Andy Richardson

We're back; each Monday I'll write a wrapup of the games I caught the most of on Sunday. It's not physically possible for me to see everything, but I've got all the important channels and don't sleep much from Sunday through Tuesday, so I'll see what I can do.

For the first Sunday of the year, probably best to take you through my day. Let's go, shall we?

7:00 a.m. Coffee in hand, I flip through the channels and settle on NFL Network's "First on the Field." Pleased to see the hosts appear to be ex-Packer Sterling Sharpe, ex-Charger and Jet LaDainian Tomlinson, and ex-ESPNer from way back, Melissa Stark. I'm a big Melissa Stark fan so I don't mind that she appears to be wearing the black and white dress from the Seinfeld episode where his girlfriend wore the same dress all the time. Michael Lombardi weighs in on whether Andy Reid is on the hot seat (who cares; it's Week 1) and Mike Holmgren's future. With Sterling there it's Packers old home week.

8:00 a.m. I turn my attention to the team I drafted last night in my one league that drafts live and always does it the Saturday before the season starts. Stats from the season opener can be used which may have factored into my selection of Tony Romo; a week ago I might have selected Eli Manning instead. We'll hope that works out. With all my drafts in the books, it's now clear that this was a year where it was very easy to get a lot of good wideouts without using early picks on them, and GREAT wideouts if you did use early picks. I'll start 3 WRs in this league - Megatron, Jordy Nelson, Eric Decker. Not many weekly lineup decisions in that area. Hope we're right on Alfred Morris, though, or I'll be a running back short each week.

9:00 a.m. Time to check all my lineups, making changes as the various injury updates come in. Alfred Morris appears to be starting and is IN a couple of my lineups. Used a late pick on DeAngelo last night; he's also IN as Jonathan Stewart is ruled out. Answer a couple of lineup questions posted to my Saturday column, then head outside for an impromptu pregame Nerf football game with my son. The grass is wet and it feels like a football morning.

10:00 a.m. ESPN's pregame show starts. You may (or may not) wonder how much I watch the pregame shows. The answer is not much. I don't care about most of the fluff features, a decent percentage of the talking heads are annoying, and most importantly, the "updates" are usually behind what can be found much more quickly on the Internet. The bottom line shows guys as questionable who have already been ruled in or out. An ESPN feature on Super Bowl winning quarterbacks going to other teams failed to mention Kurt Warner, unless I blinked and missed it. Today I let the DVR record it so I can zip through it without commercials and fluff. The shows are better than nothing, I guess, but they've never really helped me be more informed or make a lineup decision. Most likely I'll switch between NFL Network and ESPN for the next three hours. I haven't seen the CBS or FOX pregame shows in about five years. Oh, I do like ESPN's SportsScience feature.

1:00 p.m. The games begin, and much time is spend on the RedZone Channel. I know everyone loves this thing and I do too, but it has its drawbacks. Mostly, you just don't get much of a feel for the game if you're not seeing drives down the field and good plays that set things up. You also don't see drops and other miscues. I like the channel and all, but seeing all the scoring doesn't mean you're seeing all the important stuff. Just saying.

Here, though, is three hours worth of stuff I did see between the hours of 1 and 4:00 p.m.

Bears-Colts: Things start poorly for Jay Cutler with sacks, knockdowns and a Pick 6 to start the game. He eventually turns it around and throws touchdowns to Brandon Marshall and a beautiful TD to Alshon Jeffery. Cutler will have some big games this year, the question is if they'll pass enough for them to be consistent. Bad offensive line will make it tough at times; let's see how things go against Green Bay on Thursday. Marshall dropped a 2nd TD, by the way. ... Matt Forte looked great. Michael Bush 2 TDs, but how often is the ball going to wind up at the goal line? He might score 10-12 TDs this year but will be very hard to start. ... Andrew Luck is going to have some big, early Peyton Manning type games. Bad line, no running game, bad defense. He won't win much, but the fantasy numbers will be good.

