A good story gives NFL games an added layer of enjoyment. However, Friday plots sometimes turn into Sunday flops as expectations fail to meet the hype. This handy guide to the week’s NFL subplots helps the discerning face-painter choose their games wisely.
Which Week 2 NFL Games Will Live Up To The Hype?
A good story gives NFL games an added layer of enjoyment. However, Friday plots sometimes turn into Sunday flops as expectations fail to meet the hype. This handy dandy guide to the week’s NFL subplots helps the discerning face-painter choose their games wisely.
Getty Images
Oakland Raiders at Buffalo Bills
Worst to First
Trope: Lovable losers turn it around
Every year the NFL features a team that makes the leap from the ranks of the also-rans to the winner's circle. A healthy Detroit team has that one locked up this year, as foretold in the post-bailout Chrysler Eminem Super Bowl commercial, but another once-great team could make this a good year for the Rust Belt. The Buffalo Bills have sat reliably at the bottom of the AFC East standings since 2007. The last time they had a winning record was 2004. After pulling off a lopsided upset of the Chiefs last week, the Bills draw another AFC West opponent for their home opener this week. To keep this plot moving along, the Bills need a win because two of their next four games are against the Patriots and the Eagles.
Audience review from Buffalo Rumblings: Bills fans are cautiously optimistic. “The hype train races forward full steam ahead, friends. It’s better than most alternatives.”
Grade: Four stars. The 2011 Bills have all the makings for a classic sports redemption tale. They even play their final game of the season against the Patriots, setting up what could be the penultimate sports movie plot.
Philadelphia Eagles at Atlanta Falcons
Michael Vick Returns to Atlanta...Again
Trope: Redemption
This is not the first time Michael Vick played the Falcons since his return to football. Vick scored twice, a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown, against the Falcons at the Georgia Dome in 2009. However, he was a bit player in that outing, a gadget guy and a backup to Donovan McNabb. The Eagles and the Falcons played last season as well, but a rib injury prevented Vick from playing in that game. This time he returns to face the team that made him the first overall pick in the 2001 draft as the unquestioned leader of the Philadelphia Eagles. The Falcons, with lofty expectations of their own, will be looking for some redemption after a flat start to the season.
Audience Review from the Falcoholic: Atlanta fans are over Vick. “The media will kiss Vick’s butt, as usual, and Cris Collinsworth will have a field day, as he always does. I try to stay away from the talking head stuff, all blah, blah, blah, if you ask me.”
Grade: Two stars. The first real test for the Dream Team is the actual plot here.
San Diego Chargers at New England Patriots
Anything Can Happen
Trope: Absurdist theatre
Counter programming against one of the week's more popular college football game, the NFL Network ran a tribute to Bill Belichick. Without a doubt Belchick ranks among the league's coaching greats, but a tribute to a man yet to leave his job is a perfect example of the lengths the NFL media will go to put the Patriots on television. And why shouldn't they, the Patriots are good team that gets ratings. The San Diego Chargers, on the other hand, are a good team that never seems to be able to pull it all together. Maybe this year will be different, maybe the world gets turned upside down and the Patriots lose their first home opener since 2001. Both offenses are capable of scoring a ridiculous amount of points, and this could be one of the more unpredictable games of the week.
Audience Review from Bolts from the Blue: Chargers fans are eagerly anticipating this year’s game as a chance to erase last year’s, which really rang with notes of absurdity. “But something resembling health and intelligence on offense makes me think we have a chance that’s as good as, if not better than, last year.”
Grade: Three stars. Nothing that you expect to happen will happen in this game. Someone might even turn into a bug.
Arizona Cardinals at Washington Redskins
Rex Grossman and the Fantasy Football Thought Police
Trope: The false idol
Groupthink dominates fantasy football pontificators. Each week, a red hot waiver wire commodity emerges after a surprise performance. Mass hysteria emerges as fantasy footballers march lockstep to the transaction screen. In every league, someone drops a super star who had a bad week (watch for Ben Roethlisberger to land in your free agent pool this week). A hero emerges to break the cycle. This week that hero is Tim Hightower. Mike Shanahan also makes heroes out of cast off running backs, and Hightower has a favorable matchup against his former team this week.
Audience Review from Fake Teams: SB Nation’s fantasy sport site foresees a big week for Hightower.
Grade: One star. A ground game grind between these two teams isn’t the kind of stuff that enthralls Oscar voters.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Minnesota Vikings
The Last Ride of Donovan McNabb
Trope: Last chance for a big finish
Donovan McNabb, 34, is riding into the sunset. He now finds himself exiled to a much colder version of Corsica to get the Vikings through until Christian Ponder is ready to begin a new era. McNabb's tutelage of Ponder is really the last chapter in his legacy, but like any great in the twilight of his career, he deserves a little flair of his own at the end. The tough part for McNabb is that aside from Adrian Peterson he's not exactly holed up with The Wild Bunch.
Audience Review from Daily Norseman: ”...you would think that the Vikings have a mismatch or two in their favor in the passing game. That doesn’t mean I think McNabb will throw for 300 yards, but 180-200 with a score or two isn’t unreasonable.”
Grade: Two stars. If anyone deserves to wind down on a high note, McNabb does.
See More:
