Tuesday Morning Crow

With Week 1 in the books I'll share my thoughts of the good, bad, & ugly from both the NFL & the MVRL. I'll also eat a little crow for my predictions.

The Good

• Parity. The Niners, Dolphins, Saints, & Bucs all posted big wins. The Saints & Bucs did it on the road against potential conference champs. Can Katrina make the Saints a playoff team?
• Undrafted Free Agents. Willie Parker, Frisman Jackson, & Chris Baker are just a few names that could have helped a team to victory.
• The Bills throwback uniforms. Sometimes this doesn't work. Sometimes it does. They aren't quite the Chargers throwbacks, but they are very, very close (my McGahee was ordered Friday).
• DIRECTV's Sunday Ticket. This year you can watch all games in progress on one channel. You can also watch the Red Zone channel, which picks up any game once a team moves inside the 20-yard line. There is also a game recap in which all the plays of the game are shown in something like an hour or less (I'm not sure because I haven't checked it out yet).

The Bad

• The Vikings, Panthers, Rams, Broncos, & Jets. These teams need to get some things figured out rather quickly or else they could be in trouble. If I'm the Broncos, I'm throwing in the towel (more on that later).
• The pre-game brawl between the Falcons and Eagles. Call me insensitive, but I was glad they threw those guys out of the game. Crap like that is just that-crap.
• T.O. Was it just me or did he look a little unhappy on the sideline last night? I mean he had the look of someone set up on a blind date, only to find out that the girl was a crazy ex-girlfriend that once threw a DVD player at him.
• Monday Night Football. Last comment about it I promise. Can we go back to the 7:00 start? I can't deal with the 11:30 ending. I know I'm just one voice, but can we collectively do something about this?

The Ugly

• Javon Walker's injury. I'm sure there are some of you out there that are somewhat happy Hud lost him, but I'm not one of them. The reason? It can happen to any of us at any time. Laugh all you want, but when you have a stud go down I'm not going to feel sorry for you. At least the Packers didn't already have their work cut out for them this year...
• Jake Plummer. My God. How can you be that bad? He was better in college. He has gotten worse as he has entered his prime. And he is killing the Broncos. At this point, just tank the season, get the number one pick in next year's draft and take Matt Leinart.
• The Rams' Not-So-Special Teams. I have an idea. Let's go ahead and fire the special teams coach. At what point does this get fixed? At least Martz learned a lot from last year's playoff loss at Atlanta. Ok, you basically get called out by that little weasel Jim Mora, Jr. and have an entire off-season to remedy the problem and you give a performance like that against the Niners? At least I'm not upset by this.
• The Lions black jerseys. Ouch. Did they not consult the NY Mets before making this move? If they wanted a third uniform, why not wear their throwbacks? Am I alone here?

Bacon, Eggs, & Crow

Okay. If I'm gonna make my picks on here, then I'm going to be big enough to admit my mistakes and give credit where credit is due (speaking of which, thanks for putting me in the 9-hole in this weeks power rankings). I was 3-3 for the week. I correctly picked TQ over Fagan, the Creamers over the Rampage, and the Puffins over the Hitters. My apologies go out to Hoffman, Al, & (clearing my throat) Wes.

To Eric: Sorry for thinking there was anyone outside of Boston (and the cover of Sports Illustrated) who could slow down Peyton Manning. I have learned my lesson & it will not happen again.

To Al: Aren't you glad I took Dallas Clark instead of Deion Branch? You're welcome. I have to say, you are a RB away from having one of the three best teams in the league.

And finally, to Wes: I guess Kerry Collins has put his drunken, cigar-smoking trips to the cop shop behind him. Now he has a drunken kicker, a weed-smoking receiver, and an allegiance of fans that look like they may have just come from the cop shop. I never would've thought he'd put up 19 points against the Patriots, but even had he posted a zero, you still would've won. Congrats and I'll see you in Week 7.

So there you have it. Week 1 is in the books. Don't forget to get your claims in. Something tells me I'm not going to get Willie Parker.