Just as the Lions invented a new way to lose a football game and Cowboys offensive tackle Alex Barron reaffirmed hi s standing as a great holder of penalty yards, the pigskin punditry across all the land provided its annual, ceremonial knee-jerk reactions to the small sample size of one week of football.
Overreacting to Week 1 is the official rite of the NFL regular season. The 2010 version of this media phenomenon once again provided some good humor.
If you're wondering, the official rite of the NFL regular season for the Cold Hard Football Facts family is our ceremonial Buffalo wing sauce-bath. Trolls have never smelled so appetizing.
MONDAY MORNING OVERREACTIONS
"I think the Jets are in big trouble on offense. Big trouble." – Peter King, SI and NBC
Mark Sanchez's lethargic 10/21 for 71 yards was pitiful to watch, but let's give it a few weeks before carving the tombstone for the Jets offense. The Ravens are widely considered a Super Bowl favorite with much thanks to a ferocious defense.
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"The New England Patriots are the best team in that division, by far!" – Merril Hoge, ESPN
If the AFC East had a special one-game season, Hoge would be spot-on.
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"I don't ever want to hear Jets and the Super Bowl ever again. At this point Jets and playoffs may not even work." – Jim Rome
If this point in the season was the marker for the 2010 regular season, those Chiefs and Buccaneers would put on one hell of a show in the postseason.
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"I'm not a believer in LT being able to find his old self. I'm not a believer in that run game right now. I'm not a believer in Santonio Holmes being able to turn it around." – Kevin Blackistone, AOL Fanhouse
LaDainian Tomlinson did pretty well for himself against a good Ravens defense Monday night: 11 carries for 62 yards. Even if you take away his 21 yard scamper, he was averaging just over 4 yards per carry. Blackistone's use of the phrase "right now" is perplexing simply because it means one freaking game!
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"The Texans have arrived and here's why: it's the way they played ... You don't want to overreact to Week 1 games." – Michael Smith, ESPN
We could finish off Smith's statement with ... "but I'm going to overreact anyway". We could also say that the Texans need to win more than 9 games in a season to arrive in the playoffs.
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"They should win (the NFC East)" – Michael Wilbon on the Redskins
The Redskins should win the NFC East so long as the Giants, Eagles and Cowboys choke away wins over the Redskins.
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"Mario Williams, maybe quietly the best number one overall draft choice to actually drift through for three years and now we see him established as a great defensive end." – Woody Paige, ESPN, Denver Post
Don't worry friends; Woody Paige wasn't even paying attention when Williams put up 35 sacks in seasons 2 through 4 of the Mario Williams Show.
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"Their window has closed, I'm sorry." – J.A. Adande on the San Diego Chargers
Every September the media tolls the bell for Norv Turner and the Chargers ... and every December the media touts the Chargers' record under Norv Turner. The team is 5-8 in September under Turner and 10-12 through the first two months. From November and beyond under Norv (regular season), the Chargers are 22-5. Well, the media is bound to be accurate one of these years, right?
THE EXCLAMATION POINT ON WEEK 1 PUNDITRY
Simple request for the department of Monday Night Football at ESPN headquarters: don't let Trent Dilfer into the broadcast booth ever again. Otherwise our troll–heads might just spin off our necks when we try to comprehend comments such as this one:
"Antonio Gates has been two tales of a couple of halves."
Chew on that one for a while and see if it ever digests, folks.
