NFL Season 100 is here and so is the second season of my Monday Morning Quarterback posts. If you are a new reader of this series just remember I am a Dallas Cowboys fan and I'm extremely biased. Hence why I am only celebrating 60 years of NFL football. Who cares what happened before Dallas joined the league?
Anyway here are the different thoughts and opinions I have on various things that occurred during Week 1. Feel free to agree or disagree about anything mentioned here. All comments are welcome. Not necessarily respected, but welcome just the same.
Zeke Who?
All the talk around Dallas during the preseason centered around Zeke Elliott's holdout. QB Dak Prescott didn't care. He came out firing on Sunday with 256 passing yards and 3 TD's in the first half to lead the Cowboys to an impressive 35-17 victory over the Giants.
Zeke for his part had a quiet day: 13 rushes for 51 yards 1TD and 1 reception for 10 yards. That was expected since he missed the entire preseason. Instead Dallas's new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore drew up a pass heavy game plan and the offensive line gave Dak plenty of time to execute it. He finished the game with a perfect passer rating with this line: 25/32 405 yards 4 TD passes 0 INT. Prescott becomes only the 2nd Cowboy in the team's history to finish a regular season game with a perfect passer rating. Do you know who the other QB is? Staubach? Aikman? Romo? Meredith? Nope. It was Craig Morton in 1969 against the Eagles.
Dak spread the ball around hitting 7 different receivers with Michael Gallup ( 7 for 158) and Amari Cooper (6 for 106 and a TD) leading the way. Newcomer Randall Cobb also had a nice game (4 for 69 and a TD). Cobb is a serious upgrade over the departed Cole Beasley. Beasley was good if you needed a 6 yard gain. Otherwise he didn't do much.
It was great to see Jason Witten in a Cowboys uniform again. Alright he wasn't that great in the Monday Night Football booth, but he was far from the worst. How many years did we have to suffer through the wit and wisdom of Dan Dierdorf? Let alone the non-football announcers. Anyway Witten also hauled in a TD pass and then he simply handed the ball to the referee. How refreshing. I don't mind TD dances but last season the rehearsed celebrations involving 7 or 8 guys were getting on my nerves.
Saquon Barkley had his usual brilliant day on the ground (11 rushes for 120 yards) for the Giants. Why the Giants don't give him more carries I'll never understand. Twice on third & short and once on fourth & 1 the Giants handed the ball off to someone else. They failed all three times. So stupid. Oh well, good for the Cowboys.
Preseason is overrated? I don't think so.
The past two months I've been beaten over the head by media reports saying players and coaches don't think preseason games are important. They think training camp and joint practices are enough. I wonder how many of them will feel the same way when they watch the Week 1 game film.
Did you watch that Packers-Bears game last Thursday? What a snoozefest. The Packers squeaked out a 10-3 win by sucking slightly less than the Bears. If you enjoy tons of mental mistakes, stupid penalties and teammates not being on the same page this game was for you.
They aren't alone. The Eagles sleepwalked through the first half against the Redskins and were down 20-7 at the half. They must have handed out smelling salts at halftime to wake them up, they came back to beat the Skins 32-27. The Rams-Panthers game was similar, a lot of nothing in the first half before each team came out to play in the second half. Rams 30 Panthers 27. I'm not sure either the Falcons or Steelers are aware the season even started.
This is what happens when players don't get many or any preseason snaps. Week 1 rolls around and they aren't sufficiently prepared. Nobody is in sync, tons of bonehead penalties, crappy football in general. I don't care how much you practice, nothing can take the place of actually competing on the field. A lot of teams looked rusty out of the gate, some of them never seemed to shake it off. It's only going to get worse in the future as more and more teams are afraid to let high price talent get some work in before the season starts.
The Hype is over in Cleveland. It was fun while it lasted. (Not really)
Speaking of being beaten over the head, I could have done without all the hype over the Cleveland Browns. CBS bought into it. They sent their #1 broadcasting duo of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo to cover the team's season opener against the Tennessee Titans. I hope they enjoyed it. The Titans sure did, they handed the Browns a 43-13 ass whooping.
Like many games this week it started slow, with each team plodding through the first half. The Browns did one thing well in the first half: racking up personal fouls. They were hit with 5, including left tackle Greg Robinson getting ejected for kicking a Titan in the face. Nice display of sportsmanship and discipline. The Titans came out firing in the 3rd quarter and ran away with the game.
Can we stop talking nonsense about the Browns now? I didn't (and still don't) understand all the hype. Mayfield had a few nice games last year against subpar defenses. When he faced anybody good he had games much like this one: 25/38 285 yards 1 TD 3 INTs. He needs to take several steps forward before he can lead a team to playoff success. Odell Beckham Jr. is a solid addition, when he is healthy. Let's see how long that lasts. He has trouble staying on the field and wasn't able to lead the Giants anywhere. Freddie Kitchens is a rookie Head Coach who barely has any experience as a coordinator.
