Week One is officially in the books. We definitely had some shockers this weekend. It seems that this week definitely shaped the playing field even more, with injuries being one of the biggest highlights to take away from opening week. Some teams that were early picks for the big dance in Dallas this year don’t look as strong, but that is the beautiful thing about week 1; There’s still 15 more weeks to fix the issues.
One of the biggest games coming out of week one happened down in Houston, where the Houston Texans finally overcame the Indianapolis Colts in a dominating fashion. Peyton Manning holds an unheard-of 15-1 record against the Texans prior to Sunday. Might as well move that to 15-2 Peyton. Matt Schaub looked to be under less pressure, but the big hero wasn’t Matt or even Andre Johnson. Arian Foster stole the show by ripping the Colts’ defense for 231 yards and 3 touchdowns.
The Colts pass rush seemed to be rather ineffective, more because the fact that anytime you’d see them get close to the backfield, you’d see Foster rip through the line. The Colts have been notorious over previous years for always having a poor run defense, so I don’t expect this to hold them back from taking the AFC South again.
One issue coming out of that game though was the injury of Bob Sanders. He tore his bicep and is out again for a substantial amount of time. This seems to be a running issue with Sanders, who’s played 2 games in the past 2 seasons.
When Sanders is in the ballgame, he’s a big addition to the run defense. If you look back to the 2006 season when the Colts won it all, the return of Bob Sanders that year is what re-invigorated that defense to carry them all the way to Miami against the Chicago Bears. As much as Bob Sanders is a great safety, his health issues over the past few years has to be wearing thin against the front office for Indy.
Bob Sanders’ injury however was just one of many. This weekend was brutal for a few different teams in the league. In that same game, the Texans lost starting DE Connor Barwin for the season. While it’s not as big of a loss as Bob Sanders, it definitely won’t help them maintain a lead against a very strong line of competition in the AFC South.
The Philadelphia Eagles were probably amongst the worst losers of the injury-plagued Week One. Within the first half, they lost starting FB Leonard Weaver for the season with a torn ACL. Shortly following after, they lost starting Center Jamal Jackson as well. I belive that Jackson’s injury is going to be one of the most damaging to his team compared to all the other losses.
Jackson provided the line blocking commands and would have been a great help to newly starting QB Kevin Kolb. The Eagles last season were a wild-card playoff team, but offensive line play is what broke them down at the end of the season in back to back losses against the Dallas Cowboys. With the Eagles having a new QB under center and the era of Kolb beginning, you need consistency on that line to help provide him with the proper protection and time to grow with this offense. Andy Reid runs a West Coast style offense which had the prior QB Donovan McNabb throwing almost 40-50 times a game. With Kolb taking over, it would have been business as usual.
Now Philly is coming under some real QB controversy, again. After trading their franchise QB to Washington for such a minimal cost, Kevin Kolb was hit hard by Packers LB Clay Matthews and had a concussion which took him out of the game for the afternoon. In all honesty, it seemed like a good sign, as they were down 27-7 by halftime and with the offense not moving the ball well, it didn’t look like it was going to be a good afternoon for Philly.
Former Pro Bowl QB Michael Vick was finally given a shot at the reigns and he seized the moment. Vick brought this team back within 7 points and gave Philly a fighter’s chance at stealing the show out from one of the favored teams to end up in Dallas this year, the Green Bay Packers. Vick threw for just under 200 yards, and rushed for over 100. His mobility was key to really keeping the Eagles in the game. With a banged up offensive line, Vick is exactly what this young team needs. Everytime Green Bay would bring pressure, it was negated by Vick’s speed and ability to turn on a dime. In 2 separate plays where the pocket collapsed and the play looked lost, Vick would turn on the jets and burn up the defensive front 7 for Green Bay for an average of 25 yards a scramble. His mobility was, in my opinion, the only real chance Philly had at keeping this a ballgame.
Now Andy Reid faces an issue: Do I stick with Kolb or go with Mike Vick? Kolb, when under center, was having all sorts of issues. He wasn’t able to get the ball moving, his throws were in some risky areas and didn’t give the offense the pep that it needed to give defensive units fits. Vick seems to be a much better fit. With your starting center gone for the season, the offensive line is not going to be as good as it needs to be to keep a young QB like Kolb upright and productive. Vick has been here before. His accuracy actually looked like it improved, with him putting some deep passes in receivers hands that I don’t believe he could have done in 2005 with the Atlanta Falcons.
The lucky part right now is that Andy Reid looks like he has an additional week to think about this while Kolb recovers from his concussion. On Wednesday, Kolb and starting middle LB Stewart Bradley both failed their concussion tests from Saturday’s loss. With half the week already gone and Vick taking reps with the starting offense, it seems more and more likely that Vick will remain under center against the Detroit Lions this Sunday. The issue won’t be going anywhere, and if the Eagles want a chance to really compete in the NFC East, they are going to need to put the best possible chance at winning on the field, and I think his name is Michael Vick.
Not leaving the NFC East, the Sunday night showdown between the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins definitely left a lot of people in Texas with more questions than answers. Dallas, an early pick to be a contender for the Super Bowl, came out looking flat and extremely undisciplined.
Their issues with penalties cost them not just over 100 yards, but the game. Now I know a lot of people will likely point out that 2 of Dallas’s offensive linemen are not in the game, hence the erratic play of the offense. While that might be true, the game planning for the ‘Skins was terrible. Tony Romo, who was one of only a few people to look like they prepared for the game on offense, never was able to get set and seemed to be completely uncomfortable all night.
