Double Win for Green Bay!

• Not only did the Green Bay Packers win, but the Seattle Seahawks lost. That’s what we call a win-win, folks.

• Mike Daniels caught a lot of attention last season for his play, and he showed why Sunday. Seven tackles, 1.5 sacks, 2.5 tackles for a loss, a forced fumble, and a loooong afternoon for Russell Wilson. 

• Great game by the Green Bay defense as a whole. They didn’t allow any touchdowns, and until the last 30 seconds of the second quarter, the Seahawks managed only one first down. 

I feel like this photo totally captures each defender's personality.

• Even when Aaron Rodgers throws a pick-six, he doesn’t. That’s how good he is. A penalty brought back what would have only been the second pick-six of his career. The Packers defense held after the interception and didn’t allow Seattle any points off the turnover.

• Jordy Nelson joined James Lofton, Sterling Sharpe, and Donald Driver as the only Green Bay Packers with 500 career receptions. Woo hoo!! 

Picking up right where he left off.

• I don’t want to wish ill on anyone, but part of me hopes Michael Bennett suffers a shoulder injury for wearing those idiotic shoulder pads.

• Green Bay really needs Bryan Bulaga back. Kyle Murphy started at right tackle in Bulaga’s stead. It’s a tough matchup to face the Seattle defense in your first start, and Murphy wasn’t disastrous, but he struggled with the pressure. Rodgers and the offense couldn’t get into a rhythm facing near-constant pressure, and Mike McCarthy refuses to help his struggling linemen, so it’ll be this way until Bulaga gets back. 

• What’s the point of signing two tight ends in the offseason if you don’t make use of them? Keeping back either Martellus Bennett or Lance Kendricks to help block would be a fantastic and super useful employment of those players.

• Speaking of tight ends, it’s terribly exciting to have a real one! (All offense intended to Richard Rodgers.) Here’s how a tight end is supposed to block, Richard: (Bennett is #80):

• And how sick is this pass from Rodgers to Bennett? Talk about threading the needle. 

• Ty Montgomery has more false alarms than anyone in terms of injuries. He’ll get up limping and look like he might need to be carted off, and then he’ll reappear in the game two minutes later, completely fine. No judgment, though. I literally Google, “how can you tell if your toe is broken” every time I stub my toe.

• White Lightning with a throwback touchdown! Ahh no matter how many times I see the exact same play, it never gets old. 

• Check out how speedily the Packers go from the huddle to formation to snap when they see Seattle trying to substitute on the play that led to Nelson’s touchdown. Machine-like efficiency!

• I thought Randall Cobb had a nice, solid first game, leading the team with nine receptions for 85 yards. Green Eyes has struggled with injuries the last couple of seasons, so I hope he stays healthy this year! 

• Look! Old friend and recently retired James Jones surprised his former teammates before the game!

• A little Sideline Ninja ninja-ing on the sideline. 

• Yes, I agree that Jeremy Lane should not have been ejected. Yes, I agree that the block in the back that negated the touchdown off of Rodgers’ interception was a bad call. And yes, I agree that pass interference should have been called against the Packers defending Jimmy Graham in the endzone. But that’s not what happened, so. 

• Bad news is the offense struggled. Their two touchdowns came on a turnover that gave them the ball near the goal line and on a free play. Good news is that they won’t face many defenses as tough as Seattle.

• Good news is that the Packers defense played really well -- no touchdowns allowed! Bad news is that the Seahawks offensive line might be really bad.  

Generally not a good sign when your offensive line is in hot pursuit of their men.

• Good news is that the Packers controlled the ball for twice as long as the Seahawks did. Bad news is if you have the ball for 40 minutes, you should probably score more than 17 points. 

• Andy Dalton had four touchdowns, five sacks, no touchdowns and a 0.7 QBR.

• Since the Cleveland Browns returned to the league in 1999 (apparently they were “deactivated” for a few years?), the quarterback with the most wins in Cleveland is … Ben Roethlisberger.

• In 2015, the Chicago Bears took wide receiver Kevin White as the #7 draft pick. By the start of his fourth season in 2018, he will likely have played in five games total. He missed his entire rookie season with a shin injury, played only four games his sophomore season before breaking his fibula, and now he broke his collarbone in the very first game of the 2017 season. There’s injury-prone, and then there’s Kevin White. 

• We’ve covered how much I love the Andrew Luck Book Club, but I can’t help myself. Did you know the quarterback picks all the books himself??

• If you’re a rookie running back who fumbles the first time your team gives you the ball, you best do something to make up for it pretty quick. Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt did just that, recovering from his oopsie to have 148 yards running, 133 yards receiving, and three touchdowns in the opener over the New England Patriots. 

• Much maligned (by me) Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith became the first passer to throw for 300 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions against the Bill Belichick-led Patriots. (Still doesn’t change my mind about him.) The 42 points the Chiefs scored were also the most points allowed under Belichick.

Green Bay fans wondering what it's like to have only given up 42 points once.

