NFL Week 1: Cam Newton Sets NFL Record In Debut, Redskins Shut Down Giants

The Colts allowed an average of 127 rushing yards per game last year. In the preseason this year, they allowed more than 146 yards per game, the third worst of any team.

For more perspective on Arian Foster, visit SBNation’s Houston Texans site, Battle Red Blog. For more on the Indianapolis Colts, visit SBNation’s Colts site Stampede Blue.

What follows will doubtlessly make more sense to you if you are intimately familiar with the multiplayer mode of Goldeneye 007, the greatest video game in the history of Earth. In what follows, I assign Goldeneye-style superlatives to the teams who deserved it on the first Sunday of the NFL’s regular season.

MOST DEADLY: BALTIMORE RAVENS.

A guy could develop a reputation like this.

On 3rd-and-2, Romo attempted to scramble for touchdown, but he wound up having the ball punched out and recovered by the Jets. Reviews showed that the ball was out before Romo’s knee hit the ground.

According to NBC’s graphic as time wound down, this was the first loss in 243 games that had the Cowboys leading by 14 or more points in the fourth quarter.

For more on the Cowboys, check out the SB Nation blog Blogging the Boys. For more on Rex Ryan and the Jets be sure to head over to Gang Green Nation. Follow the rest of the Week 1 action at SB Nation NFL.

The loss of Castillo is a huge blow to the Chargers’ defense. He has been a pass rusher and a run stuffer on the Chargers’ defensive line since he entered the league in 2005. He has 19.0 career sacks and his loss be hard to make up, given the options they have on the line.

For more on the Chargers, visit Bolts from the Blue.

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↵via Bubba Prog at 30fps.mocksession.com

Then Ted Ginn, Jr. happened.

Meanwhile, the Seahawks failed to get anything going offensively until it was almost too late. Tarvaris Jackson was 21-37 with 197 yards two touchdowns and a pick, a middling performance, though he was without his best target, Sidney Rice, who missed the game with a shoulder injury.

The Chargers responded back with a steady dose of Mike Tolbert, who added a rushing touchdown and a beautiful 19-yard touchdown catch and run, which ended with a picturesque dive into the end zone.

Philip Rivers finished the game with 335 passing yards and those two touchdowns, attempting 48 passes and completing 33 of them.

But Ginn made the offensive struggles irrelevant. After the Seattle TD, Ginn outrun the coverage with raw speed up the right sideline to tally a 102-yard touchdown. After the Seahawks went three-and-out, Ginn did it again, taking a punt 55 yards after bobbling the ball upon reception.

The two scores give Ginn three career kick return touchdowns and three career punt return touchdowns.

Newton’s first NFL touchdown pass was a 77-yard strike to Steve Smith in the first quarter. He had 440 total yards of offense while the team as a whole had 477 yards.

For more on the Panthers, head over to Cat Scratch Reader. Check out Revenge of the Birds for more on the Cardinals. Stay tuned to our NFL Week 1 StoryStream for up-to-the-minute updates from around the NFL, head to the Week 1 NFL scores StoryStream for recaps of all the day’s games, and bookmark SB Nation NFL for regular news and analysis.

The win was Washington’s first season-opening victory against the Giants since 1976.

For more on the Redskins, head over to Hogs Haven; for more on the Giants, check out Big Blue View. Stay tuned to our NFL Week 1 StoryStream for up-to-the-minute updates from around the NFL, head to the Week 1 NFL scores StoryStream for recaps of all the day’s games, and bookmark SB Nation NFL for regular news and analysis.

Newton, like Manning, did lose the game, but his stat line looked much better all-around. He had two touchdowns and was 24-of-37 passing. One of Newton’s touchdowns was a 77-yard strike to Steve Smith.

For more on the Panthers, head over to Cat Scratch Reader. Stay tuned to our NFL Week 1 StoryStream for up-to-the-minute updates from around the NFL, head to the Week 1 NFL scores StoryStream for recaps of all the day’s games, and bookmark SB Nation NFL for regular news and analysis.

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↵Hey, when in Rome ...

Cam Newton’s first start as an NFL quarterback could have gone horribly wrong. After all, he is helming a Carolina Panthers team that went 1-15 in 2010 and spent much of the 2011 NFL free agency period paying dearly to lock up players from that squad. Instead, Newton is thriving.

Newton’s first half against the Arizona Cardinals — on the road, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, mind — was barely short of phenomenal. He completed nine of 13 passes for 198 yards, hooked up with Steve Smith for two touchdowns, posted a quarterback rating of 151.4, and staked Carolina to a 14-7 lead. Not back for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft.

Before the end of the first quarter Baltimore added another seven points to the scoreboard. Ray Rice had a touchdown overturned by review - the ruling was that he was down by contact - before punching it in again two plays later.

Billed as one of the most exciting games of the season, the final score deflated that notion. Expect a real battle when these two teams meet again in week 9, at Pittsburgh.

Now that he’s basically a household name, maybe the guy can get some better endorsements. Because his current ones, well, they’re a little suspect. Witness the video below in which he hawks Sheex, “the world’s first luxury performance fabric bed sheets.”

Wait, what’s a “luxury performance” bed sheet? Glad you asked. Here I thought that all bed sheets were basically the same, but according to their website, but Sheex claims “a proven advantage over cotton in enabling and maintaining optimum thermal conditions for sleep. Better sleep leads to better performance.”

For more on the Bengals, head over to Cincy Jungle; for more on the Browns, check out Dawgs By Nature. Stay tuned to our NFL Week 1 StoryStream for up-to-the-minute updates from around the NFL, head to the Week 1 NFL scores StoryStream for recaps of all the day’s games, and bookmark SB Nation NFL for regular news and analysis.

For more on the Eagles, head over to Bleeding Green Nation; for more on the Rams, check out Turf Show Times. Stay tuned to our NFL Week 1 StoryStream for up-to-the-minute updates from around the NFL, head to the Week 1 NFL scores StoryStream for recaps of all the day’s games, and bookmark SB Nation NFL for regular news and analysis.

For more on the Lions, check out Pride of Detroit. To see how Bucs fans are taking the loss, visit Bucs Nation. And visit SB Nation NFL for all of the NFL’s Week 1 Scores.

For more on the Chiefs head over to Arrowhead Pride. For more on the Bills, check out Buffalo Rumblings. Stay tuned to our NFL Week 1 StoryStream for scores and updates from around the NFL, and bookmark SB Nation NFL for regular news and analysis.

The dream started off a little slow for the Philadelphia Eagles against the St. Louis Rams through the first half today. The Rams scored first to make it a 7-0 game and send some premature shock through Philly. Michael Vick then led his team to 17 unanswered points to break at the half leading the Rams 17-10.

Philadelphia’s trio of dream team cornerbacks performed as expected, shutting down the Rams receivers, with a little help from the Rams receivers themselves who dropped a couple of key passes that might have evened things up for them.

For more on the Lions, head over to Pride of Detroit. For more on the Bucs, visit Bucs Nation.

It would be mildly surprising - okay, really surprising - if either of these teams was a legitimate playoff contender this season, but at least this game has been fun and surprisingly well-played all around.

For more on the Bengals, visit Cincy Jungle. For the latest on the Browns, check out Dawgs by Nature. Stay tuned to our NFL Week 1 StoryStream for scores and updates from around the NFL, and bookmark SB Nation NFL for regular news and analysis.

For more on the Bears, head over to Windy City Gridiron. For more on the Falcons, check out The Falcoholic. Stay tuned to our NFL Week 1 StoryStream for scores and updates from around the NFL, and bookmark SB Nation NFL for regular news and analysis.