Big Surprises in NFL Week 1

The 2011 NFL Season kicked off with a big BANG! IT started last thursday with the first game of the year and a battle of the last two Super Bowl Champions in the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers. This was a highs scoring affair as the Packers pulled one out by a 42-35 score. Arron Rogers showed why he has the reigns and making sure quickly that Packers fans forget all about Brett Farve. Of the local football clubs the Giants fall short to the Redskins 28-14. Eli Manning went 18 of 32 for 288 yards. His favorite targert was Hackem Nicks who caught 7 passes for 122 yards. The Giants offense shown good life through the first half but then all of a sudden no showed in the second half and allowed the Skins to walk back into the contest. If this is a sign of things to come in the future weeks for the Giants then it could be a very long season for Big Blue.

As for Gang Green the Jets had a tough go around with Dallas. The Jets took the game 27-24 in a close contest. Mark Sanchez of the Jets went 26 of 44 for 335 yards 2 TDs and a Pick. Looking at this as a Jets fan I'm a bit worried. I was a bit alarmed to find he threw 44 passes and barley completed half of them. I don't know how long he can hold up and get the Jets to the Playoffs. The other question I had from this game was the Jets running game. The Jets only ran the ball 15 times 10 carries by Shawn Greene for 26 Yards and LT had 5 Carries for 16 yards. Again as a Jets fan I'm hoping the running game turns up again or this could be a long season for us Jets Fans. There were a few bright spots for Gang Green. The biggest one on offense was Plaxico Burress. He had a TD Catch and started to show some flashes of his former self before his prison sentence. On Defense the punt unit came up huge blocking a Cowboys punt leading to the Game Tying Touchdown. And of course there was Derrel Revis interception that set up the game winnning field goal. Tony Romo of Dallas came out flying but after he lost his two biggest targets at wide reciever he seemed to shut down. But if your looking at the Jets next week against The jaguars.

So looking around the rest of the NFL one of the biggest surprises was the Buffalo Bills who exploded for 41 points as they blasted the Chiefs 41-7. The Buffalo Bills had been what most would call a bad team, I just never knew the Bills had it in them. Another surprise was the Miami Dolphins as they put up a fight against the New England Patriots but the Pats proved to be too much taking the game 38-24.

The two biggest performers from Week 1 for me were both Quarterbacks. First was Cam Newton. The rookie QB for Carolina played a great first game in the NFL throwing for 422 yards breaking the old record held by Payton Manning. Have to admit it was a pretty good opening day for Newton and I have to admit he put up a good fight on the opener. But the big question for him is how he handles next week against the Packers. The other big story was Tom Brady of the Pats who threw for over 500 yards in the monday night win over the Dolphins. I knew the guy was good but come on!