NFL WEEK 1: The Rise & Fall of the Quarterback

by Paul Peszko: Tom Brady, Donovan McNabb, Drew Brees, Jay Cutler, Matt Cassel, NFL, AFC, NFC,What an incredible week to kickoff the NFL. Ripe with both upsets and quarterback stories, more than I can remember in recent years. In fact, it reminds me of a typical weekend in College Football.

Of course, the biggest news was the devastating season-ending injury to Tom Brady in the Patriots win over the Kansas City Chiefs. That one injury has supposedly changed the entire complexion of the NFL.

Although not the headline-grabber that the Brady injury has been but certainly as devastating is the loss of three more offensive linemen for the Jacksonville Jaguars. They lost guard Jason Manuwai for the season with a torn ACL in their loss to the Tennessee Titans while right guard Maurice Williams and center Brad Meester are out indefinitely with torn biceps. Richard Collier, a backup tackle, was a shooting victim last month and remains in critical condition.

And there certainly were upsets, a whole slew of them.

Jake Delhomme brought his Carolina Panthers back with a last minute drive and a touchdown pass on the last play of the game to beat the favored San Diego Chargers, 26-24.

Rookie quarterback Matt Ryan and Michael Turner, LaDainian Tomlinson’s former backup with Chargers, led the Atlanta Falcons to a big win over the Detroit Lions, 34-21.

Another rookie quarterback, Joe Flacco, did the same thing in Baltimore as the Ravens beat the discouraging Cincinnati Bengals and Carson Palmer, 17-10.

Perhaps, the biggest upset of all was Buffalo’s 34-10 pasting of the Seattle Seahawks, lead by Trent Edwards, an undrafted second-year quarterback in his first start.

Runner up in the upset category is the Chicago Bears 29-13 win at Indianapolis with Kyle Orton at the helm.

As for the rise and fall of the quarterback, it’s no longer news, but the biggest fall of perhaps the entire season was Tom Brady going down.

Just how big a hit was it to the hopes of the Patriots returning to the Super Bowl? The Patriots, the previous favorite in Las Vegas to win the Super Bowl at 4-to-1 dropped all the way down to 20-to-1.

That shows how much faith Las Vegas has in backup quarterback Matt Cassel, who hasn’t started a game since high school, and in Bill Belichek being able to coach the Pats back to the Super Bowl without Brady.

Help! The sky is falling! No, just the quarterbacks…

The other big fall at quarterback has to be Vince Young. Not so much the fact that he sprained his knee and could miss a few weeks. But the fact that he threw two picks and was booed by Titan fans and at one point was reluctant to return to the game before injuring his knee.

Apparently, a very sensitive person, Young was so distraught last evening that concerned friends and family called the Titans, who summoned the police to look for Young after he left his home – without his cell phone! Jeez! Without a cell phone! You really have to be disturbed to do that.

Another quarterback who fell on Sunday is Seattle’s Matt Hasselback, a pitiful 17-for-41 (41.5%) with one touchdown and one pick and a QB rating of 53.9. In defense of Hasselback, he missed the entire preseason with a sore back and lost his one experienced receiver, Nate Burleson, out for the season with a torn ACL.

With Deion Branch and Bobby Ingram already out, Hasselback doesn’t have any real receiving threats in the lineup, and it appears that Seahawks are in for a long season.

Another quarterback who is in for a very long season unless he gets some help on the offensive line and a running game is All-Pro Carson Palmer in Cincinnati. Palmer was a dismal 10-of-25 for just 99 yards and no touchdowns.

Jeff Garcia, 24-of-41 didn’t look particularly sharp in a 24-20 loss to the Saints at the Superdome. He had a chance to possibly win the game for Tampa Bay but threw a game-ending interception with the Bucs in Saints territory.

Up, UP and Away!

Among the quarterbacks whose stocks are definitely on the rise are several veterans who had less than spectacular seasons in 2007.

Donovan McNabb, finally healthy after two injury-riddled seasons, looked spectacular in the Eagle blowout win over the Rams, 38-3. McNabb was 21-of-33 for 361 yards and three TDs and no interceptions. Of course, it was against St. Louis, which has had a defense in some time, and now the Rams don’t seem to have an offense either.

McNabb just beat out Drew Brees for top passing yardage on Sunday. Breese was 23-of-32 for 343 yards and three TDs with one interception and looks like he has returned to his playoff form of 2006.

The other veteran that deserves mention is Jake Delhomme, who is coming off Tommy Johns surgery. Delhomme, who was 23-of-41 for 247 yards led an absolutely perfect last minute, no huddle offense down the field against the touted Charger defense and hit Dante Rosario for the winning touchdown with no time left. If Delhomme’s arm holds up over the entire season, the Panthers can stir things up in the NFC.

Several young quarterbacks also made their presence felt over the weekend. On Sunday, Matt Ryan’s first pass was a 62-yard TD strike to Michael Jenkins. Not a bad way to start off your NFL career. It also helps to be playing the Detroit Lions, the kitty cats of the NFL. Overall, Ryan was 9-of-13 for 161 yards.

The rookie from Delaware, Joe Flacco, did it in the air and on the ground, hitting on 15-of-29 for 129 yards and running for a 38-yard score in the Ravens win over hapless Cleveland.

While the Seahawks offense may be in shambles, their defense is still pretty tough. Yet, undrafted Trent Edwards led the Bills to an impressive 34-10 rout of the NFC West champs, completing 19-of-30 for 215 yards and a TD and a QB rating of 95.8.

While he might not have won the game, Kyle Orton made no mistakes that could lose it for the Chicago Bears as they surprised the Colts, 29-13 in Indianapolis. Orton was 13-of-21 for 150 yards and no TDs but, more importantly, no interceptions.

Of course, the big news as far as young quarterbacks go was in Green Bay, where Aaron Rogers had to replace an icon, the great grizzled one who is mostly noted for his Levi jeans commercials.

Some day Aaron, if you continue not to shave and can rack up some 250 consecutive starts, you, too, will be doing jeans commercials.

But, back to last night’s story, where Rogers was a nearly perfect 18-of-22 for 178 yards and 1 TD and a QB rating of 115.5. Nice! Oh, yes, by the way, that quarterback that he replaced had 2 TDs and a QB rating of 125.9. But Rogers had his outing against the Vikings not against the Fish, who often look like they are out of water.

But the young quarterback, actually this is his third season, who outshone everyone was Jay Cutler. After discovering that diabetes was the reason for his lackluster year last season, Cutler absolutely shredded the Raiders secondary, connecting on 16-of-24 for 299 yards and 2 TDs and no interceptions. His QB rating was an exceptional 137.3.

The amazing statistic about Cutler or perhaps his coach, Mike Shanahan, is the fact that Denver took him in the 2006 draft after Vince Young and Matt Leinart. Now both of those quarterbacks are on the bench while Cutler is on his way to being one of the premier field generals in the AFC.

One last note about young quarterbacks, Matt Cassel, who is being maligned in just about every column that I have read, did play three quarters on Sunday after Tom Brady went down, and he was effective in the Patriots win over the Chiefs. Cassel was 13-of-18 for 152 yards and a TD to Randy Moss for a QB rating of 116.

Whether Cassel’s stock is on the rise or not is way too soon to tell. Perhaps, we will know better next Sunday when the Pats face the Jets and the grizzled one of the aforementioned Levi’s commercial.

But it is ironic that while the stock of the two quarterbacks that he sat behind at USC, Palmer and Leinart, are definitely on the wane, his just could be on the rise. After all, he did have a far better QB rating that either of them last Sunday. Maybe all he needed was something he didn’t get at USC – a chance to start.

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