NFL Week 1: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The Good: The Good teams don't appear to be as good as oddsmakers might have thought, especially teams in the AFC. The Steelers opened up the regular season campaign at home with a hard fought overtime win over Tennessee. The Steelers running offense looked horrenedous versus the Titans, and Ben Roethlisberger will need more support from his running mates if the Steelers want to hoist their seventh Vince Lombardi trophy in February. On Monday night, for 55 minutes, the Patriots did not even remotely resemble the squad that oddsmakers considered the clear cut team to win the Super Bowl.

The Bad: The Bad are not as bad as we thought. Lets start with the worst from last year, the winless Lions. Detroit didnt cover last week against the Saints and let Drew Brees throw for six TDs. This team will improve record wise no matter what, but they will give enough of a consistent effort throughout this season that will impress even the most skeptical Lions fan. The Kansas City Chiefs should really be commended for there effort against the Ravens, considering they didnt even have their starting QB Matt Cassel

The Ugly: I am amazed many subpar and selfish starting quarterbacks there are in the NFL. Jake Delhomme almost had a worse day in week 1 in the 38-10 loss to Philly (4 INTs) than he did in last year's 33-13 playoff loss to the Cardinals (5 INTs).  If JaMarcus Russell really wants to improve the Raiders chance of winning, he needs to put in the extra hours with coaches.  Russell missed open receivers on two blatant occassions that would have kept 2nd half drives alive, when the Raiders had control of the game. Jay Cutler, matched Delhomme in interceptions with four of his own against the Packers. Cutler needs to recognize his team's strengths at the moment (which is handing the ball to Matt Forte) until  he develops more of a rapport with his receivers. Until Cutler believes in the marathon, not a sprint mentality, the Bears will suffer.

Why Two Heads is Not Better than One

I guess Michigan State's head coach Mark Dantonio didnt read my blog last week (go figure) when I chastized Rutgers Greg Schiano for rotating starting quarterbacks. The result, Dantonio's Spartans lost straight up to Central Michigan 29-27, in a game they were favored by 15 points.  Unless you have a system where your a top notch program like Florida, rotating quarterbacks in college football will fail. There is a reason that you hardly ever see any schools rotate quarterbacks, its because it doesnt work. Chris Leak and Tim Tebow were both two of the most highly recruited quaterbacks over the past 10 years so thats one reason why Urban Meyer rotated them. Also, keep in mind that each of these players possessed a vastly different physical presence so thats why Meyer would rotate them. After Rutgers and Michigan State's recent embarrassing losses at home, I wouldnt anticipate either Dantonio or Schiano going mad scientist and rotating quarterbacks a month from now.

Forcier or Barkley: Who's Better, Who Cares?

Couple remarkable freshmen performances last week by Michigan's Tate Forcier and USC's Matt Barkley. Forcier runs for a 31 yard TD in the 4th quarter and passes for another TD with 11 seconds left to beat Notre Dame. Barkley leads USC on a 15 play, 81 yard touchdown drive at Ohio State to keep USC's national title hopes alive and kicking. Many NFL quarterbacks would be better served if they followed the poise that these two freshman possessed last week considering the magnitude of the games.  At this point in each of their careers, lets not even worry about the comparisons until a couple of years from now.

Perry's Performer of the Week:  Mark Sanchez. To throw for over 270 yards and score an impressive win like that over Houston. Huge perfomance to see out of an NFL rookie QB, especially on the road. Could we see another QB win rookie of the year?  Looks like this Trojan isn't a dud like Leinart or Booty.

Perry's Pet of the Week: (off to the Doghouse you Go!):  Charlie Weis, head coach Notre Dame. Obviously this guy has never played an organized game of football past age 8. Weis is supposed to be an offensive guru, yet it took him way too long to relay plays to Jimmy Clausen. Also, the play-calling when Notre Dame had the lead and the ball with 3 minutes remaining was atrocious