I think it would be great if Cleveland had a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Their long suffering fans deserve it. But they aren't there yet. Not even close.
What the hell, more crap I'm tired of.
The Antonio Brown Saga. Good Grief. I'm not going to rehash all the sordid details here. Like the title says I'm tired of his crap.
Conspiracy theories are abound that Brown deliberately forced the Raiders to release him because he secretly made a deal with the Patriots. Duh, that's not a conspiracy. It's the obvious truth.
And you know what? I'm glad he ended up in New England. Let him mess up the Patriots from within. Do you really believe he is going to start acting normally just because he's with the Patriots? Maybe for a few weeks. But once an ass, always an ass. If you need a refresher you can read this well written post Antonio Brown doesn't need football. How long do you think the Patriots will play under "his rules"? Not too long I would guess.
The general feeling now is this makes the Patriots Super Bowl favorites. Hmm. How many Super Bowls did the Patriots win with Randy Moss? I'll give you a hint. Zero. Well that's not actually a hint, it's the answer. Don't say I never did anything for you.
Random Stuff
Did you see the Vernon Davis TD against Philly? Click the video if you didn't, it was pretty awesome. Damn Eagles learn how to tackle! On second thought don't. I don't like you guys anyway.
Heard a lot of opinions that Patrick Mahomes wouldn't have a big game against the vaunted Jaguars defense. Then he threw for over 300 yards against them. In the first half. Don't ever bet against that guy. Chiefs beat up the Jaguars 40-26.
Baltimore absolutely destroyed the Dolphins 59-10. Are they that good or is Miami that bad? Probably some of both, although Miami is terrible. Last season Lamar Jackson looked awful throwing the ball. On Sunday he looked like the second coming of Dan Marino: 17/20 324 yards 5 TDs 0 INTs. I don't care who it was against, that is an impressive stat line. If Jackson continues to improve his passing the Ravens are going to be a dangerous team.
Speaking of the Dolphins, they have the famous NFL journeyman QB Ryan Fitzpatrick starting under center. He threw a TD pass on Sunday, making him the first quarterback to throw a TD pass with 8 different teams. I'm not sure if that's a good record to have or not. Screw it, let's go with good. I like him.
Colt's kicker Adam Vinatieri 24th season in the NFL started with a thud. He missed an extra point (only the 19th time in his career) and fields goals from 29 & 46 yards. If he made any of those kicks the Colts could have beat the Chargers in regulation instead of losing 30-24 in overtime. Still it was a good showing on the road for Indianapolis. Even though Luck is gone they still have a good team.
Kyler Murray had a weird debut for the Cardinals. Entering the fourth quarter the Lions had a 24-6 lead over Arizona and Murray only had 58 passing yards. Worse yet he was sacked by one of his own players. Click the video on the left to watch, it's hilarious.
Then something happened. It's a strange phenomenon that seems to hang around the NFL every year known as "The Lions being The Lions". The Cardinals stormed back to score 18 unanswered points to force overtime. Each team hit a field goal in overtime and the game ended in a 27-27 tie.
Murray, who stunk for 3 quarters, hit 21/31 for 250 yards with 2 TDs and 2-point conversion in the 4th quarter and overtime. Talk about a turnaround. He'll face a tougher test next week against Baltimore.
The Lions on the other hand wasted some outstanding offensive performances. Matt Stafford threw for 385 yards and 3 TDs. Rookie Tight End T.J. Hockenson hauled in 6 passes for 131 yards, a new NFL record for receiving yardage by a TE in his first game.
The statistics for Week 1 certainly show the times have changed in the NFL over the years. Only 5 running backs managed to top 100 yards rushing, led by the Colt's Marlon Mack's 174 yard afternoon. Todd Gurley came close with 97 rushing yards. On the other hand, 17 receivers topped 100 reception yards with 5 more topping 90 yards. Sammy Watkins led the way with 198 yards.
Somebody had to throw all those passes to the receivers. 12 quarterbacks topped 300 passing yards. Andy Dalton led everyone with 418 yards, Dak Prescott was right on his heels with 405. It certainly is a passing league these days.
Unless you root for the Vikings. The Vikings beat the Falcons 28-12. Minnesota QB Kirk Cousins didn't exactly light up the sky: 8/10 98 yards 1 TD. Yup, the Vikings won handily at home with a quarterback who didn't even top 100 passing yards. He didn't have to, the Vikings scored all of their points after Atlanta turnovers. Maybe the Falcons could have used a little more preseason game reps. Just saying.
Let me know your thoughts about Week 1. I hope your favorite team had a good showing. Unless of course you don't root for Dallas. In that case I don't really care.
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