NFL Kickoff

I've meant to blog a few things about the upcoming football season and frankly the week has gotten away from me. So we'll go to bullet points:

• I'm excited for the season but I'm still not a fan of the extended opening weekend. In the next five days we'll have football games in no fewer than six slots. That's for sixteen total games. You can't help but water down the product by splitting it that much. I get the Thursday night game (though I'd rather go back to a Sunday noon start). The real problem is the two games on Monday night. It's too much.
• How confident am I in the Vikings this year? Not a lot. Mostly that's just the big roll of bad karma that they've been having throughout preseason. Then I take a step back and remember that they still have a very good defense, a top running game and a competent passing game. Then I feel better.
• Which doesn't mean that they'll win tonight. Preseason trades and injuries have left their secondary paper thin. The Saints will have a bunch of post Super Bowl energy going. Still . . . if the defensive line gets to Brees and the Vikings somehow avoid turnovers, they can absolutely win this game.
• This whole targeting Favre's ankle thing is beyond stupid. Yes, it's a great strategy for beating the Vikings. But that same strategy holds true for nearly every good team. How good are the Saints if someone blows out Brees knee? Is this really a game that they should be playing? Shouldn't they good enough to win without playing dirty?
• This was a very tough week of games to pick. Either the game featured two balanced teams or the better team is on the road. Ugh. Survivor Leagues will suffer massive casualties.
  
• The above note assumes that we know which teams will be good and which ones won't be. I don't think that's true for week one. Every year we see teams improve and fall apart. We never know which ones it will be until about week four. Week four at the earliest.
• Yes I'm excited!