|
The Monday Morning Hangover
Cold, Hard Football Facts for September 10, 2007
By the Cold, Hard Football Facts staff
While you, the loyal American football fan, were relaxing over the past eight months, we were drinking as heavily as ever to get ourselves into gameday condition.
It all pays off today, as we piece together the web's best NFL round-up while in a complete post-alcoholic stupor.
For the record, this week's Monday Morning Hangover was scribbled together while shaking off the effects of too many Bud cans, Buffalo wings, wads of Skoal and cheap Nicaraguan cigars. And, no, we have no idea who that girl is passed out in front of the TV on our milk-crate sectional.
OH, THOSE ROOKIE RECEIVERS
While Detroit’s prized rookie WR Calvin Johnson lived up to his billing with a four-catch, 71-yard effort and TD in the Lions win over Oakland, the rest of his first-round brethren proved he was the exception to the rule.
What is that rule? Easy: rookie first-round receivers suck. Here’s the roll call for the six first-rounders from 2007 and how they fared in Week 1:
- Calvin Johnson, Detroit, 4-71-1
- Dwayne Bowe, Kansas City, 3-42
- Craig Davis, San Diego, 2-15
- Anthony Gonzalez, Indianapolis, no catches
- Ted Ginn, Miami, no catches
-
Robert Meachem, New Orleans, no catches
Meanwhile, the two first-round running backs were excellent: Adrian Peterson of the Vikings churned out 163 yards from scrimmage and Marshawn Lynch of the Bills netted 99.
(The immediate impact of first-round running backs and the long history of dud first-round wideouts has been well chronicled by the Cold, Hard Football Facts.)
COUGHLIN LOST WITHOUT TIKI
The Giants offense ripped off 35 points against Dallas Sunday night, in their first game without future Hall of Famer Tiki Barber lugging the leather. (Of course, the defense gave up 45 points, so the Giants have other problems.)
Coach Tom Coughlin, meanwhile, is not handling life without Tiki very well, at least if this interview (with a little creative license) from the guys at ZubazPants.com is any indication. (Warning: Not Safe for Work ... foul language and all.)
A ROUGH DAY FOR DAVID
Pity poor David Carr. Sure, he’s got good looks and millions in the bank, but it must have all felt pretty empty Sunday night.
His new team, Carolina, was supposed to have a shaky starter in Jake Delhomme – but Delhomme lit up the Rams for 201 yards, three scores and no picks in a 27-13 win. That buys Delhomme at least half the season as a starter unless he gets hurt (and Delhomme wasn’t sacked once by the Rams.)
At least Carr’s former team, the Houston Texans, could have struggled without him. That would have made Carr as happy as an Ohio State fan watching the Appalachian State-Michigan game, but it wasn’t to be.
Carr’s replacement in Houston, Matt Schaub, was 16 of 22 for 225 yards and a passer rating of 101.5 and the 20-3 win over 2006 playoff participant Kansas City ranks as one of the franchise’s best. Somebody get that guy a beer or ten.
HERMINATOR DESTROYS KC O
Speaking of Kansas City, the franchise's offensive deconstruction under head coach Herm Edwards continues unabated, as evidenced by the three points the Chiefs scored in their 20-3 loss to sad-sack Houston.
The Cold, Hard Football Facts predicted that Edwards would drive the KC offense into the ground when he took over the job last year. He has not disappointed.
In the four previous seasons under Dick Vermeil (2002-05), the Chiefs averaged a remarkable 28.7 PPG ... an amazing feat over such a long period. In the 17 games since Edwards took over, the Chiefs have averaged 19.6 PPG.
This is also not much of a vote of confidence in offensive coordinator Mike Solari, who was an offensive line coach during the salad years under Vermeil but doesn't appear to be rising to the challenge of his 2006 promotion.
WIDEOUTS CONTINUE HISTORIC PACE
Randy Moss, Terrell Owens and Marvin Harrison each caught at least one TD pass in Week 1 (Owens caught two).
The three most widely discussed receivers of the 21st century remain behind only legendary Don Hutson as the most productive TD-catching machines in NFL history.
Here’s the top Top 10.
