With week one of the 2012 NFL Season in the books, we figured it would be the perfect time to take a look back at the biggest surprises and disappointments of the opening week of the season. Of course we will be doing this by teams and individual players if the situation calls for it. First we start it off with looking at teams as a whole.
There were more real disappointments from week one from from teams then real surprises. First off their was the Giants play against the Dallas Cowboys on opening night. New York is the defending Super Bowl Champions and they beat the Cowboys to get into the playoffs last year. Dallas has had trouble handling the Giants lately and Cowboy Quarterback Tony Romo has had some big problems in the fourth quarter either winning games or holding leads. And Eli Manning has been really clutch for the Giants the last few years in leading fourth quarter comebacks. But the Giants didn't have that magic in week one and Tony Romo and the Boys were just better. I expected to see more life out of the G-Men to start the year then what I saw.
Another slight disappointment from week one was the Green Bay Packers. Green bay was coming off an awesome year last year going 15-1 before being upset by the Giants in the playoffs. I think the sting of losing that game to Big Blue in the playoffs got to the Packers and they haven't fully recovered. Granted they were playing a very very good San Fransisco 49ers club who last year went 13-3. Don't get me wrong the 49ers are a very good football team, but I was expecting a hot start from Rogers and the Packers then what actually happened. The Packers showed life near the end of the ball game but by that point it already seemed too late.
Those were some big disappointments from week one but there were also so big team surprises from week one as well. Aside from what the Cowboys did to the Giants on opening night, another surprise came out of New York, and it was the offensive explosion that came out of the Jets. Now I've said this in the past that pre-season games don't really amount to much except getting role players figured out and getting the starters somewhat familiar with the new offense. The fact that the Jets didn't score a touchdown in pre-season didn't bother me because the games really don't count. You're best players won't be playing full speed in games that don't count. When game time against the Bills rolled around, the Jets showed up and played their game. The offense and defense did what they were supposed to do in shutting down the Bills. What surprised me the most about the Jets win was the fact that they put up 48 points on the board, setting new franchise records for most points in a home opener and most points scored in opening weekend. Now the question is going to be can the Jets do that again next week against Pittsburgh in the Steele City.
Another pleasant surprise coming from the opening weekend was the victory by the Denver Broncos over a tough Pittsburgh defense. It showed me that the switching of quarterbacks in Denver has actually made the team better. Now Tim Tebow is now slouch by any means, but it goes to show you how much better a quarterback Payton manning is and how the year off due to injury hasn't hurt his game at all.
Now lets take a quick look at the surprises and disappointments from individual players from the opening week of the NFL season. Biggest surprises from quarterbacks in week one were Matthew Stafford of the Detroit Lions and Robert Griffin III of the Washington Redskins. Stafford went 32 of 48 for 355 yards and one touchdown. Only downside to Stafford was he was picked three times in the Lions win over St. Louis. As for RG3 he went 19 of 26 for 320 yards and two touchdowns in the Redskins win over New Orleans. In that same game Drew Brees went 24 of 52 for 339 yards three touchdowns and two interceptions. Payton Manning was also a surprise in week one leading his new team in the Broncos to a victory despite missing all of last year with the neck injury and having to learn the new system in Denver.
The big question marks I have going into week two are Michael Vick and Eli Manning. manning had a down night against the Cowboys in the sense that he wasn't able to really lead his team late in the game like we have seen from him in the past. As for Michael Vick I'm worried about the number of passing plays he has to run. Vick attempted 56 passing plays on Sunday and only completed 29 of them for a 51.0 passer rating. In order for the Eagles to be successful Vick has got to try and find a working groove in order to really run the offense. Vick threw too many passes for my liking and he was also picked four times and sacked twice which doesn't really help his cause. Philly got the win but they beat a much weaker Browns team. The Eagles need to come up with a slightly different offensive strategy for next Sunday when they play a much tougher Baltimore Ravens. And this is the same Ravens club who just lit up the Bengals like a cheap cigar on Monday Night Football so the Eagles and Michael Vick are gonna have a tough fight on their hands.
As for the running game last Sunday there were a few surprises. For the opening week of the season only five guys cracked the one hundred yard mark in rushing yards. C.J. Spiller led the pack with 169 yards in the loss to the Jets. DeMarco Murray ran for 131 yards in the win over the Giants. Stevan Ridley had 125 yards in the Pats win over the Titans. Frank Gore had 112 in the 49ers win over the Packers. Finally LeSean McCoy had 110 yards for the Eagles in the win over Cleveland.
Finally we look at the biggest surprises from the receivers from this past Sunday. The biggest winner was Reggie Wayne of the Colts who had nine catches for 135 yards. This proves to me really that Reggie Wayne can still be a top flight receiver in the NFL no matter who is throwing the ball to him. Another big surprise from the receivers from week one was Kevin Ogletree of the Dallas Cowboys who had eight catches for 114 yards and two touchdowns in the Cowboys win over the Giants opening night. Here's a guy in Ogletree who has been in the NFL since 2009, all with Dallas, but has mostly been a bench player. He finally gets a chance to get some regular reps during the regular season with the Cowboys and has a good showing with the eight catches in his first game. Will this be a sign of things to come who knows.
Oh and one final stat to throw out at you from week one. David Akers the kicker for the San Fransisco 49ers tied an NFL Record Sunday in Green Bay by nailing a 63-yard field goal at the end of the first half against the Green Bay Packers. Here's the video proof of the kick:
Akers tied the NFL record for the longest field goal, by kicking a 63 yard field goal off the crossbar. The record was originally set by Tom Dempsey, and is shared with Jason Elam and Sebastian Janikowski.
So there you have it, the hot and not so hot from week one!
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