ShareThisQuick hits on a just-started NFL season:
-- For Brett Favre, it's another season without an old, familiar asset: the deep pass, traveling like a bullet. With the Minnesota Vikings, he might not need it. Just dink away and hand the ball to Adrian Peterson.
-- One of the announcers noted, "It's impossible not to like Favre." Amazingly, after his ludicrous training-camp display, that's correct.
-- The trendy new pass-catch combination, and it just might last: Drew Brees to Jeremy Shockey for the New Orleans Saints.
-- You wonder if 49ers holdout Michael Crabtree caught the post-game interview of rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez, who, after months of studying a massive playbook and getting to know his teammates, orchestrated an opening-day victory on the road. Then again, forget it; Crabtree never strays from the mirror.
-- A great thing: The Dallas Cowboys Cowboys' passing attack thriving with a bevy of receivers, none of them Terrell Owens. Especially nice of Roy Williams to mention that, with a great big smile, afterward.
-- It doesn't get much duller than handoffs to Frank Gore on first and second down. That can't be the San Francisco's identity, and judging from the fourth quarter of an inspiring opener, it won't be.
-- Just as crucial as 49ers QB Shaun Hill connecting on those third-down passes: Vernon Davis becoming a go-to guy.
-- Just like old times: The 49ers' victory was clinched -- twice, as it turned out -- by a ferocious pass rush.
-- Bears QB Jay Cutler: Master of the two-point half.
-- Commissioner Roger Goodell gave a comically weak answer to NBC's Bob Costas regarding blackouts, but he's clearly in favor of shortening the preseason in favor of an 18-game schedule. Can't happen quickly enough.
-- I don't care if Richard Seymour and Al Davis are being genuine with their feel-good story; he's here now, he intends to play Monday night, and that's a hell of a story line for an Oakland Raiders team that badly needs one.
(E-mail Bruce Jenkins at bjenkins(at)sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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