NFL Football Scores - Week 1

NFL Football Scores - Week 1

There is really only one important lesson to learn in football: don't give the ball to the other team because they can't score when you have the ball. If you get sacked, you can get up and throw a TD on the next pass. If you stumble when heading for an open hole, you can always pick your ass up and break a few tackles on the next down. But when you turn the ball over, you don't get a next down.

The Cowboys learned that lesson the hard way. They had more passing yards than the Niners. They had more rushing yards. They had more kick return yards. They had more time of possession. They had flawless punting (52 yards per attempt).

And they got their asses handed to them.

The pulled off that seemingly impossible stunt by committing four costly turnovers. One fumble was run back for a TD in the first minute of the game, then three Romo interceptions sealed the deal. The Niners were not very flashy and could not score at all in the second half, but they held on to the frickin' ball, and that's all they needed to do.

Oh, yeah. There were some other games as well. The most interesting developments were:

* There was no sign of Johnny Football in the Browns' loss, but Hoyer almost engineered a nice comeback against the Steelers. The Browns were down 27-3 at halftime, but managed to tie up the game in the fourth quarter before they remembered they were the Browns and blew it.

* It was a big day for Matt Ryan (RAT 129), who outgunned Drew Brees (RAT 91) to give the Falcons an OT victory at home. Ryan passed for 448 yards with 3 TDs and no picks. That's a significant upset. The Falcons were 4-12 last year, compared to 11-5 for the Saints.

* The Houston Texans have almost equaled last year's win total. Of course I could also have written that yesterday, when they still had none, because they were 2-14 last year, but I guess the point is that they won.

* The Bears were seven point favorites at home, but lost to the Bills in OT.

* The Bucs were supposed to be able to win at home against the Newtonless Panthers, but it was not to be. The Carolina defense was strong and back-up QB Derek Anderson was solid. Anderson got to throw 34 passes in this game, which is 30 more than he has thrown in the last three years added together. (In his defense, he did complete 100% of his four passes during those years!)

* The Dolphins managed to outscore the Pats 23-0 in the second half as they marched to a comeback victory. So here's the deal: since the Bills and Jets also somehow managed to win, the Patriots have sole possession of last place in the division. I wonder what the odds were against that.