NFL - Week 1: comments and observations

[jdcord]

Let the Games Begin!

1.    Without Tom Brady leading the Patriots, the whole race for the AFC Championship kinda loses its "zing", if ya know what I mean.  Whatever team does win the AFC won't have had to overcome Brady and "those blasted Patriots!" in order to do so - making the whole thing a little ...... ?? ..... I don't know, .... "anticlimactic", ... I guess.

Think of it this way,

Remember when Mike Tyson was in his prime, clobbering everyone and every thing in his path?  Usually by the 2nd or 3rd round (if it even got that far)?  Ok, so what if Tyson, in his prime, had broken his leg in a motorcycle accident or something, and in Tyson's absence Buster Douglas had won the Heavyweight title by defeating some other "also-ran" in a so-called "Title Bout"?  How would we have viewed Douglas' title under such circumstances?  Probably something along these line: "Yeah, technically  Douglas is the champion, .... for now, anyway .... but he's not reeeeeally  the champion, because he didn't beat Mike Tyson to get there."   

See what I mean?  Without Brady leading the Patriots there's no big, bad and nasty "king of the hill" to topple this season, and it's kinda like we're gonna be cheated out of seeing if this season's so-called AFC champion really could have gone into Foxboro ... in January ... and actually knocked off Brady and the Pats. 

It's kinda like the Vice President taking over for the President due to injury or something:  we still think of him as just the Vice President.  He's not reeeeally  the President (even if, technically, he is) - he's just "filling in" until the reeeeeal  President comes back.

Unfortunately, that's kind of how it will be for this season's AFC Champion - no matter what team it may be, and no matter how good they may actually be.  It's unfortunate, but it inescapably comes with the fans having that feeling of being "cheated" out of that titanic battle - out of seeing whether or not that "dragon" could really be slain.

....... oh well, ..... life goes on.



2.    In Brady's absence, and from what I saw on Sunday, I think the AFC East is the Bills' to lose.  They absolutely spanked the Seahawks! ...... mercilessly. 

A lot of folks are touting Brett Favre and the Jets as the front runners;  but the Jets just barely  ... and I do mean "barely" .... hung on at the end to beat the "mighty" (*cough*) Miami Dolphins - Yes, that would be the same Dolphins team that last season was the NFL's paragon of complete and utter ineptitude. 

So then, ..... let's first see how the Jets do against a real football team, then we'll talk.



3.           Ugh.             Yep.  ..... looks like it's going to be a very lonnnnnng season for this here Redskins' fan. 

Hmmmmmm?    Let's see:  a new, inexperienced Head Coach (and play caller);  coupled with a young signal caller, in only his second season as a starter, who's having to learn his THIRD new offensive system and scheme ... in as many years.    Hmmmm? ....    Yeah.    *tap, tap, tap*    That's not exactly  the kind of foundation a team needs if it's going to have a good  season - it's more like a recipe for disaster, actually.

*siiiiiiiiiigh*



4.    What on earth happened to the Chargers last Sunday?, you might ask.  How could they possibly have laid such an egg ....... at home, no less!! ....... in their season opener, and against a Steve Smith-less Carolina Panthers team?, you might ask. 

Well, ... the answer to that Chargers' season-opening "debacle" last Sunday is really very simple, and can be summed up quite quickly and succinctly in just two words: ..... "Norv" "Turner".    ..... That's it!  That's all you need to know to understand the problem. 

You see, one of the classic symptoms of every Norv Turner coached team is this:  ........ they will consistently manage to lose - at home - to teams that they have absolutely no business losing to! 

Now, .... most good teams will manage to lay such an egg perhaps once every couple of seasons, or so - but Norv Turner coached teams manage to lay such eggs at an almost factory production level!  It is totally flabbergasting, as well as mind-numbingly infuriating.  If you happen to be a fan of any of the teams that Norv has ever coached, then you know exactly what I'm talking about.  It is ssssoooo unbelievably, utterly, and unfathomably frustrating, that it makes you want to pull a "Gus Frerotte" and bang your head against a wall!

For the San Diego fans out there, I can only say that I believe last season's success had everything to do with the leaders your team had on the field (and in the locker room), and had very little, if not absolutely nothing, to do with Norv Turner's coaching.  As such, the season only served to temporarily "mask" or "cover up" the festering, gaping sore that is Norv Turner's coaching, and which now appears to finally be seeping through, as you witnessed last Sunday.

..............  But if it makes you feel any better, you have my sympathies.      :grin:



5.    Wow!              Were Payton Manning and the Colts' offense just really, really "rusty", seeing as Manning didn't play much (if he did at all) during the pre-season?  Or did the Bears' defense really morph into that 1985-esque Bears' defense that came out onto the field last Sunday night?, a defense that seemingly came out declaring that, "We have come to chew bubble gum and to kick some serious hiney, .... and we're all out of bubble gum".

   ...... Honestly, .... I think it was the latter.

Of course, the Colt's offensive line did lose a couple of key players during the off-season, something that people seemed to completely disregard when evaluating the team's prospects for this season,  .......... but still - that was a pretty awesome display by the Bears' defense, regardless.