Week 1 we saw a revitalization of the Bears defense, we saw one Hall of Fame QB take his last snap for the year. We saw another Hall of Fame QB take his first snap with a new team. It was confirmed that the Raiders and Rams still have zero hope of making the playoffs. There’s countless other drama that transpired and it’s only been one week! Let’s see what is in store for Week 2.
Oakland at Kansas City
This is obviously not a game you’ll be watching unless you’re unfortunate enough to be a fan of one of these teams or have some starting fantasy players. However, there is one very interesting story line here. This could be the last game Lane Kiffin coaches for the Raiders. Heck, with Al Davis at the helm, Kiffin might not even make it to the game! There’s been a firing brewing all off-season, and coupled with the animosity between Kiffin and Rob Ryan (who seems to be a favorite of Davis), things are not looking up. I feel for Kiffin. I really hope somebody picks him up as he really seems to know how to run a team. He simply hasn’t been able to properly control his team because the boss keeps undermining his decisions.
Tennessee at Cincinnati
Another bad game with some interesting drama. The Bengals looked just as bad as advertised in week 1. People are still expecting Carson Palmer to bounce back, but really, why? For his career, Palmer has averaged 7.3 yards per attempt and an 89.3 passer rating. He’s got a 1.36:1 TD to interception ratio. Most importantly, the Bengals are only 4 games over .500 since 2004, Palmer’s first year starting. Let’s face it, he’s a disappointing QB. I’ve heard some other people saying that this year and last, and I’m jumping on the bandwagon.
In other news, what is up with Vince Young? Is he trying to upstage Matt Leinert as the 2006 draft QB with the most headlines on TMZ?
New England at New Jersey(b)
No Brady, Jets are undefeated. Who would’ve thought. What is funny, is hearing all these Jets fanboys talk about how great it is to finally have a QB with a strong arm. Have they watched Favre throw a deep ball or out route the last 5 years? I think the Pennington/Favre arm strength debate is moot. The only difference is that Pennington knows he doesn’t have an arm and doesn’t attempt passes that would make you think otherwise. Favre hasn’t realized he can’t make all the throws he used to and gets himself in a lot of trouble. I think he’ll be lost against the Pats. He hasn’t done well against this era Patriots team, and I don’t expect today to be different.
That’s it for this week, since I’m running way late on this post…
Week 1, first time as a starter, first game without hall of famer QB Brett Favre on the team, prime time game, division rival, enormous expectations. The only way Aaron Rodgers could have more pressure tonight would be if he had been the one telling Favre to take a hike over the Summer. The entire football world was focusing on this kid tonight, seeing how he would handle things. It was expected that he would stumble here and there. Maybe some bad throws, even an interception or two. People expected the Vikings to win. The Packers had a different game plan.
Rodgers certainly understood the importance of this game, not only for the team, but himself personally. He wasn’t going to let that bother him though. This was no typical first time starter at quarterback. Having Favre on the team has given Aaron Rodgers the luxury of being groomed for this job. You hate to make the comparison, but it’s extremely similar to the situation with Montana/Young. You really have to go back to that as there really aren’t many other examples. Philip Rivers is the next best example of a QB who has had time to learn before being thrown in. The time learning the offense and getting comfortable with the job and the team certainly looked to have paid off tonight. Aaron Rodgers looked as if he had been starting for years. He had command in the huddle and at the line of scrimmage. He avoided the blitz, carefully selected his receivers, knew when to run and when to throw it away. It was as close to a flawless performance as you could get out of ANY quarterback and an absolutely over the top showing given the circumstance.
Rodgers ended up 18/22 passing, 178 yards, 1 TD throwing and 1 running. In classic west coast fashion, he completed passes to seven different receivers. Most importantly, it’s easy to argue he outperformed Brett Favre. Yes, Favre had a good day for the Jets, but Rodgers was more efficient passing and did it against a much better team. All and all, a great start for Aaron’s career as the man in Green Bay.
…Brady done for the year. Chris Simms coming in tomorrow morning for a workout.
Damn.
Not a good start to the NFL season for some teams. First and foremost, it looks like incredibly bad news for the Patriots as Tom Brady hurt his knee early against the Chefs. Great googly-moogly… It’s still not clear whether he has a torn ACL as Yahoo and others have reported. There is a small bit of hope that the report could be inaccurate. However, this is the Patriots… he could be getting surgery to repair his ACL and still be on the injury report as “Probable – right shoulder.”
Here’s the play where he got hurt:
Hopefully some good news comes of this, but it doesn’t look good at the moment.
In other news, not too many huge surprises today. Vince Young has a sprained knee and even if he comes back right away, that’s bound to slow him down for weeks to come. The Seahawks are looking really rough as they lost their last healthy WR and their starting RB today. We had two rookie QBs win today in Flacco and Ryan, but both against really bad teams. Favre and the Jets won, but barely did it against an extremely bad team.
Anyway, I’ve gotta get some work done and keep hitting “refresh” on all the sports sites until I see reliable news about Brady.
Bill Hall sucks.
Yeah it’s week 1, but there are already some games that matter. First impressions count, right?
Jacksonville at Tennessee
The AFC South is always going to be a tough division, but the Titans might be going the wrong direction. Their defense is stout and their running game should be very good, but the QB is a major liability. Vince Young has not just looked below average this preseason (and all of last season), he’s looked completely incapable of being a backup. There are bigger expectations for Young this year though. Mike Heimerdinger is a detail oriented guy and really cares about fundamentals. I’m not sure that will matter though. While his mechanics could use a tuneup, Young seems like a guy who cannot make a good decision with the ball.
Last year the Titans opened up with a statement game against the Jags, running all over them. I don’t expect the same to happen this year. Jacksonville should continue what they built last year and cruise to 1-0.
Tampa Bay at New Orleans
Classic game of high power offense vs. tough defense. None of the teams in the NFC South really stand out as a clear contender, so all of the division games will matter. I’m going out on a limb and picking New Orleans to win the division and I think this game will get them on their way. There’s just too much offense. Plus, on paper, the defense should be okay. Nobody is going to run on them, because they’ll be scoring so many points, so the pass defense is all that matters. With Grant, Smith and Ellis on the line, they should hopefully be able to open up a lot of gaps for linebackers to rush the passer. It’s been beat to death after the what the Giants did last year, but you really can help your secondary out by getting a regular pass rush. The Saints will be a team that will have to blitz on 1st, 2nd and 3rd down as teams will be passing on them all the time. I doubt the Bucs will be able to keep up.
Dallas at Cleveland
I got on the Cleveland bandwagon way too early when they overhauled their offensive line 2 years ago. Then I was confronted by the harsh reality that the team still stunk. Well, last year they finally moved forward. This year? Maybe backwards again. They have a really good core of young superstars on both sides of the ball. They have a 1st round pick at QB and another diamond in the rough type QB they could’ve used to get some major draft picks to keep building. Instead, they picked up a DT in Corey Williams who has never played as a 2 gap DE. They got another DT in Shaun Rogers who has also never played a 3-4 nose and was expendible in Detroit because he only tries on 25-30% of plays. They pretty much killed their future to get these players. So they are basically committing to a “win now” approach (as they have no future and their cap will be destroyed with all these vetern players). What are they up against? The 8th hardest schedule in the NFL. Good luck, Browns.
Dallas on the other hand, built their team properly and looks to be good for a while. They still have a few questions. Like, can Romo operate an offense without TO (if TO goes down or is effectively covered)? Can he read defenses and move his team down the field? Do the Cowboys have anyone else at wideout? Can they win a playoff game? I think the Cowboys will be better this year. Their record may not show it, but the team has been improving each season with the way they operate. I’m betting on them to start off the year with a statement win against the ultra-hyped Browns.
Chicago at Indianapolis
This game is only interesting for three reasons. 1) Peyton Manning’s health. 2) Marvin Harrison’s health. 3) Dwight Freeney’s health. If Manning really is healthy enough to play, the Bears don’t stand a chance. If you see a limping Manning or Sorgi, the Bears could sneak in a win and delay their season of disappointment another week.
Minnesota at Green Bay
Basically the only choices to win the NFC North. It’s funny, Tavaris Jackson has been a starter in the NFL, but people are projecting Aaron Rodgers way ahead of him. I think Jackson is still a negative for the team at this point. He hasn’t shown he can manage an offense without turnovers or dumb plays. Adrian Peterson is an out of this world back, but he hasn’t shown he can play an entire season (Chester Taylor is good, but he’s not an offensive focal point). The defense is going to have to keep them in games, but I don’t know if they have a good enough unit to win games (IE – Ravens/Bears of years past). Monday night in Green Bay, starting a new era for the Packers, I say they take this game.
Friday 8/22:
Brewer game! I love Friday night baseball. Something about the atmosphere just makes it so much more fun. I think it’s something about everyone finally getting out of work after a long week and just letting go and enjoying the game. Brewers played the Pirates. We had great seats, it was a fun game and the hometown boys won 10-4.
