Trying to reassure yourself that it’s just one game and that what happens in the first week of the N.F.L. season won’t matter in the end? Sorry, but it does. Since 1978, when the league went to a 16-game season (and not counting the strike-shortened 1987 season), the teams that won on the first weekend of the season were more than twice as likely to reach the playoffs than the losers. With that sobering thought in mind, here’s a look at what we saw on the first Sunday:
WHO MISSED THE MEMO ON SCORING? Sure, New Orleans, Baltimore and Philadelphia went crazy, racking up 121 points combined, but there were just six games with at least 40 total points heading into the night game. Last season, the first weekend featured nine such games.
On Sunday, the Broncos beat the Bengals, 12-7, on an Immaculate Reception-type catch by Brandon Stokley. (Paging Carson Palmer and Chad Ochocinco, the season has started.) The Colts beat the Jaguars, 14-12; the Falcons beat the Dolphins, 19-7; and going back to Thursday, the Steelers beat the Titans, 13-10. Even the Cowboys, who finished with 34 points, started slowly before exploding in the second half.
One thing to blame is ragged play by starters who did not play much in the preseason. The worst news of all is that the proposal to go to an 18-game regular season will probably limit even further how much game-speed action starters will get in the preseason, making for more uneven performances to come.
TROUBLE IN CAROLINA The Carolina Panthers have a big, big problem with quarterback Jake Delhomme. Delhomme was in playoff form Sunday, and that’s not a compliment. In the 38-10 loss to the Eagles, he threw four interceptions and lost a fumble before he was mercifully pulled from the game with an astonishing 14.7 quarterback rating.
The Panthers inexplicably gave Delhomme, a wonderful locker-room presence and all-around nice guy, a contract extension last off-season, despite his meltdown in the playoff game against Arizona (five interceptions and a fumble). The deal included $20 million guaranteed, and it’s very difficult to bench a player with so much money committed to him. But in his last seven quarters, Delhomme has had 11 turnovers, including nine interceptions in 51 pass attempts.
Delhomme’s confidence seems permanently shattered, and Carolina’s playoff hopes in the parity-filled National Football Conference South may crumble with it. Coach John Fox said that he did not think last season’s playoff game mattered and that he would start Delhomme next week at Atlanta. He doesn’t have much choice.
After Delhomme came out, his backup Josh McCown went in and promptly sustained a leg injury that caused him to be carted into the locker room. General Manager Marty Hurney may be answering all season why he miscalculated about the quarterback unless he swings a trade or signs an available quarterback (Jeff Garcia, anyone?) soon.
REMEMBER LAST YEAR It turns out that Serena Williams’s implosion Saturday night at the United States Open was a very bad omen for the Miami Dolphins, the team she just bought a share of. Unlike Williams, the Dolphins did not threaten anybody’s well-being Sunday, which, of course, is the whole point of football. All the things the Dolphins did right last season to engineer one of the greatest turnarounds in league history went wrong Sunday in a loss to the Falcons.
Last year, they tied an N.F.L. record with just 13 turnovers. On Sunday, they had four, including two by quarterback Chad Pennington. Last year, the franchise left tackle Jake Long yielded just two and a half sacks. In four quarters Sunday, Long — who had struggled in limited action during the preseason — gave up two sacks.
And the Wildcat, the flavor-of-the-month offense the Dolphins hoped to expand with the rookie quarterback Pat White, went nowhere. Perhaps that is an indication that with the element of surprise gone, it is about to become just like any other offensive play: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
This is what happens to teams after Cinderella seasons: they get tougher schedules (the Dolphins have one of the toughest in the N.F.L. this year) and they get studied. Every defensive coordinator pored over tape of the Wildcat this off-season, anticipating — correctly — that more teams would incorporate it.
And they did not just limit their viewing to the relatively rudimentary Wildcat plays the Dolphins ran last season. They dug deep into college film. Not good news for the Dolphins. Next up are Indianapolis and San Diego, so an 0-3 start is entirely plausible. Even before the Patriots play a down, you can feel the balance of power in the American Football Conference East shifting back to Foxborough.
WAITING FOR VICK T-minus two weeks until the quarterback controversy is in full flower in Philadelphia. That’s when Michael Vick is eligible to play again, and it doesn’t help that Donovan McNabb, who did not exactly light it up, going 10 of 18 for 79 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 interception (the Eagles got touchdowns on a punt return and a fumble return), fractured a rib while rushing for a touchdown. The Eagles will update his condition Monday for next week’s game against the Saints, but even if he doesn’t miss time, rib injuries tend to linger.
Still, with Vick in the wings, McNabb will certainly force himself to play, even if he’s impaired. Whether or not they want to admit it, the Eagles opened this can of worms when they acquired Vick, especially because they have acknowledged that they want Vick to prepare to be a quarterback, not just someone to run Wildcat plays. They never thought they’d have to deal with a controversy after Week 1, though.
By JUDY BATTISTA
source: www.nytimes.com
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