Week 1 Reactions

Last week's picks: 8-5-2

Considering how difficult it is to measure teams' success as of the first week, I'm pretty happy with an 8-5-2 picking line. Let the self back-patting begin.

There weren't a whole lot of suprises to me in this the first week of football. LT, Stephen Jackson, and Gore all gave fantasy owners fits, but that was almost to be expected as the defenses they faced were all decent to excellent, and none of them had played in a preseason game. Next week I fully expect Gore to tear through St. Louis' poor rushing defense now that he has a game under his belt. Other easily forseeable events include McNabb's choke job, New England's dominance, injuries to Pennington and McNair, Grossman faltering, and the Raiders continuing their 2006 dominance of the cellar.

The few suprises of week one were mostly off-the field, including the Browns trading Frye to Seattle already (which, in my opinion, Seattle overpaid for), Belichick stealing NY's defensive signals (c'mon Billy, your team is good enough, you don't even need the help), and David Boston's DUI and subsequent release from Tampa (which, as a big, talented WR, I wouldn't mind the Niners taking a chance on considering how poorly Jackson debuted on Monday, as long as Boston comes cheap). The only real suprises came from Houston decimating the Chiefs, Dallas giving up 35 points to the Tiki-less Giants, and Adrian Peterson making an early case for rookie of the year.

Having made the roundabouts for the rest of the league, I want to do a bit of 49er analysis. Anyone who watched Monday's game could probably agree that the game could be described as painful, long, and slow as both offenses showed their ineptitude, that is, until the last 2 drives of the game. The 49ers' OL success from last year left much to be desired, as Smith had little time to throw and Gore had few holes to run through. When Smith actually made accurate throws to Jackson and Battle, they routinely dropped them. Leinert, the QB the Niners should have had if he had declared for 2005's draft, looked uncomfortable and inaccurate all game.

What really struck me the most about Monday's game was the poor play calling on both sides. From what I'm told, opponents ran all over the 49ers' D during preseason, so I can see why the Cardinals tried to run a bit more, but when you own the most talented WR trio in all of the NFL, how do you not try to throw downfield more than a couple times all game? It seemed as if the Cardinals were trying to beat the 49ers with their own West-Coast offense. Granted, the Niners' coverage team is better than last year's team, but scouting reports of Michael Lewis told me he struggled in coverage, and it just amazed me that they didn't try to throw the ball downfield much. On the 49ers' side, it is apparent more than ever that they are going to miss Norv Turner as a play-caller. He was excellent at keeping other teams on their toes with creative plays all game. The one creative play the 49ers ran all game was their game-winning TD. From where I sat, not one run play was a sweep or off-tackle for Gore. How many times did they run a HB dive on 1st and 10? Their play-calling was way too predictable and lacked the element of surprise. Here's hoping Hostler learns from the last play he called on Monday and runs some different plays.

All in all, Monday's game had a great ending, and it was a positive first step for the 49ers' quest towards the Super Bowl. Let's hope they keep it up against the Rams this week and continue to beat up on their weak division.