Calm down. Stop the overreacting. Remind yourself of this:
It's only one game.
Whether you're hating on your team for being bad in Week 1 or thinking you should look into Super Bowl tickets because of the way they played (that's you, Redskins nation), you might want to take a step back and relax.
Teams are usually never as good as they look in their openers, and usually never as bad (Cleveland and Miami, you just might be).
That doesn't mean we don't have changes to our CBSSports.com Power Rankings, with the New England Patriots taking over the top spot from the Green Bay Packers, who were dumped at home by the San Francisco 49ers. Dallas made a big move up after beating the Giants last Thursday night.
What the first week does do is offer some hints of things that might come. Such as:
• Alex Smith and the 49ers passing game might be better than some of us think. Yes, me.
• The new Falcons offense will be tough to stop, now that they are finally playing fast.
• The Cowboys could really be a major player in the NFC East. They look like a much faster team now.
• Peyton Manning is just fine replacing that lefty.
• The Saints have major problems on defense, and they seemed to lack an edge without Sean Payton.
• The Jets might have played possum this summer.
• The Giants have corner issues.
• The Patriots are ... well, the Patriots. As long as Tom Brady is under center, they'll be OK.
• The Packers need to improve their coverage. If not, they might be in for a long season on defense again.
Next week, those observations will be laughable. That's the NFL for most, an ever-changing canvas that makes it so tough to predict.
If they get the running attack the rest of the way that they got against the Titans, they just might go 16-0.
They started slow against Miami, but it got cranked up in the second quarter. That defense was impressive.
The new-look offense is going to be a handful for a lot of defenses. Matt Ryan looks so much more comfortable.
Winning on the road at Green Bay is really impressive. Alex Smith shut some mouths -- including mine.
Joe Flacco and that up-tempo offense impressed against the Bengals. Can they keep it up?
One thing that stood out about the Cowboys in beating the Giants: They are faster on both sides of the ball.
If they don't tighten up the back end of their defense, even Aaron Rodgers might not be able to bail them out.
Mike Vick sure didn't look like Mike Vick against the Browns. What happened to that offense?
Peyton Manning is the same Peyton Manning. This is a good team. Now comes a tough test: at Atlanta.
Jay Cutler looked like a new man after a slow start. You think he loves have Brandon Marshall around?
That was a tough way to open the season in Denver, and they did some good things. They do need to get James Harrison back.
They have major issues on defense that could put even more pressure on Drew Brees to do even more. They have pass-rush issues.
They need to tighten up the back end of that defense or even their vaunted pass rush won't save them.
They took a beating in the second half against the Ravens. But the schedule is soft for the next month.
They better do some improving this week, because they have a tough road trip to San Francisco. It wasn't pretty against the Rams.
They didn't do a lot on offense, but they have to be excited about their defensive front. There are some talented young players there.
Were they just playing coy in the preseason? They looked like a different team. It's obvious they need to unchain Mark Sanchez.
It's Kevin Kolb time with John Skelton hurt. If he plays like he did on the game-winning drive against Seattle, the Cardinals could compete in the division.
Lost in all the RG3 hype from beating the Saints is how well the defense played. That front seven is nasty.
The defense, which was horrible last year, looked much better. They played well up front, but now face a tough test at the Giants.
So much for all that talk about how they were ready to take a big step forward. That was a disaster against the Jets.
Russell Wilson made it interesting in the end, but they have to do more on offense if they are to compete with the 49ers. Chalk it up to a first start.
Al Davis would have hated seeing his Raiders play slow, which they did against the Chargers. They might want to work on that backup long snapper.
I know they had some key guys out on defense, but that was horrible against the Falcons. They need to tighten things up.
Opening against a team like New England is tough for a young team. Jake Locker's status with a shoulder injury has to be monitored.
They hardly looked like the same offense against Tampa Bay. Is this a regressing team, or was that just an aberration?
Adrian Peterson has made an amazing recovery from knee surgery. But the key is how well Christian Ponder develops, and he showed well in the first game.
The best thing to come out of their loss to the Vikings was how well Blaine Gabbert played. He looked like a different guy.
That was a tough way to lose a road opener against a supposed good team. But that also shows they will compete better than many expected.
The secondary was a big problem against the Bears, which will put a lot of pressure on Andrew Luck to keep up.
Opening on the road against a good Texans team is tough to do. But I think we'll see a lot of games like that this season.
You are not going to win many games when your quarterback has a passer rating of 5.1. It's going to be a long year, Cleveland.
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