View from our seats
Friday was also my first fantasy football draft; for the free league I’ve run the last several years. Since I was at the game, I missed the draft. However, I spent ages pre-ranking my players and it actually worked to my advantage. Despite the fact that Yahoo will fill all starting roster spots before bench spots, I still got a pretty good team. The draft order in this league was based on last years performance, and since I sucked, I had the #1 pick (snaking order, 8 teams) Here’s my draft picks:
1. (1) LaDainian Tomlinson
2. (16) Terrell Owens
3. (17) Reggie Wayne
4. (32) Reggie Bush
5. (33) Brandon Marshall
6. (48) Kellen Winslow
7. (49) Matt Hasselbeck
8. (64) New York
9. (65) Shayne Graham
10. (80) Greg Jennings
11. (81) LenDale White
12. (96) Chris Chambers
13. (97) Donovan McNabb
14. (112) Alge Crumpler
I’m decently pumped about my team. I think I have awesome wideouts and running backs. The Giants defense is probably going to get dropped because of the hits they’ve taken on the D-Line, but I’m not terribly worried about that. In fact, while I was posting, I just dropped NJ-A and picked up Seattle.
There was also some good preseason football Friday night. Cowboys looked really good and Crayton even might have stopped Dallas fans from freaking out about their WR depth. Packers looked good as well and Aaron Rodgers definitely bounced back from poor play last week. Running game of the Packers is still a little scary, but hopefully Ryan Grant will help that in the regular season.
Saturday 8/24:
Went golfing Saturday morning. Got rained out midway through, which bummed me out because when the thunder was first heard I was starting to hit some really good shots. I also came decently close to a hole-in-one (I know, close doesn’t count for anything).
Went down to Chicago Saturday night and met up with best bud and his woman. Ate at this place called Earwax which had good vegitarian food and neat little atmosphere. Almost died afterward at this chocolate/ice cream shop… got some sort of orange dreamsicle float that was really large and had two huge ice cream scoops kind of hanging onto the brim of the glass. Shouldn’t have finished it, but it was good.
Sunday 8/24:
Another Brewer game. Finally saw CC in person, although he did not pitch a great game. Ended up being a pretty good game, went into extra innings (we’ve seen 3 extra innings games this year, 2 of them wins). On JJ Hardy bobblehead day, Hardy had the game winning single. Nice how that works out.
Had my other fantasy football draft tonight. Actually attended this one, although barely made it due to the length of the baseball game. Another 8 team league, snaking draft order. I had Yahoo auto pick the draft order and I wound up with the #1 pick (which of course everyone thought was a scam being I’m the commish of the league, haha). Here’s my team:
1. (1) LaDainian Tomlinson
2. (16) Clinton Portis
3. (17) Braylon Edwards
4. (32) Laurence Maroney
5. (33) Torry Holt
6. (48) Roy Williams
7. (49) Derek Anderson
8. (64) LenDale White
9. (65) Earnest Graham
10. (80) Donald Driver
11. (81) Vernon Davis
12. (96) David Garrard
13. (97) Dallas
14. (112) Josh Scobee
Had one problem during the draft… I was connected to the internet via cell phone and lost my connection in the middle of the draft. I had players in my “draft queue” but once the connection dropped, the queue was erased and Yahoo auto-picked. Happened during a back-back pick, and I got Maroney/Holt out of it. I *never* would’ve picked Maroney. In the draft chat, I was just commenting on how Yahoo had Maroney ranked way too high just moments before it happened. Holt is good, but he’s old, so that scares me. I wanted to grab Reggie Bush in one of those spots and Wes Welker in the other. Damnit. Maybe I can make a trade…
I think that’s all I’ve got for now.
Yeah, it was pre-season. Yeah, it was agains the pitiful Bengals. Yeah it was just one quarter. However, Aaron Rodgers still looked pretty darn good. A lot of his incompletions and his interception were the fault of dropped passes. He looked confident and did a good job progressing through his reads. You could definitely see the difference between Rodgers, who has studied for 3 years and Brohm, who is fresh on the scene. Brohm (and Flynn) looked very aprehensive and unfamiliar in the offense. They repeatedly locked in on their first receiving target and never looked elsewhere. They rushed throws, missed targets, either stood too still or moved too much. They basically looked like rookies. Rodgers moved really well and looked like he saw the whole field. It’s only 12 minutes of pre-season football, but it makes you feel better about the direction of the team.
