Week 1 NFL Recap and “Beat the House” Results & The Return of Michael Vick

Well, my career as the grand pickmaster at the TMR Zoo did not get off to a very good start. In my debut week making the “House” picks, I only called 6 out of the first 16 games right. Pa always told me, “if you can’t win, quit”, but he’s missing one leg and all his teeth, so what does he know… I’m gonna give it another shot.

Each year the opening week has a few shocking results, which I was counting on, but it looks like I picked the wrong upsets. I was banking on the Lions and Raiders making big opening day statements against their second-tier opponents, but it was the Texans and the Chiefs that were the kickoff week winners. The Texans played the Colts while the Chiefs hosted the Chargers… both playoff teams from the previous year expected to return there again. The point spreads were not very big in those games, so that is something you should watch in future weeks. You can see them right next to my picks each week on the Beat the House entry page.

Here is how week 1 went:

My chicken Matilda made one pick in week 1, and that was the Niners beating Seattle, so she is 0-1. The Madden 11 sim on the Xbox 360 had 12 correct picks. I don’t get that newfangled technology, but it sure looks like it can pick games good. I only have an Atari 2600 in the game room in my double-wide, and that’s good enough for me. I just have to blow in the cartridges before I plug them in.

For the full Beat the House Leaderboard, click here.

Since the members beat me this week, my bosses tell me I have to send a prize out to somebody. This looks like an easy one since skalobster11 was the only member to pick 13 games correctly. We’ll shoot you a message, ska, so we can send you out the DVD prize pack and Nerf football. Nice pick set in a tough week.

There is still one more part of our contest to be decided and that is the Jagermeister Players of the Week. Those players will be named by the NFL tomorrow, so we’ll send out another update as to who those players are and if anyone has won.

As for the rest of the goings-on around the league during kickoff weekend, we saw some upsets and a bunch of injuries, but I recon the biggest story is the relief performance ex-con Michael Vick threw out for the Philadelphia Eagles. In his first extended playing time since being released from the pen, Vick looked like his pre-con self. Actually, he looked better since he completed over 60% of his pass attempts and had a QB rating over 100. I don’t remember him doing that too often even before he went to jail. It was a pretty exciting performance and Vick might find himself starting sooner than later if he can keep it up, whether it is with the Eagles or another team. It looks like he’ll start against the Lions Sunday with Kolb probably sitting due to the new concussion rules. It doesn’t help Kolb too much that he played like a steaming cow pie on a chilly fall morning either. He might be sitting even after his bell stops ringing.

My boss, Steve, was running around the office yesterday calling himself a hippo crate because he wants Vick to be the starting quarterback of the Eagles now after not liking him all these years. I don’t know what that means, but Steve isn’t big enough to be a crate for a hippo. I don’t see the big deal with Vick anyway, he killed a few dogs. I shoot a few dogs myself each month. They’re always getting into the chicken coop and running off with my best hens. Anyways, we’ll keep an eye on the Vick story for you and let you know what we hear.

So that was week 1, both for our football pool and the NFL season. I’m sure we’ll have a few more twists and turns in the coming weeks so stay tuned. You can vote on my week 2 picks and predictions in a few short hours. Keep checking the Beat the House entry page for the change in week.

Thanks for playing!