After Week 1, Some Teams in Trouble

Ken Whisenhunt tried to challenge the Arizona Cardinals before the season by dismissing his team's unlikely run to the Super Bowl last season.

"We haven't done anything. We were a 9-7 football team last season," he said. "We didn't have a lot of respect going into the playoffs, so that doesn't surprise me. Until we win consistently that's not going to happen.''

They still don't have a lot of respect, especially after Sunday's 20-16 loss to San Francisco, a game in which they were lethargic at best.

Week 1 had its upsets -- that was one of them -- but there was very little that was surprising, even Jay Cutler's four-interception fizzle in Green Bay. Bad starts can mean little or nothing: the Giants won the Super Bowl two years ago after allowing 80 points in two losses to start the regular season.

But first impressions are telling and injuries can end seasons before they start -- Brian Urlacher is lost to Chicago for the season with a dislocated wrist, an injury that severely curtails the Bears' chances in what was supposed to be a three-way race in the NFC North. But Cutler's four interceptions Sunday night were not a good harbinger for the future of the guy who is allegedly the team's first franchise QB since Sid Luckman.

A look at some opening-week problems:

Arizona -- Anquan Boldin, Darnell Dockett and even Kurt Warner spent the offseason trying to get more money. Warner, who turned 38 in June, got it.

Those things happen on successful teams, especially when this one has a history of losing that only recently was surpassed by Detroit's futility.

But coaches use the word "distraction'' for a reason and squabbling over contracts is one of them. Warner has never been a me-first guy, and he deserved the cash, but his age and injury history suggest that he's unlikely to be this season what he was in 2008.

He wasn't the same Warner against the 49ers: 26 of 44 for 288 yards and two interceptions while under a fierce pass rush from the 49ers. Committing turnovers under pressure is what led to him being replaced by rookie Eli Manning with the 2004 Giants, even though New York forfeited its shot to make the playoffs that season.

"We're just not meshing," Warner said after Sunday's game. "We never seem to get into a rhythm. There always seems to be something to stop us."

Notice the present tense -- he means all summer, not just one game.

Meanwhile, Mike Singletary has brought a resolve to the 49ers and might be one of the few Hall-of-Fame caliber players to be a successful coach. San Francisco runs well and plays defense well -- Patrick Willis might be the NFL's best linebacker right now. That's just like the Chicago teams that Singletary led as a player. Look for a three-way race in the NFC West with Seattle back in form. At this point, it's easy to see the NFC champions as No. 3.

Washington -- The more things change ...

Start with the contract Daniel Snyder gave DeAngelo Hall -- $30 million for the first three years of a $55 million deal. Then look at the tape of the Giants' Mario Manningham running down the sideline for the first touchdown in New York's 23-17 win on Sunday -- Hall's half-hearted effort to push him out of bounds was the last obstacle on a 30-yard TD play.

Snyder has never gotten it with "name'' players.

He gave Hall the money after he was traded by Atlanta to Oakland, then dumped by the Raiders, largely because his talent didn't make up for sporadic effort and a penchant for taking dumb penalties. Snyder must have figured Hall could become in Washington what Randy Moss is in New England.

And Albert Haynesworth, who Snyder paid close to $100 million, was ordinary. His main contribution was clogging the middle when Brandon Jacobs was stuffed on a fourth down at the Washington 3 in the first quarter. If Haynesworth was going to take the money and run, he could have taken less from the Giants and had a better chance to win.

To Snyder's credit, he may have been right in trying to replace Jason Campbell. Campbell looked harried for much of Sunday's game, which wasn't nearly as close as the score -- a gimme TD from New York's prevent defense made the score close.

Campbell is athletic, and has a strong and often accurate arm. But when a team takes away Santana Moss -- two catches for six yards on Sunday -- he gets lost. And he lacks instincts. On the game's pivotal play, he failed to step up and keep tabs on Osi Umenyiora, one of the Giants you have to account for at all times. Osi stripped the ball, picked it up and ran 37 yards for a TD that gave New York a 17-0 lead.

"Good morning back to the lab to see what went wrong. gotta fix it...add a little more pride and heart and we should have it," linebacker Rocky McIntosh tweeted Monday morning.

While Hall and Haynesworth have the money, McIntosh, London Fletcher and most of the other defenders already have "it."

But the Redskins are probably last again in the NFC East because Snyder plays the name game.

Houston -- How many years has it been now that we've tabbed the Texans as a "sleeper'' team entering a season? Mario Williams, Andre Johnson, DeMeco Ryans, Steve Slaton, Owen Daniels? A lot of talent that mesmerizes fantasy folks. Which, of course, is why it's called "fantasy.''

Sorry, but if you're a sleeper team, you don't rush for just 38 yards and lose 24-7 at home to a team starting a rookie quarterback, even if that quarterback is Mark Sanchez, who already looks like this year's version of Matt Ryan.

All of this puts more pressure on coach Gary Kubiak, who took the hit, saying he didn't have his team ready to play. That's a big hit -- teams spend most of training camp pointing to the opener.

"I'm extremely disappointed," said guard Chester Pitts, who absolved Kubiak and blamed the players. "You prepare for your opening game for six months, and when you lose, it stings. And when you get your butts kicked like we did, it stings a little more."

One problem was little pressure on Sanchez -- the Texans got no sacks. Another was blown coverage on his touchdown pass, 30 yards to Chansi Stuckey that sent the Jets off at halftime with a 10-0 lead.

John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, one of the NFL's most knowledgeable beat writers, called it the worst defeat in Texans history. That covers a lot of losses for a team that hasn't been better than 8-8 since entering the NFL in 2002. Remember that last season, Sage Rosenfels managed to throw away a . 17-point lead in the second half of the fourth quarter.

That's one reason why Rosenfels is now in Minnesota.

If the Texans don't make it to 9-7 or better this year, Kubiak will be somewhere else next year. Maybe as Mike Shanahan's offensive coordinator in Washington, putting in yet another new system for Campbell.

Carolina -- Bill Cowher lives in North Carolina, leading fans there to suggest that he's the answer.

Sorry, but what can Cowher do about Jake Delhomme, who has thrown nine interceptions in his last 51 passes? Four of them and a fumble recovered for a Philadelphia touchdown came in Sunday's 38-10 loss to Philadelphia.

It's all the more disturbing because DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart give the Panthers a running game that should keep Delhomme having to throw out of desperation. Also disturbing: Delhomme's new five-year contract that at 34 almost mandates his staying at least until 2012. But as Washington has one receiving threat in Santana Moss, so do the Panthers -- Steve Smith. Mushin Muhammad is 36 and Dwayne Jarrett hasn't got it yet (or ever?)

Interesting juxtaposition of Southern Cal receivers.

The Panthers took Jarrett in the second round of the 2007 draft before the Giants, who were supposed to have wanted him. So New York took the other Steve Smith, No. 2 to Jarrett's No. 1 at USC. Jarrett has 16 catches in two seasons plus a game; Smith has 87, including six for 80 yards on Sunday and 14 in the 2007 playoffs, including five in the Super Bowl.

Yes, there is such a thing as drafting luck. Good and bad.