Kaboom! We are back with a bang into the new NFL season. If you thought we were going to be eased back into the swing of things, Peyton Manning had other ideas. In the season opener against the defending Superbowl champions (Baltimore Ravens) Peyton Manning set a career record for the most touchdowns he has thrown in a single game.
The game itself started off as a close affair with both teams going three and out on their first possessions. Denver had decided to try and establish a running game and to be honest it was not working well, Baltimore meanwhile looked a shadow of their former self from last year. To be fair to the Ravens they have lost a lot of talent particularly on defence and they also traded their clutch receiver Anquan Boldin to San Francisco. This is a trade that baffles me even now but let us continue with the game.
After trading three and outs as mentioned before the Ravens took first blood by scoring on a two yard pass from Joe Flacco to Vonte Leach. Despite taking first blood what was to happen in the rest of the game was a real passing clinic courtesy of Peyton Manning. Peyton's first two touchdowns were thrown to the young tight end Julius Thomas for 24 yards and 23 yards respectively and were either side of a Ray Rice touchdown.
After trading three and outs as mentioned before the Ravens took first blood by scoring on a two yard pass from Joe Flacco to Vonte Leach. Despite taking first blood what was to happen in the rest of the game was a real passing clinic courtesy of Peyton Manning. Peyton's first two touchdowns were thrown to the young tight end Julius Thomas for 24 yards and 23 yards respectively and were either side of a Ray Rice touchdown.
The halftime score was 17 – 14 to the Ravens but the stoppage just proved to be a small gap in the Manning clinic. The second half saw Peyton throw five more touchdowns taking his total for the day to seven! This was a big milestone for Manning and it improved on his previous record of six touchdowns in one game. The final score in this one was 49 – 27 to the Denver Broncos.
Now we jump forward to Sundays action and that started off with three safeties in less than ten minutes across three different games. The first was a total school boy error by the Tennessee Titans kick returner Darius Reynaud. Reynaud was in the endzone and as the kick was bobbling towards him he reached out and grabbed the ball at about the half yard line, he then kneeled down thinking it would be a touchback. Unfortunately for Darius when you take the ball back into the endzone before being downed it is a safety!
The second safety was a great special teams play by the Jacksonville Jaguars as they managed to block a Kansas City punt, forcing the ball to bounce out the back of the endzone. The third safety was in the Tampa Bay match against the New York Jets. The Jets defence forced Josh Freeman to fumble the ball in the back of the endzone and neither team was able to recover it before it went out of bounds.
It is crazy to have so many safeties in one week, I guess you could say that they were like London buses, you wait ages for one then three come along at once!
It is crazy to have so many safeties in one week, I guess you could say that they were like London buses, you wait ages for one then three come along at once!
Whilst watching the games on Sunday it was almost like the previous season had not finished because Adrian Peterson ran his first carry of the year 78 yards for a touchdown, Calvin Johnson was making great catches and the Bills were losing to the Patriots. This is where I would usually waffle on about how the Bills were robbed but this is a new year and to move this blog forward there needs to be less bias I feel, that is unless something really big happens of course.
With this in mind let's take a look at all the scores from week one before we continue:
Baltimore 27 vs 49 Denver
Kansas City 28 vs 2 Jacksonville
Seattle 12 vs 7 Carolina
Tennessee 16 vs 9 Pittsburgh
Tampa Bay 17 vs 18 New York Jets
Atlanta 17 vs 23 New Orleans
Oakland 17 vs 21 Indianapolis
Minnesota 24 vs 34 Detroit
Miami 23 vs 10 Cleveland
Cincinnati 21 vs 24 Chicago
New England 23 vs Buffalo 21
Green Bay 28 vs 34 San Francisco
Arizona 24 vs 27 St Louis
New York Giants 31 vs 36 Dallas
Philadelphia 33 vs 27 Washington
Houston 31 vs 28 San Diego
With this in mind let's take a look at all the scores from week one before we continue:
Baltimore 27 vs 49 Denver
Kansas City 28 vs 2 Jacksonville
Seattle 12 vs 7 Carolina
Tennessee 16 vs 9 Pittsburgh
Tampa Bay 17 vs 18 New York Jets
Atlanta 17 vs 23 New Orleans
Oakland 17 vs 21 Indianapolis
Minnesota 24 vs 34 Detroit
Miami 23 vs 10 Cleveland
Cincinnati 21 vs 24 Chicago
New England 23 vs Buffalo 21
Green Bay 28 vs 34 San Francisco
Arizona 24 vs 27 St Louis
New York Giants 31 vs 36 Dallas
Philadelphia 33 vs 27 Washington
Houston 31 vs 28 San Diego
As you can see baring the Thursday night game, all of this weeks matches were very close especially the game between Atlanta and New Orleans which saw the return of Sean Payton to the Saints sideline. I am a big fan of Sean Payton and you know that when he is on the sideline his team will elevate their level of performance.
