Peter King: Nine Things I'll Be Watching For This Weekend

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http://mmqb.si.com/2014/09/12/baltimore-ravens-pittsburgh-steelers-ray-rice-fans/2/
By Peter King

PLAYER YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEKEND
Bryan Bulaga, right tackle, Green Bay (No. 75). Everyone looks at Jets-Packers and thinks one word: walkover. I don’t. The Jets are a top-three defensive front, and when Bulaga was lost in the season opener at Seattle, the Seahawks totally embarrassed the right side of the Green Bay line. So … what will happen Sunday when Bulaga, who is expected to play despite a strained knee ligament, faces off against one of the underrated defensive players in football, Muhammed Wilkerson?

Bulaga would have to be 100 percent to have a good chance to win this battle, and because he isn’t—Bulaga has been shaky in practice this week, but is almost certain to play—Aaron Rodgers is probably going to be thinking of extra protection to his right Sunday, and getting the ball out quicker than he’d like. If Bulaga struggles, this has a very good chance to be a down-to-the-wire game.


REGULAR OLD QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Nope. Still stupid and will remain so in perpetuity.”

—Indianapolis quarterback Andrew Luck, still being very hard on himself Thursday for a failed quarterback-sneak call he made in the Sunday night loss to the Broncos.

NINE THINGS I’LL BE WATCHING FOR THIS WEEKEND

1. How the Ray Rice story will be covered. I’ll be interested to see how the story lines go this weekend. But please don’t give me this one: Rice will never play in the NFL again. That story will be brought to you by the same people who told you, “Vick is finished after the dog-fighting.’’ We simply don’t know if Rice will play again. I believe he will, but would I put money in Vegas on it? No. He’s just too smart, and America is too redemptive a society, to make a final call on Rice’s career this weekend.

2. One of the worst weeks for games we’ve seen in a while. Look at what we’ve got. Dead serious here: The best game of all might be Falcons-Bengals. Or Eagles-Colts. Or Lions-Panthers. It’s just a very odd slate.

3. The Giants’ season on the line. Putrid on offense in Week 1, and throughout the preseason. Eli Manning looks bad, but he’s got so little help—from a terrible offensive line, to backs who would have to be Jim Brown to make it anything better than 2nd-and-9 consistently, to the longest hamstring injury (Odell Beckham’s) in recent NFL history crippling the offense. Arizona comes to town at the best time possible.

4. The strange story of John Abraham. I am counting on the reliable voices of Kevin Burkhardt, John Lynch and Pam Oliver on FOX to tell Abraham’s story Sunday at the Meadowlands. One of the best pass-rushers of our day told coach Bruce Arians on Tuesday that he wasn’t into football right now, and was having trouble remembering things, and now, 133.5 sacks into a stellar career, may be walking away from football for good. “I am not smart enough to know what depression is and things like that,’’ Arians said this week. A very sad story, and a clarion call for football’s future.

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Cordarrelle Patterson (Michael Thomas/Getty Images)

5. What Cordarrelle Patterson will do next.
New England comes to play outdoors at the University of Minnesota on Sunday, which is fairly cool regardless of all the other factors. But New England doesn’t want to start 0-2. And Patterson is one of those what-will-he-do-next players, an explosive and Randy Moss-like player in the receiving game who Norv Turner is having fun with on things like fly sweeps. Can’t wait to see what he does next.

6. Falcons-Bengals. I love this game. Just love it. In particular, I love a rising-star corner, Desmond Trufant, clearly a top-10 NFL cover guy though people don’t know it yet, matching up against A.J. Green. I will be watching this game very closely, and you should too.

7. A strange TV assignment. Uh, why are Joe Buck and Troy Aikman at Cowboys-Titans, which might be the 13th-most significant game of the weekend? I do know why: see No. 2 above. But it just seems odd that the best FOX team is doing such a snoozer.

8. Another mismatch in a storied series. Denver has won four straight in the Chiefs-Broncos series by an average of 15 points. And nothing should change in Colorado on Sunday, because the Kansas City line cannot protect Alex Smith.

9. The opening of Levi’s Stadium. At least the regular-season opening. It’s a cool spot, an hour south of San Francisco, in the middle of the brainiac Silicon Valley. And the Bears-49ers game will be an interesting test. Can the Niners’ depleted defense survive a Jay Cutler strafing?