NFL Week 1 Live Blog

All week I was trying to think of some creative prose to write in this space yesterday. I couldn't think of any, so I thought it best not to try.

This blog is primarily baseball interest, but for me, this day largely kills the MLB season until October. It doesn't help that the Rangers have been done for a while. The first Sunday of the NFL season has become, to me, though, what Christmas Day was when I was little. I want to get up early and take it all in, I can't wait for it to come, and all day Saturday has that feeling of a magic event coming when the calendar turns. I get Sunday Ticket, and some time in August the channels for the games start appearing, and it's like when the presents started being placed under the tree when I was younger.

And just like when I was a kid on Christmas Eve, I have trouble sleeping. Though now it's more because I'm used to staying up late, the effect is now that I'm tired.

I was hoping to live blog through the pre game shows, but I might need to catch another hour or two of shut eye before the games start. I'll definitely be in here and blogging the events I catch by then, though.


-- I have to say something that will probably make 99% of our target audience hate me: I like Chris Berman's nicknames. I certainly don't like Boomer, but I think his nicknames are catchy, harmless and they've become a part of the NFL to me.

Sorry.

-- The return of NFL commercials is such a great feeling.

-- Berman is lauding Vince Young for his "clutch" and some such crap, treating his 2:1 INT:TD ratio was just a cosmetic problem. I do not get the love affair with Vince Young. 74 Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement last season was 29th in the NFL. -8.4% DVOA was 31st. Certainly he does some things that don't show up on that line, he's better than the 29th best QB in the NFL, but still. . . he wasn't very good. Get over it.

-- The NFL Network does almost everything better than everyone else. So why don't they have a pre game show? This concerns me greatly. I'm stuck with the overblown human interest stories and empty rhetoric of ESPN, the over-stylization of FOX or the all-around bad of CBS.

-- Michael Strahan just picked the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl. Allow my fan boyishness to show for a minute: that just made my ****ing day.

-- FOOTBALL MUSIC!

For the morning, I'll primarily be watching the Red Zone channel and the Seahawks @ Bills.

-- Gettin' antzy.

-- Marshawn Lynch is a full grown man. The Seattle front seven is. . . full grown. . . er. . .

-- Walter Jones is closer to perfect at what he does than any other human on the face of the planet. I'm not positive off the top of my head who the weakside end on Buffalo is, but he just got destroyed on consecutive plays.

-- I have trouble with the media obsession with Brett Favre. For instance, right now the Red Zone Channel is showing me the Jets playing (terribly) from about the 30 yard line. I know there are better games elsewhere. And I know this is because of Brett Favre.

-- It's completely unfair that someone as massive as Ben Rroeiwnsdoignsboiburger can run. He just scrambled for a first and I swear the Texans were afraid of him.

-- So Brett Favre just threw a 157 yard touchdown to Jerricho Cotchery. Maybe I was wrong about him having trouble getting in to form this year.

-- It's been more than eight minutes now and New England hasn't scored. This is very strange to me.

Brady just got taken out. Matt Cassel is warming up.

-- Consecutive sacks of Matt Schaub via the Pittsburgh front seven. I have to assume they're having their way with that Texans young line.

Touchdown McNabb to L.J. Smith as I watch.

-- Baltimore just scored the touchdown of the day. A double reverse to Mark Clayton, with Joe Flacco and Ray Rice lead-blocking. 40 yards. Awesome.

Also, Michael Turner just scored again. I believe he's already over 100 yards. 21-0 Atlanta. I got him for a 10th the price of LaDainian Tomlinson in my salary cap league for the week.

Hines Ward just had an 80-ish yard touchdown erased due to PI.

-- A full quarter has been played and the Patriots haven't scored on the Chiefs. What on earth? BUT, Matt Cassell just completed a beautiful bomb to Randy Moss, so all may be well. Or at least okay.

Randy Moss also already has his 56th career 100 yard game.

-- I know he's in a better situation, but if Matt Cassell has a good season while Matt Leinart sits on the bench, many lols will be had.

Touchdown, 7-0 New England.

-- I have a strong disagreement with the new face mask rule. Accidentally touching the face mask should not make such a game changing result as a 15-yard penalty.

