A tale of four quarterbacks and other NFL thoughts

Welcome to my blog about the NFL!  I decided to write the blog because it give me an opportunity to share my opinions about my favorite sport.  I'm not an NFL insider, I didn't play in the NFL (although I played through high school), but I am a keen observer who feels that he has prescient, timely and rational opinions about the league that he would like to share. 

The blog will offer insights into the NFL at large, but also specifically about the Seattle Seahawks, who are my hometown team.  If you are also an NFL and Seahawks fan, this blog is the place for you.  Even if you like another team, my blog can offer you quite a bit as well.  If you have comments or questions, feel free to post them.  I will do my best to respond.  I look forward to engaging with all of you.

Finally, you can hear me on a weekly basis on KYIZ/KZIZ in Seattle at 1:30PM on Tuesdays.  You can listen live at http://ztwins.com/.

Without further ado, let's talk some football.  This week’s observations are going to be focused on quarterbacks, some that shined and some that threw up all over themselves.

(1) No discussion about week one quarterback performances is complete without talking about Drew Brees. Even when you take into account his opponent, it is clear that Brees is intent on finishing the job he wasn’t able to complete last season. He wants Dan Marino’s passing record badly and the Detroit Felines provided the perfect launching pad for his assault on the record books. Brees was nearly flawless as only eight of his attempts touched the Superdome turf on his way to completing passes to eight different receivers and throwing for a franchise-record six touchdown passes. In addition, he established a new franchise record for an opening day passing performance with 358 yards against a Detroit defense that put up no more resistance than a wet paper towel. If it wasn’t for three New Orleans turnovers, who knows how many points the Saints could have hung on the worst team in the NFL. Nevertheless, Brees has morphed into a brutally efficient triggerman that is going to exploit defenses all year long because of his tremendous accuracy, deep football knowledge and the abundance of weapons at his disposal. I don’t know if he is the best quarterback in the NFL but he is at the top of his game and defensive coordinators throughout the league are losing sleep over the proposition of playing the Saints. If the New Orleans defense can provide any kind of support, the Saints are going to be an extremely tough opponent all year long.

(2) Are the Cowboys really better off now that the T.O. Circus has left town and set-up shop in upstate New York? Time will tell if the answer to the question is yes, but for one weekend the Cowboys looked liked the offensive juggernaut that they were always supposed to be with T.O. in the fold. Leading the way was Tony Romo, who looked in the midseason form after throwing for a career high 353 yards and three touchdowns. The most impressive part of Romo’s day was that he only completed 16 passes to accumulate the career high in passing yards. None of his touchdown passes were shorter than 42 yards, including a career long 80-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Crayton and a 66-yard touchdown pass to Roy Williams. Before we start anointing Romo and the Cowboys, let’s remember that we have seen this act before from the Boys. Romo has a well-deserved reputation as a front-runner and one unbelievable performance against the dregs of the NFC South should not and will not change his reputation. It is clear that the Cowboys can score points by the boatload against the Little Sisters of the Poor, but can they perform to such lofty levels when the games require less high-flying and more execution and toughness. In my opinion, the Cowboys will fold like they always have because their quarterback is softer than a cashmere sweater and their coach acts like Coach Klein from the Waterboy when he faces off with Coach Red. Nevertheless, I don’t think that Romo and Coach Country Bumpkin are their worst problem. Did you see the performance of the Cowboys defense against the rebuilding Bucs? 26 first downs allowed. Holy cow! 73 total plays run by the Buccaneers. Yikes! 450 total yards allowed including 174 yards rushing and 276 yards passing. Hide the women and children! Zero forced turnovers. Against Byron Leftwich, unbelievable! With defense this sloppy, the Cowboys will be enjoying another playoff season from the comfort of their own couches, regardless how many points Romo and the offense scores.

