weekly recaps and thoughts, so I figured I'd hold off till now to get it going. Hopefully I won't run out of steam during the course of the season at all.
It's worth noting that almost all these thoughts are going to be unfair given we're only 1 week into the season, but that's what snap judgments are for.
1. The AFC North looked absolutely awful this weekend aside from A.J. Green. I'm super grateful that I have A.J. Green on a couple fantasy teams of mine, but wow. The Ravens fell apart in the second half of their season opener Thursday night in Denver; Cincinnati couldn't hold on to a 21-17 lead in the 4th quarter against Chicago; and Pittsburgh and Cleveland were both so bad on offense they were offensive to offenses around the league. A.J. Green was the lone bright spot for the entire division this weekend, and he put his team on his shoulders in an effort to win on Sunday. The rest of the team just couldn't back him up.
2. What did I say about Larry Fitzgerald? I told you in my season predictions that Larry Fitzgerald will be the Comeback Player of the Year now that he has a quarterback who can actually play the position. I know, it's only one game, but he looked every bit as awesome Sunday as he did with Kurt Warner. 'Nuff said.
3. Even with replay and the actual officials, we will always have blown calls in games. I'm talking about the blunder in offsetting penalties in the Green Bay/San Francisco game. Hey, I would never claim to know the rule book in the NFL, and I don't envy the refs who have to make calls like that on the field at a moment's notice. But when refs have time to blow a call even after having time to review the play and discuss it before making an official announcement during the game, that's a major black eye. I don't know what the solution to the problem is, but I'd really hate to see what would happen in a playoff game or the Super Bowl if such a blown call affected the outcome somehow.
4. I might have picked the wrong team to go 0-16. I said in my predictions that the Raiders have a chance at going 0-16 this year, assuming they don't beat the Jaguars in Week 2. Ironically, now it looks like it's the Jaguars who look more likely to go 0-16 if they don't win this coming weekend in Oakland. I'm not sure which position(s) they need to address in order to become a competitive team again, but they somehow managed to look less competitive than the Raiders did. And that's saying something.
5. The Goat of the Week Award has to go to Lavonte David. The Bucs were up 17-15 with less than a minute to play in the game when Jets QB Geno Smith scrambled for 10 yards. He was on his way out of bounds when Lavonte David of the Bucs pushed Smith, even though Smith was already out of bounds. That kind of play will always get a flag for unnecessary roughness, which tacked on 15 yards on the end of the play, putting the Jets in field goal range. With 34 seconds left on the clock, the Jets kicked a game-winning field goal, thanks to the dumb penalty on David. Nice one, Lavonte. You not only cost your team the game, but I bet a lot of people playing Survivor leagues in fantasy football were eliminated in Week 1 thanks to you (I took the Colts, so I'm safe).
6. The Broncos will be really good again, but I still don't trust their defense. They will be without Von Miller for another 5 weeks, and I don't know when Champ Bailey is expected to come back from his injury. Still, they're going to win 11 or 12 games this season. However, I don't think they're a Super Bowl team because of their defensive issues and Peyton Manning's history of collapsing in the playoffs. Don't get me wrong, though - Peyton Manning was by far the single best player who took the field in Week 1.
7. I'm not sure what to make of the Bills/Patriots game. The Bills have played the Patriots close in a few games over the last couple years, and they've fooled me into thinking they could pull off the upset in the past. However, I've made no secret over how down I am on the Patriots this year, so the question here is where do the Bills' positives end and the Patriots' negatives begin? Danny Amendola wasted no time in pulling a groin injury during the game (though he did return after a brief absence), so it's only a question of when he winds up injuring himself to the point of having to miss a couple weeks. The Patriots still did what they have done countless times in the past, and that's kick a game-winning field goal late in the 4th quarter.
8. The only reason why the Eagles might not win the NFC East is because of their defense. I'm still sticking to my prediction of the Eagles pulling off the improbable by winning their division this year. I'm actually more confident of my prediction now than I was prior to this weekend, though it's clear the team's major weakness is its defense. How else does a team at one point lead a game 33-7, and then wind up with a final score of 33-27? Despite this glaring weakness though, I am still believing in the team winning the division and making the playoffs.
9. Nearly all these snap judgments will be moot a month from now. That's the great irony to Week 1. Football fans and talking heads are all so excited to have the new season start, but after the first weekend, teams are either looking like Super Bowl champions or utter disasters. Eyes are particularly on the defending champs, and plenty of writers and fans are wondering if they'll even make the playoffs this season. Reality is always somewhere between extremes, and I think the Ravens will still win the AFC North and make a deep playoff run. Accuse me of wearing purple-colored glasses all you like, but they won't be as awful as they were in the second half of the game Thursday night.
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