“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!“
LAKEWOOD, NJ – The Cousin Card has been played again as Small Matt emailed me last-minute to fill in due to the impending *Baby Blabber! How can I say no to that?
While I despise the NFL hierarchy, they then to pull ratings out of their hat – especially on opening week. Thursday’s contest, the rematch of last year’s Super Bowl Big Game, proved to be an epic battle between the two best teams in La Liga. The Manning-less Denver Broncos rolled out a QB who had never thrown a pass in a regular season game, hoping that he would manage to NOT lose the game versus an equally powerful Carolina Panthers, led by everyone’s favorite Sore Loser Cam Newton. Neither team disappointed.
Trevor Siemian performed confidently, despite two picks (one of which was a tipped) and managed to out-duel Cam in virtually every passing statistic.
Tale of Two Halves: Carolina appeared poised to avenge the Super Bowl loss by outplaying the Broncos in the first half, heading into the locker room with a 17-7. Both teams were clearly winded by the altitude and heat, as evidenced by their slow crawl into the locker room.
The second half played out as any Broncos fan would have hoped. Cam and the Carolina Blues were indeed gassed, which allowed the Broncos to rally past them – aided by a Graham Gano muffed field goal as time expired. Cam deserves some credit, as he was hit before, during and after the whistle. This is obviously a great strategy for the rest of the league to attempt to neutralize this beast of an athlete. I’m looking forward to how this season plays out. Will the Vikings finally raise The Lombardi? If they do, will they call it The Grant?
Now it’s time for a puzzle for your eyes:
Please post your answers and The Matts will announce the winner next week! Good luck.
Grinding Ax NFL Week One Picks:
I will leave the betting picks to the professionals. Here are my straight up game winners:
Packers over Jags
Bears over Texans
Browns over Eagles
Raiders over Saints
Chiefs over Chargers
Bills over Ravens; DJ Eberle does backflips
Angry Ward’s Vikings over Titans
Tampa over Atlanta
The J-E-T-S over Bengals
Seahawks harpoon the Dolphins
Colts over Lions
Cardinals over Tomless Patriots
Redskins over Steelers
49’ers hard knock the Rams…
And in the Game of the Week:
Dak’s Cowboys over Gump’s Big Blew!
Rutgers over Howard Bisons for the first win of the Chris Ash Era… or error?
Chime in with your comments, picks and scorn and come back tomorrow for the Venerable Cheeseman (Cheesy Bruin). And please feel free to follow us on Twitter – @MeetTheMatts and like our Facebook page, Meet The Matts.
*Contrived excuse as Blaber is on hiatus from MTM as per his role on RugbyWrapUp.com.
P.s… How ’bout them Mutts?