In some of the best news I’ve heard since “Favre-gate” started, it was reported today (I believe Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal-Setinel first broke the news) that the Packers are shopping Favre around. It’s likely a sign that the team is worried that Brett Favre might actually report to training camp. Word is they spoke to Baltimore so far as well as some other teams. Sounds like the reasonable compensation is a 3rd round pick, maybe a player (definitely not a starter). As everyone has said, Tampa is a spot with great potential for Favre.
So now the way this is probably going to play out is 1) Favre will have to show he is serious about playing and report to Green Bay (or do something to indicate he wants to play). 2) Favre will have to agree to play for whatever team the Packers have negotiated a deal with. 3) He will be gone before he ever gets a chance to put on his green and gold uniform.
To show a bit more comitment to the future, 7th round pick Matt Flynn, the QB from LSU, signed a contract today. He’s probably going to be our #3 guy this year unless he has a fantastic preseason.
Batman and Robin. Super hero, understudy. Always has been that way, always will be. Robin is always an afterthought compared to Batman, because Batman is Batman. It has nothing to do with what Robin has done or hasn’t done. In fact, unless you are the type of person who really studied the comics, you don’t know much about Robin at all. The common person thinks of Robin from the aweful TV show where he was (in)famous for saying things like “holy uncanny photographic mental process, Batman!” You can’t judge the entire potential of a character on a poorly written spoof sitcom. Robin still got the bad guy a few times and he always put in a good effort. Not only that, but he learned from Batman! It’s not like it was some character with superhuman abilities like Spider Man trying to teach something that can’t be taught. Sure, there is some inherit ability in being Batman, maybe some good instincts or reflexes. However, a lot of it is based on experience and a knowledge of his craft. Let’s face it, large fortune aside Batman is a regular guy like anyone else. Sure, he’s a tad more pissed off than most, but regular guy nonetheless. So why is it impossible to believe that someone who maybe has a similar skillset couldn’t learn Batman’s craft? Maybe if Batman takes a vacation for a month, is it impossible to believe that Robin couldn’t go off and take out Dr. Doom? Is it even beyond comprehension that Robin could do Batman’s job better? Or at least, do it better than an old, overweight George Clooney Batman? Well, obviously I’m not the only one who wondered this, because there was a comic series (maybe more than one) based on the Robin character going solo.
So why can’t this philosophy apply to Favre? Aaron Rodgers has all the tools necessary to be a quarterback, we know that. He’s learned from a great quarterback. Maybe Favre didn’t take on an active role as a teacher, but Rodgers could at least have learned by watching. On top of that, sure Favre has had some success recently, but he also threw 29 interceptions not too long ago. McCarthy admitted he has had to shorten up the playbook based on Favre’s abilities (mainly his inability to throw a deep ball). You don’t have to do that with Rodgers. I’m not saying Rodgers will be breaking ANY of Favre’s records, ever. I’m saying, that there is a possibility that Rodgers could have a better next few seasons than a guy who is 14 years older than him.
Not that it can possibly be a secret at this point, but the word is Brett Favre wants to come back and play again. The Packers don’t want him, they don’t want to release him either. They want him retired. Sorry Brett, should’ve thought of this before you announced your retirement. Bummer for Brett, but that’s life, right?
Who knows… Even if the Packers want Favre back, you’d think they would put a big front on to make sure Brett really truely wants to come back. You don’t want to take the guy in and have him change his mind week 2 of pre-season. You also don’t want your future QB, Aaron Rodgers, to think that you’ll just cast him aside one more year without a second thought if you can get any hope of Favre being around. And if the Packers don’t want Favre back, that makes sense too. They’ve invested a lot in turning over the franchise and eventually you have to see that plan into action.
So what are we supposed to make of this? There’s decent reason for the Packers not to take Favre back. There’s probably better reason to take him back. Granted he made some mistakes in that Giants game, as well as several other games, he still did get the team pretty close to a Super Bowl. He’s also coming into a team that has hopefully improved from last year. So in theory, taking Brett back puts your team as a top 5 team in the NFL with expectations of making the Super Bowl. Going with Aaron Rodgers puts you as an expected 2nd place team in the division. In the end, it’s probably worth giving the old guy another shot. I guess if he falls apart mid-season you bench him and bring in Rodgers and Favre tarnishes his career a bit but gets some extra assurance that he is done with football. If you tell him “no” and end up with an 8-8 season, you’ll always be wondering.