A lot of the playcalling that Offensive Coordinator Jason Garrett did was based off 3 step drops and quick releases to help with the backup linemen in Montrae Holland and former 1st round pick Alex Barron. Barron seemed to steal the show, but in the worst way possible. Redskins’ Defensive Coordinator Jim Haslett, knowing that they would have a backup RT in the game, matched up his Pro Bowl rusher Brian Orakpo against Barron in multiple situations, trying to get a 1 on 1 battle between the 2. Very smart move, Jim. His game planning worked and ultimately caused the Cowboys to get penalized left and right in this game. Barron was flagged to the tune of 3 holds, one being the game killer.
With 3 seconds left on the clock and Dallas being about 18 yards out, Romo was able to find WR Roy Williams uncovered in the end zone for what should have been the game winning TD. However, Barron, who was isolated one on one with Brian Orakpo, was called for a blatant holding penalty that negated the play as time expired. Dallas lost the game 13-7 and looked completely lost for half of the season opener.
I know Dallas will rebound off of this, with starting OL Kyle Kosier and Marc Columbo both returning to the lineup. It just makes me wonder if this team can overcome adversity. The Redskins were a better team than their record reflected. They had a very stagnant offense last year (which didn’t look like it made any
progression in the opener), but an extremely stingy defense. They lost a large majority of their games in the final minutes because they couldn’t close games out. If Dallas wants to think about getting closer to hosting their own Super Bowl, they need to step their efforts up, because the rest of the NFC East did in the offseason.
I did want to hit on the Monday Night Matchup, Ravens vs Jets, just for a quick moment. I live just outside the Jets market area, but I hear a lot of talk on radio shows and TV about how the Jets are going to be this horrible team and they’re taking steps backwards after their 10-9 loss against the Baltimore Ravens.
For all Jets fans and Mark Sanchez followers out there, I have one word of advice for you: Relax… Sanchez is a 2nd year QB. His top receiving threat, Santonio Holmes, is out on suspension for 3 more weeks. While he looked more like Captain Checkdown than Joe Namath, he did what he could against a top tier defense and kept the game close. The final play of the game was not his fault in the least bit. I think Dustin Keller got his bell rung so hard, he forgot what the first down marker looked like. Keller went out of bounds on a 4th and 10 play a yard shy of the 1st down. I still don’t understand what Keller was thinking. Had he just extended his arm forward across the marker, which would have kept the drive alive and potentially the game for Gang Green. The Jets are my pick to win the AFC East, and that’s not changing after week 1. Yes the Patriots looked amazing, but the Bengals didn’t exactly show up to that game. The Bengals defense looked atrocious, and I think the Jets’ fast paced defense will give Tom Brady a much more troubling time this weekend.
Last week, I went 3-4 on my picks, but gave the scoring on each side of the ball, a little more than I should have. It was week 1, teams are still working bugs out, so I’ll take the benefit of the doubt. Let’s look at this week’s Screamers and Sleepers.
SCREAMER – New York Giants vs Indianapolis Colts
The “Manning Bowl” is definitely going to keep crowds into it. Younger brother Eli had the Giants looking very impressive against the Panthers in week 1 and will do his best to keep this game interesting as well. Peyton, coming off an upsetting loss to the division rival Texans, will look to bounce back against the G-Men in front of the home crowd in Indy. I like this to be a close one, but you can never count Peyton out. If you bet on him 15 times, I like to think he’ll deliver at least 13 of them. Peyton snubs Eli at home 31-24
SCREAMER – New York Jets vs New England Patriots
I think this is going to be a brutal game. New York is mad, and rightfully so. New England is riding a wave after them thrashing Cincy last week, and will try to get past what I believe will be a top 3 ranked defense this year. Tom didn’t have much pressure in his face against Cincy, and I know Rex Ryan won’t let that happen this week. Rex will send pressure from every angle to get Tom off his game and cause turnovers wherever he can. I believe Baltimore has a much better offensive line than New England and they made Flacco uncomfortable all night, hitting him a few times and causing a couple turnovers in the process. This won’t be a pretty game, but a lot of emotion on both sidelines from this one. I think a very angry defense reigns down, and I’m going with the underdog Jets over Tom Brady and New England 17-13.
SLEEPER – St Louis Rams Vs Oakland Raiders
Oakland looked like they didn’t even try this past weekend against the Titans. Jason Campbell made the highlight reels on “Jacked Up” more than he did for positive yardage. The Rams just couldn’t make anything happen. They kept a boring game close against the Cardinals, and I think they’ll do it again. However, Oakland has one of the hardest venues to play in and rookie QB Sam Bradford hasn’t seen an ugly fanbase like he will in the Bay Area this weekend. Oakland wins this one in a boring fashion 24-13.
SLEEPER – Philadelphia Eagles vs Detroit Lions
The entire city of Detroit is still fuming over the negated TD Call on Calvin Johnson last week. Philly has to feel a little better knowing they have Michael Vick under center and he actually can move the ball. I think this will be a boring game due more in part because it’ll be lopsided. I think Vick’s mobility will be hell for Detroit’s front line and Maclin and Jackson will tear apart a very green secondary for Detroit. Eagles win this in a much more dominating fashion 31-14.
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