After 10.5 hours and 11 games, I am feeling pretty good. I will admit that I wish I had more waters and less bloody marys at brunch, but you live and learn. In the end, I made it through my first Sunday with only a 20 minute nap (brought on by aforementioned bloody marys) and a slight back ache. My husband moved only once that I could tell during the entire 10.5 hours. He had 2 TVs in the living room and one game pulled up on the iPad. The couch was set up with 3 pillows from the bed and his favorite blanket and if you follow me on twitter (@gridiron4girls) you can see that every hair on his head was sticking straight up. I don't know if this is because he is stressed out about his fantasy football team, or just excited that football season is back; either way, I am looking forward to see how it behaves during the next 4 months. Truth be told, I didn't miss my lazy Sundays watching terrible "girlie" television. Instead, it was fun to watch something that so many people are passionate about, maybe even including me.
A LOT happened but here are the big stories coming out of the first Sunday:
-Remember when I told you that there were 5 rookies starting on Sunday, well you will be hearing one of their names a lot on Monday and that is Robert Griffin III but you should get use to calling him RG3. RG3 led the Washington Redskins to a 40-32 victory over the New Orleans Saints on the Saints' home field. He had 320 passing yards on only 26 attempts and on top of that he also rushed for 43 yards. In addition he added the longest touchdown pass by a rookie on opening day with a pass to Pierre Garçon for an 88 yard touchdown. If this kid put on that kind of performance in his first NFL start in a very intimidating road game there is no telling what is still to come, RG3 is the real deal.
- As for the other four rookies: Luck, starting for the Indianapolis Colts and trying to fill a very large void left by Peyton Manning, threw for over 300 yards but also threw 3 interceptions. Wilson showed some promise for the Seattle Seahawks, but nothing to write home about and don't even get me started on Ryan Tannehill for the Dolphins and Weeden for the Browns; they both got their fannies handed to them. Of the 5 starting rookies RG3 was the only one to get a win for his team.
-The San Francisco 49ers won at the Greenbay Packers for the first time since 1990. This is a HUGE win on the road for the 49ers against their NFC rivals. While the Packers made some moves to try and come back, in the end the 49ers simply outplayed Greenbay to win 30-22. Randy Moss, in his 14th season in the NFL had the first touchdown for SF and their kicker David Akers kicked a 63 yard field goal to end the first half; seriously, the ball bounced off the crossbar and just happened to fall on the right side of the goal. With that kind of luck on their side the 49ers were going to be hard to beat.
-During the 4 weeks of pre-season games the New York Jets played 4 games and scored 1 touchdown. 1 touchdown in 4 games. Maybe they were just saving them all for their season opener against the Buffalo Bills. The Jets won 48-28 setting a franchise record and silencing their critics. All the talk before the Jets game was about how they would use Tebow, but in the end Tebow all the credit has to go to Mark Sanchez for this decisive win. The Jets head coach, Rex Ryan, is somewhat famous for a lot of big talk. For now and for once it seems like he has kept his foot out of his mouth...so to speak.
- It was a wild one in Denver, the Steelers and the Broncos took traded the lead back and forth during all 4 quarters. Peyton Manning made his debut with the Denver Broncos after sitting out all last season after 4 surgeries on his neck. At the beginning of the game Manning and the Broncos didn't seem to quite have their mojo going, but that all changed in the 3rd quarter. At the beginning of the half Peyton Manning had been off the field for almost an hour. When he finally got his hands on the ball in the second half it took him 36 seconds to throw his 400th touchdown pass to Demariyus Thomas who took it 71 yards down the field. Manning joins the ranks of Dan Marino and Brett Favre with #400 and as the second half wore on he looked more and more like the Hall of Fame QB that he is. You can't ignore the play of the Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger and co. looked good and it looked like who ever could manage to have the ball last was going to be the team to come away with the win. But Big Ben threw an interception to Tracy Porter that was run back 43 yards for a Broncos touchdown with less than 2 minutes to go in the 4th quarter to put the Broncos up 31-19. After that it was all Broncos, Ben Roethlisberger was saked 3 times, maybe now he knows how his dates feel. In the end Peyton and the Broncos pulled off a big win and no one will be saying that it is time for Peyton Manning to hang up his cleats
-8 months after after having reconstructive knee surgery Adrian Peterson's legs seemed to be working just fine for the Minnesota Vikings against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Peterson carried the ball 17 times for 84 yards and had 2 touchdowns. Guess a brand new knee was worth it, the Vikings won 26-23.
-Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers whose defense gave last years rookie of the year (and my personal favorite) a wake up call. The Panthers were shut out in the first quarter, the defense looked terrible, and while Cam tried to put a few drives together and had 303 passing yards, he also had 2 interceptions and virtually no ground game. I think it's too soon to say whether or not Cam Newton will fall victim to the Sophomore Slump, but it does seem like he and the Panthers have a tough road ahead.The Bucs won16-7 ending a 10 game losing streak.
-It wouldn't be a blog post without mentioning the replacement refs. This Sunday did not go as smoothly for our retired insurance salesmen (and woman) as they probably would have liked. The Packers-49ers game was ruled by terrible calls that very well could have helped put the nail in the Packers' coffin. The Panthers game and Steelers-Broncos game also had some miscues. Here's hoping that the NFL gets the real guys back on the field and these other guys back on the golf course sooner rather than later.
Well, I am exhausted, being an NFL fan is hard work! Don't forget to follow me on twitter @gridiron4girls and share this blog with your friends (if you want to). I will be back after Thursday's Bears- Packers match up. Hope everyone has a great Monday!
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