Washington-New Orleans: Pinball type of game, stunning debut for Robert Griffin III. You have to note the same thing as with Cam Newton's debut last year: he was facing a really bad defense. Still, great game. Pierre Garcon a target monster. ... Alfred Morris came through for those of us who dared start him. Low yards per carry a slight concern, and he won't be fortunate enough to get 1-yard touchdowns after end-zone pass interferences every week. Still, it's clear that Shanahan's depth charts are a total joke. Helu on 3rd downs, and that's it. ... Nice game for Aldrick Robinson out of nowhere. Question is will he play at all if Garcon's foot is OK (and he says it is)? ... Drew Brees' numbers will be fine, again. Bad defense, lots of playing from behind. It's the running game you have to worry about. ... Near TD for Colston; instead he fumbled through the end zone for a touchback. Don't worry about him.

Bills-Jets: Didn't see this one coming. Mark Sanchez played about the game of his life after an early interception. Ryan Fitzpatrick was horrible. Just one game, but a pretty shocking one to anybody who saw the Jets in the preseason. Guess those struggles really didn't mean that much. Tebow came in a lot but clearly won't push to start if Sanchez plays like this. ... Fred Jackson hurt on kind of a cheap hit. C.J. Spiller plays big. Committee backfield coming, most likely, and that's if Jackson's injury isn't serious (which it might be). ... Garbage-time TD for Stevie Johnson. Those count too, but I'm concerned if Fitzpatrick doesn't play better. ... I'm not buying Stephen Hill; things won't go that well every week. Same for Shonn Greene, who was fortunate to score and avoid a pair of fumbles.

Falcons-Kansas City: Sometimes the preseason does mean something. Matt Ryan and Julio Jones picked up right where they left off from the exhibitions. Jones looks uncoverable. He was wide open for a third TD and Ryan missed him. Huge season on tap. ... Stick a fork in Michael Turner, it's over. ... Jamaal Charles looked great. Shockingly caught from behind on a 46-yard run; maybe that's a long TD pre-injury. But even if he's lost half a step he's still half a step faster than everyone else out there. Small role for Hillis, but that won't be the case every week; KC's defense won't struggle that much most weeks against most opponents.

Jaguars-Vikings: Impressive showing by Blaine Gabbert. Not perfect, but made what in most weeks is the game-winning touchdown pass. He missed a wide open Justin Blackmon for what would have been an easy touchdown earlier in the game. Think Blackmon is going to be big this year, and long-term. ... Adrian Peterson proved a lot of folks wrong, including us, for one week anyway. No reason to think he won't be his usual self going forward, although the team should still be careful with him, I think. But yeah, he's a freak. ... Harvin and Rudolph will be awesome. ... The Rashad Jennings era came to a quick end.

Dolphins-Texans: Arian Foster, another game-time decision, guy who was likely to be spelled heavily, blah blah. Once the games start it seems coaches don't care about any of that stuff and give guys their normal workloads. You just can't use No. 2 running backs. Somebody started Turbin against me yesterday, and Tate was probably in plenty of lineups. Too much risk. ... Lestar Jean nearly caught a spectacular TD. Guy to watch in dynasty. Andre Johnson DID catch a spectacular TD. Until he gets hurt, he'll be awesome.

Rams-Lions: Wasn't totally surprised the Rams were competitive. Think it's going to be a good team that wins more than most expect. But not good enough to avoid some heartbreaking losses, either. ... Disappointing game for Steven Jackson, but I think he'll be fine. Lions D best up front, poor in the secondary. He'll have better games. ... Brandon Pettigrew dropped a should-have-been touchdown. Tough throw, but the elite TEs catch those. ... Up and down game for Stafford. People forget how young he is, I think. I hate to use the young Brett Favre comparison, but there it is. He's got a great arm and loads of talent but will make the occasional mistake, too. Still, I'll take him on my fantasy team with no worries. ... Keiland Williams the No. 2. Not sure what to make of Joique Bell getting a short TD after Smith stuffed at goal line. Presumably one or both of those guys will be behind Mikel Leshoure a couple of weeks from now. Smith is the main man, though, until he gets hurt. ... Richardson the clear No. 2 behind Steven Jackson. ... Nick Fairley sighting on takedown of Bradford.

Eagles-Browns: Browns as expected. Sorry, Brandon. Richardson maybe not fully healthy and certainly can't do it alone against a good run defense. ... Lousy game for Vick, but I'm OK if I've got his various receivers on my team. Maclin, DJax, Celek; these guys will be fine.

