My Newsletter is back and will be posted every Tuesday on FoxSports.com.  Here are my thoughts on the opening week of the NFL.  Please remember there are 32 teams in the NFL, there is no way I could mention every big play made by every player in every game.  If you want to talk about your favorite team or player, just leave a comment about it and I while address it.

MVP of the Week:  I would like to go with just New Orleans Saints QB Drew Brees and his monster game; the only downside is that the Detroit Lions are not really a NFL caliber defense at this point.  Brees went 26 of 34 for 358 yards with six touchdowns and one pick in a 45-27 victory over the Detroit Lions, who have now lost 18 consecutive games dating back to the 2007 season.  RB Adrian Peterson gave a monster effort on the ground with 25 carries for 180 yards and three touchdowns, as the Minnesota Vikings were victorious 34-20 over the Cleveland Browns.  Reggie Wayne led all receivers this week with 10 catches for 164 yards and one touchdown in the Indianapolis Colt’s 14-12 win over Jacksonville Jaguars. 

Loser of the Week:  I think Jake Delhomme and Jay Cutler had to be the big losers of the week.  Delhomme was trying to put a terrible playoff game behind him and went 7 for 17 with 73 yards passing, zero touchdowns, four picks, a lost fumble, and a QB rating of 14.7 in a 38-10 home loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.  The Eagles are a very good team, but there is no excuse for that type of performance against any team.  He really needs to start playing better if he is going to save his job, evidenced by the fact that the Panthers signed AJ Feeley almost immediately after that dreadful performance. 

Cutler is not under that pressure of the Bears signing a quarterback to take is job, but expectations are sky high in Chicago and he really hurt the Bears with 17 for 36 for 277 yards, one touchdown, four picks and a QB rating of just 43.2. His picks were the result of throwing across his body into the middle of the field with no receivers in sight hoping they would magically appear to make a play.  It is good that the Bears now have a QB with a rocket arm, but he needs to play a lot smarter than he did in Green Bay if the Bears are going to compete in the NFC North.

Game of the Week: Two games stood out.  I think the Steelers and Titans played a great game, even though the score was only 13-10; it was low scoring because the defenses played their hearts out, not because the offense was bad.  Big Ben Roethlisberger went 33 for 43 with 363 yards and one passing touchdown.  Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes both went over 100 yards receiving.  The Titans forced a Ward fumble at the end of the game to force OT.  The Steelers took the first drive of OT for the game winning field goal.  It was a classic defensive struggle where both teams fought for every yard and point they got with the Steelers able to outlast the Titans.  I would not be surprised if these teams meet again in January with a lot more at stake.

The other great game was the Monday Night Game in New England.  The Buffalo Bills had the New England Patriots on the ropes with five minutes left in the game and a 24-13 lead.  The Bills allowed QB Tom Brady to drive the Patriots down the field to score a touchdown to make the score 24-19 with 2:06 left, because the two point conversion failed.  Leodis McKelvin made a smart move to return the ball to make sure the two minute warning happened after his return was done, a play that stops the clock anyway.  However, he should have gone down after the clock hit 2:00 minutes and once the defenders arrived, not fought for extra yards.  The result was a fumble and great field position for the Patriots.  With 50 seconds left Brady hit TE Ben Watson for the second time to steal the win 25-24.  It took one game for Brady to show why he is still the premier QB in the NFL, a welcome sight for Patriots fans after his devastating knee injury from a season ago.

The Bay of Pigs:  I know the game ended with an exciting play, but that was a terribly played football game between Denver and Cincinnati.  Denver took a 6-0 lead into the fourth quarter when RB Cedric Benson had a one-yard rushing touchdown to take a 7-6 lead.  That would hold up until the final seconds of the game, when WR Brandon Stokely caught a miracle tipped pass from QB Kyle Orton and raced 87 yards for the touchdown.  The play accounted for 35% of Orton’s throwing yardage in that game.  While the last play was exciting, that game looked like two bad teams trying to survive each other and it will be interesting to see how these teams progress through the season.  I expect both teams to be near the bottom of the league when the season ends.

