Week 1: Redskins 13 - Cowboys 7: Knee Jerk Reactions

Football season is finally upon us! The hair pulling, TV-screaming, remote control throwing and furious cigarette smoking has finally commenced. Before I let rationality cloud my judgment, here are my knee-jerk reactions from the first game of the season:

HAIL! So this is extremely belated, but I've been traveling for my real job with no internet access. These are not as half-baked as usual, and is an expanded edition thanks to my extreme productivity on the plane ride back. I'm even throwing-in some Texans preview as interest.

• The Cowboys lost that game more than the Skins won it. We were outgained 380 yards to 250.
  

• D******* Hall will get credit for making a play on Tashard Choice's fumble, while Carlos Rogers will get criticized for dropping what would have been a game-ending interception, but that sis absurd. The Cowboys were targeting Hall, and by my count only threw at Rogers 3 times (if you include that lob that Double-Move dropped). Hall gave up quite a few completions, and was not particularly good. Bare in mind that Romo was 31-47.
• The Cowboys play calling was awesomely bad. The short passes against a suspect pass rush were fine to start the game, but after awhile it was clear the protection was good enough to go downfield, especially considering we didn't have anyone capable of staying close to Miles Austin. In addition, after a couple big runs by Marion Barber (4.9 YPC), the Cowboys inexplicably stopped using him.
• Blame Alex Barron all you want Cowboy fans, but he was up against O-Sak-Po all game. That said, even though Rak had no sacks, he drew 3 holding penalties on Barron (one was declined).
• Landry did seem to be in on a lot of plays, but it looked like quite a few of the tackles were from piling-on. He also missed an open shot on Romo, so I am not entirely convinced he has turned over a new leaf.
• Reed Doughty was not good enough, and we can only hope Kareem Moore's coverage skills are better.
• Joey Galloway might as well not have shown up.
• Mike Sellers should not have a pass thrown to him the rest of the season.
• Is Anthony Armstrong just be a preseason All-Star?
• The defense appeared to play better with Fat Albert on the field, but standing apart from the huddle was not a good move. He also still appears to be overly aggressive and not understand that his job is to be a brick wall instead of a knifing penetrator.
• Galloway's disappearing act makes it odd that Fred Davis was also non-existant. Cooley should be the #1 TE, but isn't Davis our 3^rd best pass catcher? Davis should not just be a redzone guy. Can one of them split out wide, or can we play more 2 TE sets?
• Casey Rabach was destroyed by Jay Ratliff. A tough assignment, but for an aging mediocre player, that is not a good sign. Drafting a center already sounds like a great idea.
• On the other hand, Trent Williams is going to be a pro-bowler in the not-too-distant future. Silverback looked only okay in his first game, but Demarcus Ware is the toughest assignment in the league. Ware averages about 3 sacks+hits+hurries per game, while getting game planned around, and I believe had exactly that many going 1v1 with Silverback. Williams did lappear to miss a couple blitz pickups where he took the outside guy instead of a delayed inside rusher, but I am not sure those were missed assignments. In the meantime, his athleticism was a cause for excitement. The Skins should leave him on an island the rest of the season and never look back.
• Apparently no one but me noticed Jammal Brown missed a bunch of plays in the 2^nd quarter when Heyer stepped in, but was back after halftime. I just found the explanation here.
  
• Lebron James, Cowboy fan. I think he is trying to suck. Just scroll down this DC Sports bog article for exactly how I feel.
  
• Larry Johnson is like the player in Madden who no matter how fast you hit the speed burst doesn't go anywhere (text message from my friend Adam).
• McNabb was Campbellesque (text message from my friend Adam).
  
• Before the season, I had the Texans as a team we needed to beat to go at least 8-8. I think we just need to go 2-2 through these first 4 games to be in position for a wild card, and play the Rams next, so this game is not absolutely needed. That said, if we are projecting out to 8 wins, this game could be the difference between making the playoffs and sitting at home in January. I am going to take a few Ambien now.

(Image courtesy of DC Sports Bog)