Awful

32. St. Louis Rams 0-1

The Rams are going in the right direction, up, and I’m not just saying that because they can’t possibly go down. I like a lot of what I saw from Sam Bradford in his first NFL start and more importantly I liked how well the line protected him. As we’ve seen with guys like David Carr, and as we may be seeing right now with Matt Stafford, young quarterbacks who aren’t protected by a good line don’t normally pan out, because they become shell shocked or injured.

However, all that being said, they still lost to a lowly Arizona team and they really, overall, didn’t look like a very good team. This team is now 6-43 in its last 49 and hasn’t won a division game, in the weakest division in football, in over 2 years. I can’t see them winning too many games this year.

31. Buffalo Bills 0-1

Bills fans have to be frustrated. They had an opportunities to take quarterbacks and left tackles early in their past draft, but they decided to stick with same old, same old, tried and failed at the two most important positions on a football field and they really didn’t look any better offensively last week than they did all last year. CJ Spiller is a hell of a running back, and guys like Fred Jackson and Marshawn Lynch can run it well too, but with the way they’re playing at quarterback and the way their offensive lines is playing, those guys aren’t getting anywhere.

 Spiller was shut down last week, because of countless plays that were broken up in the backfield. Opponents defenses can stack the box knowing Edwards absolutely cannot beat them deep and overpower the Bills weak offensive front. Spiller is a speed guy. He needs space. He got no space last week and I don’t see why the rest of the season will be any different.

I was trying to explain why the run first model that the Bills used to a friend of mine wouldn’t work and he brought up the 2000 Ravens. However, the Ravens, did have a quarterback that could beat you deep. Trent Dilfer could beat you deep if you let him, which forced a lot of linebackers to stay away from the line and back into coverage. The Ravens also had a better offensive line in terms of run blocking, that could hold off 8 man boxes long enough. The Ravens’ also had more bruising runners. The Bills’ runners, with the exception of Marshawn Lynch who has fallen out of favor with the team, are all guys who need to work in space and aren’t exceptional between the tackles type runners. They aren’t grind it out backs. The Ravens, lastly, had a better defense which allowed them to win close games. The Bills, while their defense looked very solid against an inconsistent Chad Henne last week, don’t have much better than an average defensive bunch, especially where it matters, on the ground. Teams can get leads on them and grind it out to win it.

Their defense will be able to keep them in some games, but if their backs aren’t getting space to run in and Trent Edwards isn’t throwing more than 5 yards down field, it’s not going to matter if they’re defense can hold the opponent under 20. They won’t be able to score early and their mediocre run defense won’t be able to hold off the opponents running game to get their offense the ball back early.

30. Detroit Lions 0-1

I really hate to say I told you so in this instance because I thought the Lions could have been a sleeper this year, but to all those Lions fans who though Jeff Backus was an adequate blindside protector, I have to wonder what they were thinking. Backus sympathizers will try to say now that it was only one freak play that hurt Stafford’s shoulder and cost him at least 6-8 weeks, but enough is enough. They need to get an actual left tackle in there, who at least have a fighting shot of keeping guys like Jared Allen, Clay Matthews, and Julius Peppers away from Stafford.

Even if Stafford is back by week 10, I still say that injury cost them at least 2 wins this season. Shaun Hill is decent, but doesn’t have anywhere near Stafford’s arm strength. Plus, there’s always the possibility that Stafford just isn’t the same guy when he comes back. After all, shoulder separations are pretty serious. I can only hope that the Lions are going to use this as a learning opportunity and try to get themselves a left tackle this offseason. The only issue is how thin this class is at left tackle, unless someone like Joseph Barksdale really breaks out this season. They may be stuck either reaching for one in the top 10, waiting for one to fall in round 2, or trading for someone like Marcus McNeil. If I were them, I’d see what 2010 4^th round pick Jason Fox has ASAP to determine if he has any potential as a starter for the future, because Backus does not.

Switching things up, the Lions should have won week 1. That was a touchdown catch by Calvin Johnson. I don’t care if the rules say it’s not. That is the most bullshit rule I’ve ever seen. I know a touchdown when I see one. That’s a touchdown.

