Sunday, September 10, 2006

NFL: In-Progress Comments!

For those of you who have bothered to check the blog today (Sunday afternoon), I'd like to simply invite you to use the Comments section to provide your in-progress (quasi-live-blog-ish) commentary about what's happening on this first Sunday of games... Reactions? Surprises? Whatever you want. -- D.S.

45 comments:

Dan Shanoff said...

Oh, let me start, and normally I have a rule: No one wants to hear about your fantasy team in particular. (General fantasy-related observations? Love 'em.)

I'm going to break it, because I think that I'm a cautionary tale: I didn't check the news this morning (I had to leave the house in a hurry), so I missed that TJ Housh's "probable" or "questionable" was switched to "not playing."

Meanwhile, Dante Stallworth was on my bench, and OF COURSE he has a TD and 100-plus receiving yards in his Eagles debut. Of course he does...

The lesson (bringing this back to the level of the universal): CHECK THE INJURY REPORTS RIGHT UP UNTIL YOUR ROSTER DEADLINES. Arrgh!

Dan Shanoff said...

I don't mean to dis your comment, Tyler. That wasn't my intent.

I'd say if I had to create a "universal" about the Green situation it's this:

How much does it suck when your starting QB (with very weak backups) goes down in Week 1?

(By the way, there's no magic "Kurt Warner"-style sub sitting behind Trent Green. Damon Huard is no late-90s Kurt Warner. Though Herm Edwards is no Dick Vermeil, either.)

Anonymous said...

Gotta say that I love the new BK King commercial and the double whopper taunt.

Anonymous said...

Well, I lost Big Ben for week 1, and had Favre and McNair on the bench.

McNair has gained good points today, though.

On a general note, the AFC North is looking vicious after one week. Cincy rolling (even with a subpar Palmer day), Baltimore rolling (decent offense, Defense looks back in full force) and Pittsburgh (impressive without their starting QB)
NFC, on the other hand, doesn' tlook so good. Tampa Bay..Seattle..ouch.

Anonymous said...

Off-topic: Dan, I don't know if you know Bill Simmons or not, but his idea to have his wife add picks and a paragraph is hilarious.
Her first paragraph ranting about Lohan is gold.

Plus..I think she has better picks so far than Bill.

Anyways..yeah..um. Go Steelers!

Anonymous said...

its not always easy to be a Ravens fan... but thank god we didn't embarass ourselves today. its nice to say goodbye to 11 straight road losses with a big-ass shut out against the bucs.

Anonymous said...

My apartment doesn't face south, so I can't get directTV, so I was stuck watching just the nfl.com play-by-play of the Bills game...they just shut down, the run defense got trampled, but Losman looked pretty good, anyone know if the stats match up with reality there?

Anonymous said...

The Snake was at it again! Killer turnovers, disappearing in crunch time, good old Snake. What's the over/under for Cutler starting? I say week 3.

MoL said...

Its always a promising start to the season when the boo-birds come out at halftime [Cleveland]. Whatever bottom-level announcing team we had gave us a "moral victory" speech at the end. Moral vitories suck -- Edwards should have caught that ball.

As for Green -- I've got McNair as a backup and tried to trade him once to the guy with Green. We'll see if he comes back to me.

Anonymous said...

Two comments:
1) James Brown is the best pre-game show host in the business. CBS went from an unwatchable pregame show to the best one around.
2) Carson Palmer and the no huddle is like putting the Colts offense together with the Ravens defense. Marvin Lewis is starting to get his defense going and that no huddle by the Bungles was a pretty site!

pv845 said...

I thought that the Chiefs D looked a lot better than they would. I have a question for anyone and everyone, would you rather have the color commentators or listen to the game with some play by play?

Anonymous said...

Atlanta's D looked good. It may have been more interesting to see what would have happened if Steve Smith played, but the Atl D-Line looked dominant.

And I can't decide yet if Dallas' D is that good, or the Jag's O is that bad, though that pass that was just underthrown to Matt Jones in the endzone doesn't fill me with confidence in Leftwhich.

