Anybody else have any doubts about Peyton Manning’s neck?  I didn’t think so.  I too was skeptical, but not overly confident that he wasn’t going to make a full recovery.  What makes his first game as a Denver Bronco more impressive is that he did it against one of the NFL’s best defenses in the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Also having that success with the national spotlight on you is pretty nice too. It’s only one game and already Colts fans are complaining about the fact that Peyton is no longer there.  Broncos fans are already talking about the Super Bowl.  One person even referred to Peyton Manning as ‘God’ earlier this week.  Lets all take a step back and realize that two things.  Peyton Manning is still at the top of his game.  And secondly, Denver’s defense isn’t all that great to begin with.  Winning the AFC West looks pretty easy, but beating the rest of the AFC won’t.

Being the only rookie QB to throw for over 300 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions in your first game is a pretty nice accomplishment.  I didn’t think that Robert Griffin III was going to do that.  Nor did I think that Carolina Panthers QB Cam Newton was going to throw for over 400 yards in his first game last year, but he did.  But the way that RG3 played was a pretty marvelous thing to see.  Lets not kid ourselves.  Even if Saints LB Jonathan Vilma had played in that game, it wouldn’t have made any difference.  The Saints secondary were made fools of by Robert Griffin.  He torched early and often.  And if newly acquired WR Pierre Garcon hadn’t left the game early due to injury, RG3 probably would have had another touchdown to his stat sheet. Again this is just one game, but this Heisman trophy winner is here to stay.  You just have to wonder if he can make the adjustments he’ll need to make against better defenses.

Replacement referees aside, this was probably a NFC Championship game preview.  Except it was one sided the entire time.  The San Francisco 49ers were a bit puzzled going into this game.  Why was everyone already saying that the Green Bay Packers were the team to beat going into this season?  Sure they still have one of the best offenses in the NFL.  But their defense still has something to prove after last season’s poor performance. The 49ers used the ‘us vs. the world’ mentality all through last year and they used it again in Green Bay.  The Packers had no running game to offset the pressure that QB Aaron Rodgers was going to be facing.  49ers QB Alex Smith had a wide open Randy Moss for one of his two passing touchdowns.  The other went to TE Vernon Davis.  And RB Frank Gore had a 100 yard rushing performance with a touchdown after an Aaron Rodgers interception. Not too often do Week 1 games become statement games.  But this one was for both teams.  Whoever won this game was going to be looked at as the top team in the NFC.  It should come as no surprise that with the 49ers superb defense that they came out on top.  Going forward they shouldn’t be overlooked anymore.