NFL 2007 Preseason Notes: Week 1

Thanks to the NFL Network and the magic of TiVo, I was able to watch an incredible nine NFL preseason games this weekend. Nine! And it was one at a time, too. That's 27 of hours of football condensed into a 72-hour weekend.

(I might also mention I'm happily married and have two kids, 4 and 10 months, greatly increasing the degree of difficulty.)

I unfortunately couldn't get to all of the action. I've still got Oakland/Arizona, Chicago/Houston, Pittsburgh/Green Bay, and Seattle/San Diego waiting for me in that beautiful box connected to my TV. The Network doesn't replay Jacksonville/Miami until this afternoon. Denver/San Francisco and Baltimore/Philly lineup tonight.

So I'll have to cover those later. In the meantime, though, here are some notes from the first fantastic weekend of the NFL.

(And before any of you cynics jump on my ass, I know it's the preseason. I know much will change. Teams played vanilla schemes and blah blah blah. It's still football and they still kept score. Bugger off.)

Dallas Cowboys 23, Indianapolis Colts 10

New Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett is one happy dude, always smiling, hitting his players in the facemask. He looks like a fun guy to play for.

Troy Aikman, who called the game with Joe Buck, thinks Terrell Owens is going to have a huge year. He's going to play the "X" position in Garrett's offense, the same position played so successfully by Michael Irvin.

Cowboys QB Tony Romo is not in the least bit traumatized by last year's fumbled hold in the playoffs. It's a non-issue.

Joseph Addai better not go down. None of the backs behind him showed significant potential. From a fantasy perspective, Addai should be an A+ performer.

The Cowboys' run offense, whether with Julius Jones, Marion Barber, or Tyson Thompson, dominated (DOMINATED) the Colts' run defense.

Jason Witten has the look of a Pro Bowl tight end. So does Anthony Fasano. Unfortunately for fantasy drafters, there's no way to tell who's going to get the majority of the numbers.

Same with Jones and Barber in the backfield.

Give Peyton Manning time to sit in the pocket and he will wreck you. But we knew that already.

I'm calling Nick Folk as the winner in the Cowboys' PK battle.

Carolina Panthers 24, New York Giants 21

It's tough to tell if Brandon Jacobs is a short-yardage back pretending to be a feature guy, or if he's a guy who's going to go for 2, 3, 5, 3, 1, 30. I think it's the latter, but I want to see it.

New York expectations: on his second attempt of the preseason, Eli Manning overthrows the slant on third down. The crowd groans loudly.

The Giants' first-team defense was absolutely terrible. Carolina did whatever they wanted on their first drive. Giants fans have to be worried, even if this is "just the first game." Other teams didn't suck this bad. (Three excuses: it was the first game in a new defense; Mathias Kiwanuka, a defensive end converting to linebacker, was severely overmatched; much of the starting secondary didn't play.)

As Carl Banks (former great Giants LB turned color guy on the New York broadcast) said, "This defense seems very permeable."

At least the Giants offense responded with a touchdown off the big kick-off return from Derrick Ward. Manning needed that.

Carolina DE Stanley McClover, a seventh-round pick out of Auburn in the 2006 draft, is a player. You'll be hearing his name this season.

Brett Basanez-to-Taye Biddle. Only in the preseason.

Give Jared Lorenzen credit. He's transformed himself from a novelty freak show into a very legitimate number two NFL quarterback.

Don't forget about Reuben Droughns. He's still got skills. If Jacobs doesn't pan out, Droughns could be the guy.

Detroit Lions 27, Cincinnati Bengals 26

J.T. O'Sullivan was erratic, mixing in some really nice throws with some really dumb decisions. Same with Dan Orlovsky. Mike Martz hates dumb decisions.

Bummer for Bengals rookie RB Kenny Irons, who is out for the year with a knee injury. It didn't even look that bad when it happened.

Bengals WR Bennie Brazell might be worth a look during Chris Henry's eight-game suspension.

I wasn't at all impressed with Detroit's starting offensive line. Bengals defensive end Justin Smith manhandled Lions guard Edwin Mulitalo for a sack.

It looks like the Bengals might have something with DB Nedu Ndukwe (seventh round from Notre Dame) and DE Xzavie Jackson (undrafted free agent from Missouri). I bet both make the final roster.

New York Jets 31, Atlanta Falcons 16

This was one of the best games of the weekend. Extremely good tackling from both sides, especially in the first half.

Thomas Jones looks smaller in a Jets uniform than he did in a Bears uniform. He's still really fast, though.

