Week 1 Thoughts

The biggest game of the week kicks off tonight. Minnesota Vikings at San Francisco 49ers. I'll be there. It's the second of two games tonight.

The NFL has been forcing two games onto the Monday night of their opening weekend for a few years now. Since the team owners are clearly short on money the league has to schedule as many prime time games as possible on the first week of the season. We have the opening Thursday night game. We have the Sunday night game. We have two Monday night games. The NFL is so hot for prime time games that they give their east coast fans a work night game that kicks off at 10:20 pm. Nice.

The Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons play a few hours before the Vikings and 49ers take the field.

There were 13 games yesterday. It's great to have football back.

The surprises of the day took place in Buffalo and St. Louis. The Indianapolis Colts and Seattle Seahawks are Super Bowl contenders in the eyes of nearly everyone. Each dropped their first game. The Buffalo Bills slowed down Andrew Luck and the explosive Colts. The Seahawks dropped a divisional game to the Rams in overtime.

The Seahawks took an unorthodox approach to overtime by employing an onside kick. It was later reported that the attempted onside kick was actually a botched "pooch" kick attempt. Who knows? Whatever they were trying to do didn't make a whole lot of sense. Maybe the Seahawks felt they still had some luck left over even after all they used in last year's NFC Championship game.

After an offseason of complaining about the play calling at the end of the Super Bowl it was only fitting that Marshawn Lynch was stopped for a loss on fourth down to seal the Rams win.

Maybe these games shouldn't be surprises. The Rams always play the Seahawks tough. Especially at home. The Bills have a terrific defense. They have significant talent and one of best defensive coaches in the league in Rex Ryan. His defenses often give the best quarterbacks fits. The Bills got a lead early and just controlled it. Luck ended up with 249 passing yards but it took 49 attempts. Not being able to run the ball effectively didn't help.

Ryan became the first Bills head coach to win his first opening day game.

I watched the Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears game. Bears head coach John Fox and offensive coordinator Adam Gase had the right idea. They manged long, time-consuming drives. They had at least four drives of 11 plays or more. They kept the ball away from Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense. It's a strategy that worked for most of the game. The Bears led 13-10 at the half. It was 17-16 Packers at the end of the third quarter. The Bears were still in good shape until Jay Cutler threw a pass to Packers linebacker Clay Matthews instead of tight end Martellus Bennett late in the fourth quarter. The game was essentially over after that. That interception led to a Packers touchdown and a 15-point lead with about two minutes to play.

Bears running back Matt Forte is a terrific football player. He does just about everything that a running back could possibly do really well. Run, catch, block. He's a complete back. He gained 141 yards on the ground and added another 25 yards on five receptions. He has the defense's attention on every play.

Until the very costly interception late in the fourth quarter, Cutler played well. He moved the chains. He protected the ball. Then he let it all fade away with that interception. He has to avoid mistakes like this. When everyone is healthy the Bears have some real nice offensive weapons. Forte, receiver Alshon Jeffery, tight end Martellus Bennett, and rookie receiver Kevin White. All but White played yesterday. Jeffery has been nursing a calf injury. Cutler has these impact players around him. He doesn't have to force anything. He just has to avoid the mistakes and meltdowns that have plagued his career.

Aaron Rodgers. What a quarterback! He didn't really do anything spectacular yesterday. He just makes everything looks so easy. He's like the anti-Cutler. He rarely looks stressed. He just looks like he's outside flinging the ball around the yard. He's a treat to watch. Even his average games, like yesterday seemed to be, are great. 18 of 23 for 189 yards and three touchdowns. He ran for another 35 yards. Another day at the office.

The Packers lost excellent receiver Jordy Nelson for the season during the preseason. That forced them to welcome back James Jones after a year in Oakland. Jones was a big factor yesterday. He and Rodgers took advantage of Bears corner Alan Ball for two touchdowns. The Packers will miss Nelson but they still have some nice receivers. And they have Rodgers throwing the ball.

The media has spent about a year talking about Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel for absolutely no reason at all. He's a backup. When he has played he's been mostly below average. He finally gave the media something to talk about yesterday. Starter Josh McCown left the game with a concussion. Manziel entered the game and promptly threw his first NFL touchdown. A 54-yarder to Travis Benjamin. Yay! Manziel threw a touchdown! Then he had three turnovers. The Browns lost to the Jets 31-10.

New Orleans Saints cornerback Delvin Breaux was a top recruit of LSU before he broke his neck in a high school game nine years ago. He still attended LSU but was never cleared to play football. He played intramural flag football before trying out for the Semi-Pro Louisiana Bayou Vipers. He then moved on to the Arena Football league and then the Canadian Football League. He played the last two seasons with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was finally back and had the attention of several NFL teams. The Vikings were one of them but the Saints were an easy choice for the New Orleans native. He made his first NFL start yesterday against the Arizona Cardinals. An opponent that includes two players that were supposed to be his LSU teammates. Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu.

