As Baltimore fans will inform you, a little opening day win against a divisional opponent breeds a bit of optimism. 40 miles south of M&T Bank Stadium (a great place to watch a game that has an awful name) at Fedex Field (an awful place to watch a game with a better name), 'Skins fans caught some of that bug juice, too.I watched some of the Ravens triumph over the inept-looking Steelers yesterday and it reminded me a little bit of the way Andy Reid's Philadelphia Eagles arrived a decade before. There was an opening day game (in 2000 or 2001....something like that) where the Eagles played Troy Aikman's Cowboys......and utterly destroyed them (the Eagles of course had a young Donovan McNabb, Deuce Staley, and a defense led by Jeremiah Trotter).
I recall Madden focusing on the Eagles' use of pickle juice as a way to fight dehydration and opining that the magic pickle juice was responsible for the fact that the Eagles dismantled an aging Dallas team piece by piece.
Anyway, a mostly young and hungry Ravens team ripped the Steelers apart limb from limb. And, for a change, the Ravens weren't boring to watch. Mr. Flacco was slinging the pigskin around like the second coming of Vinny Testaverde (in 1996-7 the Ravens (browns) had a potent offense). They looked like an NFL team instead of a great defense, which was much more fun to watch. The Steelers looked like your garden-variety Bengals team, which is to say dreadful. They looked old and slow compared to their opponents, and the lame brawl instigated by the Steeler defense only exposed them as frustrated chumps who used to be champs.
That said, I expect the Steelers to rebound. They can't be as bad as they looked yesterday, it's just not possible.
So I switch from that laugher to the Redskins, because thankfully the Redskins were playing the 4pm game. It didn't start pretty, what with the Giants defense stifling them a bit and Eli Manning running in a TD, but as the game wore on the Skins responded with something I'm not used to seeing....effort.
Reed Doughty might truly suck but he's a warm body when they need one, and though he did make a few lousy plays he also isn't afraid to stick his head in there and make a tackle. The new kid Kerrigan looked pretty good. They went up 21-14 before Sexy Rexy decided to put the ball on the turf, but the defense and Orakpo bailed them out.
This, too, was unusual, as I've become accustomed to seeing the Redskins act like a partial NFL team.....adequate offense is complimented by inept defense and vice versa. Not yesterday. Yesterday they resembled an actual team, with a functioning offense, defense, and special teams. Hell, even their punter made some great kicks that pinned the Giants deep and allowed them lousy field position. Then Rex puts the game away with a nice toss to Gaffney and...presto! 1-0
The difference between the 2 games is obvious. A 35-7 drubbing of the AFC champs announces that you're loaded for bear; a 28-14 win over the Giants (who've owned the Redskins) says "we're better."
And that's where those teams truly stand, I think. Should the Ravens continue to play well offensively then they're a playoff lock. The Redskins? I love 'em but they are merely climbing the ladder this season. It's a lot more fun to watch them climbing up the ladder than watching them wallow in the basement. I don't predict playoffs for my Redskins, I think they'll be an up-and-down team this year. HTTR anyway.
Finally, I saw some of the Sunday night game. Romo starts the game as Roger Staubach throwing to Drew Pearson. By game's end he's back to being Tony Romo and...well what the hell happened to Dez Bryant? Al Michaels is calling him a monster after a quarter and then......disappeared! I saw him on the sidelines being attended to by trainers, and he was a non-factor after that. Weird.
Tonight gives us the double-header, with my Patriots playing early. I'm rooting for Haynesworth to eat the Miami center.
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