Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think New England's much-too-tough win (51 receiving yards by wideouts) and Seattle's offensively punchless 9-6 victory at Detroit said one thing to me: This Deion Branch thing had to get resolved one way or the other, and very, very soon. And it did. On Monday, the Patroits dealt Branch to the Seahawks for a 2007 first-round draft pick.

2. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of Week 1:

a. The stupidity of the former University of North Carolina coaching staff that buried Willie Parker on the depth chart is on display every time he runs the ball. If you didn't play Parker, Tar Heels braintrust, you obviously had Walter Payton, Barry Sanders and O.J. Simpson ahead of him.

b. So Joey Porter kisses Bill Cowher. "Better than last time, when I initiated it,'' Cowher said.

c. Rod Marinelli had some big first-day-of-school-in-a-new-town jitters. He told Tony Siragusa before the game that he'd woken up around 3:25 Sunday morning and couldn't go back to sleep. "I even took a sleeping pill. It didn't work,'' Marinelli said.

d. I bet Marinelli wasn't thinking about assistant coach Joe Cullen's Driving While Nude charge. Is that the weirdest off-field incident you've ever heard, a guy driving through a Wendy's without his clothes on? I mean, a guy with at least 10 percent of a brain in his head?

e. Poor David Maraniss. The author of that great Clemente book, a die-hard Packers fan, is traveling in Europe and sent me a mournful e-mail overnight about the 26-0 whitewash in Wisconsin. "The smell from Lambeau has reached Rome,'' he wrote.

f. How strange it was to see Terry Donahue doing color for FOX at Saints-Browns.

g. Very good debut for Charley Casserly on CBS as the information man. He was assertive, fact-filled and backed his facts with strong opinions, particularly about how highly he regarded Branch. Congrats, Charley. See how easy this business is?

h. There are some people as good, as decent and as nice as Trent Green in the NFL. But none nicer. I know I'm stepping outside the journalism thing right here, but my heart sank when I saw Green on the ground, unconscious, after getting hit in Kansas City on Sunday.

i. Were there 900 field goals Sunday, or did it just seem like that?

j. Actually, there were 45, in 13 games. Every point in Seattle-Detroit came on a kick. All 18 Rams points came from Jeff Wilkins. Let's not let that be a trend, fellas.

k. I think the player who had to have made his team the happiest Sunday was Chad Pennington. He wasn't the best quarterback in the NFL in Week 1, but he was smart, decisive, accurate and clearly showed he has enough arm strength to be a consistent quarterback. His comeback ensures the Week 2 Pats-Jets tilt at the Meadowlands will be competitive.

3. I think the Packers are going to sign Koren Robinson this week.

4. I think no one played as gutsy a game yesterday as Hasselbeck. "I didn't get beat up that much,'' he told me Sunday night. Yes, Matt, you did. And you're feeling it today. How about taking all that punishment -- five sacks, maybe five other solid hits -- and still going 25 of 30 with no interceptions? That's one excellent quarterback.

5. I think Kerry Collins stunk it up pretty good in Nashville. Too many bad decisions, including one on a poorly thrown pick to former Titan Andre Dyson. My guess is he's got to be wondering if it was worth coming back for this.

6. I think this is what I liked about Week 1:

a. Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau's wonderful football sense. Joey Porter's game-clinching interception came on a zone blitz, where he lined up at defensive end and, at the snap, stealthily floated backward into coverage and stole a Daunte Culpepper pass. LeBeau always seems to know when to blitz and when to drop his rushers back into coverage.

b. The new Arizona stadium looks beautiful on TV.

c. Watch the replay of that Bills-Patriots game, and my guess is you would say that cornerback Ellis Hobbs was the best player on the field Sunday for New England. He shut down Lee Evans (two catches, 25 yards) and played the type of clinging coverage that's going to get him noticed as a top NFL corner if he continues.

d. Jacksonville's toughness. The Jags stood toe to toe with a very physical Dallas team and won a heavyweight fight.

e. Niners running back Frank Gore, who ran better than Edgerrin James in the desert.

f. John Abraham. He was everywhere. Utterly, absolutely brilliant. Of all the defensive players who played Sunday, he was the most explosive.

g. Brian Westbrook is incredibly valuable to Philly. They can't afford to lose him under any circumstances. What a great dimension he gives them on the edge.