Random NFL thoughts

Jacksonville had 12 drives yesterday. Their first drive lasted 6 plays. 2 other drives lasted 4 plays. No other drive lasted more than 3 plays.

Week 2's Dennis Green award goes to Blaine Gabbert. The second-year Jaguars QB is who we thought he was last year: not good. After a very encouraging week 1, Gabbert reverted back to the bad quarterback he was all of last season. In fairness to Gabbert, it's not like he has much support around him. But still, he was 7/19 for 53 yards.

The Saints have given up 922 yards and 75 points in 2 games. Drew Brees has thrown 4 TDs and 4 INTs. Apparently Drew Brees isn't nearly as good of a head coach as Peyton Manning.

One of the officials originally assigned to the Saints-Panthers game is quite disappointed in New Orleans' 0-2 start. But don't worry, replacement officials don't impact the integrity of the game.

The Thursday Night game this week is Carolina hosting the New York Giants. That means of the 3 midweek games in the first three weeks of the NFL season, the defending champion Giants will have played in 2 of them.

The referee crew blew a huge call at the end of Eagles-Ravens. As Vick was getting sacked on 2nd and goal from the Baltimore 1, he threw the ball into the ground. Clearly an incomplete pass and should have been intentional grounding. Instead, the referee (the official assigned to watch the quarterback on a passing play) does nothing, and the other officials, absent an incomplete pass ruling from the referee, declare the play a fumble, recovered by the Ravens. The replay assistant manages to shake his incredulity enough to buzz down for a review, and the play is reversed, but because the on-field referee blew the initial call, there's no grounding, which means that instead of 3rd and goal from around the 11, it's 3rd and goal from the 1. Philly scores on a quarterback sneak on the next play, and hangs on for a 1 point win. Replacement refs didn't cost any team a game in week 1, but they very well may have here.

The Buccaneers and Giants did a terrific job in the second half of their game of not playing pass defense.

Speaking of this game, the biggest story afterwards was how Tom Coughlin chewed out Greg Schiano for having his players "go after Eli Manning" on the final kneel down with 5 seconds left. I didn't see it live, so when I read the headlines, I assumed Tampa defenders dove at Eli as he was kneeling to the ground. That's not what happened. The Tampa defensive line fired out of their stances just like they would on a normal play. The difference was, the Giants OL relaxed, so they were driven back into Eli, who fell on his rear. Eli held onto the ball, so nothing changed, but now Coughlin and the Giants are all in a tizzy. If it were a 2+ possession game at that point, I can see getting a little bent out of shape. But the message here should be that the Giants OL should have been blocking for one more play, not that the Buccaneers violated some "unwritten rule". Play to the whistle, right? Or only most of the time?

Congratulations Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson, and Ryan Tannehill on their first wins as NFL starters. Brandon Weeden is the lone rookie to not have his first NFL win yet. On the plus side, Weeden's QB rating wasn't 5.1 again.

Adam Vinatieri hits a 53-yard field goal with 8 seconds left to give the Colts the win. Meanwhile, his Patriots replacement, Stephen Gostkowski misses a 42-yarder with 1 second left that would have won the game for New England.

Wow, Kansas City is bad defensively.

Seattle's Golden Tate had the block of the weekend:



That being said, this hit walks a very fine line of clobbering a defenseless player near the head.

San Francisco knocked off Detroit last year by running the ball right up the middle, breaking long runs and keeping the ball away from Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson. San Francisco knocked off Detroit last night but running the ball straight up the gut, chewing up clock, and keeping the ball away from Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson. It's not that Detroit lost both games, it's that San Francisco attacked the same exact weakness both times and Detroit didn't seem to have an answer for it even one year later.