• Remember how I said people always overreact after the first few games? ESPN said the Kansas City Chiefs were the frontrunner to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl literally six hours into the season. Now, God willing, the New England Patriots will never win another game again, but why don’t we give the team that has won 7 Super Bowls in the last 5 years more than one game before we leave them for dead?

• Goodness gracious look at this stiff arm Jamie White lays on the defender! The poor Chief’s feet even make a little swoop in the turf.

• Here you go again, Houston Texans fans. Starting quarterback Tom Savage (who?) was benched for rookie QB Deshaun Watson in the first game, despite the “Tom Savage is our quarterback” mantra of the preseason. It took all of one half of one football game for the quarterback carousel to start spinning. It’s a bad sign when you long for the stability of Brock Osweiler. 

• TJ Watt looks ready to continue the family tradition. JJ’s little brother had an outstanding debut for the Pittsburgh Steelers with two sacks, 2.5 tackles for loss, and an interception. Some nice highlights for his first NFL game.

I'm officially at an age where it is inappropriate to comment on a
22-year-old's looks. (But he's cute like his brother.)

• The luster of Chicago Bears losses is certainly dulled by the absence of Jay Cutler, but I still really, really enjoyed watching their last-minute drive against the Atlanta Falcons fail. Chicago was down 23-17 with 21 seconds left when they got a first down at the Atlanta 5-yard line and stopped the clock. They had four chances to gain 5 yards. 
• First down: dropped in the endzone (with an itty bitty hold on the defense).
• Second down: running back Jordan Howard DROPS a pass at the 1-inch line that would have won the game for the Bears. 
• Third down: incomplete pass to the tight end. 

• Fourth down: Mike Glennon (who?) takes the snap, looks right … looks left … scrambles left … SACK! Hahahaha! Falcons win!

• My poor Scott Tolzien! Starting in the place of the still-injured Andrew Luck, Tolzien’s very first pass of the game was a pick-six. And later in the 46-9 loss, he threw another pick-six, thereby doubling in a single game the number of pick-sixes Aaron Rodgers has in his career. #DeactivateTolzien :(

Sunday was even sadder than the time none of his college
teammates would give him a high five.

• The league should create a mercy rule for teams like the Colts. They didn’t even manage a single third-down conversion. They only had one drive of more than five plays (and it resulted in a punt)!

• Really rough call on the Washington Redskins’ fumble late in the fourth that cost them the game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Replays showed pretty clearly that Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins’ arm was moving forward when the pass was stuffed by an Eagles defender and the Eagles recovered the “fumble” and ran it in for a touchdown. 

Don’t know how you call this a fumble but alright pic.twitter.com/JxTD6RPPxX

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) September 10, 2017

• A football game that starts at 10:15pm EST? On a Monday? Are you insane, NFL? We’re not all 19-year-old college students! I have nothing to say about this game because I was obviously and sensibly in bed.

• The Cowboys-Giants game was a snoozer, but at least we got a good helping of Manning Face. Considering the way the Giants played, I think we can look forward to much more of this during the season.

• It’s unfortunate that he plays for the Dallas Cowboys, but I am so happy for Jaylon Smith, who made his NFL debut on Sunday night. He was a huge star at Notre Dame before annihilating his knee in a useless bowl game his senior year. The Cowboys drafted him last season, knowing he would not be ready to play until 2017 and not know if/when he would be ready. On Sunday, he started and made seven tackles and forced a fumble.

• For those of you upset with Roger Goodell and the league for the Ezekiel Elliott trial and more, spare me your bellyaching. The players’ union should have read the fine print in the CBA where it says Roger can do pretty much whatever wants for pretty much any reason he wants. They were too busy celebrating the end of two-a-days to pay attention to the things that mattered.

• It was only one game against a very bad team, but the Jacksonville Jaguars had some darn impressive stats in their 29-7 win over the Houston Texans. They sacked Houston quarterbacks 10 times while allowing no sacks on Blake Bortles against a tough defensive line; they shut out Houston in the first half; and they forced four turnovers while committing none themselves. I hope this is finally the year where things start looking up for Jacksonville. They’ve been patiently building the team for the last few years, and it’d be nice for them not to be terrible.

• Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs lit up the Saints in the Vikings 29-19 win. Diggs finished with seven catches, 93 yards, and two touchdowns. Perhaps he got a little magic from his custom cleats, which celebrated Randy Moss' induction into the Vikings' Ring of Honor and memorialized Moss' "disgusting act" of pretending to moon Green Bay Packers fans once upon a time. 

• The Miami-Tampa Bay game got cancelled because of a hurricane. How strange and super convenient that Miami and Tampa Bay have the same bye, at which point they’ll play their rescheduled game. Also, it really sucks for them that they both have to play 16 straight weeks without a bye -- and one of Miami’s games is in London! Obviously neither of them are making the playoffs, so they should play their meaningless makeup game during the Wild Card weekend. MMQB broke down the crazy challenging schedule that Miami faces.

Good luck with that. 

• Next week, the Packers play the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday Night Football. Maybe we can get back a little of the pride we left on their field in the NFC championship.

• On Twitter @oddsandendzones!