Hoagie Central's Monday Morning Bonerjam NFL Jumbalaya: Week 1 2010

Sunday night featured a game between two playoff contenders in the competitive NFC East.
Sunday morning featured a game between two basement dwellers in the lackluster NFC North.

But lets explore the similarities.

The favored teams--the Bears and Cowboys--had more offensive yards, yet more turnovers. The favored teams also made terrible coaching decisions. When the Lions can't move the ball, and you couldn't break the plane on 3 chances, you've have to take the lead with the field goal. And when I saw Romo drop back from his own 37, I thought "wouldn't it be funny if he fumbled and the Redskins scored?" And the reason I thought that, is that's the only thing you can think from that position. I didn't have the foresight to predict that Romo would flip it to Choice, who would fumble away the game.

And both games ended with a player catching the ball in the endzone, and neither one counted. The Cowboys was the right call, an obvious holding that clearly affected the play. The Lions got robbed. Here's why: the rule about completing the process of the catch makes sense if you envision a receiver diving for it, grabbing it, his knee hits down while in control, but then when his body hits the ground it comes loose. It doesn't look like a catch. Even if a knee would make him down if he was a running back, he never had control. But what Calvin Johnson did?

He got two feet in the endzone. Then his butt hit in bounds in the endzone. (As we know, a butt counts as two feet anyways.) Then he's getting up and he still has control and he uses the ball to lift himself up, and the ball is still in control when it touches the ground. That's a catch.

But what do I know?

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Fun Stats

Bears-Lions game featured 13 punts and 7 lost fumbles.

Texans were 30th in rushing last year. Foster had 231 rushing yards yesterday against conference champion Colts.

Stevo has Chris Johnson and the Player of the Week, Arian Foster.

Niraj had 2 of the top 3 performances, Manning and Forte. Forte should have had more than his 35 points, as he was shut down on 3 carries from the 1.

Manning outscores Schuab 35-8, in a 24-34 loss.

Back from the dead, the week's #1 receiver was Chad Ochocinco.

On 4th down inside the final minute, the Redskins let Miles Austin go uncovered down the middle.

ESPN projected me to beat Niraj by 23, the largest margin. Quite likely that I will lose by the largest margin. Possible that I get the lowest score of the week.

Michael Vick (on waivers) who didn't start for the Eagles, had the 5th best QB fantasy day, in a loss. Brees and Rodgers had 14th and 15th best days, in wins.

I was the first to get negative points for a kicker, -1 for Hartley.

Kirat was the first to get negative points for his defense, -5 for Bengals against Patriots.