Mon Sep 8 11:46:05 2008

Comment | Email | Print

Line of Scrimmage: A Week 1 Honeymoon

---

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Ah, the honeymoon period. It's a beautiful thing when your love is new, when you gaze into your spouse's eyes and dream of your future together. In those halcyon days just after you've made your union official, it's hard to imagine a day when you'll be fighting over covers like Braxton Bragg and William Rosecrans at the Battle of Chickamauga.

(Note: This is in no way a comment on my beloved eight-months-pregnant wife, whose control over the thermostat I will not question, despite our house's current approximation to Godthab, Greenland).

Indeed, a bunch of high-profile NFL players and coaches were awash in the glow of wedded bliss on Sunday - Matt Ryan, Michael Turner, and Mike Smith in Atlanta, Joe Flacco and John Harbaugh in Baltimore, and of course, Brett Favre with the New York Jets. That the honeymoon can't possibly last, and that darker days will one day be upon all of the above, isn't the point. Not today anyway.

Nope, September 7th was about cutting the cake, smiling for pictures, and watching your drunken friends make fools of themselves on the dance floor.

Ryan's first pass as a pro was a 62-yard touchdown strike to Michael Jenkins, and Atlanta was a 34-21 home winner against favored Detroit. Ryan was efficient - 9-of-13 for 161 yards and a touchdown - and that's all he had to be, given the day that Turner had. Liberated from his backup status in San Diego, LaDainian Tomlinson's ex-caddy piled up 220 yards on 22 carries with two touchdowns, including a 66-yard scamper in the first quarter. Smith, meanwhile, watched like a beaming parent as the Falcons handed him his first win.

"I'm very proud of our football team," Smith said. "To go out and play the way they did today, they had fun today playing the game. We ran the ball extremely well, which is something that we talked about doing from the very beginning. The team played extremely hard."

Flacco's performance in a 17-10 win over the Bengals made rookie QBs 2-0 on Sunday. The Delaware product connected on 15-of-29 passes for 129 yards and a low-speed, 38-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that was the longest rush of his career - either as a collegian or pro. Like Ryan, Flacco is going to have life very easy if his team continues to run the ball as it did on Sunday. Ray Rice (another rookie) and Le'Ron McClain combined for 150 yards on 41 carries, and the Ravens were 6-for-6 on 3rd-and-1 plays on a day in which Harbaugh seemed to push many of the right buttons.

"Give credit to our football team," said the former Philadelphia Eagles assistant. "That was a team effort starting with our coordinators - Cam Cameron, Rex Ryan, Jerry Rosburg - just tremendous game plans. I think you saw the style of football they've been promoting throughout training camp and the offseason, and it was there today."

Then, of course, there was Favre, who would have been the top story of Week 1 had it not been for Tom Brady's first-quarter injury against the Chiefs (more on that later).

A 56-yard touchdown pass to Jerricho Cotchery in the first got Favre started during a day in which he would finish 15-of-22 for 194 yards with a pair of scores in a 20-14 win over the Dolphins.

"I had a great career in Green Bay, but that's over and done with," Favre told reporters after the game. "It's what I do this year. It was shaky [Sunday], but it was a good start. You can never question a win."

The heat gets turned up for all of the newbies next week. The Falcons travel to meet the defending division champion Buccaneers, Baltimore faces a Houston team with something to prove following a bad Week 1 loss to the Steelers, and Favre and the Jets will try to snap the Patriots' 20-game regular season winning streak.

If they fail to sustain Sunday's magic, that wedding champagne is going to taste awfully flat. Sort of the way it tasted to guys like Chad Pennington, Tony Sparano, J.T. O'Sullivan, and Jim Zorn in Week 1.

TEAR-RIBLE DAY FOR PATS

The report out of New England is dire: Tom Brady has a torn left ACL that will, in all likelihood, end his season. Brady was hit by Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard near the end of the first quarter of the Pats' 17-10 win over Kansas City, limped off the field, and was not seen or heard from again. Matt Cassel (13-of-18, 152 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT) relieved Brady and played reasonably well in leading New England to a narrower victory than most expected.

Lots of people are going to say New England is done without Brady, but I'm going to disagree. The Patriots remain the best team in the AFC East, and will still win this division. I know Cassel isn't Brady, but he doesn't have to be. The supporting cast still consists of guys named Moss, Welker, and Maroney, so while the Patriots don't figure to be as dominant or score 589 points again, Cassel will be good enough to get them to the playoffs.

Can they be a Super Bowl team without Brady? Well, you might remember that back in 2001, a ton of folks said they couldn't be one with him. Cassel is in basically the exact same situation Tom Terrific was when he burst onto the scene, only he has better players around him and has had more time in the offense that has Brady.

OTHER HURTS

-The Titans lost quarterback Vince Young to what was reported by NFL Network as a torn left MCL late in Tennessee's 17-10 win over the Jaguars. Jacksonville linebacker Daryl Smith jumped to block a Young pass and fell directly on the lower half of the quarterback's left leg. Young needed crutches to get around after the game, and will reportedly miss 2-4 weeks.

-Kansas City quarterback Brodie Croyle was also knocked out of Sunday's game at Gillette Stadium, separating his throwing shoulder in the third quarter of the defeat. Croyle (11-of-19, 88 yards) left with the score 14-3, and veteran backup Damon Huard (8-of-12, 118 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) generally out-performed the third-year pro, who will miss two weeks, according to NFL Network.