Better luck next year

29. Cleveland Browns 0-1

Never ever ever pick Jake Delhomme to win a game. I thought I could get away with it last week. He had a good preseason. He had a change of scenery. He was playing a bad Bucs defense. Nope. He didn’t win. At least the Bucs didn’t cover. Jake Delhomme proved last week he’s just as bad as he’s ever been. He’s decent until he throws his first interception and then he absolutely explodes. I have no idea how this guy ever made it to the Super Bowl, all I know is, Browns fans are in for another long year and they better hope that, the young defensive players they drafted this year show signs of panning out, they use their 2011 top 10 pick wisely, and that Colt McCoy is good when he starts in 2011, because they’re not going anywhere this year. I’m ashamed that I had this team as one of my potential surprise teams. Nothing about them was surprising week 1.

28. Denver Broncos 0-1

Josh McDaniels bashing time. So he losing 30% value according to the trade value chart to move up and take Tebow, then uses him on 3 plays week 1, says he won’t use him anymore than that amount weekly for the rest of the season. He could be their quarterback in 2011, but if that’s the plan, why did they pay Kyle Orton 9 million dollars for 2011 in a recent 1 year extension. I guess it’s hard to expect more from someone who trades a future 1^st rounder for a 2^nd round pick that he uses on a player who a year later gets traded for a blocking tight end who was drafted in the 7^th round of the same draft, even though he already traded up in that same draft to draft a blocking tight end in the 2^nd that would have been there in the 6^th. This guy is their coach. That’s why they won’t win more than 5 games this year.

27. Arizona Cardinals 1-0

Worst team to win a game last week goes to the Cardinals, who barely beat the extremely lowly Rams. Derek Anderson was decent statistically week 1, but he really didn’t throw the ball well and if it wasn’t for some nice plays by his receivers, and the fact that the Rams’ secondary is one of the 5 worst in the league, that would not have been a very good statistical game at all. Sadly Cardinals fans, your team is back to being bad and struggling to score points throwing the air. Hopefully they can get themselves a good quarterback this offseason and go back to being good next year because their supporting cast really isn’t all that bad. It’s just Anderson, and, on several occasions, the players attempting to protect him. It’s really amazing how much better than they actually were Kurt Warner made this offensive line look over the past 2 years.

Looking forward to a top ten pick

26. Kansas City Chiefs 1-0

Tough to give a team a lot of credit for a win, even against a supposedly good team like the Chargers, when they couldn’t pass the ball all game, and when all 3 of their scores were on either a long run, a goal line play after a turnover gave them a really short field, or on a punt return, simply because I don’t know if they can replicate that on a weekly basis. If they are going to win more games and surprise people, Matt Cassel is going to have to do more than check down, hand off to his running back, and rely on luck to win.

However, I will give them this, that defense, even though the pass rush wasn’t great, did look good. They bended, but didn’t break against the Chargers strong passing attack and we saw good games from players like Brandon Flowers that suggest this defense could be a lot better as a squad than it was last year. They’re opportunistic and they’re athletic and their secondary, one of the smallest in the league, just held its own against some of the biggest receivers in the league. We saw the Chargers exploit their height advantage big time against the Titans last year, but the Chiefs didn’t let them do that. Romeo Crennel is doing a solid job with the defense.

Todd Haley on the other hand, is still insisting on giving the ball to Thomas Jones, over the clearly more talented Jamaal Charles. Charles had that big 56 yard touchdown run against San Diego, yet Haley was still giving the ball to Jones late. One of these days, that could cost them a win. On the subject of coaches, Charlie Weis really needs to be more forward thinking with his play calling. Let Cassel throw down field occasionally. He doesn’t have the strongest arm, but their passing attack was way too one dimensional against San Diego, even in a win.

25. Oakland Raiders 0-1

Add a solid quarterback, revamp the defense, lose anyway. That seems to be the theme of the Oakland Raiders right now. They had so many high hopes going into this season, some even projecting them to get to the playoffs, but they absolutely stunk against Tennessee week 1 and the only explanation I can think of for why is that they are the Raiders. That’s still their culture. Losing. They should be more talented and play better this year than in years past, but at the same time, they could very not just play as badly as they have before.

Having Michael Bush in there would have helped, but Darren McFadden did a surprisingly good job in his absence so I don’t know how much more Bush helps, only than to give opposing defenses a different look as opposed to McFadden. Their offense could be a little better once he’s back.

