2009 Game Reviews
NFL Week 1
by Jody Jamieson
17/9/2009
 
Titans 10 Steelers 13 (OT)
 
A smashmouth effort to start the season that was predictably ruled by defense. Roethlisberger had a big game and once again put the cape on again in the 4th quarter and led his team down the field for the game winning score, till the usually reliable Hines Ward put the ball on the floor on the Titans 4 yard line. Luckily, Ben had some kryptonite in reserve and led them down the field to set up Jeff Reed with the game winning field goal in overtime. Santonio Holmes had 131 receiving yards in his first game after his shocking drop then heroic catch on the Super Bowl winning drive. The Steelers went all the way last year despite a shoddy running game, but they have to improve on the ground. Things went ok on Thursday, but the loss of Polamalu will hurt.
 
Chiefs 24 Ravens 38
 
Rome wasn't built in a day, so over 500 yards of offense on the Chiefs brand new 3-4 defense shows they still have major work to do. However despite giving up half a kilometre on defense against Baltimore, the Chiefs managed to keep this close for longer than they really should have. The Ravens gave away 14 points on a blocked punt and an interception by Joe Flacco. Brodie Croyle was steady in a fill in role and if the Chiefs didn't have over $60 million invested in Matt Cassel, we might actually have a quarterback controversy in Kansas City. Flacco passed for 307 yards and Ray Rice rushed for 108 as the Ravens look to finally have the offense to compliment their defense. Let's hope for Baltimore's sake that the defense doesn't take a step back without Rex Ryan.
 
Broncos 12 Bengals 7
 
Games as sloppy as this one tend to be played in driving rain or snow rather than the glorious sunshine that bathed Cincinnati on Sunday. It was almost fitting that Denver tight end Tony Scheffler intercepted a Carson Palmer Hail Mary pass to end a crazy game. The Bengals lived up to their name by shooting themselves in the foot over by shooting the snap over the holders head on a field goal and then Laveraneus Coles having a bad case of the drops. But through all the turmoil, the Kyle Orton heave into triple coverage that was tipped in the air and thus caught by Brandon Stokely will likely be the best finish to any game of this and most other seasons. The 87 yard touchdown pass from Kyle Orton to Stokely was the longest play from scrimmage in the last minute of a game in NFL history. I still think Denver are going to have a rough season, but they host the Browns this week and have a great chance to go 2-0.
 
Jaguars 12 Colts 14
 
Derek Cox was an under the radar 3rd round pick by the Jags in this year's Draft. Within 20 minutes of his NFL debut he had an interception in the endzone off Peyton Manning and then a fumble recovery after Joseph Addai put the ball on the floor. Jacksonville dominated the line of scrimmage for most of the day but ultimately only got into the endzone once, on a Maurice Jones-Drew run in the 4th. Sticking with the rookie watch, check out Eugene Monroe in space on the highlights blowing up Antoine Bethea in space to set up MJD for the score. Jacksonville didn't make the two point conversion and the Colts ultimately won the game by 2. Anthony Gonzalez went down with a weird injury with no-one around him and may be out for up to 2 months with a knee injury.
 
Lions 27 Saints 45
 
I cannot believe the amount of people who get paid to cover the NFL who reported that the Saints defense is still awful because "even the Lions offense scored 27 points on them." Of course, anyone who has actually watched the game knows that 7 of the points came on a Louis Delmas fumble recovery, and the Lions offense scored a touchdown after getting the ball on the Saints 13 yard line after a great punt return by Dennis Northcutt. Matthew Stafford had a tough NFL debut, throwing 3 INT's and completing less than half his passes. In other news Drew Brees + 6TD passes = a good day at the office. Brees is making a push to be mentioned in the same breath as Brady and Manning as the top QB's in the game. I want to see him get it done more on the road before I do, but in the Dome he's almost unstoppable.
 
Jets 24 Texans 7
 
Houston once again disappoint as Mark Sanchez puts together a great NFL debut on the road. Sanchez showed confidence and poise beyond his years after a shaky start as he led the Jets to a comfortable victory. He was lucky not to be picked at least twice early in the game, but Houston's defense couldn't catch and Sanchez settled and started to pick them apart. Houston's offensive line was awful and allowed themselves to be manhandled all day. Matt Schaub is injury prone enough without his offensive line getting him killed. Houston failed miserably in stopping the run, letting Thomas Jones break two long runs late on when they looked a beaten outfit.
 
