With the exception of the Monday night doubleheader, NFL Week One is in the bag. A few things we learned:
1. The replacement officials are terrible. Watching the Cowboys-Giants season opener last Wednesday, former NFL head linesman Terry Gierke counted 8 errors in the first half -- whereas NFL officials average four errors per game. So that's four times the average. On Sunday, we saw just about every mistake in the book: inconsistent calls on pass interference, obvious false starts ignored, a complete lack of understanding of the term "hands to the face," delay of games turned into timeouts, officials leaving their posts to confer with a colleague while action continued, and so on. This is no surprise. The question is did the officials change the outcome of any games? Thus far it seems the answer is no. And so we're probably likely to see them for a few more weeks: sorry, football purists and veteran NFL officials.
2. the helmet-to-helmet collision rule needs to be changed. Just about every time a receiver catches a pass in the air he pulls into a crouch as he comes back to the ground, putting his helmet directly in line with a cornerback zeroing in on his mid-section -- which is a perfectly legal place to hit. The optimal area, in fact. How is this defender supposed to be able to readjust his angle and direction in the .14 seconds it takes the offensive player to crouch? It's not possible. And I predict it's going to result in at least a half dozen major penalties this season, with receivers purposely taking advantage of the favorable rule to gain yardage.
3. Peyton Manning is beautiful.
4. Robert Griffin III appears to be the second coming of Cam Newton. If we keep this up, in five years every team will have a great quarterback and the term "elite" may begin to mean something other than "Super Bowl winner."
5. Finally, to my team. They made a decent comeback to keep it interesting, but there's no denying that the Packers defense is still terrible. They couldn't stop the run, couldn't stop the pass -- especially to receivers. And this is against Alex Smith -- who is no Peyton Manning (though the degree to which 49'ers coach Jim Harbaugh prepares his team merits mention). The linebackers made a few plays late to halt 9ers drives but that was after they'd built a sizable lead and mostly stopped passing in an effort to burn clock. What might be more surprising is that the Packers high-octane offense didn't look great either. A few missed throws from Rodgers, including the fourth-quarter interception that quickly a became a touchdown, another big drop from Finley, who's getting a reputation for them, and not a single completion of more than 25 yards downfield. The lack of a running game, though unfortunate, is no surprise, but the mediocre pass blocking is. That was the problem on the final drive -- not Rodgers. Once San Fran started bringing five we couldn't stop the rush and d-backs only had to cover for two seconds. Game over.
The solace is that this is still a very talented team and I'd much prefer a bit of humble pie in September than in January. We know our weaknesses, and considering all the young and new players, particularly on defense, the team should improve. The first chance arrives Thurs, against the Bears, in Lambeau.
D