Anonymous said...

Man what a crappy draw in the afternoon game.

Am I watching the Jags v. Cowboys? or the possibility of Parcells v. TO. I think it's the latter.

I want to boycott all that is TO, but it's opening weekend...

Jake C said...

All of this day is meaningless as Eli vs Big Bro approaches.

I'm betting the over-under for today's announcers say "This is ____'s coming out party," is about 10. I am so tired of that saying.

Anonymous said...

I bet we all can't wait for all those TV shots of the proud Papa, Father Manning....is it possible that both Eli & Peyton be on the field, at the same time, and knock each other out?

Then, I shall believe in Thy God our Savior

Anonymous said...

about that Wali Lundy prediction....


Shhhhhhhh Shamoff. There's a reason ESPN dropped you.

Matt Berg said...

Reggie Bush: 14 for 61, 8 catches for 58 yards, zero touchdowns.

Mario Williams: two tackles, one assist.

Now, the argument is going to continue that Houston absolutely failed by not drafting Reggie Bush.

But let's think about this for a moment: let's say Houston goes 4-12, 6-10 at best this year and gets a top five pick next year. Let's say they use said draft pick on a kid named Adrian Peterson, the best one-cut running back in college right now. Could they not be better off with that pair? I mean, is Reggie Bush even the best fit for their offense?

We should give this a few years to develop before we label the Houston front office as inept. These same criticisms (in a different sport) were thrown at the Minnesota Twins when they took a kid named Joe Mauer over Mark Prior in 2001. Now, they're left with the best catcher in baseball, instead of a pitcher who spends the majority of his time on the DL.

Just a thought...

Paul L Carter said...

Rex Grossman putting up better numbers than Brett Favre? Anybody make that bet?

Anonymous said...

Kicker studs and duds! dud to Mike Nugent, despite the Jets winning. stud to Jeff Wilkins. 6 Freakin' FGs!!! i'll let him slide of the last one...

Anonymous said...

About the Brett Farve vs Grossman: I think everyone who saw Farves stats last year expected it.

Watching "Football Night in America" I think we all need to have a moment of silence mourning the loss of NFL Primetime...

Anonymous said...

Satisfying day for Iggles fans like me. McNabb-Stallworth looks like peanut butter with jelly. But Brian Baldinger stretched logic to the breaking point in defending the Texans' decision to draft Mario Williams over Reggie Bush. Now whose game highlights will be seen and drooled over this week at least, Brian?

Unknown said...

I need to know, since I am at work; how many shot of a disgusted TO after a Bledsoe INT did Fox provide?

LaziestMovieCriticofAllTime said...

As a Bears fan, I plan on writing Phil Simms to thank him for being the inspiration for Fav-rah's return.

Also, how was the play that took Trent Green out not a penalty? When you slide feet first the QB can't be touched. The worst thing was even the announcers didn't think it was a penalty. Then I flip over to the Seattle - Lions game, watch a similar play take place, and see the penalty called correctly.

Finally, if they are going to call defensive holding so much, they really need to rethink the automatic first down.

Matt Hooper Presents said...

blackpot...at several points fox put up a four-camera screen with parcells, del rio, the game shot and owens. this was in addition to countless shots of t.o. screaming at his team, sitting on the bench, staring off into space, etc. as an eagles fan and long time t.o. hater it was almost too painful to watch.

speaking of my eagles...d-mac is well on his way to comeback player of the year honors. lovin' dontae stallworth as our new go-to-guy.

Big D said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Big D said...

Quick Thoughts (From my blog page as well):

Jake Plummer has 4-6 more weeks as an NFL starter in 2006. At most.

The Ravens look really, really good.

The Browns look really, REALLY bad.

So do the Packers. You really have to TRY to make the Bears' offense look that good.

Anytime you're relying on Drew Bledsoe to lead a 2-minute drill to save the game for you, well, you've already lost.

New England is not as good as everyone (including me) has said they are.

The Jets are not as bad as everyone (including me) has said they are.

I really dislike Kerry Collins.

