Dressel Rebel's Week 1 Recap:
Steelers over the Dolphins:
I did think that Pittsburgh was gonna lose this one with Roethlisberger out. Willie Parker looked good, and he's probably in for a fairly monster year without Bettis vulturing goal line carries. But for me the two biggest surprises of this game were how bad C-Pep looked after a great preseason, and how ineffective Chris Chambers was considering the ball was thrown to him 14 times. The passing game was totally shut down by Pittsburgh. I do not like the Dolphins at all anyway. But Ronnie Brown looked good and effective at the goal line, but the running game was more or less shut down by Pitt as well despite Brown's 2 scores. I guess it's not all that big of a surprise if you consider Polamalu and Joey Porter leading that defense.
Falcons over the Panthers:
The Panthers are just totally impotent without Steve Smith. The offense
is basically Steve Smith. On top of that, the Panthers just can't stop the run. The Falcons rushed almost 50 times. There's just not much more to say here except the Panthers better hope Steve Smith and his 2 pulled hamstrings heal soon. And that the Falcons are pretty well rounded. Everyone was involved from Dunn to Norwood to Vick to Crumpler to Jenkins.
Ravens over the Bucs:
Wait is Cadillac Williams still a Buc? Or did the Bucs just hand him the ball 8 times as a special guest? The guy should be carrying the ball 30 times a game, end of story. I'm gonna give the Bucs the benefit of the doubt here because they faced a tough Ravens defense who went ape**** on them, and the Bucs were good last year. I didn't think Jamal Lewis would be such a big factor. I thought he was busted. I guess he's back. Surprise. I was kind of hoping Matt Stover would issue another public apology to the city of Baltimore, but it's a long season. Also, Jamal Lewis is really a big strong man, holy crap, 5' 11" and 245 lbs with a jail block attitude:
Patriots over the Bills:
The Bills suck and the Patriots are good. That's pretty much the whole shootin' match right there. Tom Brady will invite people off the street and out of the stands onto the field and pass the ball to them if he's already passed to everyone on the roster 3 times, and I don't think Branch leaving means a damn thing to this team. It's not Brady's game to have a Terrell Owens wannabe on the field, and the Dillon/Maroney 2 headed monster looked good.
Bengals over the Chiefs:
No surprise here, a lot of people are picking the Bengals to go to the Super Bowl, and they might have done it last year if Carson Palmer didn't get jacked up early in the playoffs. The Bengals are just star studded at QB, RB, WR with a decent defense. Trent Green got his head smacked off his shoulders, then into the ground. Larry Johnson was a monster as usual but didn't find the endzone for a change. Wouldn't shock me if he ran/received for another 140+ yards next week but got into the endzone 3 times this time. Larry Johnson, much like Jamal Lewis, is a big strong man as well:
Rams over the Broncos:
The Broncos should have won this game but Jake Plummer threw 3 interceptions, got sacked 4 times, and his O-line let him die. Jeff Wilkins made 6 field goals. That's it.
Saints over the Browns:
The Saints are going to be good this year. Reggie Bush, Deuce McAllister, Joe Horn, Drew Brees and Marques Colston (I'm having a vision of Antonio Gates crossbred with Plaxico Burress). Oh my God how bad do the Texans look right now? Yeah Mario Williams is good, but Reggie Bush
is whatever team he is on, and for good reason. At any rate, the Browns stink and the Saints are dramatically improved. Reggie Bush's first game goes down as a huge success:
Jets over the Titans:
The Jets stink. The Titans stink. The Jets win this one in the Loser Bowl, and if this is the Jets best game of the season it wouldn't surprise me at all. Pennington and his receivers did look good though. But neither of these teams are going anywhere, that's for sure.