Luckily for them, everyone in the AFC West lost this week, with the exception of the Chiefs who looked really bad offensively in a win over AFC West for San Diego. The Raiders, if they get things together, could still make a run. I just highly doubt it.

24. Jacksonville Jaguars 1-0

Week 1 figures to be the largest crowd Jacksonville gets this season and they didn’t disappoint, giving the home crowd a win. The only problem, most of that home crowd was there to see Denver Broncos backup quarterback Tim Tebow, a favorite of the town of Jacksonville. The cash scrapped Jaguars could have had a crowd like that every week and more had they drafted Tebow with the 10th overall pick, but instead they drafted Tyson Alualu who did pretty much nothing in his debut. That’s beside the point though.

The point here is that David Garrard played really well against a solid Denver secondary and led his team to an early win. 2nd year receiver Mike Thomas was easily his favorite target and could be that for the rest of the season. For all the talk about replacing Garrard this offseason and drafting Tebow to be his replacement, Garrard looked like he was in 2007 form, managing the game very well and leading his team to victory.

The defense, on the other hand, has major issues and might not be lucky enough next week, when they face an offense less inept than the Denver Broncos’. Even though they got 3 sacks, only 11 fewer than they had all 2009, their secondary still had major issues covering the Broncos journeymen group of receivers, which leads me to believe that their horrible pass defense in 2009 didn’t have as much to do with their horrible pass rush as I believed. They pretty much need an upgrade at every single position in the secondary, with the exception of Rashean Mathis.

23. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1-0

All this talk about Mark Sanchez and Matt Stafford going into this season, Sanchez absolutely sucked against Baltimore and Stafford almost died against Chicago. Josh Freeman was clearly the most improved of that trio of 2nd year first round pick quarterbacks and I bet it has a lot to do with how much work he put in during the offseason. As I’ve mentioned before, reports out of Tampa raved about how much of a gym rat Freeman had become this offseason and that really showed as he tore apart an underrated Cleveland defensive squad, despite playing with a broken finger, leading a comeback win. I think Freeman can put together a fairly solid season this year, better than Sanchez and Stafford (though only because Stafford is hurt) and lead the Buccaneers to a few wins, a few upsets, and put them in great position to be talked about as a sleeper for 2011.

Probably not a playoff team

22. Philadelphia Eagles 0-1

My thoughts on the Eagles going into the season basically said this, their secondary can’t cover, their line can’t pass block, and Kevin Kolb doesn’t hold up well under pressure. In their week 1 loss to the Packers, Aaron Rodgers torched Eagles cornerbacks, particularly Ellis Hobbs, and Kevin Kolb was under pressure all game and consequently had a horrible game before leaving with a concussion. Mike Vick came in and almost lead a comeback win, but only because the Packers weren’t expecting to face a running quarterback. Vick ran for over 100 yards. The line didn’t get any better when Vick was in the game. Vick is just much more capable of evading the pass rush and making things happen with his feet. Having those three issues, this team has to be very concerned about missing the playoffs in what is an overrated, but still tough NFC East.

21. Seattle Seahawks 1-0

I was considering putting the Seahawks a lot higher than this until I remembered how good Matt Hasselbeck and company looked week 1 last year. There’s no way Hasselbeck can do what he did week 1 every week and he’s going to need to if this team is even going to get to .500. As soon as Hasselbeck actually starts getting hit, he’s going to start playing worse and with the supporting cast he has around him, that’s not going to end well. I think what the Seahawks did to the 49ers was the definition of catching a team off guard and I don’t think it would happen twice. The Seahawks simply aren’t going to play that well every week and could easily lose by double digits this week.

20. Chicago Bears 1-0

The Bears won this week, but let’s face it, they really lost. As I highlighted in the Lions write up, that catch by Calvin Johnson should have been ruled a touchdown. I know what a touchdown looks like. That’s a touchdown. Even in a “win” the Bears looked bad, like as bad as they had all preseason. They looked out of sync offensively and defensively and barely beat a Lions team that lost its starting quarterback mid game. That’s enough for me to knock them down a few spots, even in a “win”.

