NFL Rewind: 2012 Regular Season, Week 1

by Cory Puffett via Puff on the NFL

The games finally count, and I am sure that played a big part in how exciting the first week of the season felt. But there was plenty that would have been exciting any week of any season.

As always, the ‘better team’ did not always win. Arizona beat Seattle, Tampa Bay beat Carolina, and there were plenty of other surprises.

We all knew Robert Griffin III could play. He turned around a crumby Baylor program and turned them into a bowl team. He won the 2011 Heisman Memorial Trophy over Andrew Luck, who was heavily favored in the preseason and almost certainly would have been the #1 overall NFL draft pick had he declared a year earlier as had been widely anticipated.

But WOW, did anyone expect Griffin III to lead the Redskins to 40 points and a victory over the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome? I most certainly didn’t. RGIII became the first quarterback born in the 1990s to start an NFL game. He was the first rookie quarterback in history to post a perfect passer rating in the first half of his debut, and he did it with more than 10 attempts. He also became the first quarterback in history to throw for 300+ yards, 2+ touchdowns, and no interceptions in his NFL debut.

Now, plenty of naysayers point out that he did so against a crippled New Orleans defense. Sure, a couple of bounty players who had their suspensions overturned still did not play Sunday, and Jonathan Vilma most definitely would have made a difference, maybe even enough to give the win to the Saints. But Griffin III would not have had just an ordinary outing just because of a couple extra defensive pieces for New Orleans. Debate the legitimacy of the win, but anyone who doubts Robert Griffin III is nuts.

Moving on from my ‘Skins (sorry, I’m excited this week, there is no hiding it), there was plenty more to talk about from this weekend. Of course last Wednesday saw the Cowboys beat the Giants. I picked New York. My two co-hosts on The All-Sports Crew also picked the Giants. In fact, when ESPN released their experts’ picks for all the week 1 matchups, not a single one picked Dallas to get the win. It just goes to show that no matter how much we all study the NFL, it’s history, it’s current state, and all the pieces teams have, we can never know for sure who will win any given game.

Andrew Luck had an okay game for the Colts. I did not think it was the success that Gregg Doyel (http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/20125415/luck-good-not-great-in-debut-we-cant-say-same-of-pitiful-colts) thought it was for him. But it was not a failure, despite him throwing just one touchdown to three interceptions. As expected, the Bears won easily at home, though I didn’t think 41-21 would be the final tally.

The Eagles laid an egg and nearly fell to Cleveland. Michael Vick threw four interceptions. In fact, Philadelphia may have only won because Cleveland’s quarterback, rookie Brandon Weeden, also threw 4 picks. The Lions also overcame a pick-fest from their quarterback, Matthew Stafford. He threw three picks but Detroit managed to steal a 27-23 win over visiting St. Louis.

Houston was one of the few teams who performed as expected. They won 30-10 against the Dolphins. Atlanta may have outperformed expectations. Matt Ryan led all quarterbacks in fantasy points on Sunday in leading his Falcons to a 40-24 win in Kansas City as Tony Gonzalez had his first touchdown catch in Kansas City since his days as a Chief.

The Vikings beat Jacksonville 26-23 in the season’s first overtime game; Mark Sanchez threw 3 touchdowns as his Jets routed the Bills 48-28; and Tom Brady injured his nose but still led the Patriots to a win in Tennessee as Chris Johnson ran for only 4 yards in the game (Peyton Manning ran for more than that in Sunday’s late game!).

The prevening games saw San Francisco upset The All-Sports Crew’s predictions by going into Lambeau Field and beating the Packers 30-22. Green Bay’s offense looked good, but inconsistent. Their defense looked the same. But San Francisco played fantastic defense when it counted and Alex Smith looked even better than he did in last postseason’s scoreboard battle with the New Orleans Saints.