Don't forget about Leon Washington for the Jets. With Jones as the lead guy, Washington could have a Maurice Jones-Drew-type season.

It's hard to tell if it was Joey Harrington or Bobby Petrino's new offense, but the Falcons looked a lot more explosive than they ever did in the Mike Vick era (which, for now, I'm assuming is over).

It looks like Harrington is focused on developing something with Roddy White.

Washington Redskins 14, Tennessee Titans 6

The Washington defense looks fast and nasty. The Titans weren't that bad, either. The Titans' Sean Conover (No. 77) reminds me of the Chiefs' Jared Allen. (That's a huge compliment.)

Jason Campbell definitely has the arm, but needs to work on the awareness. He got blasted a few times in the first quarter.

It was disappointing that Vince Young didn't play. I wanted to see who was going to be his go-to guy in the revamped receiving corps.

Remember how bad Kerry Collins looked last year before Young took over? He looked about the same this weekend.

Tim Rattay was mildly worse, then mildly better, then mildly worse again.

LenDale White does not look like the fat slob I was led to believe he was.

Titans rookie RB Chris Henry (second round from Arizona) runs with some serious aggression. On one play, he was about to get hit by Jamaal Green (260 lb. defensive end), so Henry lowered his head to deliver the blow. Green stayed down for a while. (He eventually walked off on his own.)

Of the three Titans backs, Chris Brown was the least impressive. To be fair, he was also the one facing the Washington first-team defense.

Marshall Faulk was on the color commentary. He's vastly improved since he first joined the NFL Network last season. Quality stuff.

Spero Dedes (the play-by-play guy with Faulk) said Clinton Portis had just been to see Dr. James Andrews — aka "the Dr. Death of please don't let it be serious" — about his bad knee (tendonitis). Even if Andrews is on the Skins' payroll, I'm crossing Portis off my fantasy draft sheet.

Portis' backup, Ladell Betts, should definitely be on your fantasy radar. (And if he wasn't already, you need to seriously re-dedicate yourself.)

Cleveland Browns 16, Kansas City Chiefs 12

If the Chiefs are serious about winning in 2007, Damon Huard should be the starting QB.

I wrote that last sentence during Brodie Croyle's first series. Then Huard came in and looked terrible. Now I don't know.

Cleveland rookie CB Eric Wright was tested early and showed up well. Joe Thomas had some nice blocks, but was also called for holding a couple of times. Still, he should be a solid player for a long time.

Chiefs LB Donnie Edwards still looks fantastic.

Browns RB Jamal Lewis looks a lot faster than he did the last two years with the Ravens.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson went series-by-series. Romeo Crennel is acting like a bad college coach. I don't see this ending well.

Brady Quinn vastly improved his chances of starting the season opener just by virtue of how bad Frye and Anderson played. I bet the people giving Quinn all that trouble for his holdout and $75 signatures are going to be clamoring for Crennel to give him a lot more snaps in game two than the zero he took in game one.

This was a complete dog poop game for 58 minutes, then got exciting for 90 seconds, then went back to dog poop for the final 30 seconds.

St. Louis Rams 13, Minnesota Vikings 10

Tarvaris Jackson is fast and elusive, with a cannon for an arm. He's going to surprise some people.

It looks like Troy Williamson might be Jackson's go-to guy.

Adam Carriker showed well against Minnesota center Matt Birk.

I like the way Richie Incognito plays. He stood up well against Vikings' tackle Kevin Williams, then ran down-field to make a tackle after an interception.

The Rams secondary is a serious concern.

Rams rookie RB Brian Leonard (second round from Rutgers) is going to get some action this year. The kid is good.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 13, New England Patriots 10

No Randy Moss. No Donte' Stallworth. No Richard Seymour. Heath Evans as the primary back. Basically, it was like the worst of last year for the Pats, only if Matt Cassel had played QB instead of Tom Brady.

Rookie RB Ken Darby (seventh round from Alabama) showed some flashes of promise for the Bucs (15 rushes for 84 yards, including a 21-yarder). He could stick.

If Brady goes down, the Pats are absolutely screwed. But we knew that already.

Buffalo Bills 13, New Orleans Saints 10

You could very much tell the Saints were playing their second game and the Bills were playing their first, especially when it came to the Saints' defensive line against the Bills' offensive line.

Both Devery Henderson and Reggie Bush looked very good for the Saints. I could see Henderson putting up better numbers than Marques Colston.

Seth Doria is a freelance writer and editor from St. Louis. He predicted great things for Rick Ankiel a long time ago. For proof, visit The Left Calf.