In the first quarter the Falcons came out the blocks the quickest and raced to an early ten point lead, it may seem a lot but when your against Drew Brees it's simply a two pass lead! By the end of the second quarter Brees had done just that and had the Saints going into halftime with a 13 – 10 lead. The scene was looking all too familiar at this point and despite a Julio Jones touchdown reception in the third quarter the Saints came away with a 23 – 17 win.
In the first quarter the Falcons came out the blocks the quickest and raced to an early ten point lead, it may seem a lot but when your against Drew Brees it's simply a two pass lead! By the end of the second quarter Brees had done just that and had the Saints going into halftime with a 13 – 10 lead. The scene was looking all too familiar at this point and despite a Julio Jones touchdown reception in the third quarter the Saints came away with a 23 – 17 win.
Another game I want to mention this week before we finish off with the weekly awards is the Detroit vs Minnesota game. I mentioned earlier the Peterson 78 yard touchdown run with his first carry but that only tells a small portion of this story. The events that would unfold made me wonder if the Lions were the unluckiest team in football. To put you in the picture they firstly had one diving catch into the endzone by Calvin Johnson deemed incomplete as the ball seemed to bobble around as he hit the floor. Next up there was Reggie Bush who had not just one but two scores wiped off the board as they deemed him to be down before the endzone even though it didn't look it to me!
Thankfully for Detroit they were only up against the Vikings and once the Lions defence controlled Peterson they took the game over and as you see above they won 34 – 24.
Thankfully for Detroit they were only up against the Vikings and once the Lions defence controlled Peterson they took the game over and as you see above they won 34 – 24.
Now we move onto the final part of this weeks blog and that is my weekly awards, the offensive impact player or 'Megatron Award' and my defensive impact player aka the 'Mr Ray Lewis Award'.
This week seems to have been quite offense heavy as far as my blog is concerned so let us turn our attention to the defence and the 'Mr Ray Lewis Award'. Firstly I will start with this weeks runner up and that is Robert Quinn, defensive end for the St Louis Rams. This week against the Arizona Cardinals he demonstrated some excellent edge rushing by sacking the quarterback three times and if the sacks weren't good enough, two of them also forced fumbles, now that's IMPACT!
This week seems to have been quite offense heavy as far as my blog is concerned so let us turn our attention to the defence and the 'Mr Ray Lewis Award'. Firstly I will start with this weeks runner up and that is Robert Quinn, defensive end for the St Louis Rams. This week against the Arizona Cardinals he demonstrated some excellent edge rushing by sacking the quarterback three times and if the sacks weren't good enough, two of them also forced fumbles, now that's IMPACT!
Unfortunately this week Robert Quinn was beaten to the award by a veteran player who has won this award quite a few times and that is …............... Charles Tillman of the Chicago Bears. This week against the Cincinnati Bengals I only remember him being beaten once by AJ Green on a big play, admittedly it was a touchdown pass but Tillman had two key interceptions in this game along with seven total tackles. From what I saw Tillman is still playing at the highest level and will be very difficult for teams to beat this year. I only have one thing left to say and that is boy am I glad he is in my fantasy team!
Let's finish off with the 'Megatron' award for week one and whilst I'm pretty sure you all know who it is going to be, let me first give a big shout out to the runner up................... Terrrelle Pryor of the Oakland Raiders. This week Pryor had an amazing game against the Indianapolis Colts and I thought deserved to be on the winning team with his performance. Pryor finished the week with 217 yards passing and one touchdown, he also rushed for 112 yards keeping drives alive all over the field. The other thing you have to remember is all of the bad press that surrounded Pryor going into this game may now be re-written!
Okay so without further delay I am pleased to announce that this weeks 'Megatron' award winner is Peyton Manning. What do I have to say about this man, well simply he is one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game and he threw seven touchdown passes. Let's face it if he didn’t win the award this week there would have been a riot outside Ballhawk towers!
I hope you have all enjoyed week one as much as I have and I look forward to the next 16 weeks of NFL action. Stay tuned to the website for this weeks podcast coming later in the week and until then football fans ' Thanks for Stopping By'