Making some noise

19. Miami Dolphins 1-0

Another team that didn’t look as good as it was supposed to in a win, Chad Henne really seemed to regress from where he was last season, a major surprise as he was really starting to come around late last year, and the Dolphins added him an elite receiver in Brandon Marshall during the offseason. Defensively they looked fine, but that was of course because they were playing Trent Edwards and the Bills, who refused to throw more than 5 yards downfield all game

18. Atlanta Falcons 0-1

The Falcons ran into a very good Pittsburgh defense to start the season and showed the world that they were not, in fact, ready to make the next step into being an elite offense. An elite offense scores more than 9 points against Pittsburgh. Matt Ryan is a good, but not great signal caller and Michael Turner didn’t look much healthier than he did last year. The Steelers defense didn’t just make him look bad. He made himself look pretty bad too.

This team needs to have an elite offense to even approach the expectations that “experts” set for them before this season. Their defense isn’t that good. They can shut down the run pretty effectively, but they will struggle to rush the passer all year, with the exception of the 3 sacks they had against Pittsburgh’s banged up offensive line last week, and that’s going to put a lot of pressure on a secondary led by the extremely overpaid Dunta Robinson.

17. Carolina Panthers 0-1

The injury to Matt Moore could be a blessing in disguise for this team. Matt Moore did not do what I expected him to do and that was to improve off a solid finish to last season and be the game managing quarterback this team needed to win 9-10 games. In his first game, against a pretty run of the mill Giants defense, he regressed looking just as bad as the quarterback that John Fox kept on the bench for 11 games while Jake Delhomme single handedly destroyed the team.

Clausen should be better. He has everything that quarterbacks like Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan, who have had good rookie years at quarterback in past years, have had when they were rookies. He has more than 30 games experience in college. He’s played in a scheme that requires a quarterback to take snaps from under center. And he has a fairly solid supporting cast. The defense didn’t look great in their first game, but I have a feeling they’re a little better than that. A lot has been made about the receiving corps, but Brandon LaFell is a decent 2nd option to Steve Smith so they should be fine in that area. And then of course there’s their amazing running game, provided John Fox remembers to give Jonathan Stewart the ball.

Which brings me to my final point, Jonathan Stewart only got the ball 5 times. He’s their 2nd most talented running back, but it’s pretty close between him and DeAngelo Williams, who had 16 carries. The Panthers also didn’t run that much in general, 24 runs to 35 passes. That’s part of why they lost. They put too much pressure and burden on the quarterback position. This is not a pass first offense. Their running game with Williams and Stewart is significantly better than their passing game. Regardless of who the quarterback is next week, Moore or Clausen, they better run more other they’re hurting their chances to win. Even when the New York game was still close, they were passing first and running 2nd. In close games, they have to use the run to set up the pass. Not the other way around.

 

Close, but no cigar

16. New York Jets 0-1

I’m guessing we’re not going to be hearing a lot of Super Bowl talk from Rex Ryan’s big mouth this week. The self-proclaimed best team in football matched a franchise low with 6 first downs in a 10-9 loss to the Ravens that could have been a lot uglier with the way the Jets were playing. If it wasn’t for 3 poorly timed interceptions, this game could have been 20-6 easily. Just look at the stats.

Mark Sanchez had a horrible game, but I don’t blame him as much as I blame whoever came up with the game plan. A conservative run heavy offense is not how you beat the Ravens. The Ravens’ front 7 is one of the best in the game, but their pass defense, with injuries to guys like Ed Reed and Lardarius Webb, is very prone to giving up the big gain through the air. The problem was, the Jets didn’t even test the Ravens secondary. When they did call pass plays they were short pass plays, though Sanchez, 10-21 for 74 yards, can definitely be blamed there for checking down every play.

Add in the Jets’ mental errors, like two fumbles by Shonn Greene that may have cost him his starting job to LaDainian Tomlinson, 14 penalties for 125 yards that led directly to 6 Ravens first downs, or just the sheer fact that on the Jets’ last offensive play of the game, Dustin Keller caught the ball and forgot where he was on the field, stepping out of bounds a good yard before the first down marker on 4th down, and this was a mess of a game for the Jets, who don’t appear to be in any sort of position to beat the Patriots next week. Even Revis Island didn’t look so great in this game and I wouldn’t be surprised if Randy “Slouch” Moss went out there and had a big game on him next week.

