WHEN WATCHING THE NFL, I usually have Redzone on the laptop and whatever game Sky have on the TV. That way I can watch as much football as possible to report on here.
Yesterday though, I cheated a little. Yesterday I stuck the Raiders on and, for the first time in an age, actually enjoyed watching them.
Sure, they’re still terrible and prone to making mistakes that you wouldn’t expect from a pee-wee football team, but yesterday, thanks in large part to one player, they were exciting again.
Terrelle Pryor made lots of rookie mistakes, most notably on the Raiders’ final drive when they had first and goal and looked like they might actually beat the Indianapolis Colts. His decision not to throw the ball away on first down, instead taking a sack for a loss of huge yardage was frustrating to watch, as was the heave that resulted in the interception that ended the game.
But none of that matters really because Pryor put in the kind of performance last night – only the third quarterback in the modern era to throw for 200 yards, rush for 100 and lose – that will make teams respect the Oakland Raiders a lot more than they did before kick off yesterday.
The same can be said for the EJ Manuel and the Buffalo Bills who came within five seconds of beating the much-vaunted New England Patriots. Manuel may have only thrown for 150 yards (25th of 29 QBs in week one of games) but his completion rate of 66.7% was better than five Super Bowl winning quarterbacks.
Letting Manuel down was the one Bills player I’d praised so highly at the start of the year, CJ Spiller, who rushed for just 41 yards on 17 attempts and whose early fumble set up the Patriots’ first score.
Another franchise that performed beyond expectations this weekend were the Tennessee Titans. Sure the Steelers looked terrible on offence and seem to lack play-makers at receiver, running back and pretty much any other position you can think of but the Titans recovered from the worst possible start – giving up a safety on kick off – to hold the Steelers to their lowest points total in two seasons.
They did this through pressure, reducing Pittsburgh to just 15 rushing attempts and sacking Ben Roethlisberger no fewer than five times. Reducing any team to 195 total yards has to be commended but even more so when you’ve come off a season where you gave up more points than anyone else in the NFL.
Image: Duane Burleson/AP/Press Association Images
The third team I wasn’t expecting huge things from this season but who preformed well yesterday were the Detroit Lions. They still don’t know how to use running backs correctly – Reggie Bush had 11 more receiving yards (101) than rushing – but, in tandem with Joique Bell, the Detroit backfield will cause a lot of heartache for defensive co-ordinators this year.
They still give away far too many penalties (11 yesterday) to challenge for the playoffs but, after giving up 78 yards to Adrian Peterson on his very first touch, they shut up shop relatively well, limiting last year’s leading rusher to 15 yards on 17 carries. That’s impressive for any defence.
Finally, the New York Jets won’t be making the playoffs this year but few fans can complain after yesterday’s last-gasp win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The defence in particular looked strong, holding Doug Martin to 2.7 yards per carry (he averaged 4.6 last year) and put Josh Freeman under a lot of pressure, forcing a safety and three sacks.
On offence, Geno Smith looked competent, even if he did make some rookie mistakes and a fit Kellen Winslow could prove key to keep the Jets moving down the field. The run game still looks suspect with Bilal Powell not managing to break 30 yards despite getting 12 carries.
Of course, yesterday’s performances could represent high points in these teams’ seasons or they could mark the beginning of surprisingly good years. It’s too early to tell.
However, this weekend has shown once more that, even if you support a generally rubbish team, every now and then they can make you enjoy watching football.
And the best part? There’s at least another 16 weekends of it to come.
