Winners and Losers

Dr. X posts this from Peter King's old office, from behind the pizza boxes:

"Winners and losers are not two of a kind, not matter what Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds say.

"Opening week was, as King claims, full of surprises. But there were also many unsurprising events, especially with respect to quarterback performance.

"First, the non-surprises.

"1) Carson Palmer the preseason IAYPA leader (IAYPA of 10.7), had a solid, though not dominant opening game (YPA of 6.7, no INTS).
"2) Donovan McNabb was awesome in preasons (9.1) and very good on opening day (7.5).
"3) Kurt Warner topped off his nice preason (7.4) with a nice opening day performance (8.1).

"Now, the pleasant surprises. Two men, whose preason performances would have had you thinking they were bound for the bus station, turned in stellar performances on Sunday. Charlie Batch of the Steelers (3.2 preseason) nailed it Sunday, leading the league in QB rating and posting an IAYPA of 8.4. And Rex *ack* *ack* ack* sorry, Rex Grossman came out of the preseason cellar (4.1) to deliver 8.2 for the Bears on opening day.

"Maybe Grossman just needed some motivation. In preseason Brian Griese threw for 292 yeards with 4 TDs and no interceptions for an IAYPA of 10.4. Next stop: Oakland?

"And there were dark, dark moments Sunday. Two men who stood out last year - Drew Bledsoe and Jake Plummer - offered compelling evidence that they had been kidnapped and replaced with lookalike androids programmed to throw the ball to the other team. Both men had respectable preseasons (Drew 8.5, Jake 6.6), and both men delivered performances Sunday that would embarrass Kyle Orton (Drew 2.9, Jake -0.5). And both men have credible backups, standing quietly in the wings, daggers in hand (Romo 7.4 preseason, Cutler 8.2).

"You may remember last year that Kerry Collins played well early, and I speculated that some of his strong early IAYPA had something to do with Randy Moss. Well, wonder no more - now a Titan, Kerry threw two INTS and delivered a very mortal IAYPA of 3.4. I'm betting Aaron Brooks will look better now that he has Moss to throw to."