As a nation, we paused on Sunday morning to reflect on the events of September 11, 2001 and its impact on the country. Between the Tweets, texts and calls on our Sunday morning fantasy radio show, we watched coverage from New York and Washington. We stood proudly and listened to The National Anthem. The chants of “U-S-A” and swell of emotion carried through to kickoff and launched us into a full slate of NFL action.
In this piece, I’m celebrating the positive elements of Sunday’s games. We saw a number of fantastic performances, including a few that came out of nowhere. Let’s get things started in Baltimore.
Week 1 Fantasy All-#FDominance
It would be foolish to start a recap of Sunday’s effort without applauding the spanking (insert your own descriptor here) Baltimore put on Pittsburgh. Ray Rice, who had never scored in a regular season game against the Steelers and was the one player you started and then wished and hoped once the ball was kicked off. Rice made a statement immediately with a touchdown reception in the first 90 seconds from Joe Flacco (more on him in a second) to jumpstart his huge day. Rice finished the day with 107 rushing yards, including a one-yard touchdown plunge, on 19 carries while adding four receptions for 42 yards.
This was a huge game for Joe Flacco, who had been battling the “Can he beat Pittsburgh?” question coming into Sunday’s performance. Flacco answered the critics in a big way, if only for one day. He passed for 224 yards with three touchdown strikes (one to Anquan Boldin, who logged four receptions for 74 yards) and was only sacked once. Flacco did not commit a turnover. Super “Ninja” Ed Dickson caught Flacco’s other touchdown pass, one of his five receptions for 59 yards (he had five targets).
Finally, the Baltimore defense, led by my guy Haloti Ngata, generated seven turnovers and produced four sacks. What else needs to be said?
Cam Newton made a statement to his detractors on Sunday. The Arizona defense is terrible. Newton posted a day for the ages with 422 passing yards, two touchdowns, 18 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. He was sacked four times and threw one interception. That’s just a fantastic start. Newton next takes a huge leap in class with Green Bay on the slate.
Steve Smith yelled to fantasyland, “You all remember me?” Smith exploded for eight catches (11 targets) for 178 yards and two touchdowns. His first touchdown reception covered 77 yards. Don’t get too giddy. Charles Woodson is sitting out there for Week 2.
Beanie Wells played well as the undisputed leader of the Arizona backfield. He carried the ball 18 times for 90 yards and opened the scoring with a seven-yard touchdown run. Wells added two receptions for 21 yards as a bonus.
Kevin Kolb won his Arizona debut and made trusting fantasy owners happy. Kolb completed 19-of-27 attempts for 309 yards and two touchdowns. His touchdown passes came from 48 yards (Jeff King) and 70 yards (Early Doucet).
Speed kills. That was the message sent by the loaded Philadelphia offense on Sunday. Michael Vick led all runners with five runs of at least 10 yards. Vick finished with 98 yards on the ground, a glorious complement to his 187-yard, two-touchdown effort through the air. He lost a fumble and absorbed three sacks, but this performance got tongues wagging again. His day would have been better …
… had DeSean Jackson hauled in a deep ball that would have netted the duo an 87-yard touchdown. Jackson led the Eagles with six catches for 102 yards and a touchdown reception, a laser as he swept across the back of the end zone. Jackson was targeted 12 times in the victory.
LeSean McCoy was the recipient of the other Vick touchdown pass, and made a good day a brilliant one with his 49-yard sprint to paydirt midway through the fourth quarter to cap the scoring. McCoy finished with 122 rushing yards and two receptions for 15 yards. Fantasy owners Tweeted their displeasure with his role in the passing game, but the 49-yard touchdown sprint allowed everyone to breathe a little easier.
The gunslinger lives! OK, so I’m spying Ryan Fitzpatrick highlights online as I type this. Fitzpatrick and the Bills decimated Todd Haley and the Chiefs to the tune of a 41-7 final score. He completed 17-of-25 attempts for 208 yards with four touchdowns and a sack. Fitzpatrick connected with former Iowa Hawkeyes standout (has Hawkeye nation recovered from Saturday yet?) Scott Chandler for two of his touchdown tosses. Chandler logged five receptions for 63 yards.
Stevie Johnson caught four passes for 66 yards and a touchdown on six targets. Forget what you might think of the Bills overall. The Johnson-Fitzpatrick connection works.
The Chicago defense feasted on Matt Ryan and the Falcons in front of a packed house that was fueled by Jim Cornelison’s (@anthemsinger) stirring rendition of The National Anthem. Chicago allowed only two field goals to the vaunted Atlanta offense while generating five sacks and three turnovers. Matt Ryan’s fumble was recovered by Brian Urlacher for a touchdown.
Jay Cutler posted a fantastic effort in the home opener. He passed for 312 yards with touchdowns and one interception (it was returned for a touchdown). With the exception of a terribly thrown ball over the head of a wide-open Kellen Davis, Cutler was on his game. He established a great rapport with the aforementioned Roy Williams (I’m shocked to say it, too), connecting four times for 55 yards.
Obviously, the big statistical hero in Chicago was Matt Forte. Forte amassed 148 total yards on 21 touches, including an early 56-yard touchdown reception from Cutler. He finished with 68 yards on 16 carries (including a 27-yarder) and caught five passes for 90 yards.
I’ll give a quick nod to Michael Turner of the Falcons. He didn’t find the end zone or obliterate the stat sheet, but there’s something to get excited about in the box score. Turner rushed for 100 yards (no huge surprise) and caught three passes for 40 yards to more than offset his early lost fumble. I don’t know that we see a ton of work from Turner in the passing game throughout the year, but commanding a presence in the passing game at all is a bonus.