That about covers it. Manning v. Manning is probably going to end up more like Feeley v. Vinateri.

Anonymous said...

Where was Vince Young in the redzone on that final drive in Tennessee?

As a Titans fan, I'm really not worried about winning that often this year, but I was already excited enough to see the team driving on clutch plays in the final minute. The perfect capper would have been to see Young work his college magic in the pros, and from his earlier drive it seemed like he had the poise to do it. Total let down to see them let Kerry Collins try to run a red zone offense.

Anonymous said...

No surprises in KC, go Bengals!!!

Anonymous said...

As a Broncos fan I don't want to be unreasonable and I know it is only one game for Jake Plummer and Jay Cuttler is only a rookie but at what point is it ok to start to wish he would be the starting QB?

Anonymous said...

Is losing to a 4th quarter safety the football equivalent of a walk off balk? Congratulations on a great start in the Brady Quinn sweepstakes Buffalo!

Anonymous said...

Is it just me or is Payton ridiculously accurate..even on the run?

How about those two "oops-lemme-just-tip-that-to-myself" plays by Plaxico!!

Anonymous said...

brady quinn sucks.

Anonymous said...

Was there a rule change that made it harder to score a TD this season, and no one told me?

The Rover said...

I, too, am mourning the loss of PrimeTime. What a shame. Can't they just do a "Midnight Oasis" edition every week?

Generally, it seems like the offenses are behind the defenses. Lots of pitiful performances from the big stars/fantasy studs - Brady, Palmer, Alexander. Maybe they DO need all those preseason games to get ready...

Anonymous said...

I would just like to say that the NBC music is dramatic enough to make me want to grab a broadsword and run onto a field of battle Braveheart style.

Anonymous said...

How many years of the refs screwing the Giants do we have to live through. I don't mind losing, but can it just happen without the refs calling BS penalties for ONCE?!

Paul L Carter said...

Tino said...

"About the Brett Farve vs Grossman: I think everyone who saw Farves stats last year expected it."

You expected Grossman to last the entire game?

Paul L Carter said...

Anonymous said...

"How many years of the refs screwing the Giants do we have to live through. I don't mind losing, but can it just happen without the refs calling BS penalties for ONCE?!"

I agree, that pass interference call late in the fourth was horrible.

Anonymous said...

pass interference call didn't look right, but the illegal snap call on the Giants with 17 seconds left was a good call. Used the dvr to go back, as the broadcast didn't think it was worth showing that play over, and the center did a double snap on the ball. No problem on that call.

mark the ill said...

The thing that I hated about the false start call at the end was that it essentially limited the Giants to one more play. At the end of a game, certain things should be let go; the Giants certainly didn't gain any advantage, and any advantage they could have possibly gained was far disproportionate to the penalty they received. It's unfortunate that a rule designed to stop teams from having a cheap way to stop the clock was applied in a situation where the clock was about to be stopped!

Anonymous said...

Man was I sick of Manning Sr. We get it, stop showing him, every commercial break...

Anonymous said...

Giants were sloppy, you can't get around that. And both Peyton and Eli threw some pretty boneheaded passes that game.

WuzUpG said...

I wonder how many Frank Gore transactions are there going to be on Monday morning? 87 yds, 2 TDs, and 83 yds receiving!

I'm so glad that there are going to be two MNF games, 7pm ET and 10pm ET. It'll show all the NFL fans how great it is to live on the B(W)est coast to watch sports. The East Coast will finally get to experience what we've long appreciated.

Sucks that they've moved the time to half-hour earlier than we're normally accustomed to. Can someone say, "Tivo"?

Anonymous said...

Chris Simms blows

Anonymous said...

I know I'm oversimplifying here, but I noticed an interesting correlation this weekend:

You had Pittsburgh, the defending NFL champs, playing at home, with their difference-making QB out, against a team with an overloaded bandwagon in Miami. Pittsburgh wins. Then you had Texas, the defending NCAA champs, playing at home with their difference-making QB gone, against another team with tons of promise in Ohio State. Texas loses.

Friends, this is why I don't gamble on sports.