Week 1 in the NFL

Football season is finally back!  Here are some things that I noticed from Week 1.

• Last year we saw a rejuvenated Brett Favre have one of the best seasons of his Hall of Fame career in leading the Vikings to the playoffs.  This year Favre looks like an old man with a bad ankle. 
• The refs may have gotten the call correct based on the letter of the law, but that Calvin Johnson play in the endzone should have been a catch.  Common sense from watching the play says it's a catch.  It's the rule that needs to change to allow refs to make common sense decisions.
• The "no catch" call cost the Lions their game against the Bears, but it didn't cost them as much as the loss of injured QB Matthew Stafford.  The promising young QB needs to play to develop, and he's dangerously close to now carrying the injury prone tag, which could lead to him being known as a bust.
• The Miami/Buffalo game was just ugly.  How are people considering the Dolphins as contenders?
• Chris Johnson had a monster game (142 yards) against a terrible Raiders team, but he's still not on pace for the 2500 yards he promised for this season (needs to over 156/game).
• The Titans/Raiders game made me really glad the Patriots have Oakland's first round pick this year, no matter how much we could use Richard Seymour right now.
• The Patriots offense is still elite.  Wes Welker looks like he hasn't lost a step after a serious knee injury only 9 months ago. 
• The young Patriots defense may be inconsistent, but could be better than people think.
• Where were Chad OchoCinco and TO on the last play of the first half when the Bengals desperately needed a Hail Mary play to help get them back in the game?  In the locker room, probably Tweeting.
• I've always thought Eli Manning was overrated because of his last name, but he's got 3 good young receivers that will make him look good this year.  Last year Steve Smith had a breakout season.  This year it'll be Hakeem Nicks.
• Atlanta can't be considered a playoff pick if they can't beat a Steelers team using their 3rd string QB. 
• The Falcons and Steelers both looked pretty mediocre on offense all game, without any really big plays, but the game ends in OT on a 50 yard TD run?  Really??
• The Steelers will be thrilled to open the season 2-2.  Anything better than that and Steelers fans will have an excuse to want to get rid of Ben Rape-lisburger, but anything worse than that may doom their playoff chances before Big Ben can get back on the field.
• Breaking news: Jake Delhomme still throws Interceptions
• The Broncos need to use Tim Tebow's gimmick plays to give people a reason to care about their team.  Not much else going on there.
• At least we don't have to sit through week after week of people asking if the Colts can go undefeated.  Got that one out of the way early!
• The Colts defense is awful.  If Bob Sanders is out for the season they will become even worse.  Foster is good, but not that good.  I could have run for at least 100 yards in that game given the holes he had to run through.
• This is the blueprint to beat the Colts.  They can't stop the run and it keeps Manning off the field.  Is it possible they could miss the playoffs?  Oh, I hope so!
• Derek Anderson isn't good, but he did better than Matt Leinhert would have done.  Sorry Arizona fans, Kurt Warner is not walking back through that door.
• The Packers won despite their offense not really clicking.  How good can they be once they are running on all cylinders?
• Kevin Kolb was awful in the first half before leaving with an injury.  Yet he still needs to be the QB for this team once he's healthy enough to play.  No QB controversy here.  Vick showed flashes of his old self by running all over the place, but he won't be able to do that when teams have time to gameplan for him.  He was never great at throwing the ball with any accuracy and after not doing it full time in about 4 years he certainly isn't any better at it now. 
• Andy Reid should be fined for allowing Kolb and Bradley to temporarily go back in the game after suffering concussions.  He risked further brain damage, their careers and potentially even their lives.  I thought the league had come to know better about these things by now.
• Maybe the 49ers aren't a lock to win the NFC West.  The division is slightly more wide open now, but only because this game showed that ALL teams in that division are terrible.
• Penalties and bone-head plays cost the Cowboys a win.  I have a feeling we'll be saying that a lot this year.
• The Redskins/Cowboys game had an exciting finish that was ruined by a bad holding penalty.  It's one thing if the Redskins defense stepped up to stop the drive, but for the game to end on a penalty is just lame.
• I had Tony Romo in one of my fantasy leagues.  If that game winning TD wasn't called back then I would have gotten 4 points for that TD.  I lost my weekly matchup by 3 points.
• The Ravens and Jets played an ugly defensive battle.  The Jets offense looked terrible and couldn't even throw the ball against a Baltimore secondary that is banged up and supposedly vulnerable.  Still think the Sanchize can lead NY to a Superbowl?  Me neither.
• The Jets killed themselves on penalties.  They were penalized for running into the kicker, keeping the Ravens drive alive.  Instead of the 3 point FG they ended up scoring a TD on the drive, in part due to ANOTHER Jets penalty - pass interference, giving the Ravens the ball at the 1 yard line.  That gave away an extra 4 points as a gift.  The Jets lost by 1 point.
• I still don't think the Chiefs are better than we thought, I just think the Chargers are even worse than we thought. 
• Jamaal Charles is the most explosive RB in the league not named Chris Johnson.
• Heavy rain contributed to sloppy field conditions, but can it be blamed on the sloppy play of the Chargers?
• Week 1 has me second guessing some of my pre-season predictions.
• Week 2 will probably make me want to change my mind again.  Stay tuned...