Week 1 Judgements: Inspired Saints start season off right
By Clark Judge | CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer Follow Clark1. Congratulations to Jim Haslett and the New Orleans Saints. They pulled off the improbable with a 23-20 win at Carolina, and that's two-for-two for Haslett. He beat the Panthers there in last year's season finale, ruining Carolina's playoff hopes, and he beat them there again Sunday. Now he and the Saints are home -- at Giants Stadium -- for next Monday's game, and for those who think it's a competitive disadvantage for New Orleans, check out what happened to LSU this weekend. The Tigers won their "home game" at Arizona State.
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| Jim Haslett and the Saints give their fans something to feel good about. (AP) |
3. The key to San Francisco's upset of St. Louis? An effective pass rush. The 49ers dropped Marc Bulger seven times. A year ago they sacked him once in two losses.
4. I don't know what I like more about Drew Bledsoe's performance: the three touchdowns or no interceptions. A year ago the Cowboys had one three-touchdown performance from Vinny Testaverde, but it was against weakling Detroit. Testaverde also had at least one interception in all but one of the Cowboys' last 10 games -- six of which they lost.
5. What did I tell you about Giants rookie Brandon Jacobs? The guy is what Ron Dayne was supposed to be, only five years later.
6. At the rate the New York Jets' Chad Pennington is going, he'll set a league record for fumbles by the fourth week of the season. Yes, that was Pennington who fumbled six times -- including five in the first half -- in Sunday's 27-7 loss to Kansas City. It was a performance that reminded me of Kurt Warner's 2003 opener when he dropped the ball six times against the New York Giants.
7. Once I thought Miami's Ricky Williams had no future with this year's Dolphins. Now I'm convinced he does. People within the organization insist that Williams, who is serving a four-game suspension, will not be dealt when he returns because coach Nick Saban is willing to give the guy a chance. They also say that if Williams doesn't screw up he will be with the club next season, too.
8. I want to see Pittsburgh try to sit down running back Willie Parker when Jerome Bettis and Duce Staley return. All Parker's done is rush for 263 yards in his last 6 1/2 quarters, including 102 in last year's season finale against Buffalo. Parker has something Bettis and Staley do not -- speed. Now, he may have a starting spot.
10. Yeah, count me among those who thought the departure of Moss would not hurt the Vikings. In fact, I thought it would help, with the club committed to putting muscle into a defense that needed it. I know it's only one game, but did you notice that no Minnesota receiver had more than 45 yards in catches against Tampa Bay? Moss had 130 with Oakland.
11. What's so remarkable about the performances of Kansas City running backs Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson Sunday was that they blew through the Jets while losing Pro Bowl tackle Willie Roaf to a hamstring injury. The loss of Roaf forced the Chiefs to shuffle their offensive line, moving right tackle Jordan Black to left tackle and replacing him with Chris Bober on the right side. So what happened? Holmes and Johnson combined or 195 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Scary.
12. Now I know why Jerry Rice didn't want to play in Denver.
13. So much for that "sophomore slump" by Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger. OK, so he only threw 11 times. He also threw for 218 yards and two touchdowns.
14. Nice day for Denver's Ashley Lelie. He had as many penalties (two) as he did catches.
15. Nobody can feel worse about the San Diego loss than Chargers GM A.J. Smith. He suspended tight end Antonio Gates for Sunday's opener when he didn't sign a contract by a Smith-imposed deadline, then realized his worst-case scenario Sunday against Dallas. The Chargers missed Gates on that last drive when they missed four shots at the end zone from the Dallas 7, including one to his replacement, Justin Peelle. Oh, one other thing: One pass attempt to LaDainian Tomlinson? C'mon, guys.
Just wondering ...
- When the St. Louis Rams figure out that special teams is part of the game.
- If there is a better defensive coordinator than Washington's Gregg Williams.
- If this is what we should expect from Jon Gruden and Tampa Bay now that he has a balanced attack.
- Why LaDainian Tomlinson didn't touch the ball more.
- If somewhere Paul Hackett is smiling.
Going Up
1. Pittsburgh RB Willie Parker ... Speed kills, and Parker just proved it
2. San Francisco coach Mike Nolan ... And he did it without Alex Smith
3. Kansas City defense ... You heard me: No rushing first downs. The Monsters of the Midwest live!
4. Dallas QB Drew Bledsoe ... The statue can play! The statue can play!
5. Miami coach Nick Saban ... Best thing to happen to Miami since umbrellas
6. Indianapolis 'D' ... Yes, the rest of the AFC should be concerned
Going Down
1. Denver QB Jake Plummer ... Wow, can someone please get a pulse?
2. Green Bay ... If I'm Brett Favre, I'm wondering why I returned
3. Jets QB Chad Pennington ... Memo to Herm: Buy him the "Sticky Fingers" LP
4. Minnesota QB Daunte Culpepper ... Somewhere, a fantasy-football geek is cursing
5. Oakland Pride and Poise ... You call 16 penalties poise?
6. Kyle Boller ... Injured toe gets boo birds off his back.
You make the call ...
Yes, those are the San Francisco 49ers on top of the NFC West, and kudos to coach Mike Nolan for putting them there in the first week. My question is: How many games do you think they win this year? Four? Six? Eight? Already Nolan has them halfway to last year's total.
The Peanut Gallery Strikes Back
(Each week I enlist the help of readers, who provide their analyses of what they just saw from their favorite team.)
Anthony from San Diego on Chargers' 28-24 loss:
"I was incredibly disappointed. The pass rush was horrendous, and the offensive line didn't do a very good job, either. Yet they still had a chance on that last drive, but those last four downs came down to this: You have the best running back in football, and you don't run him one time? I don't understand. I thought the loss of (tight end Antonio) Gates was tremendous because of the dropped balls we had. But the bottom line is this: I'm concerned with the defense because I thought the secondary looked terrible. You let Drew Bledsoe throw three touchdowns? C'mon. Are you going to tell me he's better than Peyton? What more do you have to say? The run defense was good, but the secondary doesn't looked improved -- and that's reason to be worried."
Rich Q. from Bills' Nation East on Buffalo's 22-7 win:
"The Texans did everything they could to stuff the run. The final numbers aside, the Texans actually did a pretty good job until the Bills' line wore them down. The key stat: A lot of people will say it was the Bills winning the turnover battle, but the real stat was the time of possession. The Bills had the ball over 38 minutes to the 21-plus of Houston. The Bills dominated the stats, and that was because they owned Houston at the point of attack. It wasn't necessarily pretty, but the Bills -- if they are going to win -- will likely be this way. Houston had nothing on offense, and you have to expect that the Bills defense dominates. Secret weapon play: 305-pound tight end-converted-to-offensive tackle Jason Peters got the touchdown on an eligible play at the goal line. When you have a guy who is 6-5 and 305 pounds, and he actually moves well, that is scary to other teams. Bottom line: Last year the Bills defense did enough to win the opener, but the offense only scored 10 -- and Jacksonville took a tired Bills defense to the house on the last play. Though the Bills' defense punished the Texans as they did Jacksonville last year, the offense put 22 on the board. And 1-0 feels a lot better than 0-1. "
