CBSSports.com lead football writer Jason La Canfora reflected on what he saw Sunday in his column "Monday Observations."
Of the all the writers at CBSSports.com, Jason La Canfora is probably the one I know the best. I try and catch my local morning sports radio talk show, 950 KJR's "Mitch in the Morning," every day that I can. La Canfora appears on the show weekly during the NFL season. So when I went to the CBS Sports homepage and saw La Canfora's name in bold right in the middle of the page, I immediately went to read his article.
La Canfora covered the most pertinent parts of the weekend in the NFL as he saw them. He chose to single out three teams with fairly high expectations going into the season that significantly underperformed in week one. He felt the Bills, Saints, and Eagles significantly disappointed, and dedicated about four paragraphs to each team.
The most effective parts of La Canfora's criticism surrounded Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Saints defense, and Michael Vick's struggles. He pointed out that since earning a massive contract extension, Fitzpatrick is just 1-9, and has thrown far and away the most interceptions in the league in that span. Fitzpatrick also has a bottom third passer rating among starts and just 13 touchdown in the ten game stretch. I agreed with La Canfora about Fitzpatrick, who I felt was undeserving of his big contract in the first place.
Regarding the much-maligned Saints defense, La Canfora pointed out that they look a little lost without banned defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. Robert Griffin III absolutely gashed them in his first NFL game, and La Canfora said that he thinks the Saints are going through a "major adjustment period." From watching this game, I am very worried about the Saints defense as well. Even though Steve Spagnuolo won a Super Bowl in 2007 as the Giants defensive coordinator, it seems as if his system will take a bit of time to get on track.
La Canfora seemed most concerned about the Eagles and their quarterback Michael Vick, even though the Eagles actually defeated the Browns 17-16 Sunday. Vick threw four interceptions, "single-handedly keeping the Browns in the game," according to La Canfora. La Canfora even went as far to suggest that Vick will never reach the level he played at two seasons ago, when he earned a $100 million contract. I'm not sure if Vick has plateaued, but four interceptions certainly won't win the Eagles many games this year, even against poor opponents like the Browns.
With so much to write about following the opening weekend of the NFL, La Canfora did a great job of establishing an angle with which to evaluate the proceedings and sticking to it.
La Canfora covered the most pertinent parts of the weekend in the NFL as he saw them. He chose to single out three teams with fairly high expectations going into the season that significantly underperformed in week one. He felt the Bills, Saints, and Eagles significantly disappointed, and dedicated about four paragraphs to each team.
The most effective parts of La Canfora's criticism surrounded Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Saints defense, and Michael Vick's struggles. He pointed out that since earning a massive contract extension, Fitzpatrick is just 1-9, and has thrown far and away the most interceptions in the league in that span. Fitzpatrick also has a bottom third passer rating among starts and just 13 touchdown in the ten game stretch. I agreed with La Canfora about Fitzpatrick, who I felt was undeserving of his big contract in the first place.
Regarding the much-maligned Saints defense, La Canfora pointed out that they look a little lost without banned defensive coordinator Gregg Williams. Robert Griffin III absolutely gashed them in his first NFL game, and La Canfora said that he thinks the Saints are going through a "major adjustment period." From watching this game, I am very worried about the Saints defense as well. Even though Steve Spagnuolo won a Super Bowl in 2007 as the Giants defensive coordinator, it seems as if his system will take a bit of time to get on track.
La Canfora seemed most concerned about the Eagles and their quarterback Michael Vick, even though the Eagles actually defeated the Browns 17-16 Sunday. Vick threw four interceptions, "single-handedly keeping the Browns in the game," according to La Canfora. La Canfora even went as far to suggest that Vick will never reach the level he played at two seasons ago, when he earned a $100 million contract. I'm not sure if Vick has plateaued, but four interceptions certainly won't win the Eagles many games this year, even against poor opponents like the Browns.
With so much to write about following the opening weekend of the NFL, La Canfora did a great job of establishing an angle with which to evaluate the proceedings and sticking to it.
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