Cam Newton didn’t do well at all in his 2012 debut as the Buccaneers shocked the Panthers. Don’t worry, though, if you have Newton on your fantasy team. Unless you have fewer than 8 people in your league and so have plenty of other options at QB, Newton is still your man heading into week 2. He’ll be fine.

Seattle suffered a tough loss in Arizona in the other 4:25 game. John Skelton had a rough game (he only had 3 fantasy points in my league) before exiting with an ankle injury. Kevin Kolb didn’t do anything but come in and lead the Cardinals to a go-ahead touchdown on his first drive. It turned into the game-winner as rookie Russell Wilson got his Seahawks inside the 10 with less than a minute left in the game but failed to get it into the end zone on 4^th down.

The most anticipated game, and rightly so, of the first week was the Sunday Night Football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Denver Broncos. We expected a good game but for the Steelers to win. We really just wanted to see Peyton throw the ball; we didn’t care how well he did so. We all figured he would need a few more weeks to develop consistency with his new collection of targets.

He looked good but uncomfortable on the Broncos first few possessions. Then, as you have no doubt read multiple times already today, Denver switched to the hurry-up and Manning looked so much like his old self I almost thought the orange and navy on his jersey has switched to Colts white and blue. 18 looked like 18. The Broncos possessed the ball for all of 36 seconds in the third quarter, sandwiched between two lengthy Pittsburgh possessions. Yet Manning still led Denver to a 31-19 win. Demaryius Thomas showed his speed on a long touchdown play on that 36-second ‘drive,’ reliving an all-to-familiar memory from last year’s wild-card playoff game between the two teams.

Denver ended up winning, 31-19. It may be, and in fact almost certainly is, premature, but Manning already looks like a potential MVP candidate. Denver already looks ready to knock the San Diego Charger bandwagoners to the wayside. But that is why there are still 15 more games. By January, I could be regretting ever writing this. I could also be saying, “I told you so.”

Monday night saw the final two games of the first week. The first game featured the Cincinnati Bengals playing Baltimore against an emotional Ravens team just days after the passing of Art Modell. The Bengals struggled mightily, but I really didn’t think it was because the Bengals are a bad team. In fact, they look like a pretty solid team. The Ravens are just, to use a cliché, “that good!” Joe Flacco ran a no-huddle offense, thanks in part to Peyton Manning’s former coach in Indy, Jim Caldwell. It was actually scary; Flacco looked as comfortable as Manning ever has running that offense. His throws were right on target, even dropping a couple passes just over defenders’ outstretched arms for big completions. The Ravens already have a game advantage on Pittsburgh, and they could roll through their schedule this season.

And in the late Monday Night game, the Chargers won in Oakland, but it was in no way a statement game by San Diego. The Raiders gave them quite a scare in San Diego’s 22-14 victory. The difference could well have been at the end of the first half, when a 1^st & Goal was changed to 4^th & inches for the Raiders and Oakland settled for a short field goal instead of trying for the end zone once before settling. The Broncos looked much better in besting Pittsburgh than the Chargers did against the Raiders.

I finished the weekend with a 9-7 record on my predictions, but there were plenty of games that surprised even the most experienced NFL expert analysts, so I don’t feel too terrible about it. I just have to do better next week, especially since of those seven games I predicted incorrectly, five of them were the five that counted for double points in The All-Sports Crew’s predictions.

Tomorrow I will publish my 10 Things You Need to Know column, and Thursday I will publish my predictions, which you can hear a day early by tuning in to The All-Sports Crew on WMUC Sports Wednesday night at 7 p.m.

Next week I will separate these into recaps into multiple posts in order to avoid such a long update. I will have one post for the Thursday Night game, one for Sunday’s 1:00 games, another for the 4:25 and Sunday Night games, and a fourth for the Monday Night game.

Thanks so much for reading my blog and listening to me on WMUC Sports. Don’t be afraid to give feedback; it means everything to me and it helps me to improve. This is what I want to do for a living after school, so improvement is essential.