NFL - Opening Weekend Quick Hits

Boy it didn't take long to make my Super Bowl prediction look highly unlikely did it? ...

- With today's news that MLB Brian Urlacher will miss the rest of the season after dislocating his wrist, as well as with the other injuries suffered by our defense (most notably Pisa Tinoisamoa), it's hard to see things ending nearly as well as they could have this year. The team was up to all of the typical Lovie brain farts: faking a punt on 4th and 11 deep in their own territory (which, all things considered, might be the defining dumb moment of Lovie's tenure), calling for a screen pass inside the ten yard line, challenging your own stupid call on the fake punt (which wasted another time out)... the list goes on and on.

The single most infuriating thing about the game was watching Lovie once again sit there like Forrest Gump, seemingly not even caring that his season was going up in flames all around him. He stood there, watching Culter pretend to be Rex Grossman, watching his receivers not finish running their routes, watching his long snapper call for a fake punt audible ... he stood there and didn't even move. I don't need him to throw a chair onto the field or choke a player. I understand that the new thing for coaches to do is just observe. But even Phil Jackson, the Zen Master, would have been yelling and tearing his team a new one.

Someone has to hold people accountable. Someone needs to tell Jay Cutler "listen son, you're my quarterback, but you've got to stop forcing those throws." Someone needed to tell Desmond Clark "if you stop mid-route again you're done for the day." Someone needed to tell Greg Olsen "stop being scared of being hit and catch the ball." The only person who looked upset yesterday was Virginia McCaskey, and she's gotta be in her 80s. An even halfway decent coach would have done something, but not Lovie. He stood there, like a bump on a log, and watched an extremely important game go up in flames.

- To be clear, no the season is not over. It never is after one game. But the injuries to the defense are going to make it tough for us to get the job done. Lovie and Ron Turner seem to be in love with the idea of tossing the ball down the field, which is not good news for the defense either. Our front four did a great job of getting pressure on Aaron Rodgers, but our secondary looked like toast. Now we have to go without the one person who makes all the defensive calls. The other one, Mike Brown, is no longer there, so Urlacher was it.

Furthermore, with the love for passing down field we are on the verge of forgetting the running game. I've seen this before, back when Rex Grossman was the new hit in Chicago, and we just started airing it out left and right. It lost us a Super Bowl.

- In the other games, the Colts struggled to beat a bad Jacksonville team, which didn't surprise me too much. The Bengals and the Broncos both looked awful on offense, another non-surprise. In both of these instances the common logic prevailed. Indianapolis is going to struggle because they don't have a second wide receiver to complement Reggie Wayne. Anthony Gonzalez is out two to six weeks now, but he lost Peyton's all important "trust" this preseason by dropping too many balls. The Indy defense looked good, but you have to remember that they were going against two rookie tackles making their first starts. Against any team with a pulse Indy would have lost yesterday, but that is the difference between the good teams and the bad: the good teams find a way to win.

In Cincinnati, however, we were seeing two very bad teams go against one another. Kyle Orton looked every bit as weak armed as I remembered him being, and Carson Palmer looked washed up on the other sideline. That this game would end on such a fluke play (click here if you didn't see it) was pretty fitting. Let's just say that I'm fairly confident both of these teams will be closer to ten losses than ten wins.

- San Francisco began its march to the NFC west crown by defeating last year's NFC champs, and doing so in the ugly manner you would expect from a Mike Singletary team. I loved this hire for San Francisco; you go from a number of coaches who just couldn't connect with the players to one who was one of the best ever, and who's intensity can never be questioned. Singletary will get a ton out of this team even though there isn't a whole lot of talent there. It's amazing what a good coach can do.

- From Arizona's perspective, however, the Super Bowl curse is already showing its effects. Warner looked a bit slower than last year, the ground game still struggled, and they just couldn't come up with the big plays they did last year. Let's not forget that Arizona was only 9-7 last year (the same record the Bears had), and just happened to play in a weak division, then get hot at the right time. Arizona also will be closer to ten losses than to ten wins this year.

- It's far too early to revise my predictions; I'd like to wait until at least the quarter mark, if not mid season to do that. But let's just say that I'll be hoping that New England blows the Bills out tonight. It'd be nice to have one pick look even remotely possible after week one.