With Week 1 of the NFL season in the books, it’s time to look back at all of the action and break down the positives and negatives from our first full weekend of football.  If you would like a more detailed analysis, check out our Fantasy Fuel Newsletter.  With that being said, I want to hear our readers’ thoughts about the performances of the following players:

THE GOOD

1.      Jay Cutler     Denver Broncos:  Even without his top receiving target (Brandon Marshall), Cutler lit up the Oakland skies like it was the fourth of July.  His final stat line (16/24, 299 yards, 2 touchdowns) landed him in the third spot for fantasy quarterbacks this week (behind McNabb and Brees).  It’s scary to think about how good this offense could be with Marshall in the lineup.  Then again, they did play the Raiders. 

2.     Hines Ward     Pittsburgh Steelers:  With so many big time performances this weekend, Ward’s game against Houston tends to fall through the cracks.  The veteran wide out looked like the star of old with 6 catches for 76 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Steelers’ butt-whooping of the Texans.  Ward finished second in fantasy points for receivers this weekend and no doubt put a smile on the face of every savvy owner smart enough to draft him (outside of Pittsburgh fans, who else targeted him?). 

3.     Michael “Nuclear Bomb” Turner     Atlanta Falcons:  Turner carved up the Detroit defense like a turkey on Tony Siragusa’s table come Thanksgiving Thursday.  The Falcon running back had a ridiculous 220 yards and 2 touchdowns on just 22 carries (that’s 10 yards a carry people).  Next up for Atlanta, a date with a real NFL defense in Tampa Bay.  Next up for Detroit, the #1 draft pick in April.  (I feel bad for the best wide receiver in college football right now). 

THE BAD

1.     Marc Bulger     St. Louis Rams:  Bulger looked lost all day in the face of a Philadelphia defense that was just plain nasty.  His final stat line (14/26, 158 yards, 0 TDs) couldn’t have pleased any fantasy owners desperate enough to start him in their lineups.  The problem here is the St. Louis offensive line.  If they don’t pick it up and start blocking (they gave up 4 sacks on Sunday), Bulger, Jackson and Holt could be in for a long year.

2.     Braylon Edwards     Cleveland Browns:  You have to give credit where credit is due and that place is on the Dallas defense.  The usually explosive Edwards was limited to just 2 catches for 14 yards as he watched the Cowboys dismantle his Cleveland Browns 28-10.  I drafted Edwards in the second round of one of my fantasy leagues, so it wasn’t very rewarding to watch him produce next to nothing while the Cowboys went wild.  The good news for football fans is that we are just six days away from a Monday night showdown between the ‘Boys and the Eagles.  I’m sure Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens have been texting all week about how excited they are to see each other.

3.     The Miami Running Game:  What the heck happened here?  We spend all summer talking about the running back battle between Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown, only to see the two of them combine for 16 carries and a measly 47 yards.  Meanwhile, Chad Pennington is doing his best Tom Brady impression by throwing 43 passes.  Since when does Pennington throw 43 passes in a game?  I’m still baffled by this one.  The only thing that looked normal in this matchup was that Miami lost.  Again.

THE UGLY

1.     The Cincinnati Offense:  The Webster’s Dictionary definition for the word explosive is, “likely to erupt in, or produce hostile reaction or violence”.  That being said, think about what the exact opposite of the word explosive means and you have the Bengals’ offense.  Carson Palmer was a miserable 10/25 for 99 yards and 1 INT, Ocho Joke-o caught 1 more pass than I did, and Chris Perry did his best “opposite of Michael Turner” impression by carrying the ball 18 times for 37 yards.  Folks, it doesn’t get much worse than that.

2.     Isaac Bruce     San Francisco 49ers:  What a debut!  Bruce emerged on the scene with a bang on Sunday by catching 0 passes for 0 yards and 0 touchdowns.  I think that stat line speaks for itself.

3.     The NFL Organization Known As The Detroit Lions:  It’s bad enough they let Michael Turner run all over them.  It’s worse they made rookie QB Matt Ryan look like a veteran Pro-Bowler.  But to let the Atlanta Falcons, the team that started the season with the worst odds in Vegas to win the Super Bowl, beat them up and down the field to a final score of 34-21 (that’s much closer than it looked, believe me) is just downright wrong.  At least the Lions can count on six easy games against their division opponents.  Oh wait, that would be Green Bay, Chicago and Minnesota.  Ouch.