Week 1 — Mon, 10 Sep 2007

From: Jeff
To: mnf@doobie.com
Subject: It's Monday...

...and yes, this is late, but I'm blaming it on mañana time.

I, uh, I woke up in Mexico this morning. Last night involved a trip to the old trailer park at the end of the dirt road near the Cabo lighthouse, where there was sangria, Havana Club (the real kind! yum!), and perfectly grilled shrimp that were probably still swimming in Mazatlán on Saturday. An evening like that pretty much always trumps the timeliness of the Monday, uh, Morning Mailing.

So, a belated welcome to the 2007/08 NFL season (and to the handful of new subscribers this year). Congratulations to the 12 undefeated teams, including Washington, Seattle, Houston (!!), and those guys who keep hiring Brett Favre.

The Washington/Miami game turned out to be one of the more interesting (if puzzling) matches of the day yesterday. Miami is full of rookies (including the coaching office) and the Redskins aren't exactly a powerhouse team, but a 13-16 overtime win might just clear the air of some of last year's stink (reasonably good numbers from Clinton Portis and Atwaan Randle El sure helped, too). The puzzling part? This is a game that went to overtime. At the end of regulation, both teams had plenty of timeouts remaining (the only one called during the second half was Washington's in the third quarter). Has Joe Gibbs forgotten more about clock management than Cam Cameron will ever learn? Or did they both just blow it? Either way, Washington goes to Philly next week (on Monday!), and then they host the Giants -- two tough NFC East opponents. The Skins are going to need everything they've got just to stay competitive in these upcoming games, and a little bit of momentum sure does help. Even if it is the Dolphins.

Perennial momentum-builder Houston spanked the Kansas City Chiefs 20 to 3. This was a game won by the Houston defense, plain and simple. One of these years, Houston is going to surprise everyone, but despite a new quarterback, and a defense that's going to earn many a fantasy team owner some serious points, this will not be their year. The upcoming games against the Panthers and Colts are not going to be too good for the Texans. Look for them to beat a huge spread against the Colts, though.

And then there are the Packers, who welcomed the Eagles' inept special teams to Green Bay, and turned a couple of mishandled punts into a 16-13 win. Rookie kicker Mason Crosby got to be a hero in his first NFL game -- booting a 40+ yard field goal with a couple of seconds left on the clock, to win the game.

Denver eeked out a one point victory over Buffalo, thanks to usually consistent kicker Jason Elam. Elam missed two kicks earlier in the game, which is very unusual for him -- in fact, he only missed two last year. His 42 yarder with seconds to go (and a running clock) redeemed him, this time. Unfortunately, this game is notable because of the very frightening injury to Buffalo's tight end, Kevin Everett. On a relatively routine kickoff return at the beginning of the second half, Everett made a normal looking tackle -- except that immediately after his helmet hit the opposing player, he collapsed motionless to the turf. As it turns out, the hit somehow severely damaged his spinal cord, up between the third and fourth vertebrae. He will almost certainly never play another game. The doctors are hoping that he'll be able to walk again.

Also notable on the injury front is Giants quarterback Eli Manning (who is far less of a douchebag than his brother). Eli's throwing shoulder got banged up in the 45-35 loss to Dallas (which was actually a much closer game than the final score would allow). Depending on who you listen to, his shoulder is either badly bruised, or lightly seperated. Regardless, The Giants come home to New Jersey and host the Packers next week, and my bet is that Eli's going to play. The Giants front office might be saying that he's "day to day", but unless he gets hit by lightning playing golf in Hoboken on Wednesday, he'll be on the field in East Rutherford on Sunday.

And the 49ers won. Yay! It might not have been a pretty win, and it be just the Cardinals, but a win is a win.

Enjoy the week everyone. The first pitcher is on me next week, as penance for my tardiness this week. Sadly, it can't be a pitcher of anything that includes Cuban rum. Damn embargo.

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