Ahhh the time has come. After months of quiet and boring Sunday nights it’s finally time for sanity to return to the American people with the triumphant return of the National Football League. For the true football fans it’s not just Sunday anymore, it’s the Thursday and Monday night games that get us through the grueling work week and into a weekend filled with more football.
Starting with Thursday night’s matchup we the fans were truly placed in total awe of the man that is Peyton Manning. By throwing 7 touchdowns he opened the season with his bid for MVP, not to mention putting on a fantasy football enthusiasts dream (or nightmare if you had to face him) by scoring 46 points.
A hot topic from Sunday which should be no surprise to anyone is Adrian Peterson who has created buzz around himself by announcing he will gain 2500 yards rushing which would require him to rush for 156.25 yards per game. His first rush being a 78 yard touchdown many expected him to stick to the split but unfortunately he only would rush for a total of 93 yards for the whole game, substantially less than his necessary 156.25 yards needed for his milestone.
Another team in turmoil who shocked fans would have to be the NY Jets who many didn’t even expect to get a win this season (including myself). Following a late penalty the Jets were able to sneak by the Buccaneers at home led by the former Mountaineer Geno Smith in his first career start in the NFL.
Finally we conclude with the Monday night game and the game which the majority of school was obsessing over, the triumphant return of our savior, Robert Griffin III. Coming off reconstructive knee surgery there were many questions regarding Griffin heading into the home opener versus the high flying offense of rookie Head Coach Chip Kelly and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Griffin looked shaky without a doubt and even took a back seat to the discussion when the Eagles offense took the stage. A quick and explosive offense from the mind of Chip Kelly (Former Oregon Ducks Head Coach) surprised the NFL and more importantly the Redskins who quickly fell behind 26-7 at the half.
After regaining his bearings Griffin finally got back in the swing of things. Once he began stepping into his passes and placing the ball in-between the numbers of his receivers the redskins started to look back to their winning ways last year. The only problem was this didn’t occur till the 4th quarter and time worked against the redskins who fell just short of the Eagles in the season opener 33-27.
The only positive taken from this week for the Redskins is that as a whole the NFC East does not look very strong including the Giants and Cowboys who conducted a very sloppy yet hotly contested game on Sunday night. Many analysts still have the redskins as the favorite to win the division but I on the other hand witnessed to many red flags and question marks heading into week 2 to make a decision yet.
Check back next week when I dissect week 2 and take an in depth look at fantasy performances, the MVP race, and the state of the Redskins as a whole.