Really, Only A $10K Fine?

The NFL has handed out its first fine of the regular season, and it wasn’t for a vicious helmet to helmet hit.  Charles Woodson, cornerback for the Green Bay Packers has been fined $10,000 by the league for “throwing a punch” at Saints’ tight end David Thomas during last Thursday’s opening game.

Let’s get a few things straight here.  Yes, Woodson “threw a punch”…but he also landed it!  He said that he felt Thomas was “holding me a little longer than I wanted”…I’m sorry, he landed a punch!  The only thing worse than the miniscule fine (Woodson makes millions of dollars a year) is that it happened right in front of a referee.  Had the punch been hidden (middle of a pile) I can understand the small punishment, but the referee in question immediately threw his flag and assessed a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.  In all my years of watching football (high school, college and pro), I have never seen a player throw a punch and be allowed to stay in the game…especially one that was right in front of the official and that was penalized.  This doesn’t make any sense to me.

Many (especially Green Bay fans and others who were betting jellybeans on the game) would argue that Drew Brees threw for 419 yards and three TDs with Woodson in the game, but the fact of the matter is, the removal of Woodson from the game in the third quarter would have degraded the Packers’ defense.  Instead of having their number one and two cornerbacks on the field for every play, they would have had numbers two and three playing, with other lower players on the depth chart filling in as the nickel back on passing downs….which was just about every play.  A quarterback doesn’t pass for 419 yards when his team is running the ball a lot.

I’m not saying that the Saints would have definitely won that game, but their chances would have been significantly higher had Woodson been correctly tossed.

So What Did We Learn?

Week one of the NFL season is in the books, so what did we learn? For starters, we now know that half the league won't go undefeated this season....beyond that, it's really all still speculation. Today's immediate highlight culture thinks every event is the greatest ever. Let's pause and look at what things really mean.
Here are a few things I learned.
- The Steelers will be OK. Did they get punched in the mouth and bullied by the Ravens? Absolutely, and yes they turned the ball over seven times but after the Ravens got a lead they were able to focus on rushing the passer and turnovers and sacks followed. The Ravens held serve on their home turf. The Steelers have issues to address but their proud, storied organization will rebound. They lost one game… on the road…in a hostile environment.
- Does Tony Romo deserve all of the blame for the Cowboys' late collapse against the Jets? No way. Did he turn the ball over twice in the final 9 minutes? Yes, but the fumble occurred when Romo tried to scramble for a touchdown, so I don't totally fault him for trying to personally extend the Boys' lead. Let’s back up a few plays, however, to Romo's nice long completion to TE Jason Witten. Witten got chased down and forced out of bounds by a smaller DB, Jim Leohnard. Personally I think Witten should have driven his way to paydirt. Romo's fumble would have thus never had the chance to happened. Was Romo on the field when the punt was blocked and returned for a score? No. He didn't get a first down but he had nothing to do with the special teams' gaffe. The interception to Derrell Revis was bad though. His intended target was Dez Bryant who was hurt, so Romo shouldn't have even been looking that way. If Revis was covering a hurt guy, that meant Miles Austin or Witten didn't have Revis covering them. Should have looked a different direction.
- Cam Newton had an incredible debut with 422 yards passing, while accounting for three TDs. What we don't know is how good is the Cardinals' defense? Were they expecting him to run and he stayed put in the pocket and thus let plays develop? Was Newton facing eight men in the box? Time will tell.
- Packers-Saints...lots of points. Didn't learn much, just validated what we thought we knew.
- Biggest benefactor of Stanford's Andrew Luck not entering the 2011 NFL Draft...Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Buffalo Bills. Stay with me...Luck would have gone number one to the Panthers with Von Miller still going number two to the Broncos. At number three, Buffalo would have taken Can Newton instead of DT Marcel Darius. Fitzpatrick's time with New York's actual only team would have been virtually over. So what does Harvard's Fitzpatrick do? 4 TDs on the road at KC. Their win probably had something to do with their classic uniforms too.
- The Dolphins are thankful they don't have to play Tom Brady every week. Tom Terrific tore them apart. One interception and it came on a weird deflection back to a defensive lineman.
- Sorry Donovan McNabb, that was awful. Yes you've got Adrian Peterson but you've got to pass for more than 39 yards. Washington is looking smarter to have parted company with McNabb, even though they'd given up a lot to acquire him a year ago.
- The Eagles won comfortably (over the Rams) with their star studded team but I think it will take at least a month for the team to gel. The line needs to protect Vick better or the Eagles' massive investment is in serious trouble.
- Peyton Manning just showed the world that he's indeed the Colts' MVP. Wow that team was terrible without him. ESPN created a new scoring metric for QBs called Total Quarterback Rating which is on a scale of 0 to 100. Kerry Collins had a rating of 2.3. Yowzah.
- The Bears beat down the Falcons but Atlanta will be fine.

So here are my predictions for the 2011 NFL season. These did not change after the week one games.
AFC East - Patriots. Until someone dethrones them, I will continue to pick Brady and Bill Belichick.
AFC North - Ravens. Flacco and Rice are a great tandem. The defense for years has gotten all the credit in Baltimore (justifiably so) but I think the offense under coordinator Cam Cameron could be great.
AFC South - Texans. Without Petting Manning playing for 2-3 months, this should be their year. They're defense under Wade Phillips will be improved and their offense will be excellent. They did crush the Colts without last year's leading rusher in the NFL, Arian Foster.
AFC West - Chargers. Phillip Rivers put up ridiculous passing numbers last year without any big name receivers (Vincent Jackson held out for half the season) and this year Rivers’ starting the season with Jackson, as well as the others who benefited from Jackson's previous absence. They're special teams can't be as bad this year as last...but they scared everyone when they gave up a touchdown on the opening kickoff of the season….and lost their exceptional kicker to a torn ACL.
Wild Card 1 - Steelers. They'll rebound. Too proud of an organization not to do so. They do need to protect Ben Roethlisberger better though.
Wild Card 2 – Jets…I don't want to make this pick….so you know what, I’m not going to because nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills.  I don’t know why, but I can’t stand the Jets.  They may finally make good on Rex Ryan’s Super Bowl promise, but I think a team that hasn’t reached a Super Bowl since Joe Namath was quarterback needs to only let their play on the field do the talking.

NFC East - Eagles. Won't run the table but they'll be fun to watch.
NFC North - Packers. Had 15 players on IR last year...and still won the Super Bowl. They even lost two key players during the title game (Driver and Woodson).
NFC South - Saints. Defense won't go against the Packers every week thankfully.
NFC West - Cardinals. No standout teams so this one is rough. (Remember, the Seahawks won this division with a losing record last season...and then they then beat the heavily favored Saints in the playoffs.) The Cardinals acquired QB Kevin Kolb in the offseason and hopefully he'll gel with WR Larry Fitzgerald quickly.
Wild Card 1 - Falcons. They traded several future draft picks in order to trade up and get WR Julio Jones. He doesn't have to be the number one guy (Roddy White is that guy) so he'll be fine...as will the Falcons.
Wild Card 2 - Lions. Yup, they're back. It's been a long time coming. QB Matthew Stafford can be great if he stays healthy and WR Calvin Johnson is ridiculously good. Double teams don't stop him. The defense, with their outstanding defensive linemen, is going to be a force this year.
 

AFC Title Game - Patriots over Chargers (at San Diego)
NFC Title Game - Packers over Saints (at Green Bay…replay of the opening game)
Super Bowl - Packers over Patriots. Second team to 45 loses.