Sportsfrog.com

Pretty decent first week of professionally controlled football violence. Although up until the unrestrained offensive fireworks in Dallas last night, not a particularly noteworthy fantasy points one. At any rate, the chatter from the national sites and the talking heads of note:

—Don Banks at si.com with Snap Judgments, as ever, the best of the best. Among his thoughts, this:

“This isn’t second guessing, because I voiced my doubts long ago, but Jamal Lewis is not the answer for the Browns running game. Lewis may be leaner and hungrier than he’s been in a while, but that doesn’t mean he’ll turn back the clock and be the productive power runner that he was during his Baltimore hey day. Lewis finished with 35 yards and a fumble lost on 11 carries against the Steelers, with a long gain of seven. True, the Browns were way behind early and had to abandon the running game. But my hunch is that Lewis will be around that 3.2-yard average far too often in 2007. His days of exploding into the secondary and running away from anyone appear over. That’s why the Ravens had no interest in re-signing him.”

Heh. Take that, Peter King (who has been big pimpin’ Lewis for several months now. Great stuff as always, from Banks.

—Clark Judge at sportsline.com with Judgements and this musing on the Browns and Brady Quinn, among others:

“One down, one to go. After Charlie Frye’s performance, Cleveland might move Brady Quinn on to the Vince Young schedule of a year ago. The Titans were going to wait on Young, but grew sick of seeing Kerry Collins lose. So they made a move four games into the season. The Browns were going to wait on Quinn, too, but what’s the point? If Sunday is an indication, it will be a long season. So find out what he has. You have nothing to lose but another ballgame.”

I promise you AB agrees with that sentiment. And then some. Say! The Browns face the Bengals’ sieve-like “defense” next week. Seems like a good time to make the switch….

—At espn.com, another year of Last Call is back, with this note from John Clayton worth highlighting among others from he and Len Pasquarelli:

“Perhaps the most impressive offensive showing came in Jacksonville. The Titans rushed for 281 yards against a Jaguars defense that allowed 91 rushing yards per game last year. Titans coach Jeff Fisher kept his offensive starters on the field for three quarters in the final exhibition game. He did that so his offense would be better prepared for the opener. It worked, and Chris Brown led all rushers with 175 yards.”

Interesting. In a week where guys who were mothballed all pre-season looked unprepared for the week (I’m talking at you, Steven Jackson), the Titans’ success in absolutely running Jacksonville over in nothern Florida in light of their approach to the pre-season is quite noteworthy.

As for my thoughts? Well, as always, not that you care, but here goes:

—The only way the NFL could have made Mike Tomlin’s debut in Pittsburgh any more comfortable would have him been if Goodell had him carried around on a litter of downey soft pillows being serviced by nubile HSM II stars. Nervous about your first time? Never mind. The Browns are here to comfort you. Good lord. The four Cleveland penalties (seperate ones, mind you) on the first punt alone were enough to bring smiles to faces of anyone fortunate enough not to be a Browns fan. 12 passes for Roethlisberger, 4 for touchdowns? Tidy.

—Strong day for the defenses, up until last night anyway. But it’s not that the defensive work itself seemed so strong, more so that the offenses simply looked unready for live action (like say, Jacksonville’s, or Philly’s). Wait a week or two before you pull the panicky trigger on deals to fix your fantasy underperformers. Or load up on Titans for Week 1 in the future.

—Shaun Alexander looks fully healthy again, but Seattle’s pass offense is a shell of what it was a few years back. There were very few receivers that ran open in any appreciable way for Hasselbeck as that game against Tampa unfolded.

—The Bears’ offense remains rather suspect. Go figure.

—Yeah, the Pats look good. Damn good. Should be one hell of an AFC title game between them and the Colts. Oh, wait, it’s only Week 1? Hard to tell from national media coverge. Yeah, they’re good, as are the Colts, but it’s a long way from here to there, and the Chargers, Steelers, Ravens, Broncos, and m a y b e the Bengals will be more than just speed bumps for those two teams in the AFC.