Happy Monday everyone! Good to see everyone survived the near heart attack that was the first NFL Sunday of the season. Three games decided by a single point, and only one game decided by double digits (Carson Wentz taking care of business). Week 1 delivered in a big way. I’ll go into detail about each game tomorrow since there are still two games left to play tonight. That being said, I will give my big takeaways from the weekend, and finish up with a preview of the Monday Night Football doubleheader tonight.

 

NCAA: Bad day for the Big 12

On what could be considered an “off” weekend for college football, two perennial contenders in the Big 12 took heartbreaking losses. TCU lost in double overtime to a tough Arkansas team and Oklahoma State got robbed of a victory by the refs (who were rightly suspended by the conference afterwards). I do have to credit Central Michigan for seizing the opportunity gifted to them against Oklahoma State, giving us the play of the weekend in college football. To explain why the refs bungled the end of this game, Oklahoma State quarterback Mason Rudolph tried to just throw a ball up and out of bounds to bleed out the clock on fourth down. Rudolph succeeded but was rightly called for intentional grounding. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, the officials wrongly awarded Central Michigan the ball for an untimed down. But as they say, that’s the way the cookie crumbles. With these losses piling up, Texas may be the Big 12’s only hope for a representative in the College Football Playoff.

 

NFL: Short-handed Patriots upset Cardinals on the road.

You read that one right. The Pats won against one of the favorites to win the NFC without Brady, Gronk, and left tackle Nate Solder (among others). Every team in the league should be sick about that result because there is now a very real possibility that Tom Brady comes back to an undefeated Patriots team in Week 5. The Jets, Bills, and Dolphins can also kiss their chances of winning the division goodbye too. The rest of the AFC should shudder in fear because the road to Super Bowl is going through New England. Book this right now, the Patriots will have home-field advantage in the playoffs.

 

Monday Night Preview

Steelers at Washington

The Monday Night Football opener emanates from the nation’s capital as the Redskins host the Steelers. I’m a huge believer in Pittsburgh this year and think they have the potential to be the second-best team in the AFC. It’s going to be a huge test for Washington’s prized free agent Josh Norman going against the best receiver in the NFL, Antonio Brown. It should be a good game, but I like the Steelers to control the game securing a nice road win in the opener.

 

Rams at 49ers

The nightcap features an NFC West showdown between Los Angeles and San Francisco. I don’t really expect many fireworks in this game, because these are two mediocre offenses. LA is going to grind down a 49ers defense that will be on the field for most of this game (just a reality of a Chip Kelly team). Todd Gurley may start slow early but take over as the game progresses, especially in the second half. It won’t look pretty, might even be a snoozer, but the Rams get the win tonight in San Francisco.

 

I’ll be back tomorrow with a full recap of Week 1 in the NFL, my fantasy studs/duds from the opening week, followed up with a waiver-wire target list for Week 2. Join the conversation in the comments section or social media. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.