Also, I disagree with how they went about eliminating the gray area of the force out. I think having safeties camp on the side line to shove an ariel receiver out instead of defending the ball is going to be ridiculous. I would have gone the other way: if you push someone out, it's a completion whether they would have come in or not.

-- People who look awesome: Lamar Woodley.

-- I expected young Matt Ryan to absolutely suck. The Lions so far are making me an idiot: 5 for 5, 82 yards, 16.4 YPA, 1 TD.

-- Q: What is the Seahawks special teams made of?

A: Fail. Roscoe Parrish just made 27 different players miss a tackle.

-- Why is it the Seahawks seem to always have so much trouble catching passes. Is it organizational? Is it something weird about Hasselbeck's passes?

-- Donavan McNabb: 14/20, 274 yards, 3 TD

-- Willie Parker might just beat the curse of 370 following a year that also included an injury. He's now surprassed his 2007 TD total in only one game.

-- Parker only had 331 carries in 2007. My bad. Still. . .

-- Andrew Siciliano, the Red Zone Channel host: "You have to wonder, if Tatum Bell really did steal Rudi Johnson's wallet, how did he have his ID to make the flight to Atlanta?"

-- So. . . two rookie QBs could win their first start in week 1 at the same time?

-- The Bengals couldn't tackle Dom DeLuise in a phone booth. Joe Flacco just ran 38 yards to make it 17-3.

-- The Patriots just escaped after playing their most embarassing game in well over a calendar year. 17-10.

-- Remember the Christmas presents analogy? It holds true this time of day. It's so bitter-sweet when the first crop of games is ending. It's like when all the presents have been opened and you look around and realize, after a year of waiting, the fun part is over. Sure, you got cool stuff/watched awesome games, but still. . . it's over.

At least for a few months there's Christmas every week.

I apologize to anyone who may actually be reading this, because in a few minutes this writer will pretty much only be watching the Cowboys.

-- Terrell Owens has now tied Cris Carter for third all-time in touchdown receptions. And immediately after was penalized for the lamest celebration ever.

If you're going to get a flag, make it worth it.

-- Well, day one is over seemingly as soon as it began. Only a night game to go. So sad. Only 16 more weeks to go.

-- One game is still going. The Panthers have fallen behind to the Chargers and are now down 24-19 and driving. A seeming catch for a first down is being reviewed. A minute three left.

-- The Panthers are now making epic catches for first downs like they're going out of style. Now at the 23.

-- Overthrow in the end zone, and 6 seconds left for Jake Delhomme to work his magic.

-- Two seconds left. Here we go. . . IT'S CAUGHT! I'll be back, watch your highlights!

-- If you didn't watch the end of the Panthers' game, I feel bad for you.

-- Time to watch Football Night in America. If I hear anything stupid, it will be written here.

-- As someone who grew up watchin The Big Show, you can imagine I geeked out when I changed the channel and heard Dan Patrick's voice. Putting him together with Keith Olberman again is awesome. Throw Dan Patrick in to that lineup and you have rare sports-panel awesome.

And Peter King has good insight, just don't let him talk about baseball.

-- One. Game. Has. Been. Played. I have the panel of ex-players telling me already that the Bills are one of the best teams in the league and the Seahawks are falling apart.

After one game. My goodness.

-- Hey, where did I see these teams again? Oh yeah, in the worst Super Bowl ever.

-- I have so very little to say about this game. Even John Madden has yet to be entertaining.

-- I'd forgotten how much I hate watching the Colts on offense.

-- Once upon a time, John Madden was not Captain Obvious. Now that's all he does. He just states what everyone understands 20 times.

-- "If the Colts want to win, they're going to have to get physical."
~ John Madden

-- John Madden has continually expressed amazement at how well a rookie runningback is playing. First off, it's one game. Second, I'm pretty sure everyone and their mothers know that runningbacks adjust to the NFL easily. How is Madden so blown away by this?

Also, I can't wait to hear someone claim this is revenge for the Bears.

-- Well, Sunday Night Football has been a failure tonight. Not enough interesting has happened to blog about.

If anyone actually read this and found it worth their while, let me know. It's hard to concentrate on football AND live blog on it at the same time. This was a trial run, if you will.