Fans and fantasy owners who were casually watching the game (or following Tweets) probably cursed or uttered “Here we go again” when Matthew Stafford went to the bench with cramps in Sunday’s win over Tampa Bay. He’ll be just fine and will blow up future opponents in a similar fashion. Stafford passed for 305 yards (24-of-33) with three touchdowns and an interception. The interception was returned by Aquib Talib for a touchdown.
Two of Stafford’s touchdown passes were caught by Calvin Johnson. Johnson caught six of his 10 targets for 88 yards. Just keep throwing it up to him.
Of course, the highlight of this game came from tight end Tony Scheffler, who broke out his best “swashbuckler” impression following his touchdown reception.
Maurice Jones-Drew wanted to show off the health of his knee and sprinted to daylight on a 21-yard touchdown early in Sunday’s win over the Titans. Jones-Drew finished with 97 rushing yards on 21 carries. He did not catch a pass.
Throw it up and let him go get it. That’s what the Titans did with Kenny Britt against the Jaguars, and he produced a monster Week 1 performance. Britt caught an 80-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter. He then added a two-yard touchdown pass with just over two minutes remaining. Britt finished with five receptions for 136 yards on 10 targets.
Tennessee quarterback Matt Hasselbeck passed for 234 yards with two touchdowns, one interception and two sacks. Hasselbeck faces the terrorizing Baltimore defense in Week 2.
Cincinnati tailback Cedric Benson was on his way to posting a pedestrian opener. With just under two minutes remaining, the proverbial “Red Sea” opened for Benson, and he rumbled 39 yards for a touchdown. Benson finished with 121 yards on 25 carries.
Colt McCoy passed for 213 yards (19-for-40) with touchdown passes to both of his tight ends (Ben Watson and Evan Moore) and an interception. It was far from a perfect performance, but McCoy did demonstrate great poise in the red zone.
Ben Tate took advantage of his opportunity with Arian Foster sidelined because of his hamstring injury. He carried the ball 24 times for 116 yards and a touchdown. Tate did lose a fumble, but I shan’t shy away from trumpeting his arrival. Derrick Ward added 11 carries for 39 yards and scored the Texans’ first touchdown.
Andre Johnson caught seven passes for 95 yards with a touchdown on 11 targets as the Texans blew up the Manningless Colts.
Reggie Wayne was the lone bright spot for the Indianapolis offense. He caught seven of 11 targets for 106 yards and scored the Colts’ lone touchdown.
Rex! We touted Grossman on our Sunday morning FOX Sports Radio show and left many in the Twitter-verse confused or angered. He finished the game with 305 yards (21-of-34) with two touchdowns and absorbed four sacks. The banged-up New York defense did not force a turnover.
Eli Manning struggled against the Redskins, but he did connect with Hakeem Nicks with great regularity. Nicks caught seven of 11 targets for 122 yards. He didn’t score. Take the production.
Super “Ninja” Fred Davis caught five of his six targets for 105 yards. Watch this guy. Chris Cooley’s knee is an issue, and Davis is a better post-up player in the red zone.
I’m not going to laud Tim Hightower with too much praise. He logged 72 rushing yards and scored a touchdown, but averaged just 2.9 yards per carry. Hightower added three receptions for 25 yards. I circled the fact that Hightower posted 25 carries to Roy Helu’s one.
It wasn’t a textbook game for San Diego, although page one of the script seemed to be held over from 2010. The Chargers allowed Percy Harvin to return the opening kickoff for a touchdown before shutting down Donovan McNabb and the Vikings for virtually the entire contest.
Philip Rivers passed for 335 yards (33-of-48) with two touchdowns, two interceptions and two sacks. Both of his touchdown passes were caught by Mike Tolbert, who led the NFL with nine receptions (58 yards). Tolbert finished with 12 carries for 35 yards and a bull rush touchdown.
The 49ers terrorized the Seahawks on Sunday afternoon. Tarvaris Jackson threw two touchdown passes, but absorbed five sacks and turned the ball over three times. Ted Ginn, Jr. also closed the game with back-to-back kickoff and punt returns for touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
I endorsed Mark Sanchez as a huge “ninja” option for this week against the injury-ravaged Dallas defense. It took a while, but he got there. Sanchez finished the game with 335 yards (26-for-44) with two touchdowns, an interception and a lost fumble.
Plaxico Burress celebrated his return to the NFL with four receptions for 72 yards and a 26-yard touchdown. Burress was chided in the online world for failing to separate early. The tone changed immediately after he went up and over the defender to haul in that late touchdown pass.
Potential tight end monster Dustin Keller got off to a hot start again. Keller caught five passes for 61 yards and a touchdown. He was targeted eight times in the victory. I shan’t get overexcited, as we saw this type of start last season, but the potential is there for a huge year.
Miles Austin was awarded with a touchdown catch while wrestling for the ball in the end zone. Austin finished with five receptions for 90 yards.
Dez Bryant caught Tony Romo’s first touchdown pass and sent tongues wagging. He finished the game with three receptions and 71 receiving yards. We’ll monitor his injury during the week, as Bryant was clearly laboring in the second half.
Romo made the disastrous decision to look Bryant’s way late and flipped the ball to a wide-open Darrelle Revis. Overall, Romo posted a strong day (there were a handful of HUGE misses) with 342 passing yards with two touchdowns, an interception, a lost fumble and four sacks. He connected with Jason Witten six times for 110 yards, including a beautiful 64-yard catch and run.
