We Take A Break From the Outrage To Complete Week One...

... a very interesting, and a very un-Goodell-esque, Week One.

Scoring, for example, was DOWN.  I don't have my former chart, so I can't go back to 2001 or so like I used to.

However, scoring for this week was only 44.75 points per game.  That is about two points below the 46.707 which was last year's season total.

And only one of the four national games was in any real doubt -- if you wish to make a case for Indianapolis-Denver, I probably can't argue with you, but Denver was in control for most of the contest.

11 of the 16 games had at least one time of the fourth quarter where the game was within 8 points.
7 of the 16 were decided by 8 or fewer points.
3 of the 16 were decided by one (or more!) scores in the last two minutes or overtime.  (The two overtime games (BUF-CHI and ATL-NO, the latter having three lead-changing and one game-tying scores in final 3 minutes of regulation and in overtime) and PIT-CLE.)

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And, with all the Points of Emphasis and all the flags that flew in the pre-season...

Week One didn't see many at all.

(And it was probably a large reason the scores were down and the Over/Under only went 7-9/6-9-1, depending on where you got the Sunday nighter.)

Some interesting factoids:

• Home teams were 12-4.
• 222 penalties were accepted in Week One -- an average of about 14 a game.
• The winning team was penalized about an accepted penalty and a half per game more than the loser.
• The home team was called for more penalties in seven of the 16 games.
• No team was called for more than six Points of Emphasis fouls.  (Accepted penalties of defensive holding, illegal contact, pass interference, and illegal use of the hands.)  Atlanta was called for six, and won.
• No team which was called for more than three PoE fouls LOST.  San Francisco, Buffalo, and Atlanta were called for four or more such fouls -- all three won.
• Eight teams committed no such accepted penalties.  The only two of those eight who won were in games where no Points of Emphasis penalties were accepted at all!  If a team committed any accepted such fouls vs. a team which did not, the team which did won all four games.
• The team committing more PoE fouls only lost two of the 16 games, with four having both teams with the same number of accepted fouls.  This means the team which committed more accepted defensive PoE fouls won 10 of the 16 games played.
• The team committing more accepted penalties was 9-7.
• Favorites were only 9-7 straight up, and 5-11 vs. the number.