Friends,
There are a few matters that stand out for me from the first week of the NFL season. First, the J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets, have been clamoring for attention for the past several months in the media and via their coach Rex Ryan. This seems to be a case of "be careful what you ask for," as the Jets were terrible last night against the Ravens. So...now they are having the same media bite them back, as the media tends to do. Many Super Bowl predictions and other bravado is going to need to be upheld on the field of play. There were a number of significant injuries this past weekend, among them...Ryan Grant, the Packers star RB, appears to be out for the year, as well as Kris Jenkins, the Jets great NT. I feel particularly bad for Jenkins, as he was knocked out for the 2009 season with a torn ACL in his left knee in week six...and now, he just had a tear in the same knee. It is going to be tough for Jenkins, a nine year veteran, to come back again...although, I am pulling for him.
I actually had the Chiefs upsetting the Chargers last night on my picks, as I believe they have some good talent that is starting to mature...not to mention the "Patriots West" coordinators, Charlie Weis for the offense and Romeo Crennel for the defense. The Chargers, on the other hand, would do well to get star receiver, Vincent Jackson back with the team. The Chiefs double and triple teamed All Pro TE Antonio Gates, and there really was no other "go to guy" for the Chargers passing game. The Houston Texans finally got the monkey off of their back by beating Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts 34-24...only their second win against the Colts in their seventeen game history against them. Hopefully, this will be a confidence boost that will parlay into a big season for Gary Kubiak's crew...we'll see. Texas' other team, the Dallas Cowboys...deserving of their second place mention, here...were awful against division rival Washington. The Cowboys did not play with much confidence in week one, following a lackluster pre-season. One can only hope that all of the talk and pressure about them potentially being the first team to have a home Super Bowl is not getting to them. From the "who are you and what have you done with" category...we find the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers. This game was a reversal of what everyone thought it would be, except Pete Carroll and his crew apparently. The Niners were supposed to win their weak division (NFC West) with ease...and Seattle was supposed to be a big question mark. At least for this week, the 'Hawks are an exclamation point...and the question mark falls to Mike Singletary's team.
The only other item worth mentioning was wide receiver Calvin Johnson's (non) game winning catch for the Lions against the Bears. It is true that he did not hold the ball all the way through until the very end of the play, even though he caught the ball in the end zone and had possession for a significant amount of time. This may very well be a dumb rule, but it is the rule, nonetheless. Once again, in a situation like this (as with Jim Joyce's blown umpiring call on Gallaraga's near perfect game) it is important to get it truly right, and not just legally right. Rules and instant replay need to give us a picture of what should actually be right, and not end up being a matter that may very well be "legally" right, but "morally" or "practically" wrong. Such matters are no different in the spiritual realm, but we have discussed this before...and will probably discuss it some more at another time. :-)
Blessings,
Don
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