Breaux had four penalties in his first NFL game. He also had a fumble recovery and a key fourth quarter pass defense.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers rookie quarterback Jameis Winston's first throw was a "pick-6." Well, he can only go up from there.

On the other side of the same field, Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota had four touchdown passes before the first half was done. Mariota's four touchdown passes tied the rookie debut record of Vikings Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton.

Detroit Lions rookie running back Ameer Abdullah had a nifty touchdown run on his first NFL carry. He made a would-be Chargers tackler look a little silly.

Some people have said that Larry Fitzgerald is about done. Those people are fools.

It was a real shame that Lions excellent linebacker DeAndre Levy was out with an injury against the Chargers. He and San Diego safety Eric Weddle might have the best beards in the league. If you like that sort of thing.

It looked like a good defensive game in Denver. Broncos knocked off the Baltimore Ravens 19-13. The little that I saw of it showed a Broncos defense that swarmed to the ball. They have a smothering pass rush. Joe Flacco rarely had a clean pocket and the Ravens have a very good offensive line.

Ravens lost pass rusher Terrell Suggs for the season with a torn Achilles. It seems like there have been a lot of Achilles injuries in recent years. Brutal.

The Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants played a strange game. The Cowboys owned the football for 10 1/2 minutes on their opening drive. It was a minor victory for the Giants that it ended with a short field goal. I don't think that Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo threw a single pass more than five yards from the line of scrimmage. Drives like this, 16 plays, are simply brutal on a defense. Cowboys newly-rich receiver Dez Bryant saw a single pass thrown his way. It was the last offensive play of that 16-play drive. It fell incomplete in the end zone.

Bryant was treated for dehydration after about 15 minutes. It looks like that long Cowboys drive was harder on their top receiver than the Giants defense. He had a rough night. He eventually left the game for good with what was later reported as a "broken bone in his foot." Ne could be for at least a month.

The Giants had no business leading the Cowboys at the half but they did. 13-6. The Cowboys moved the ball. They controlled the ball. They only managed two field goals. The Giants had the ball for less than eight of the first 30 minutes. A couple of turnovers in the last two minutes were the difference. Corner Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie returned a fumble for a touchdown. Uani' Unga's interception led to a field goal. There you go. A seven point lead while doing nearly nothing on offense.

The Giants added a second defensive touchdown in the second half. It's very strange that the Giants defense did most of the scoring. That was supposed to be the team's weakness. Who knew?

The Cowboys first touchdown came with four minutes left in the third quarter. It was set up by a phantom pass interference call on Rogers-Cromartie. Horrible call by the official.

The first full day of the 2015 NFL season ended in ridiculous fashion. The Cowboys controlled the game but didn't really play well enough to win. The New York Giants didn't really play well enough to win but should have won. The Cowboys won 27-26 when they scored a touchdown with seven seconds to play.

The Giants handed the Cowboys an extra 30 seconds by throwing the ball on their last offensive play. That stopped the clock when the Giants were much better off letting the clock run by keeping the ball on the ground. They needed to use up time rather than add points or gain yardage. The Cowboys were out of timeouts. The Giants incomplete pass basically gave them one. There was about 1:37 on the clock when the Cowboys started their last drive. There should have been less than a minute.

It appears that Ndamukong Suh is just as much an idiot in Miami as he always was in Detroit.

Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Adam Jones was just as idiotic yesterday.

If the NFL is truly interested in player safety idiots like Suh and Jones will be punished to an extent that keeps them from committing these idiotic acts. Especially Suh. The NFL eventually announced that Suh wouldn't be punished for kicking Alfred Morris in the head. They also announced that they are reviewing whether they should fine Jones for bouncing Amari Cooper's bare head off of his own helmet.

The NFL is clearly getting gun-shy. Or going soft. Or both.

New Oakland Raiders linebacker Aldon Smith mentioned that it was great to be with an organization that looks after it's players. This guy is out of his mind. First of all, he's been with his new organization for about 48 hours. Second of all, the reasons that he's not with his old organization are his alone.

Offensive Player of the Day:
San Diego Chargers receiver Keenan Allen
-targeted 17 times, 15 catches for 166 yards

Defensive Player of the Day:
Arizona Cardinals safety Tyrann Mathieu
-eight tackles but more than game stats it seemed like there were a half dozen #32's playing defense for the Cardinals

Special Teams Player of the Day:
Seattle Seahawks returner Tyler Lockett
-the rookie took his first NFL touch 57 yards for a punt return touchdown
Miami's Jarvis Landry and St. Louis' Tavon Austin might be better choices for this prestigious award seeing as their touchdown returns actually helped their teams win. I went with Lockett and his NFL introduction.

Football's back!

Go Vikings!