Tuesday, September 13, 2011

What I Learned from Week 1 of the NFL Season

Either this is the year of the quarterback or defenses have really suffered from the lock-out

I think there was something like 5 games where the QB for each team threw for more than 300 yards. IN WEEK 1! Not to mention Brady throwing for 500+ and Cam Newton throwing for more than 400. Though I think Cam's performance is more of a statement about the Cardinals defense and Steve Smith shutting up and playing than it is Cam's prowess as QB in his first game. Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for Cam to do well but I'm just saying. Brees, Rogers, and Brady all looked good and I am not surprised though I didn't expect Brady to put up 500 yards.

The Ravens might actually be scary this year

I'm a die-hard Redskins fan and I am usually indifferent to the Ravens but at the same time I don't mind seeing them win. Every year they're a contender and every year they find a way to lose a close game in the playoffs but as all the Ravens fans tell me, "at least we're IN THE PLAYOFFS". Yeah yeah yeah, but on Superbowl Sunday your team is sitting the same place as mine.. AT HOME! Anyway, the Ravens looked really good against the Steelers so that can only mean one of two things: 1) The Ravens may actually be the beast of the AFC this year, or 2) as usual, the Ravens will beat the Steelers in the regular season when it counts the least and then lose to them in the playoffs. Good luck to the Ravens though because the more you win, the safer Baltimore City is for me and everyone else that lives here and doesn't particularly care about the Ravens.

Shot out to Cam Newton

Even though I kinda discredited his performance in the first paragraph above, I gotta give Cam some credit. Everyone expected him to come out and look to run first and only pay attention to one side of the field (which kinda still held true) and he came out and threw for 400+ yards in his first game. That's impressive no matter how bad the other team's defense is because Cam didn't play in a pro style offense last year and no matter how good those defenses in the SEC are, the Cardinals defense is still better than all of them (sorry Alabama). I hope Cam can keep it up, just not the week they play the Redskins.

Whoever wins the NFC is going to go to the Superbowl beat the heck up

In the NFC you've got Green Bay, Atlanta, Philly, and New Orleans who were all pre-season favorites to win. Now you've got to consider Chicago the way they beat up on the Falcons Sunday. Dallas probably gets an honorable mention in this category off potential alone (even though I can't stand Dallas). With Detroit in the NFC North division it's going to make it a hard-fought NFC east championship for Green Bay or Chicago. It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out with regard to injuries and division winners. And don't be surprised if the Bucs play really well towards the end of the year.

Von Miller is going to be a beast

Nothing more to say than that. He's looking like a veteran from day one.

New England isn't going to win the AFC Championship

I guess this is my first real prediction so far this year. The Pats looked pretty good last night against the Dolphins but their defense game up 300 yards to Chad Henne. No offense to Chad Henne even though he sucks but teams like the Ravens, Steelers, and Jets aren't going to give up that many points to the Pats and have QBs that are better than Chad Henne even on their bad days. New England will be a contender, but they won't win it. The AFC is gonna come down to the Ravens, Steelers, and Jets. I know this might sound like an easy decision but you've still got San Diego, Houston (who I think is one year away from being a true top-tier AFC team), and [drum roll] Oakland. Yep as Chris Berman would say it, the RAAAYYYYYYYDAHS!

Tim Tebow will be starting for the Broncos by Week 5 at the latest

If they lose next week the man I jokingly call "Football Jesus" - because he's spiritual and people praise him like he's Jesus - will be at the helm for the Broncos. He'll will that team to a few wins late in the season, they'll ship Orton away, and then a new QB controversy will start for next season.

Peyton Manning is not going to play this season

Let's do the math, 2-3 months to recover from surgery and after that some "nerve regeneration". 2-3 months puts him at mid-Nov at the earliest and mid-Dec at the latest. Then he has to wait for nerves to regenerate so he can get the strength back in his arm. That's gonna take another couple of weeks at the least, putting him at early Dec or early Jan (week 17). If he's coming back in early December and they're out of the playoff hunt (which based on this weekend's game they surely will be), why even play him? And if it's week 17, why play him? Why risk the investment? If the Colts are smart they'll start checking out the top 3 QBs expected to come out in next year's draft. And I'm still wondering how Curtis Painter could be Peyton's back up for as long as he has and they still think that bringing in Kerry Collins was a better option. Painter has been in the system, presumably knows it better than Kerry, but still doesn't get to start. That vexes me.

Last but not least, no superbowl prediction just yet but by Week 4 I think I'll be ready.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

LOL - I got an NFL post up my sleeves too, might have to quote you and link to this post on a few tings.

QB year, DEF suffered the most in the lockout - YUP!

Cam - He'll have numbers but they won't win. The winner in the NFC South will be a 9-7 team. Their records were inflated last year by having the NFC West on the schedule for 4 games which all of them won at least 3 of the games. The team from that division that can win the most divisional games will make the playoffs. The NFC North isn't playing around with them this year.

Manning - should sit out a year. But the Colts should demand that he comes to the game since he's a leader, plus they need someone to do the play calling. If that happens they will finish 8-8

Tebow - Orton is better and should silence the people by throwing TDs and winning games, Tebow can't do the same. If Orton lets the boo's get to him he should be benched and shipped off to be a backup somewhere. Alex Smith has been boo'd since we drafted him, he still thinks (and convinces every new coach or coordinator) that the job belongs to him.

New England - I can see that. I'd have to see some other games with tougher teams to fully agree. I think that game got out of hand and the offenses weren't giving the defenses time to rest.

Ravens - They do look young fast on defense and offense. It seems like so much more of a win because it was on the Steelers. But the Steelers have the oldest defense in the league, I'm sure the lockout hurt them the most.

Brady is UNREAL! He's the Montana of this generation.

The Chargers are the team I'm picking out of the AFC. They had the best Offense and Defense (on paper) last year with a ton of injuries. If they can stay healthy I'm thinking they will do big things.

Anonymous said...

re: Cam. They're probably gonna be trailing a lot so his numbers should be good off the strength of that.

re: Peyton. You're the second person saying he should come to games. I agree but only to home games. But I don't think they have the confidence in Kerry's knowledge of the system to let Peyton call plays for him because he can't make the same quick decisions Peyton could without knowing the system fully.

Never thought about Brady that way but you're right on that one.

I don't believe in the Chargers mainly because of their coach. He doesn't have the temperament to lead them to the Superbowl, they'll have to get my on talent. If the Chargers had Mike Tomlin they'd be 3 time super bowl champs by now, lol.

Unknown said...

the Chargers coach has always been the weaker link to me as well. They shouldn't have fired Schottenheimer who got them to the playoffs so many times.

I agree with you on that one.