Week 1 is notoriously the craziest week of the NFL season outside of the wild card round of the playoffs, where everything can and will happen and with a lot of stuff going on that no one could predict (*cough*Cam Newton*cough*). Anyway, on to the highlights:
Saints 34 - Packers 42: Well, at least we knew going in that this was going to be a high scoring affair and the past two winners of the Lombardi trophy didn't disappoint. On the other hand, New Orleans fans might be a little disappointed with the failed play to Mark Ingraham to end the game.
Falcons 12 - Bears 30: Bachelorhood appears to agree with Jay Cutler and Chicago's defense clearly didn't agree with Matt Ryan. Comparison's between Ryan and Joe Flacco will probably be made throughout their careers, but one obviously has the edge at the moment.
Bengals 27 - Browns 17: I bet the fans of Cincinnati were planning on going to Carson Palmer's house to forcefully drag him out of retirement when Andy Dalton went down. But, as Oakland fans have learned, Bruce Gradkowski isn't that bad of a back-up.
Bills 41 - Chiefs 7: Oh boy, I don't know who's going to be more insufferable: Chris Berman crowing about Buffalo's win or Todd Haley whining about the loss.
Eagles 31 - Rams 13: No, I refuse to call Philadelphia the "Dream Team." There was only one Dream Team, who played an entirely different sport almost twenty years ago. Oh, and the injuries to St. Louis have to be discouraging.
Lions 27 - Buccaneers 20: Pundits have claimed that this game will determine who is the up-and-coming team in the NFC. Who had money on Detroit?
Titans 14 - Jaguars 16: New eras for both teams at the QB position, but there's still one constant: Maurice Jones-Drew.
Steelers 7 - Ravens 35: Statistically speaking, teams who played in the Super Bowl have an off year the following season, the loser more so. That said, this is something else.
Colts 7 - Texans 34: At least Indy has an excuse over Pittsburgh: their starting quarterback is out. Houston must be feeling like Lex Luthor whenever Superman decides to go on vacation.
Panthers 21 - Cardinals 28: Cam Newton! Man, if he played for a team other than Carolina, he'd be unstoppable.
Vikings 17 - Chargers 24: San Diego fans must cringe any time their special teams take the field. Minnesota fans must cringe whenever their quarterback du jour drops back to pass.
Seahawks 17 - 49ers 33: I think Jim Harbaugh has the 49ers offense figured out, actually: don't put Alex Smith in a position to lose the game. The second coming of Ted Ginn, Jr. helped, too.
Giants 14 - Redskins 28: While it was a happy day for Jack Harbaugh, Archie Manning's probably going to want to watch the season with his hands over his eyes.
Cowboys 24 - Jets 27: Hey, look! Tony Romo blew it again!
Patriots 38 - Dolphins 24: Chad Henne looked good, but Tom Brady looked better. That was likely due to Miami's D getting dragged up and down the field over and over again by New England.
Raiders 23 - Broncos 20: Oakland defeats another AFC West opponent and hasn't lost to anyone within their division since 2009. Well, if I wasn't dog-ass tired at the end of the game, you still could have knocked me over with a feather. Nah, just kidding.
Pick'em! Week 2: Not bad, folks, not bad. As I mentioned in the post-lockout thread, I'm running the office pick'em pool for my mother's office. The employee with a perfect score for Week One? An immigrant from Burma who proclaims to have zero football knowledge. Ignorance is bliss. Anyway, here are the results from last week, grouped by record and then by the order in which you entered-ish:
My record: 4-1
Your guys' record:
Enix: 5-0
Elliottx: 4-1
TheGameguru: 4-1
Nightmare: 4-1
Lars: 4-1
Minase: 4-1@
garion333: 3-2
iaintgotnopants: 3-2
jowner: 3-2*
boogle: 3-2*
*Legion*: 3-2*
oldmanscene24: 3-2
MilkmanDanimal: 2-3
Landshrk83: 2-3
bighoppa: 2-3
Kush15: 2-3
LeapingGnome: 2-3
Coolbeans: 2-3+
Jayhawker: 2-3+
Xeknos: 2-3@
Gumbie: 1-4
* = I'm calling you out for not bolding your entries like I asked you to.
+ = Coolbeans didn't have a tiebreaker and Jayhawker jumped in too late for Saints v. Packers, so I'm giving you both losses just so the game total matches everyone else.
@ = You two are only at the bottom of your respective sections because you had the Monday night games as your wild card and I was too tired to go back and reorganize things in chronological order.
Congrats to Enix for having a perfect week. Are you secretly Burmese? Anyways, here are the mandatory games for this week:
Chiefs at Lions: That was a bad loss for Kansas City. Can they turn it around in Detroit? Erm...no. Lions.
Buccaneers at Vikings: Tampa Bay can still make noise in the NFC South while Minnesota's defense was one of the few things that they got right. Barring the Bucs' kicker getting injured, I'm leaning towards the Buccaneers.
Chargers at Patriots: Oh good grief. The only way you'd pick San Diego at this point is if you're on the bottom looking up. Patriots
Rams at Giants: Iffy fingers for Sam Bradford and iffy everything else for Eli Manning. Oh, and Steven Jackson's hurt. And Tony Amendola. Giants.
As for my wild card pick, I'm going with 49ers over the Cowboys. Am I homering? Probably, but if Ted Ginn, Jr. won't burn Dallas, then a facepalm play by Tony Romo will. Remember, (*cough*boogle*cough*), bold your picks for winners to make it easier for me to sort out when I do the tally.
Enjoy the week, folks.
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