15. Tennessee Titans 1-0

Many, including me, predicted Chris Johnson would be tired and worn down after leading the league in carries in 2009, at 200 pounds, but he looked far from tired week 1, abusing the Raiders stout run defense for his 12th straight 100 yard game, giving him a good start to his goal of 2500 yards this season. As long as CJ runs like that and Vince Young can play well, limit turnovers, and run with it occasionally, and that defense can play decent, they’re going to win 10 games. I’m just not sold on CJ being 100% of what he was last year just yet, but if he is, look out. Remember this team went 8-2 with VY as the starter last year.

On the playoff bubble

14. Washington Redskins 1-0

In a sloppy victory over the Cowboys, which they easily could have lost, we didn’t learn a whole lot about the Redskins. As Dennis Green would have said, they are who we thought they were. They are a veteran team throughout and play a relatively boring brand of football, made more exciting by the for some reason still ongoing drama between Albert Haynesworth and Mike Shanahan. They were very unspectacular this week and the most interesting thing about their box score is that, against a tough Dallas secondary, Donovan McNabb struggled a bit more than he was used to.

13. Cincinnati Bengals 0-1

I think the Bengals just got unlucky last week, running into a talented New England team with something to prove, in a game that New England undoubtedly spent months preparing for. Bill Belicheck and Tom Brady are two of the most prepared people in professional sports, so much so that they haven’t lost a season opener since 2003. The Bengals just ran into some bad luck with the Patriots week 1, and committed some bad turnovers. Week 2 against Baltimore will be the really telling game for this squad as a loss would drop them to 0-2 in one of the toughest divisions in football, something they might not be able to come back from, even with Batman and Robin.

12. Minnesota Vikings 0-1

The soon to be 41 year old Brett Favre looked like, well, he was soon to be 41 years old, failing to exploit a banged up New Orleans secondary, on a day when the New Orleans offense somehow only scored 14 points. You know that game was the reason Brett Favre came back. He wanted to beat the team that he lost to last year, the team that went on to win the Super Bowl he felt he should have won, and the team that talked smack about him all offseason.

It’ll be very interesting to see how Favre responds after losing that game. More likely than not, I believe he just comes out looking dejected and tired next week in Miami, a bad sign for a Minnesota team that desperately needs him. With Sidney Rice out, Percy Harvin struggling, Bernard Berrian beyond struggling, their offense line unable to pass protect, and all those injuries in their secondary, Brett Favre needs to step up, otherwise this becomes a team that has to rely on Adrian Peterson to do everything.

11. Pittsburgh Steelers 1-0

I’d give Dennis Dixon a B+ for his 2nd career start, 1st after Big Ben’s suspension. There’s a lot of pressure on him to win at least 2 games in Ben’s absence and he has already won one, winning a close hard fought battle in overtime. Dixon wasn’t amazing statistically, but for a quarterback no one thought much about, Dixon put up decent numbers and more importantly limited mistakes, even will all of that pressure in his face. It’ll be interesting to see how he fares against above average secondaries and teams that can pressure the quarterback better. The Steelers banged up line gave up 3 sacks to the Falcons miserable pass rush week 1 so it’s only going to get worse going into week 2 against Tennessee.

Either way, it looks like coach Omar Epps…I mean Mike Tomlin made the right choice going with Dixon at quarterback. He’s far more mobile than Charlie Batch, a huge plus behind this miserable offensive line, and he has more potential than Batch as a 2nd year player. As long as Dixon limits the mistakes and can keep giving the ball to Rashard Mendenhall, and feeling very sure that Mendenhall is going to get a positive gain, with this once again amazing defensive squad behind them, they could easily go 3-1 in Ben’s absence, leading to the inevitable stupid ESPN “debates” of should they even give Ben his job back?

Playoffs and maybe more

10. San Francisco 49ers 0-1

The 49ers are still my pick to win the NFC West. Seattle’s performance was an absolute fluke. They had one like that to start the season last year. Just when you like Matt Hasselbeck is healthy again, he starts to struggle. I expect him to do that again this season starting week 2. St. Louis and Arizona both looked equally bad in their game against each other, with Arizona barely winning on a play where St. Louis absolutely blew the entire coverage.

The 49ers don’t have to win this week against the defending Super Bowl Champion Saints, but as long as they show themselves to be more prepared and more put together than they did week 1, they are still my pick in the division. Alex Smith might actually be the best quarterback in the division, believe it or not after his not so hot performance week 1, and then forget about comparing defenses and running games between San Fran and the rest of the division. It’s not even close. They should still win this division, but at the same time, anything can happen, as we saw last week.