The Mike Martz Award:  This was not head coach Lovie Smith’s call, but you have to wonder what was going on with the Bear’s special teams. With the score 12-10 in favor of Chicago and Chicago facing a 4th and 11 deep in their own territory, the Bear’s long snapper Patrick Mannelly thought it would be a good time to direct snap the ball to RB Garrett Wolfe, because he thought there were 12 guys on the field.  The penalty would not have produced a first down, the play had little chance to succeed and because there were not 12 men on the field when the ball was snapped, the Bears did not receive a mulligan for this disastrous play.  The Bears gave up a free field goal to trail 13-12.  The Bears would eventually regain the lead in the fourth quarter before they lost it again, but that was a big momentum changer in the game. You have to wonder why a veteran long snapper who has been with the Bears since 1998 would make such a poor decision like that in such a crucial spot. 

Injury Report:  Two of the three biggest injuries of the weekend happened to the teams from Pennsylvania.  The Steelers lost their star safety, Troy Polamalu to a knee injury that could keep him out four to six weeks.  The Eagles lost QB Donovan McNabb to a broken rib that should keep him out of action for a couple weeks, although he will try to see if he can play with the pain as the week progresses.  The Eagles signed their former backup QB Jeff Garcia to a contract to back up Kevin Kolb, because QB Michael Vick is still serving a NFL suspension for another week.

The biggest injury happened to the Chicago Bears though, with the star middle linebacker Brian Urlacher now lost for the season with wrist surgery.  The Bears went through this in 2004, when they were 5-4 in 2004 with Urlacher, before going 0-7 without him after an injury.  The Bears are going to need to respond better than they did in 2004 if they want to save their season in a division that is quickly becoming a brutal division. 

Overall Impressions of Week One:  Last year I did five impressions, this year I am only going to do two, but try to write more in depth about the two topics.

1) Carolina Panthers and Arizona Cardinals are a mess – It is hard to take too much out of the first game of the season. Brees is not going to throw six touchdowns every week, because the Lions are not on his schedule every week.  The Dolphins will have an opportunity to look better at home, as they will not travel to Atlanta every week; the same goes for Tennessee losing a heartbreaker in Pittsburgh.  Some teams receiver very favorable match ups to open their season and others have to play in brutal environments or host terrific teams in their first week.  That said, Carolina and Arizona have to be very worried about how their season has started to date. 

I know they say the preseason does not mean anything, but the Panthers and Cardinals were both 0-4 in the preseason.  The Panthers opened up at home with a tough game against the Philadelphia Eagles, so there was no shame in starting 0-1 in the regular season, but there is no excuse to lose 38-10 either.  They now have to travel to Atlanta and Dallas, before their bye week.  If Delhomme keeps throwing interceptions, the Panthers are a great candidate to start the season 0-3.  If they can recover from their opening week meltdown, they are in better shape coming off the bye, drawing Washington, at Tampa Bay, and Buffalo.  They had better be careful or they could find themselves in a world of hurt by Week 6 if they do not start valuing the ball.  The NFC South is not the division to start 1-5 or 2-4. 

The Cardinals cannot run the ball and they are turning the ball over as well.  Chris Wells and Tim Hightower combined for 15 rushes and 44 yards, which is less than 3.0 yards per carry, plus they scored zero rushing touchdowns.  QB Kurt Warner had 288 yards passing, but only one touchdown and two picks, he was also sacked four times.

The good news for the Cardinals is that their defense did well.  Shaun Hill was held to 209 yards passing and just one touchdown throw and Frank Gore was held to 22 rushes for 30 yards and one rushing touchdown.  The defense gave up only 20 points.  They should win a lot of games if their defense plays like that on a consistent basis.  The problem is that Warner is not going to make it through the season if he has to throw the ball 44 times with no support from his running game and pressure from the other teams front seven.  That would be hard for a 28-year old QB, much less one that turned 38 this year.  The Cardinals play at Jacksonville and home against Indianapolis before their bye.  They are going to have to start playing better if they want to enter their bye with a winning record. 

Teams can recover from early season losses.  The New York Giants were outscored 80-48 in their 0-2 start to the season and they recovered to win the Super Bowl.  The 2003 New England Patriots recovered from a 31-0 loss to Buffalo to open the season.  The Patriots went 14-1 the rest of that season and the Bills went 5-10.  Conversely, the Packers and Broncos both started 2-0 in 2008 with two divisional wins, but did not turn that into either a divisional title or a wild card birth. 

Sometimes as fans, we make too much out of an opening weekend loss and have to remember that teams will have difficulties and some match ups just do not work in a team’s favor.  However, these are two teams that have not looked good in either the preseason or the opener of the regular season and both of them need to pick up their play if they are going to want to experience the success they had in 2008.   

