Don't Book Those Super Bowl Tickets Just Yet

One thing you learn with age is that the NFL season is a marathon not a sprint thus what you see in Week 1 could be a season long issue or a mirage, it needs to play itself out. However, the preceding will not stop me from pontificating on what we saw thus far in the first week of NFL Action.

Let's start with the Cowboys game vs. the Redskins since that is the title of this blog. This game was much of the same from Dallas O-Coordinator Jason Garrett as the Cowboys were 2nd in the NFL in yards per game last year, 399 yards per game, while scoring but 22.5 points per contest. Garrett is a guy who may be "too smart" for his own good as many times he calls plays where he thinks a bit too much and uses too much trickery when it is unnecessary. The play call at the end of the first half has to have Garrett's parents requesting a refund from Princeton University where he got his degree from. With 4 seconds remaining in the first half, 64 yards away from your opponent's endzone, what does one hope to accomplish calling any play but a "Hail Mary"?

I understand that Tashard Choice, the young man who fumbled for a quick Redskin touchdown to end the half, has to do a better job of ball security or getting to the ground, but why put the player in that position? I would think taking a knee and going to the locker room down 3-0 on the road in a division contest isn't the worst thing. Garrett is an overrated coach, actually as overrated as they come. He has a top 3 WR (Miles Austin), a top 3 TE (Jason Witten), 3 NFL qualtiy running backs and a trigger man in Tony Romo who is easily one of the top 6 QBs in the league and from that he produces what? I could write an entire blog on back-up RT, Alex Barron, who played in place of Marc Colombo but three holding penalties in one game, the final one negating a game winning 12-yd TD pass speaks for itself. Barron should audition for "Dancing with the Stars" as he spent most of the evening groping Redskins defensive players, might as well grab one of those nice looking Russian dancers if you're Barron.

However, I would not bring out the hearse just yet on the Cowboys and conversely I wouldn't get any playoff tickets in Washington. The Redskins offense scored 6 points and managed just 250 yards- this game was more about the Cowboys being inept (12 penalties, 91 yards) than the Redskins being very good.

In Seattle, we found out that Pete Carroll really can coach. How many games did Seattle win last year 3 or 4? I read before the season where ESPN experts were picking San Francisco to go to the Super Bowl, which makes Seattle's 31-6 win even more impressive. Don't get me wrong, I still don't think Seattle will win more than 7 games when it's all said and done and I do think San Fran will regroup to win the NFC West. Yet I cannot help being impressed with Pete Carroll getting that team ready to play and winning as they did; it shows me something about this guy's ability to motivate. Pete has to be even more comfortable now in the NFL where the players actually get a W-2 at year-end as opposed to his Reggie Bush days at SC where payments were so much more complicated. Hey, I'm a USC fan but I couldn't resist that one.

Finally, in Philadelphia, we saw the media's real NFC favorite the Green Bay Packers go into Philly and hold on for an impressive road win. The real story in this game was the reemergence of Michael Vick and what has to be a QB controversy in Philadelphia. Kevin Kolb got knocked out ot his game after spending much of the first half looking like hte family dog playing in traffic only to have Michael Vick come off the bench an almost rally the Eagles from 17 points down to tie the game. The Eagles actually had the ball, down 7, in the final minutes only to have Andy Reid dig into the Jason Garrett playbook for a QB draw on a 4th and 1- Vick was stuffed and the Eagles were losers.

The Eagles will remain losers if they return Kevin Kolb to the starting line-up because Vick looks to me like the guy that was winning playoff games in Atlanta several years ago.

The Colts made some guy named Arian Foster, from Univ. of Tennessee, look like Jim Brown as Foster gashed them for 231 yards and 3 Tds. Again, if you're Houston, don't book the Super Bowl tickets just yet and if you're a Colts fan don't find the local bridge as I suspect Jim Caldwell will get his run defense cleaned up this week and beat the NY Giants.

All in all, it was an interesting week for the kick-off to the season but remember it's a very long NFL season. The object is to be the best team in December and January not in September. You cannot win a Super Bowl in September but you sure can lose one which is why getting some wins this month remains important. Keep it all in perspective though as there remains a lot of football to be played.