Eagles 38 Panthers 10
 
The Panthers mixed the run and pass well on the first drive and scored a touchdown. They then decided to start throwing constantly with Jake Delhomme and the meltdown was chaotic. The Eagles created 7 turnovers on the day as they steamrolled the Panthers without the Philadelphia offense really doing anything in the first half. New defensive co-ordinator Sean McDermott carried on the Jim Johnson legacy bringing pressure from everywhere and Delhomme never recovered from his first pick. Donovan McNabb got himself injured on a touchdown run in the 3rd quarter and will likely miss Sunday's game against the Saints. Kevin Kolb has no touchdowns and has been responsible for 7 turnovers in brief NFL action, so a word of warning for all the nfluk.com fantasy players who might be tempted by the cheap option - s
 
Dolphins 7 Falcons 19
 
Chad Pennington has been Jake Delhomme-lite. Following on from a disastrous playoff performance by turning the ball over a couple of times and the Dolphins, who took care of the ball better than anyone last year, turned the ball over 4 times in total and never got it going against Atlanta, despite some positive drives. Pennington wasn't nearly as bad as Delhomme and his line was quite good (21/29 176 yds 1TD 1 INT) but at crucial times the Dolphins blew it and gave the initiative back to Atlanta. Antony Fasano put one on the floor on the Falcons 10 yard line, and the subsequent return set up a field goal. A 10 point swing in a game Atlanta led 10-0 at the half. Tony Gonzalez had 73 receiving yards and a touchdown in his Falcons debut, as Matt Ryan followed on from his excellent rookie season with a solid performance in the first game of his sophomore season. Pat White, the rookie quarterback out of West Virginia) threw an incomplete pass and had a rush for no yards on his debut in the wildcat of Miami.
 
Vikings 34 Browns 20
 
In case you didn't know, Brett Favre came back. He is worried that he won't be able to take the punishment of an NFL season and may struggle to be playing at the end. Luckily for him he got the equivalent of a week off as Adrian Peterson ran wild. Favre did throw a touchdown pass to rookie Percy Harvin, but other than that, he was just a spectator will a really good view. He could have another week off with the Lions next on the schedule. Peterson ran for 180 yards as the Vikes ran out easy winners. Cleveland kept it close for a while but made some bad decisions, running the wildcat twice inside the 10 for a total of one yard and settling for a field goal. Maybe that was the first sign that the Mangenius isn't totally sold on Brady Quinn. Quinn had one touchdown pass (and one called back after Braylon Edwards stepped out and didn't re-establish himself back in bounds on a shockingly good challenge from Brad Childress) but threw one horrible interception. I like Quinn, but most of his yardage came against the backups and needs to show more to keep his job.
 
Cowboys 34 Buccaneers 21
 
The ever dangerous September Tony Romo destroyed the Bucs defense on Sunday with three long touchdown passes to Miles Austin, Patrick Crayton and Roy Williams. The pass to Williams was a great throw in between 3 defenders that couldn't have been placed any better. Question marks need to be asked of the Cowboys defense as Byron Leftwich throwing and Cadillac Williams running was too much for their defense at times. Dallas did a good job on the ground against a Bucs defense clearly in transition and while the Bucs did have a lead in the 2nd quarter, the result was rarely in doubt.
 
49ers 20 Cardinals 16
 
Kurt Warner needs to get healthy or this could be a tough year for the Cards. He looked every bit the old veteran returning from hip surgery. The fact that Tim Hightower had TWELVE catches in the game highlights that fact that Warner isn't comfortable yet going deep, and that's a big problem for a vertical passing offense like Arizona. San Francisco's running game was anaemic (Frank Gore would have killed my fantasy team without his touchdown reception), but Shaun Hill improved his record to 8-3 as an NFL starter. Who'd have thunk it?! San Francisco get a great win on the road against a divisional rival.
 
