Now that everyone has had a few hours to breathe after last night's epic Packers-Saints battle, I would like to share a few of my initial impressions of the game.
Aaron Rodgers is really freaking good. A few of the throws he made to Jermichael Finley over the middle and Greg Jennings along the sidelines had openings the size of my fist, except he found some way to squeeze the balls through for ridiculous completions...and it certainly didn't hurt that the receivers made some great catches as well. Then the Randall Cobb show took over. He looked like he was in a video game on his two touchdowns. The dive into the end zone capped off a ridiculous catch and run for his first score, but then he blew my mind by hitting the B button on that insane kickoff return. Remember when Dante Hall was nicknamed "The Human Joystick"? That title seemed to apply to Cobb last night.
As for the defense, I was a little disappointed with the lack of consistent pressure on Drew Brees. 3 sacks is a reasonable total, but the pressure seemed to come in spurts and Brees often had far too much time in the pocket. The run defense impressed me overall, however, especially with their goal-line stand on the last play of the game. And if there was a weak point last year, it was against the run, so I'm optimistic for that part of the game moving forward. Holding the tandem of Thomas, Ingram, and Sproles to under 4 yards per carry is a pretty encouraging sign.
Finally, while the return game appears to have found its spark (see Cobb, Randall above), the coverage teams made me run for the eye bleach yet again. I know Darren Sproles is tiny and ridiculously fast, but the gap control didn't look good and there's no excuse for allowing multiple 50+ yard returns.
All in all, the NFL got its highly entertaining kickoff game, as desired, and the Packers made it through Week 1 with a hard-fought win against an excellent team. That's all I could really ask for.