Eagles over the Texans:
McNabb and all 3 of his top offensive weapons Stallworth, Westbrook, and Brown all looked great. The Texans belong above in the Loser Bowl with the Jets and Titans, but 3 way matchups haven't been established in the NFL as of yet. I do think Mario Williams is good and I stuck up for the Texans before, but they should have taken Reggie Bush. They really ****** up. And the Eagles are back!! And Donte' Stallworth is really really fast:
Seahawks over the Lions:
The correct team won, but by 30 points less than they should have. Seahawks over the Lions by 9-6 is pathetic. The Seahawks deserved to lose and they should have, they really got away with one here. They were totally ineffective. And Lions are supposed to suck, but I don't understand what happened to Kevin Jones. The Lions defense actually wasn't bad.
Bears over the Packers:
Green Bay is finished with a capital "
F". Ahman Green is the lone bright spot. The Bears looked pretty good all around rushing, passing, and defense, and they are a total lock for the playoffs. Nobody in the NFC North is capable of winning that division except them, even if the Bears weren't such a hot team.
Jaguars over the Cowboys:
This one may not be considered an upset to most, but it was to me. Drew Bledsoe was just awful. Terrell Owens had a nice game but I wonder how long he's going to keep his mouth shut if the Cowboys lose a couple more games in September. The FOX TV camera was on him just about every play, even when his team was on D and he was on the sidelines. You wanna become a celebrity in America? Just say a bunch of stupid **** or act like an idiot, you'll have press all over you. Still and all, TO played well. There's so much talent on this team with a great D, Owens, Glenn, Julius Jones, Barber, Witten, that even as a Giants fan I have to admit they are probably going to win the NFC East. I don't like Jacksonville much but Leftwich really had the passing game going and they do have 3 very good receivers.
Cardinals over the 49ers:
The Cardinals don't suck anymore. The 49ers do suck, but they scored 27 points and that might be the highlight of their season right there. Okay I guess Frank Gore is good. But the Cardinals have 2 of the best 10 receivers in football, an average QB and Edgerrin James, that's good for at least .500 right there.
Colts over the Giants:
The Giants made a lot of mistakes. Just from what I saw, they dropped 3 interceptions and in the final 2 minutes when they were out of time outs the players couldn't even remember to step out of bounds to stop the clock. Too many mistakes. Even with that, Tiki Barber looked great and Brandon Jacobs looked even better than that. He had 54 yards and a TD on 8 rushes but what the box score won't show you is another 25 yard run that was called back for holding nowhere near the play and the fact that Jacobs ran over the entire Colts defense before he was tackled. Now
THIS is a big strong man (you guys can probably tell I like big strong men as running backs). Brandon Jacobs is 6' 4" and 264 lbs. If Tiki should suffer an injury this season, I don't think the Giants will even miss a beat. Jacobs has a bright future. Oh yeah I almost forgot the Colts won. What else is new. Peyton thew a ton of deep passes successfully because the Giants have people off the street playing in their defensive secondary. But the Colts can't run their way out of a paper bag. I think Rhodes and Addai were picking up about 2 yards average per rush and they looked even worse than that. They'll miss Edge. Okay Brandon Jacobs tribute time:
Vikings over the Redskins:
This was an upset and I don't like it when any team from Minnesota wins a game. The Redskins have a lot of pieces like Portis and Moss, but Mark Brunell is not going to get it done as quarterback. The Vikings aren't worth discussing because they suck.
Chargers over the Raiders:
Shawne Merriman is a bad man. 6 tackles and 3 sacks and the Chargers just stomped the Raiders silly. The Raiders suck because Aaron Brooks sucks. Randy Moss is miserable. He should call the Dolphins and ask if he can rejoin his offensive coordinator and quarterback so he can be good again. LaDainian Tomlinson is not a human being, he's a supernatural. He must have touched the ball close to 35 times last night and didn't even play much of the 4th quarter. Sure, I watched 4 Week 1 NFL games already yesterday but I needed to stay up until 1 AM until I was sure LaDainian handled the ball for the last time. The Chargers are officially my 2nd favorite football team. And I love Gates. I leave you with this. Touchdown.
