[Quesadilla Joe]

Fine Fifteen

1. Denver (1-0). It’s a nice September schedule for the Broncos. With a half bye (10 days between games), Denver visits the Giants next Sunday. With an extra day to prepare in Week 3, Denver returns home to face Oakland on a Monday night. With a short week, the Broncos finish the month by facing defensively challenged Philadelphia. Get this: Four of the last 14 Denver foes had winning records in 2012.

2. San Francisco (1-0). In the last 365 days, Green Bay has played at Candlestick Park three times. The Pack has allowed, on average, 36 points and 483 yards a game. It is not a coincidence that San Francisco is 3-0 in those games.

3. Seattle (1-0). I don’t rank the Seahawks here with conviction, because Russell Wilson had defenders buzzing around him all afternoon in Charlotte. But you looked up at the end of the game, and Wilson still had 320 yards passing against a pressure D, and the Seahawks played well enough to steal one.

4. Houston (0-0). Really looking forward to seeing how Brian Cushing’s presence changes the offensive focus to blocking the Texans. Especially with two new tackles protecting Philip Rivers, I bet new San Diego coach Mike McCoy leaves extra blockers in to keep his quarterback clean.

5. New Orleans (1-0). Easy to see the difference between last year’s team and this one: a competent defense. Akiem Hicks, Cameron Jordan and Junior Galette pressured Matt Ryan enough so you could see how bothered he was by the pressure by the middle of the game.

6. Green Bay (0-1). Good team, but I continue to wonder if the defense can mature during the season, particular as long as cornerback Casey Hayward is missing.


7. Chicago (1-0). Quality win, particularly after A.J. Green tormented the Bears secondary for much of the day.

8. Detroit (1-0). Impressive win for the Lions, for two reasons: Detroit got good play out of the offensive backfield for once, and good play out of the defensive front (three sacks, four more pressures) for once.

9. New England (1-0). No style points in NFL victories, which is a good thing for the Patriots.

10. Dallas (1-0). End of schneid. Maybe it was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the rabid Cowboys fan, sitting in Jerry Jones’ box that brought Dallas luck—and their annual Arlington tormentors, the Giants. New York had been 4-0 in Jones’ new stadium until the 36-31 Cowboy win Sunday night.

11. Cincinnati (0-1). A.J. Green is a very tall Gumby.

12. St. Louis (1-0). Love the fact that Sam Bradford engineered three scoring drives (okay, one was a two-yarder) that ended in touchdown, field goal and game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter. Also love the fact that the Rams are now 5-1-1 in, arguably, the toughest division in football since the start of the 2012 season.

13. Tennessee (1-0). Maybe Mike Munchak’s right. Maybe you can still win by running the ball predominantly—in part because so many teams don’t work that much in practice to stop the run, due to so few teams being big run teams anymore.

14. Baltimore (0-1). Repeat after me, Timonium: It’s only one game … It’s only one game …

15. Arizona (0-1). Larry Fitzgerald touchdown catches last year: four. Larry Fitzgerald touchdown catches Sunday in St. Louis: two. The Cards are going to be a tough day for every team on their schedule.

http://mmqb.si.com/2013/09/09/anquan...arterback-2/3/