9. New York Giants 1-0

With all of the good teams looking bad and losing week 1, the Giants performance is going surprisingly under the radar. I liked what I saw out of them. Forget the fact that offensively the Panthers came out with the completely wrong game plan, the Giants defense still looked loads better than it did last season. It’s an interesting concept, but their defensive backs actually finished tackles week 1, something they didn’t do most of last year.

Eli Manning threw 3 picks, but all 3 of them were the receiver’s fault and only one of them would I even describe as a questionable decision by Manning. Manning still had an 8.8 YPA and 3 scores to balance out those 3 picks and I expect them to straighten out the problems that led to their picks this week and come out more efficient week 2. Their running game is also back, to compliment what looks like an even more improved Eli Manning. They ran the ball as much as they were supposed to and exactly as much as Eli needed to be effective. Both Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw looked healthier than they were in 2009 and those two could form a very dominant smash and dash type running game this season.

8. Dallas Cowboys 0-1

The Cowboys losing in stupid ways is nothing new, and borderline hilarious at this point. The only way it would have been funnier is if it were in the playoffs and Jerry Jones spontaneously combusted afterwards. However, that loss did highlight a lot of things that were wrong with that team and did that enough for me to no longer consider them true Super Bowl contenders. Stupid mistakes are a habit for this team, whether it be stupid play calling by Wade Phillips, as we saw in the playoffs last year, or a stupid penalty to nullify a game winning score when Alex Barron felt it necessary to choke, stab, and castrate his man in protection, in order to keep him away from Tony Romo. There’s no many people prone to stupid mistakes on this team. It’s become a culture there in Dallas and a lot of that can be blamed on Wade “why does he still have a job” Phillips.

It also showed the Cowboys lack of offensive line depth. This was a major issue last year and it’s the biggest reason why they lost to Minnesota last year. Why they didn’t do something about it in the offseason is beyond me. Drafting Sam Young and trading for Barron were not enough. Doug Free looked overmatched at left tackle, replacing the departed Flozell Adams. Alex Barron should not have even been on the field in the first place in that situation, as a better backup for Marc Colombo should have been acquired this offseason. With how old most of these lineman are, injuries like the ones to Colombo and left guard Kyle Kozier, which also hurt them week 1, are going to be common. This is going to mean way too much of Alex Barron on the field, and way too much Tony Romo eating dirt.

Dark Horses

7. San Diego Chargers 0-1

My locks of the week are cursed. I’m serious, don’t even pay any attention to those anymore. In the last 10 regular season weeks, my lock picks are 6-4, for a .600 winning percentage. The rest of my picks are around .600. I should start calling it my unlock pick of the week. Guess that’s what I get for picking the Chargers to win a game they were supposed to in September, especially on the road on national TV, against a team that hasn’t hosted a Monday Night Game in 6 years.

Logic suggests that the Chargers can do what they normally do, turn on the engines mid-October and win the division, especially considering that they did actually outplay the Chiefs, losing because of stupid mistakes that led to big fluky touchdowns for KC. I will stick to that logic, but there’s always a good chance that that doesn’t happen again and this year is as bad of a year as any for that to happen. Both Oakland and Kansas City are better this season than last and can challenge San Diego for the division if San Diego can’t turn it on and win double digit games. All that is speculation though right now and I’m still going with my gut and my original pick, Chargers win 10+ and the division, choke in playoffs.

6. Houston Texans 1-0

The Texans have launched themselves into Dark Horse Super Bowl contender status. They’re not quite legit Super Bowl contenders in my eyes, but with the way 2009 playoff teams played week 1, in a few weeks, they could be legit contenders. I still could see them winning it all, as weird as it would seem to see the words Houston Texans Super Bowl Champions, but I don’t think it’s likely. Remember this point last year how weird it would have seemed to see New Orleans Saints Super Bowl Champions. The 2010 Texans and the 2009 Saints aren’t too different when you think about it, if a few things go right for the Texans in the coming weeks. Beating the Colts is a great start.

What they do after beating the Colts is going to be key. That game was essentially their Super Bowl, against the team they were 1-15 against all time, the team that had dominated this division for so long. They have to be able to bring that kind of intensity every week and I’m not quite sure they can do that. I also don’t know if their defense is as opportunistic as the Saints’ was last year. I also still don’t trust Matt Schaub in clutch situations. If Arian Foster doesn’t have the 2nd best week 1 rushing performance in NFL history, they probably don’t win that game and Foster won’t do that every week. Schaub didn’t play very well and he’ll have to do that in the future if they are going anywhere.