Rams 0 Seahawks 28
 
Seattle struggled in the first quarter, with Matt Hasselbeck throwing 2 interceptions, but the hapless Rams couldn't take advantage and once Hasselbeck settled down, he tore apart the St Louis secondary. The forgotten man Julius Jones ended up running wild and the Rams had a horrible start to the season under new coach Steve Spagnuolo. Spags is a great defensive mind, but when the talent is not there, there's very little he can do. Talented second year tight end John Carlson had 2 touchdown receptions. Anything else I can say about this game? The St Louis Rams had 13 first downs and punted the ball 8 times and were a disastrous 2-12 on 3rd down. Moving swiftly on...
 
Redskins 17 Giants 23
 
I can't remember the last time I saw a quarterback get flagged for an illegal forward pass while throwing an interception, but Jason Campbell managed it on Sunday. This should never have been a one score game as the Giants bossed the game from start to finish, but the Redskins at least had the second best play of the weekend (after the Stokely catch in Cincy) when Hunter the Punter took the snap on a fake field goal and galloped into the endzone. Osi Umenyiora had the hat trick in his first appearance since Super Bowl XLII (strip sack, fumble recovery, touchdown) in the 2nd quarter after Mario Mannigham scored his first NFL touchdown to give the Giants an early lead. Eli Manning made a silly throw into coverage that was picked off by DeAngelo Hall, but other than that he had a solid day.
 
Bears 15 Packers 21
 
Chicago have no-one to blame but themselves for the fact they are 0-1. Cutler had a nightmare and a couple of crazy decisions cost them they game. I don't know for sure who was responsible for the fake punt (although I suspect it was the long snapper) Chicago were the gift that kept on giving and handed Green Bay the initiative far too many times for them to fail. It amazed me that the Packers needed a late 4th quarter drive to take the lead, but neither team did enough on offense to deserve to win. Cutler's poor performance shouldn't take away from Dom Capers' new look 3-4 defense, which looked excellent. My two biggest question marks were on Aaron Kampman's ability to play rush linebacker and Al Harris' ability to be a shutdown corner while playing less press coverage. Both had fabulous games. Chicago were my pick for the #1 seed in the NFC, but are in danger of going 0-2 with Pittsburgh coming into Soldier Field on Sunday.
 
Bills 24 Patriots 25
 
I want to get the officiating out of the way early. We are getting closer and closer to playing flag football on the pass rush with every horrible roughing the passer penalty. Vince Wilfork was penalised for being big while tackling Trent Edwards, and Adalius Thomas was penalised for not allowing Edwards loose. Thomas drove the quarterback into the ground because Edwards was fighting valiantly to break free. I thought both were horrible calls. Overall Trent Edwards had a great game, showing a lot of poise, and the shaky looking Patriots defense allowed Fred Jackson to destroy them. The offer they got for Richard Seymour was too good to turn down, but one might argue they've lost one too many defensive difference makers in one off season. Tom Brady had a dodgy first half, looking jumpy in the pocket, but went back to his clutch 4th quarter self. New England made it a one score game after Brady hit Watson over the middle with 2 minutes remaining. Then Leodis McKelvin brought the kickoff out of the endzone and simply did not take care of the football. Then Brady hit Watson again on pretty much the same play and the long suffering Bills fans had to endure another painful loss.
 
Chargers 24 Raiders 20
 
To be honest while they won the game against a much improved Raiders team on the road, the Chargers looked hapless for large chunks of this one. They took stupid penalties, they missed assignments, and were just shoddy. Thankfully the Raiders remembered they were the Raiders in the nick of time and started playing the prevent defense and allowed the Chargers to drive comfortably down the field. This was stupid for two reasons. 1) Because the defense had played great all day, and 2) because San Diego still had all 3 timeouts and 2.30 on the clock, which is plenty of time to get down the field. The other reason the Raiders couldn't get it done is that JaMarcus Russell is a nightmare. Maybe I'm being harsh, but his wild inaccuracy doesn't allow Oakland to sustain a drive as he simply can't be trusted to find his receiver even when he's wide open. Russell makes good reads and has a monster arm, but there were a couple of instances when he missed a wide open receiver by about 15 feet. Overall Oakland looked very good defensively, and their running game was impressive. But if Russell keeps throwing wild passes then it's going to be tough for them to put points on the board.