Let’s get in to the first View From The Pine newsletter. We’ll figure out the format of this as we go through the season. For now we’ll start off with some key takeaways from the week of games.

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Takeaways from Thursday Night Football

Ravens at Chiefs
The refs really made a point to call the Ravens’ tackles lining up too deep. Which made for some very watchable football on the first drive. /s

Aside from a preview of how that was going to be called this season both teams looked like they’ll pick right back up where they left off. The thing that jumped to me was how much faster the Chiefs offense looks with Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy.

Takeaways from Friday Night Football

Packers “at” Eagles
Why does the NFL keep sending teams to different countries to spend half the game slipping and sliding around on janky turf? The Eagles pulled off the win thanks to Saquan Barkley (Fantasy Team!) scoring 3 touchdowns. The Packers meanwhile lost Jordan Love for multiple weeks on the second to last play of the game. That’s rough.

Takeaways from Sunday

Joe Burrow lost his third consecutive week 1 game and hasn’t looked great in any of them. Burrow’s day would have looked better if he hadn’t had a nice TD overruled on replay as the TE couldn’t control it before he touched out of bounds. That was immediately followed up by should have been TD to another TE who displayed some of the worst ball security possible.

The Bengals overall looked sloppy getting a fumble forced on a punt return by the Patriots long snapper.

Kevin O’Connell is a good QB coach. He had Sam Darnold starting the day 12/12 against the Giants. The Giants are bad. But Darnold was placing balls perfectly.

Josh Allen was Josh Allen. He had a silly turnover early, but still finished with 2 rushing and 2 passing touchdowns. He also spread the ball around. Not having a top receiver with the departure of Diggs may mean Allen spreads the ball around a lot.

On the other side of the Bills vs Cardinals game, Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals offense could be pretty entertaining this year. Their defense may have them playing some shootouts though.

The Panthers are real bad. Bryce Young wasted no time killing hope for a second year bump starting the game with a pick and an overthrow as the Panthers were dismantled by the Saints. Stream anyone against the Panthers or Giants in your survivor pools.

Speaking of bad quarterback play, I only watched bits and pieced of the Browns vs Cowboys game, and that was still enough to see Deshaun Watson miss wide open receivers 10 yards down field.

I did see Dak get absolutely drilled on his first pass attempt as the new $240 million dollar man though.

I learned the term “Surrender Cobra” thanks to an absolutely bonkers pass attempt by Will Levis that lost Titans a game in which they

Marshawn Lynch is just a good vibes guy to have around.

Takeaways from Monday Night

Jets at 49ers
The 49ers are still good. Rodgers made some nice throws but couldn’t get much offense going against the Niners defense. Tyrod Taylor did get a garbage time touchdown late in the fourth. The Jets get Will Levis and the Titans in week 2.

Jordan Mason filled in for Christian McCaffrey to the tune of 28 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown. Hope you were able to get him off waivers with the late inactive notice of McCaffrey.

Survivor Pick Recap

I gave you 4 options for picks in your survivor pool for week 1. Three of those teams won. The fourth lost to the New England Patriots. I picked them. Looks like I’ll be buying back in early to the pool this year. Stay tuned for week 2 picks coming Thursday.