2) Philip Rivers entering an elite class – Everyone knows what Peyton Manning and Brady mean to the game right now.  They are the two best quarterbacks of this decade and first ballot Hall of Fame talent.   Brett Favre is well past his prime, but still a NFL icon that managed the game and helped the Vikings win their opener, behind 180 yards rushing from Peterson.  Those three’s Hall of Fame credentials and status as NFL icons are not in question. 

After those three, there are some quarterbacks with impressive resumes, but not Hall of Fame resumes to date. McNabb has been the leader of an Eagles team that has played in five NFC Championships since 2000.  Roethlisberger and Eli Manning have not put up big regular season numbers, but have combined to go 3-0 in the Super Bowl. Brees continues to put monster numbers up in New Orleans, but needs to play with a defense that can help him reach a Super Bowl.  Joe Flacco, Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan are three young starters that have a world of potential.  If Carson Palmer could stay healthy and play with an organization that surrounded him with talent, he could regain his spot among the best in the NFL. Cutler did not show it on Sunday night, but he still has a bright upside.  Tony Romo has not shown it in December and January, but he is a good postseason run away from elevating his value.

To me, they are all good, but they are not as good as Philip Rivers is.  I saw the game slowdown for Rivers last year and he continues to impress me every time I watch him play.  If I could have one quarterback not named Brady or P. Manning, I’d go with Rivers.  Last year he came into his own with 4,009 passing yards, a 65.3 completion percentage, tied for the league lead in touchdown passes (34) and led the NFL in QB rating with 105.5.  He put the team on his back the last three weeks of the 2008 season and with the help of a Denver collapse took his team to the playoffs and won a home playoff game against the Colts, before losing to the eventual world champion Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh.  He had 308 yards passing and three touchdowns in that game.  He is a guy that has not won a Super Bowl yet, but has played very well in the postseason.

Flash forward to Monday night; he was not playing very well and neither was his team.  There were some injuries on the offensive line and the Raiders were putting pressure on him that hurt his effectiveness.  The Raiders dialed up a 4th and 15 and converted it into a 57-yard touchdown pass from JaMarcus Russell to Louis Murphy to take a 20-17 lead.    The problem is that there was over 2:00 minutes left in the game and the Chargers had Rivers.  He took the team right down the field going 89 yards to lead the Chargers to the winning touchdown with 0:18 seconds left.  There was no doubt in my mind he was going to do that when the Chargers took the field, Rivers has become that good the last couple of seasons.

Granted it was the Oakland Raiders, a team they should have beaten handedly, but Rivers is becoming one of those players that teams fear with the ball in his hands in the closing minutes of the game.  He was throwing the ball on the run with guys trying to drag him down, but he kept his composure and moved the ball down the field.  He demonstrated major toughness a few years ago when he played in the AFC Championship Game against the Patriots with an ACL injury.  The only thing missing from his impressive resume is a Super Bowl appearance and a ring.

I picked the Chargers to advance to the AFC Championship Game and I would not be surprised if they do represent the AFC in the Super Bowl in 2009.  They are going to have to play better than they did against the Raiders if they want to do that, but a win is a win and great quarterbacks win games for their team that their team does not necessarily deserve.  That is what Brady and P. Manning did this weekend as well, against inferior teams their stellar play helped turn possible losses into wins.

Rivers is my prediction for the MVP of the NFL this year.  He will have major competition from the Peterson and Brady, as well as the reigning MVP, P. Manning.  I just love watching Rivers play.  He is intense, makes exciting plays and keeps the Chargers in the game for the entire 60 minutes.  He has to be smarter at times, that was a terrible taunting penalty he took in the second half last night that helped kill a drive, but he was able to control that emotion when it mattered most.  Last night continues to demonstrate this is a guy you want on your side with the game on the line.  At just 27-years old, the sky is the limit for Rivers this year and for years to come.  He is the best young quarterback in the game and primed to become the premier quarterback in the NFL.

A Look Ahead:

Street Cred’s 2009 Regular Season Record:  13-3


This year I will not be including my picks in my newsletter, instead I will release them on Thursday as a separate article.  Check back on Thursday as I release my picks for the upcoming games, with analysis of the big factors that will determine the winners.

 
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