Week 1, continued

Just how badly was Cincinnati out of it in their game against New England on Sunday? Chad OchoCinco scored a touchdown, and despite telling us all that he would do something special after scoring, all he did was flip the ball to the official and run back to his sideline. And thus, on September 12, 2010, we learned that OchoCinco does actually possess an iota of shame. That, and it would have been nice had the Bengals decided to start playing before 30 seconds into the 3rd quarter on Sunday.

New England's defense had to put their fans' minds at ease, at least for week 1. There was general consternation after Sam Bradford and the Rams picked them apart in week 3 of the preseason (aka, the closest the preseason comes to mattering), but they faced an offense with an array of weapons, and their young D emerged unscathed until the game was well out of hand. And for those of us who worried about Carson Palmer after his conversion into a fantasy stinkbomb last year...he's not out of the woods yet.

Chicago literally stole one from the Lions, as Calvin Johnson fell victim to Detroit's version of the Tuck Rule...well, that's not entirely fair. The last 9 years have been Detroit's version of the Tuck Rule...plus Tony Romo's fumbled snap...plus just being the Cleveland Browns ever since they got their 2nd installation of the team. But like the Tuck Rule, it was the correct call of a bad rule for that situation.

Atlanta poured cold water on the "Atlanta for NFC South Champion!" parade, managing only 9 points against a Steelers team starting their #3 choice at quarterback. Matt Moore poured cold water on the "Matt Moore is an NFL starting quarterback" movement, instead putting on his best Jake Delhomme (what, too soon?) impression, throwing 3 picks in a loss to the Giants.

Speaking of Delhomme, he tossed a touchdown pass, which confused the Cleveland fans (seriously, go look at some of the terrible performances Anderson and Quinn put up last year) for a little while. Not wanting to shock them too bad, Delhomme tossed a couple of interceptions, as Cleveland fell to Tampa Bay. Like Cleveland, Buffalo (vs Miami) and Oakland (vs Tennessee) played down to all expectations in losses, maintaining some semblance of order on Sunday.

Tim Tebow had a dud of a debut (2 carries, 2 yards) while Sam Bradford impressed in his first game as a pro, but both of their teams lost close ones. Kevin Kolb did not impress at all, and Michael Vick's 100 yards rushing and passing in the 2nd half after Kolb left the game with a concussion means the Philly fans can either write off the opening loss to Green Bay and throw their support behind Kolb when he's ready to come back, or they can embrace a full fledged QB controversy.

Also big losers on the day, Philly's medical staff and sideline. Somehow, linebacker Stewart Bradley was allowed to get back on the field after he was unable to literally put one foot in front of the other after a tackle. Finally someone got him back off the field and kept him off, but the fact that he was able to get back in in the first place is a damning indictment of the Eagles staff and makes a mockery of the emphasis the league is trying to put on concussions and overall brain health.

Pete Carroll's return to the NFL was surprisingly positive, as his Seahawks tore the visiting preseason darling 49ers limb from limb in a 25 point blowout win. Game ball went to Alex Smith, for his happy feet, 2 interceptions, and general inaccuracy.

And finally, Dallas took their sizeable talent advantage over the Redskins and spent the whole game making mistakes and let the Redskins hang onto a slim lead right up until the last play when the Cowboys finally scored the tying touchdown...except their backup right tackle (who doubles as the most penalized player in the NFL over the last 5 seasons) was called for holding, which ended the game and handed the Redskins the win. Add in the fact that the Redskins got their only touchdown of the game thanks to a Dallas fumble they took to the house on the last play of the first half, and saying the Cowboys blew this game does not do it justice. It was about as fitting a Cowboys loss as you can get.