BF NFL Week 2 Recap

I didn’t get to watch too much NFL action this weekend. The late games were at halftime when I returned from Syracuse. I heard the first half of the Patriots/Jets game on Sirius in the car. The Jets announcers are terrible as a team. It didn’t even sound like they were in the same booth. The color analyst would talk slowly, paying no attention to the next play starting. The announcer was solid and had to keep interrupting is partner. Quite hilarious if you get the chance. I watched the crazy end of the Broncos/Chargers, which will be discussed below. The Sunday Night game was replaced by the Phillies finishing their sweep of the Brewers. Of course I watched the Eagles/Cowboys. Did you see that national anthem? I thought it was terrible but I didn’t think they would have realized it in the stadium, until I heard the boos. I’m sure we’ll hear all day about those unpatriotic Cowboys fans.

Matt: I too thought her version of the National Anthem wasn’t that great. And then at the end, came the boos. Kathleen and I looked at each other and were like, “They seriously can’t be booing her, can they?” I just figured the Eagles came out on the field or something else happened that brought on the booing. We need confirmation of what they were booing exactly.

Broncos/Chargers
Mike: Is that stadium falling apart? What did the democrats do? I missed the first 3 quarters, CBS didn’t flip it on for me until the Pats/Jets game ended. Apparently there was an obvious blown call against the Chargers but the replay booth wasn’t working. Also, the game clock was busted. Cutler fell apart with a pick and a ‘fumble’ in the 4th quarter. I’m still not clear what happened on the call on the fumble. Hochuli blew the while accidently? I don’t think he had looked at the replay before announcing to the crowd that he had screwed up. Now the NFL is going to look into changing the rule so that something similar can be avoided. Why are all these rule changes, which have been obviously needed to be changed for years, not dealt with until a disaster like this?
Matt: I only got see the highlights and the ensuing controversy. Hochuli, behind the play, blew the whistle to call the play dead. I don’t believe it was an accidental, inadvertent whistle. He called it dead because he either felt it was an incomplete pass, or because of this talk about protecting a QB following a fumble like that I am led to believe. Aside from the blown call, it must suck to be a Chargers fan right now, losing two games in a row at the end. Cutler looks really good. He should be a lock for the Pro Bowl this year.
Ahad: The Chargers got hosed. Cutler clearly fumbled and it cost the Chargers the game. I was a little surprised to see Denver go for two at the end, but it didn’t really matter since they should have lost the game anyway. After the game, Cutler even said it was a fumble. Did anyone notice that his jacket looked about 2 sizes too big?

Comebacks
Mike: We talked about the Chargers coming back but not getting the win above. The Lions came all the way back on the Packers, before the Packers got hot again. The Colts came back from being down 15-0 to win 18-15. The Saints were up 24-15 going to the 4th but lost to the Redskins 29-24. The Bears were up 17-3, only to lose to the Panthers 20-17. Even Seattle was up 17-6 but lost to San Fran in OT 33-30. The Jags seemed to be ahead the whole time but lost to the Bills 20-16. Just watching the scores early it looked like a crazy day with a ton games not going the way I expected. Especially the early games. By the end most things corrected themselves. Yesterday I saw a bit of NFL Net’s NFL Replay, which does highlights across the league in chronological order. So it’s like watching the cut-ins from the day, only in condensed form. I didn’t get to watch the whole thing but I like the idea and it would have been perfect for this week.
Matt: I do like this idea for the NFL Replay. I didn’t realized they did that. I thought they just replayed the games in semi-condensed form. There were several comebacks this weekend indeed, but I really only got to see the Seahawks game. They haven’t looked all that good. I can’t believe the rash of WR injuries they are having. It’s ridiculous.
Ahad: Are defenses not up to speed yet? I don’t think I have seen this many comebacks in a long time. I will have to checkout this NFL Net’s Replay. It sounds like this could take up a lot of my time at work on Mondays.

Eagles/Cowboys
Mike: So close. It’s still a loss, so it has to be someone’s fault. McNabb had two bad handoffs that led to fumbles, including one on the drive that could have secured the win. DeSean Jackson, besides his bonehead play dropping the ball before getting into the endzone, dropped a few passes. One early one would have been a TD, instead it was a FG. The Eagles had to settle for field goals too often in that game. Do the Cowboys practice tackling by the facemask? It was only called half the time. I think it’s safe to say these are the top two teams in the NFC. Eagles fans should be bigger fans of the Cowboys opponents than usual this season. Home field could be huge if it comes down to the NFC Championship Game.
Matt: Great game. McNabb looked stellar. I am not sure I have ever seen him play as well as he did. On the topic of DeSean Jackson, I have to ask the question: if the Cowboys had recovered the ball after Jackson threw it (which I was flipping out about urging someone to go pick it up), would that have changed the outcome of the result? I feel like it would have been the same thing as the Hochuli gaffe. Since the officials signaled a touchdown, that is the same thing as a dead ball whistle. Would it have been given to the Cowboys or would the Eagles still have received it at the 1? I was also shocked about the amount of facemasks in the game too. But it seemed like everytime it was Westbrook. I figured he had some sort of special helmet that encouraged it. The NFC East is going to be even tougher this year. I think the Giants and Packers round out the other top teams in the conference.
Ahad: Very disappointing loss. They should have won this game. The defense let me down. No way the Cowboys should have scored that many points. DeSean needs to hold onto the ball. I saw a clip of him doing a flip in the Army HS All-American Game where he came up a yard short. New rule for him, after a TD you must hand the ball directly to the referee. After gets that down, then we can adjust accordingly. I will give the Cowboys credit. Their offense looked good and the defense tightened up in the second half. It looks like these two teams will be fighting it out for the division and maybe the NFC.