On to the TAP.
Week 1 Power Rankings
1.) Every team that 1-0
16.) Indy Colts
17.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (They beat the Browns, doesn't count)
18.) Everyone else who's 0-1
Week 1 Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking
1.) The Detroit Lions lost fair and square. The refs absolutely got the call right. Johnson went to th e ground and came up without the ball. That's incomplete. Nobody can argue that the refs were wrong. Arguing that the rule's the problem, but not the refs. As for the rule, I wouldn't want it changed. I mean, is it too much to ask someone who's paid to catch the ball to catch the ball? Think about it logically, if a center fielder leaps, gets a line drive in his glove, has a knee hit the ground, followed by his glove hitting the ground, and the ball popping out, what's the call? It's a hit. Same thing here: Johnson goes up and grabs the ball and puts it in his right hand while in air, hits the ground, puts the hand with the ball in front of him to stop his fall and the ball pops out.. It's incomplete. The rule says, as you've probably heard a dozen times already, that on the sidelines and in the endzone, if you go to the ground in the process of making a catch, you gotta get up with the ball. So now I hear people asking how Lance Moore's two point conversion was successful in the Super Bowl. It wasn't the same play. He caught the ball short of the endzone and reached, thus completing the process of the catch and making another move, for the endzone and broke the plane before the ball got knocked loose. He completed the catch THEN reached, so as soon as the nose of the ball crossed the goal line, the play was over. Both calls were right.
2.) Wow, there was some ugly football, namely offenses, this week. Either it was just Week 1 rust or MLBs "Year of the Pitcher" is leaking into other sports.
3.) For the past few years, the Texans and the Niners are everyone's surprise picks to make a run. This season most people, myself included, thought that only one of them would be good, Looks like we picked the wrong one.
4.) Alex Barron is not the goat of the Cowboys loss. Don't get me wrong, he had a terrible game, no doubt about that. The fact, though, is that he's just not that good of a player. He shouldn't be a starting tackle. He didn't do anything stupid or uncharacteristically terrible that would warrant him goat status. Let's say a defense has one great corner and one mediocre to bad corner who on a critical play gets matched up with a great wideout. The wideout burns him for the winning score, would you call the db the goat? No, he just got beat. Samething with Barron. Orakpo abused him all night. I don't understand why, on a critical play where your QB will need time, Barron was left alone to deal with someone he proved he couldn't handle. Brron looks bad because of the fact that it looked like the 'Boys had one and suddenly it gets called back for his penalty. If he hadn't held, Romo would have gotten smoked in the backfield and that would've been the end of the game. And, really, nobody would even know Alex Barron's name today. The real turning point of that game at the end of the other half. First, the Cowboys decide to run a play with 4 seconds left and amile from the endzone. Then, Romo gets under pressure *Nobody remembers which lineman let the pressure get in) and just flips the ball to Choice a yard down the field rather than throw it away. Then, Chouce trues to do something with the ball, gets stripped, and watches DeAngelo Hall run away for what ended up being the difference in the game.
5.) How do the Colts, knowing the Peyton Manning is the entire team, give Mario Williams a free release to the QB?
6.) Oh Philly, mired in a QB controversy already? Like me make it easy for you. Kolb had a concussion. I know you like rushing people back from that type of injury, but try to refrain from ruining another career, will you? Keep him out for a few weeks at least. As for Vick, he did look impressive. Looked like the Michael Vick of young, never thought I'd see that again. Still, the Packers had prepared for Kolb so temper your enthusiasm a little. Let's see him do it a few more times before we name him top dog. No, I'm not above easy jokes. What I didn't like about Viick's performance was when he forced a pass into the endzone when it seemed like he had room to run it in. He said afterward that he's trying not to be selfish. Taking a sure score over a possible score is not being selfish. In fact, giving up a sure score and going for a possible score to avoid being selfish is, in itself, selfish.
7 .) Oh man, the Giants are going to be killed this Sunday night. No way Peyton goes 0-2, especially against the Giants defense. He'll have great field postion to look forward to as the Giants special teams is horrendous.
8.) Speaking of horrendous, how about the Jets offense? Mark Sanchez looked like he wanted no part of the Ravens defense. He wouldn't even look down field. He looked like a guy joining a pick up basketball game with people who are way better than him. He passes the ball as soon as he touches it, sometimes even to the wrong team. When the other team stops covering him, he'll still stand near a defender just so he won't look open and be forced to handle a pass. In short, he looked like me at the Boys' Club.
9.) Antonio Cromartie illustrated once again that 60% of a cornerback's success comes from building a reputation of being shutdown and relying on teams to not throw your way. Of course there are some corners who are legitimately shutdown, but they're rare and don't last long. Take Champ for instance: He used to be a complete shutdown corner. He isn't anymore. He's still good, but not elite anymore. Yet he shuts down recievers now because teams have decided You Do Not Throw Champ Bailey's Way.
The worst thing that happens to there corners is that they get paired up with a better corner. It happened when Deltha O'Neal joined the Broncos during Champ's prime. Denver was supposed to have the best pass defense in the league, but O'Neal got exposed because it was either go at him or go at Champ. Look, all CBs give up room to WRs, it's impossible not to. The great ones just give up less room than their teammates so people don't throw their way. It's like the old joke : Tw0 campers come across an angry bear. One camper says, "I'm glad I brought my running shoes." The other says, "You can't outrun a bear." To which the first replies, "I don't need to outrun the bear, I just need to out run you." Cromartie was able to outcover his teammates in San Diego, but he can't outcover Revis so he will be picked on and exposed.
10.) I'm no fan of Ray Lewis's, but the hit he put on Kellar at the ned of the game was the absolute textbook hit. No way you could get flagged or fined for that. It was perfext.
Limerick of the Week
Jets, Niners, and Botls fans are sick
Philly fans hyped about Michael Vick
Can't wait for the day
When I can finally say
That I got to shake Eli Manning's hand.
Peace
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