I rushed home well in advance of the 6pm PT kickoff for the first game of the 2003 NFL season. The first half started wonderfully. Patrick Ramsey looked sharp and Coles was a beast. He was seemingly open on every play.

I was a bit worried in the second half when the offense sputtered big time. Cottrell, the Jets DC, must have made some great adjustments in the locker room. It made me worried about the ability of Spurrier to adjust to the other DC's adjustments. I guess he did so by running the ball more.

The good news is that our wonderful defense held up. Granted, Vinny really limited their offense. It would have been a completely different story if Pennington was in there. Those times when Trotter and Arrington stuffed Martin could easily have been huge first downs on bootlegs or play-action passes with Pennington at the helm. The Jets D-line is ferocious and probably not mentioned often enough as one of the best in the league. They really did a great job against a very good O-line in Samuels, Fiore, Moore, Thomas, and Jansen.

How sweet it is to have a kicker like Hall that was able to seal the deal against his former team.