(3) After watching the Philadelphia-Carolina match-up, I started to think to myself what I would trust Jake Delhomme to do for me. Would I trust him to watch my kids? Would I trust him to drive my car? Would I trust him to bag my groceries? One thing is for sure, I would not trust him to be the quarterback of my NFL franchise. After ending last season with the biggest pile of cow poop known to man, Delhomme opened the 2009 season with an implosion that was nearly as impressive. He threw four interceptions and lost a fumble before getting yanked from the game in favor of Josh McCown. His passer rating of 14.7 looked more like a 100-meter time. He now has 11 turnovers to account for the last two times that he has stepped on a football field for a game that counted. For his career, he now has four career games with at least four interceptions, which is tied for third most among active players. There is a reason that I liked to call him Deer in the Headlights. How much longer can the Panthers entrust the keys to the franchise to Delhomme? The unfortunate part is that they may have no choice because McCown went down with a knee injury and they might as well fold up the tents and go home for the winter if they decide to start third-stringer Matt Moore. Delhomme may play well over the next few weeks, but every Panthers’ fan knows deep down that his next stinker game is inevitable. I hope they have a good supply of antacid in the Carolinas because they are going to need it.

(4) While on the topic of quarterbacks choking in week one, let’s chat a little about Jay Cutler. If I’m a Bears fan, I have to be thinking to myself: this guy forced his way out of Denver by throwing a tantrum worthy of a two-year old, he treats his teammates like a pile of dog feces, his opinion of himself is bordering on delusional, yet he played like his name was Jim Miller. Give me a break, this guy was supposed to save the franchise and instead threw four back-breaking interceptions to effectively kill the Bears’ chances of stealing a victory in Lambeau. At least a couple of the picks were inexcusable! It looked like he was throwing the ball up for grabs because he couldn’t think of anything better to do with the football. For God’s sake, the last Bears quarterback to throw four interceptions in a game was Brian Griese in 2007. We can all agree that Bears’ fans were expecting Cutler to pay a little better than Junior Griese. Chicago fans have to be having flashbacks to the horrible quarterback play they have seen since Jim McMahon retired. Cutler better take this game as a huge learning experience. He needs to swallow his pride and deflate is Hindenberg-sized ego, so that he can get back to work and figure out how to play with less recklessness. If he continues to produce stink bombs like we saw in Green Bay on Sunday night, the Bears are going to be in gigantic trouble.

(5) Thank goodness that a football game lasts four quarters because the Seahawks looked terrible for most of the first half. The defense was holding its own but the offense looked out of synch, especially Matt Hasselbeck. He looked shaky for most of the first 30 minutes, which included two horrible interceptions. The second interception was a lazy pass that he threw over the middle intended for Nate Burleson. It would have been nice for Nate to help out his quarterback and make a stronger play for the ball, but the throw was still inexcusable for a veteran signal caller like Hasselbeck. Thankfully, the Rams are a horrible outfit because they allowed the Hawks to shake off the cobwebs early in order to lay the smackdown later in the game. I see three aspects of the game that stood out to me. First of all, I really liked the way that Hasselbeck overcame the early adversity to post a very strong performance. He ended up completing nearly 70% of his passes and he threw three touchdowns. Secondly, John Carlson continued to show why he is the real deal at tight end. He led the team with 95 yards receiving and two touchdown receptions including a 33-yard hook-up from Hasselbeck that broke the game open in the third quarter. Carlson has a great chance to make the Pro Bowl in only his second professional season. This kid is as good of a draft pick as Tim Ruskell has ever made. Finally, I think that the defense played extremely well. They never allowed the Rams to get their footing, which is very important against a huge underdog like St. Louis. They held the Rams to only two third down conversions in 12 attempts and harassed Marc Bulger into a 63.5 quarterback rating. Most importantly, they bottled up Steven Jackson for most of the game. His best run of the day, a 22-yard scamper, came in the fourth quarter when the outcome had been decided. Before the long run, Jackson had been held to 45 yards on 15 carries. In addition, the Hawks had hit him so hard earlier in the game that Jackson appeared to be dancing in the hole in the latter stages not wanting to get hit. The only negatives for this game was the extremely slow start and the deceiving rushing numbers. Against the better opponents, the Hawks are going to have to come out more effective because they are not going to have the luxury of getting to ease into the flow of the game. Also, I think they are going to have to get their running game going much earlier and much more consistently. If you take away Julius Jones’ 62-yard touchdown run, the Hawks only averaged just over 3 yards per carry. In addition, they were stopped on three short yardage plays in the second half. This running attack might be good enough to beat the St. Louises of the NFL but it is going to work against Minnesota or Dallas. Nevertheless, it was more than enough to beat the Rams for the ninth straight time.