Safety Blitz

What a wild weekend in the National Football League. Let’s get into it! Here are my ramblings from opening weekend in the NFL….

Brady Goes Down - The injury to Brady looks like an ACL injury, so he’s out for the year. I’ve had it, and any time your knee takes on that collapsing action, it is never a good thing. The AFC East, and the AFC as a whole, is suddenly wide open with the loss of Brady– the Pats are a different team now. This will hurt the league, because as much as everyone likes to gang up on the Pats, Brady is a great thing for the NFL– and its best player.

Dirty Hit? - We need to lay off Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard immediately. The hit on Brady wasn’t dirty or intentional. Pollard was blocked into Brady.  It is easy to critique a guy when you see the play in slow motion replay. Give me a break! The guy was doing his job.

Colts Beat Down - When was the last time you saw a Tony Dungy team physically whipped like they were last night? I can’t think of any game like the one the Colts played against the Bears.  Chicago beat the Colts to death at the line of scrimmage and played fast on defense.  This isn’t an upset, because the Colts simply didn’t match up with the Bears intensity.  The Bears won this game.

Rookie Stars - Rookie running backs Chris Johnson of Tennessee and Matt Forte of Chicago are for real– at least for now. They both had excellent openers, but don’t drink all of the Kool-aid just yet. Let’s see how they do in November and December before we start comparing them to hall of famers.

Merriman Watch - San Diego’s Shawne Merriman isn’t an explosive football player right now. I love his toughness and passion, but I wasn’t watching the same guy. If this defense continues to struggle, you have to wonder how long the Chargers are going to stick with him if he is not making plays.

Cardinal Gun - Does anyone else think that the Cardinals should just ride out the rest of the season with Kurt Warner at QB? The guy looks cool and calm all of the time and always makes plays. If I am the Cardinals, I play Warner all year long if he stays healthy. See ya Matt Leinart– for now.

Falcons Roll - The Detroit Lions have to feel awful today. They let a rookie quarterback pick them apart and gave up over 200 yards on the ground– to one guy. Matt Ryan and Michael Turner looked like the best players in the league at their respective positions yesterday, and the Lions defense looked like a JV team.

NFC South Steps Up - Speaking of the NFC South, I thought the whole division was impressive. After the Falcons beating, the Panthers went to San Diego and upset the Chargers.  Plus, the Saints and Bucs played the best football game of the day. Not bad for a division that was written off in August.

Big Dogs Hurting - The top dogs in the AFC, Indy, SD, and the Pats, are now vulnerable. Not a good showing from everyone’s Super Bowl picks. I think this conference is going to be wide open this season.

Brett is Back - It is still fun to watch Brett Favre play the game of football. Different jersey or not, the guy still makes Sundays fun with the family in front of the TV. Thanks for coming back Brett.

Bills Stampede - I think the Buffalo Bills made a statement yesterday against the Seahawks. They played well on defense and special teams, and did enough on offense to pound Seattle at home in miserable weather– shocking. With the Brady situation, this team has to believe they have shot to win the East.

Pouting Vince - Vince Young needs to grow up– fast. Throwing helmets and whining is not a good thing for an NFL quarterback. Stuff happens, get your butt back in the game and lead this team or step aside and let someone else do it. Brutal! I will have more to say about this later today.

McNabb Soars - The Rams are a really bad football team right now. Donovan McNabb threw for almost 300 yards in the first half. Those are XBox numbers– against your little brother, who is five.

Ocho Uno - What happened to Ocho Cinco? One catch for 22 yards. That’s it? All this talk about the name change, the self-promotion, and then he goes out and lays an egg. After putting up numbers like this, he should change his name to Oucho Stinko.  This guy is old news.

Raven Plan - Speaking of the Bengals game, the Ravens did what they always do: play great defense and control the clock on offense. Nothing new, nothing flashy, but it always seems to work. Big victory for John Harbaugh.

D in Steel City - The Steeler defense is the best in the NFL. They looked like a healthy, improved version of what we are accustomed to seeing in Pittsburgh. They beat up the Texans O-Line and Matt Schaub all day. Nice to see Fast Willie Parker back in action as well.  This is a good football team folks.

Romo Shines - With Brady out, Tony Romo becomes the face of the league, and he played like it yesterday. He took some hits and still looked like an MVP candidate. Good day for Romo, the Cowboys, and Jessica Simpson. Maybe she will release a decent album sometime this decade as well.

Meachem Anyone? - Is Saint’s WR Robert Meachem still in the league? This guy was a first-round pick last year and was a healthy scratch from the game yesterday. What a waste of a pick.

Pennington’s Last Gasp - Chad Pennington’s last-second throw was the exact reason the Jets brought in Favre to replace him. It fluttered, hung in the air, and was eventually picked off when it came down from the clouds. There has to be a better option in the Dolphins’ playbook than that for a play to win the ballgame. To play that hard and end it like that is disappointing.

Monday Night Dud - I don’t like the idea of having two Monday nighters. Playing on Monday night is a privilege, and who in their right mind on the east coast is going to stay up and watch the Raiders past midnight? Keep it at one game, even for opening weekend. Too much of a good thing can ruin it.

It was a great weekend for NFL fans– lots of intrigue and interesting story lines, but remember, it is still only the first week. These stories will do one of two things: gain speed or die off quickly. Join me next Monday when I will again ramble on about Sunday’s action.