NFL Week One

Nothing has grated my football nerves more than the endless hand-wringing over the status of Peyton Manning--as if he is somehow bigger than the League itself.  Nonsense.  Now that Lady Brett is finally gone, Manning inherits his throne as the most over-rated player in the game.  Manning is a great regular season QB, full of stirring-but-meaningless comebacks against the Patriots, but, just like he was at Tennessee, he is not a great big game QB.  Manning has an almost Favre-like tendency to throw the dumb game-ending INT.  Like Favre, he has one Super Bowl to his credit, but even in that post season, Manning's play declined from his regular season levels.  In fact, in his Super Bowl year, Manning had his WORST post-season, with a mediocre QB rating of 70.5 and an awful 3/7 TD/INT ration.  Journeyman running back Dominic Rhodes was a bigger factor in the Colts Super Bowl win, and had the Colts faced a team with a QB other than Rex Grossman, Manning would still be looking for his first championship on either the collegiate or pro level.  The NFL will get along fine without Manning. . .

In fact, I'll be pulling for the Colts to win every game with the quintessential mediocre NFL QB Kerry Collins replacing the *Face of the NFL*--let's see just how valuable Manning really was.

Games of the Week:

New Orleans +4 1/2 at Green Bay.  Aaron Rodgers is everything that Manning supposedly was.  Manning never even came close to having a post-season like Rodgers did last year, and was INCAPABLE of ever having a single game as nearly perfect as Rodgers' game against the Falcons.  Rodgers is easily the most valuable player in the NFL.  Without him, as the Packers showed in their dull 7 - 3 loss to the Lions last year, they are a very average team.  With him, they are as close as the NFL now comes to unbeatable.  And he's the reason I pick the Packers over the Saints, not only in this game, but for the Super Bowl as well.

Atlanta at Chicago +3.  Features two teams I think will both suffer a drop from their 2010 records, though I think the Bears will suffer a bigger drop-off. . .mainly due to my bias against former Lions coaches Mike Martz and Rod Marinelli, the demented architect of the Perfekt Season.  I'll take Atlanta in this game, as workhorse Michael Turner starts off the season still relatively fresh.

Philadelphia at St. Louis +4 1/2.  The Rams are getting nearly as much hype as the Lions as a shitty team that might move up this year.  They start off against the high-priced Eagles, and have the kind of pressure defense that supposedly is the undoing of Michael Vick.  I'll believe it when I see it.  Eagles.

Indianapolis +8 1/2 at Houston.  The Texans will supposedly take over for the Manning-less Colts.  But they're still just a .500 team. . .in fact, they are the NFL's Kolonopin team. . .no team is more prone to panic attacks than the Texans, who always crumble when the going gets tough, or when, as now, much is expected of them.  I may be the only person in AmerICKa living outside the state of Indiana picking the Colts.

Detroit Lions +1 at Tampa.  Wow.  The hype on the Lions really is something else.  Going on the road against a 10 win team, and only getting one measly point?!?!  I'm not entirely convinced the Lions are ready to take it to playoff level. . .and why, just because they pushed around New England in a scrimmage?  The Lions still can't run the ball, their secondary is still a little thin, their offensive line is hanging together by a thread, and, most important of all, we still don't know if the Golden Armed Mathilda Stafford can take a hit.  Until I see it on tape, as Rod used to say, I'll have to go with Tampa.