Mr. September is Back!

Boy, could I have not been more wrong about what to expect from the Birds' offense today. I predicted the following:

As for the offense, I see it being kind of a struggle to score without Curtis and Brown, but I think we'll make enough plays to get the job done.

Well, the Birds had more than enough big plays in their 38-3 destruction of the Rams earlier today. After watching the Cowboys in the 4 o'clock game, I wish they had held on to a couple for this week's upcoming Monday Night showdown with the dysfunctional egomaniacs from Big D.

Today, McNabb once again showed why he is the greatest quarterback to ever play in the month of September. Of course, I have no statistics to back this up, since I have a life and no time to run queries through the NFL statistical data base. However, I'm willing to bet a very large sum of money that D Mac has the best quarter back rating for games playing in the month of September in league history. (The only hole in my theory is last September where he was mostly brutal except that Lions game where they wore the funny uniforms and blasted the Lions.)

While McNabb didn't scramble for much yardage, he certainly looked more nimble when avoiding the rush, which bought him time and enabled him to get the ball down field to his backup receivers who looked pretty damn impressive, especially DeSean Jackson.

I loved what we saw from DeSean today. I just don't know if he can keep this up all season. He is woefully small and I'm afraid of whether he can hold up to the pounding or get off the jam of corners like Al Harris, etc. However, for one day, he was electric. Undoubtedly, the most exciting receiver we've seen since that WR who must not be named.

The defense played pretty well also. The most impressive thing they did was hold the Rams without a third down conversion. That is something we must see more of this season. The only downer was the lack of turnovers which we saw way too much of last year. The law of averages has to turn around, doesn't it? In any event, today's game was more like a 5th preseason game for the defense. They'll see a much stiffer test against Romo and crew next week.

As great as the defense played, I'm pretty sure this is the only defensive play from this game that we'll remember at the end of the year:



As if we needed to be reminded again, Sheldon Brown can flat out lay the wood to people.

Today's win was a great way to kick off the season, but more importantly, it sets up the upcoming week perfectly. There is no better way for us to head into Dallas week, then to come off a pounding. Next Monday night can't get here soon enough.