TOP 10 MOST PRODUCTVE TD-CATCHING WRs
|
Player |
Games |
TD catches |
TDs per game |
|
|
116 |
99 |
0.85 |
|
Randy Moss* |
139 |
102 |
0.74 |
|
Terrell Owens* |
159 |
116 |
0.73 |
|
Marvin Harrison* |
171 |
123 |
0.72 |
|
Art Powell |
117 |
81 |
0.69 |
|
Jerry Rice |
303 |
197 |
0.65 |
|
Lance Alworth |
136 |
85 |
0.63 |
|
Cris Carter |
234 |
130 |
0.56 |
|
Tommy McDonald |
152 |
84 |
0.55 |
|
Paul Warfield |
157 |
85 |
0.54 |
minimum 80 career TDs
* active players
INTERCONFERENCE WASH
The AFC and NFC each won two games in four intereconference battles.
As loyal Cold, Hard Football Facts readers know, the AFC is in the midst of an historic period of dominance over the NFL’s senior circuit. The NFC last won the interconference battle in 1995. We'll follow the battle throughout the season to see if this is the year it finally changes.
Don't count on it.
BIG BOYS ROLL
The AFC’s dominance has been paced by the Big 4: Denver, Indy, New England and Pittsburgh – teams that have won 7 of the past 10 Super Bowls and 9 of the past 12 AFC championships.
Not so coincidentally, three of those four teams were responsible for the three biggest blowouts of Week 1:
- Indy whitewashed New Orleans by 31 (41-10)
- Pittsburgh crushed Cleveland by 27 (34-7)
- New England steamrolled the N.Y. Jets by 24 (38-14)
And some “pundits” believe there’s still parity in the NFL.
CLASSY BROWNS
The Browns might have been smoked by the Steelers, and Romeo Crennel probably won't make it through the end of the season - he's now 10-23 since taking the Cleveland coaching job in 2005.
But the organization did spend a moment reflecting on its glorious past by presenting new Hall of Fame inductee Gene Hickerson with his HOF ring at halftime.
Hickerson has been very ill and unable to speak. You might remember that, during the Hall of Fame induction ceremony last month, the wheelchair-bound former guard was pushed onto the stage by the three Hall of Fame ballcarriers who ran behind him during his career: Jim Brown, Bobby Mitchell and Leroy Kelly.
He was the first of this year's HOF class to receive his ring. According to ProFootballHOF.com, the other six 2007 inductees will pick up their HOF hardware later this season:
- Thurman Thomas, on Oct. 8
- Michael Irvin on Oct. 14
- Roger Wehrli on Oct. 14
- Charlie Sanders on Nov. 22
- Bruce Matthews on Dec. 2
CLASSLESS JETS FANS
In a classless move indicative of a frustrated base, Jets fans cheered as Chad Pennington tried to limp off the field under his own power after suffering an injury against New England yesterday.
Jets fans don't know a good thing when they have it. Despite playing a superior opponent, Fragile Chad completed 16 of 21 passes for 167 yards, 8.0 YPA, 2 TD, 0 INT and a 130.5 passer rating.
His career rating climbed from 89.4 to 89.8, seventh best on the all-time list and still one spot ahead of Brady's 88.9 career passer rating.
DINKS AND DUNKS
The Falcons-Vikings matchup was one of those rock vs. hard place deals – the Falcons led the NFL in rushing yards and average in 2006, the Vikes led in rushing defense and average. The winner, thanks largely to the absence of Michael Vick, was the Vikes, who held Atlanta to 96 yards on 28 carries, a 3.4 average …
NFL.com has undergone a remarkable transformation in the offseason, but their headline writer could use some help. Sunday night, their link to the Chargers-Bears game was titled “L.T. does it all for Chargers in win.” If “do it all” means average 1.5 yards a carry, then by all means, he did it all …
An interesting tidbit from an Associated Press report: Jason David was the first player since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 to score a defensive touchdown in Week 1 against the team he played for in the previous season. Unofficially, he was also the only player to do that, then sit in the parking lot crying after the game. …
The Broncos certainly made the offseason acquisition of Dre Bly look like a winner; Denver’s secondary held Buffalo QB J.P. Losman under 100 yards and to a passer rating of 57.0. …
ESPN commentator Ron Jaworski is a Cold, Hard Football Facts favorite. But he fell into a typical "pundit" trap yesterday, making a wild overstatement with no evidence to support it. He declared Cincy's Carlson Palmer one of the NFL's elite QBs, along with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, but then added, "He's gotta prove he's an elite QB."
If Palmer hasn't proven he's an elite QB, then he's not an elite QB. The math is pretty simple in the world of the Cold, Hard Football Facts.
|