Imagine though if he does, Foster playing well, with that passing game led by Schaub playing well, Andre Johnson, Kevin Walter, Jacoby Jones, an eventually healthy Owen Daniels, and a decent defense. That’s the potential I see in this team.

Elite runner ups

5. Baltimore Ravens 1-0

Joe Flacco looks like he could throw the ball about 200 yards down field, through the bleachers and out into the parking lot, on every throw. He looks like he’s holding back in terms of arm strength on even plays 30, 40, 50 yards downfield. The issue though is he struggles to put touch on balls a lot of the time, which is why an athletic downfield receiver like Anquan Boldin is going to be so helpful for him. If Flacco can be as good as his arm looks like it could be, and they eliminate stupid mistakes, they’re going far.

Speaking of stupid mistakes, however, that seems to be this team’s trademark. Whether it be penalties, as was the case last season, or turnovers, as was the case week 1, this team is always doing something stupid to limit their potential. If they can stop doing that and Flacco and reign in his cannon, they’re going to be awesome this year, with the way that defense played last week against the highly overrated Mark Sanchez.

4. Indianapolis Colts 0-1

The Colts lost! OMG! The Super Bowl Hangover Curse is true!!! That is what I’m seeing a lot of about the Colts in the internet this week, and it is completely wrong. Everyone loses. Even Peyton Manning. He just happened to lose week 1 to a team that he had owned in his lifetime, but is now suddenly a lot better. There’s no hangover curse. It’s absolutely silly to believe that Peyton Manning, who has already won a ring remember, is going to be so broken up about losing the Super Bowl that he’s going to go 9-7 this year and miss the playoffs. They’ll come out and win this week and do that 10 or 11 more times this season and make the playoffs and make another run at the Super Bowl.

Besides, it’s not like Peyton Manning looked all that bad going 40 for 57 for 433 yards. It takes a hell of a quarterback to complete 70% of his passes on a day when the other team pretty much knows you’re passing on every play, considering how little, 10 carries, the Colts ran week 1.

3. New Orleans Saints 1-0

No Super Bowl hangover here for the Saints after winning it all. They only scored 14 points, but Drew Brees played better than those 14 points make it sound. They won a physical game against a still talented Vikings squad and are in position to make another run at a Super Bowl this year. I actually have nothing else to say about them. They’re so good and consistent it’s becoming boring.

2. New England Patriots 1-0

Tom Brady, Wes Welker, and a for some reason angry Randy Moss looked to be in 2007 form against the Bengals week 1 in a 38-24 win that was really not as close as the score made it seem. However, I expected them to be that good offensively. Ok, well, maybe not THAT good, good enough to destroy a very underrated Cincinnati stop unit, led by the best corner combo in the NFL, Leon Hall and Jonathan Joseph, but I knew they’d be good.

The surprising part was their defense. I felt they could be good eventually as their talented young players started to mature under the tutelage of Bill Belicheck, but not this good right away. It’s almost like they were videotaping the other team’s….let’s not get into that again. Guys like Patrick Chung, Jerod Mayo, Darius Butler, Brandon Meriweather, Devin McCourty, Brandon Spikes, Myron Pryor and Gary Guyton, all with less than 4 years experience, had huge games against a good Cincinnati offense, better than the 24 points they allowed.

They really only allowed those in the 2nd half, once they started playing a prevent defense and allowing the other team to complete passes underneath the coverage and run out the clock. That performance, along with their age, leads me to predict good things for them this season. As a Patriots fan, this is a very exciting season.

The Favorite

1. Green Bay Packers 1-0

The Packers didn’t look amazing offensively in their first week, but they will soon enough. They have too many weapons, even with the injury to Ryan Grant, not to. Even not looking great offensively, they looked great as a team, building up a 20-3 lead, before Michael Vick came in for the injured Kevin Kolb for Philly and caught Green Bay’s amazing stop unit by surprise. This is very excusable as they did not game plan for him at all and he is a completely different and much more mobile quarterback than Kolb. The Packers are still my Super Bowl pick and expect them to look like it this week against a crappy Buffalo Bills team.