ESPN Insider: Week 1 reactions should be tempered

[Oldskool]

http://proxy.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?id=1612816

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

By Randy Mueller

ESPN NFL Insider

NFL fans now have seen the plans of their home team rolled into a real game for the first time in the 2003 season. No more preseason rhetoric, PR spins or what-ifs. We all got to see for ourselves the best laid plans of our favorite teams vs. real live bullets.

What we saw this weekend is the start of 17 straight exams that culminate with a grading scale known as the playoffs.

But let's not read too much into this one game, win or lose. Owners, GMs and head coaches set the tone for their organizations, and the good ones come to work the next day and react the same, whether they won or lost. Sure it's easier to get up on a Monday morning after a win, but Tom Donahoe's attitude in Buffalo should be no different than Dick Jauron's attitude in Chicago in the aftermath of Sunday's games.

It's only one game, and teams that opened with big wins don't necessarily have all the answers, nor should teams that lost wad up their plan and throw it out the window. In our feast-or-famine world of pro sports this is a time for the "we've got a long season ahead of us" speech.

The tone in the city is often set by the media. For most teams, the coach, GM and owner are the organization's mouthpieces when it comes to dealing with the media, and their message should be clear and concise. I know it might not make for good copy and might even be a bit boring, but reactions must be tempered.

How teams such as San Diego or Arizona react to the losses they suffered Sunday, or teams like Seattle or San Francisco react to their big wins, should be measured by their next performances. The focus should be straight ahead. Most of the time a team's internal workings can do that, because the routine of preparations take over Monday morning. Coaches are already game-planning and moving on to the next game. It's hardest for fans, because they can't do anything but stew over a loss while waiting for next week's game. Believe me, it sticks in all of our craws, but we have to move on.

You're not going to be able to shake up your roster at this stage, anyway. New wide receivers don't grow on trees, so in most cases you're going to roll the same group out there again next week. Your team is built in the offseason, and outside of some minor tinkering, what you see is what you get. But you've only seen one game, so you might not even know yet what you've got.

However, there are a few things that jumped out at us that happen to be the same things we saw in preseason, and in some cases last season, that we can start to focus on:

Green Bay's defense is a bit of a concern. Preseason was filled with the same type of results, and pretty soon the word "trend" will start to apply.

The Seahawks and Vikings offenses seemed to pick up where they left off last season, with Koren Robinson and Randy Moss scoring touchdowns.

Kurt Warner's performance has 2002 written all over it and is cause for some concern, especially in the wake of the somewhat bizarre way the information has come out on this situation.

Chicago's lack of speed and big-play ability reared its ugly head again, as Kordell Stewart and the offense struggled in Week 1 just as it had in preseason.

Oh, and this just in: Tampa's defense might be better than ever.

The good news is we have next week to see if what we think we learned really is what we've learned. I do know one thing for sure: The focus is already on next week's exam in every NFL Office.

Randy Mueller is the former general manager of the New Orleans Saints and Seattle Seahawks. He answers your e-mail each Monday on ESPN Insider.

[OrangeSkin]

Wow...people pay for this stuff? I mean, it's not a bad article, but certainly not worth whatever you have to pay per month.