Patriots-Titans: So there you go: the tight ends are going to be huge, the wide receivers are not. Gronk, Hernandez (in some order), then Welker and Lloyd well after that. ... Huge game for Ridley. Went one pick before I was going to take him in my Saturday draft. I suspect that one pick could be the difference between my team being strong at running back or weak. As noted above, I used a later pick on a guy I normally don't touch: DeAngelo Williams. Wasted pick there and a missed opportunity with Ridley. I know, it's just one week. ... Not surprising things went poorly for Jake Locker and Chris Johnson. Don't give up on them yet; New England's defense is much improved.

For the late games, because there are fewer of them, I get to see most of all of them.

Packers-Niners: Color me impressed. I didn't think anyone could really shut down Green Bay, but San Francisco did. Rodgers finished with nice, fantasy-salvaging numbers, but he got knocked around pretty good, didn't have a great day throwing the ball, and one of Green Bay's TDs came on a punt return. Nice game for Finley, as San Francisco clearly aimed to take away the wideouts. Finley also scored 4 TDs last year against Green Bay's next opponent, Chicago. ... If you told me before the game Alex Smith would throw 2 TDs, I'd have gone with Moss and Vernon Davis. Good history for both against the Packers. ... Frank Gore looked pretty good, with a couple of nice runs including the touchdown. ... First half ended with a 63-yard Akers field goal. Green Bay's last game ended with a completed Hail Mary by the Giants, if memory serves. They make sure fans don't leave their seats early for snacks at Lambeau.

Seahawks-Cardinals: Thrilling game that not too many probably watched. It ran long, partially due to the officials messing up a timeout situation at the end and partially due to various penalties, turnovers, injuries. Back and forth, emotional game. ... Don't worry about the Seattle D, which could have had a huge game. Leon Washington had long punt and kick returns stopped just short of being touchdowns. ... Sidney Rice looked like a difference-making wideout. Braylon Edwards looked as unreliable as ever; a good play here, a drop there. There's a reason teams don't try hard to keep him around. ... Marshawn Lynch looked fine. ... Russell Wilson made some plays, though he couldn't pull out the win. Scrambled for a first down late. Tried again but ran into Lynch's back. Threw a possible game-winning TD that Edwards couldn't hang onto. Willson can play. ... Kolb comes off the bench to lead a win. Unexpected. Larry Fitzgerald made some big plays, expected. Neither Cardinals running back had a chance or made anything happen on their own. Defense looked pretty good. Fitzgerald and the Defense, that's the only value here.

Bucs-Panthers: Well, I guess a top safety and a hard-nosed head coach make a difference. Tampa Bay's defense was worlds better than a year ago. It was almost funny on one goal-line scramble by Newton when it looked like the entire defense was waiting for it and just converged on him. Newton is going to have to pass this year. Good thing he has Steve Smith, and Greg Olsen and Brandon LaFell chipped in with some good plays too. Passing game will need to do more this year. Because.... .... If you started DeAngelo Williams and got burned, sorry. I did too. I might actually drop the guy this week. I can't imagine ever starting him again. As the lead back against last year's league-worst run defense, he rushed for negative yards. What can you say? He didn't have much chance, but he really didn't look good, either, and Newton doesn't hand the ball off near the goal line, so what is the point? I won't recommend DeAngelo again all season. ... Doug Martin looked pretty good out there, and he is basically a full-time guy, as expected. Carolina's defense did a better job than expected and kept him out of the end zone, but the Ray Rice comparisons seem legit. Should have given up more for the right to trade up and draft him in my dynasty league, methinks. ... Nothing of note to say on the Bucs passing game. As expected, it doesn't look like it will be a point of emphasis.

Steelers-Broncos: Manning looks like pretty much the same guy, doesn't he? Won't throw downfield as much. Both wide receivers will be huge, as expected. Jacob Tamme's quiet preseason looks irrelevant; he was a big part of the offense. Willis McGahee should be close to a full-time guy. ... Pittsburgh has major offensive line troubles. Roethlisberger is going to get pummeled all year. They've got to go with Jonathan Dwyer as the lead back; Isaac Redman brings nothing to the table, whether it's because he's hurting or not.

Monday, Monday: Two games tonight! Even though one is too late for those of us on the East Coast. I'm thinking shootout in Oakland, more of a defensive struggle in Baltimore. Let's pick some scores: Baltimore, 20-17; San Diego, 31-27.

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