Watch out for Marshall Faulk and his frisky Colts. The Houston Oilers didn't, and look what happened to them.
Faulk rushed for 143 yards and three touchdowns in his NFL debut as Indianapolis, with 13 new starters, surprised the error-plagued Oilers 45-21 Sunday. Houston had its 11-game regular-season winning streak stopped."We want respect," Faulk said. "As a team, we want respect from everyone we play. We're not going to lay down and roll over for anyone."
All six Indianapolis touchdowns were scored by players who had joined the team since the end of last season, when it went 4-12. The Colts scored after each of three Houston turnovers and set a team record for most points in a season-opening game.
The Colts led 42-0 when Faulk, the second pick overall in the draft, went to the sideline late in the third quarter. Faulk, who carried 23 times, scored on runs of 1, 2 and 11 yards. His longest run was 52 yards.
"I didn't pay attention to the score. As long as they kept me in there, I was going to do my job. Sometimes you look at the score and get a tendency to relax, and I didn't want to do that," Faulk said.
"The butterflies weren't there today. I knew what I had to do," he said. "It felt great getting into the open field. But it's not the long runs that really got us to win this game. It's the constant first downs, the banging for 5 and 10 yards and getting in on third-and-1 and getting the first downs. That's what got us to win this game."
Faulk's 1-yard run 12:56 into the game marked the first time in 23 games that Indianapolis' offense scored in the first quarter.
Linebacker Tony Bennett, a free agent from Green Bay, returned a fumble a Colts-record 75 yards for a touchdown and Bears castoff Jim Harbaugh passed for two touchdowns to Floyd Turner, a free agent from New Orleans.
"We didn't play Houston Oilers football. Everybody was playing for the Colts instead of for the Houston Oilers," cornerback Cris Dishman said.
"He's a great back. I give him his credentials," he said of Faulk. "But I don't think he faced the true Houston Oilers defense."
Houston got its only touchdowns on fourth-quarter passes of 2 yards to Pat Carter and 16 and 15 yards to Haywood Jeffires from Bucky Richardson, who replaced starter Cody Carlson in the third period.
Carlson left the game with an injured left shoulder, and doctors determined it was a shoulder separation.
In other games on the NFL's opening week, it was Detroit over Atlanta 31-28 in overtime, Cleveland over Cincinnati 28-20, Kansas City over New Orleans 30-17, Green Bay over Minnesota 16-10, the New York Giants over Philadelphia 28-23, Seattle over Washington 28-7 and Chicago over Tampa Bay 21-9.
Cowboys 26, Steelers 9
Dallas Cowboys fans waited nervously for months to learn what effect new coach Barry Switzer would have on the two-time defending Super Bowl champions. The answer: None.
Emmitt Smith and Troy Aikman were as good as ever and a question-mark Dallas defense led by Charles Haley was even better, sacking Neil O'Donnell nine times and disrupting Pittsburgh's game plan in the Cowboys' dominating 26-9 victory Sunday at Pittsburgh.
Smith ran for 171 yards and a touchdown and Aikman directed scoring drives on Dallas' first four possessions as the Cowboys, acting like they'd taken only a week off since the Super Bowl rather than eight months, won their ninth in a row over two seasons.
Aikman was 21 of 32 for 245 yards, many on timing pattern throws to Michael Irvin, who made eight catches for 139 yards, as Switzer and the Cowboys passed a critical opening day test by outgaining Pittsburgh 442-126.
Switzer, coaching his first game in five years since his unceremonial ouster by Oklahoma and his surprise hiring to replace Jimmy Johnson, let the Cowboys be the Cowboys. That was more than good enough to overwhelm a team billed as the Steelers' best since their Super Bowl teams of the 1970s.
There was no surprises and no Switzer-installed wrinkles in coordinator Ernie Zampese's offense as the Cowboys scored on all four of their first-half possessions and effectively put Pittsburgh away with 10 points in the final 1:15 of the half for a 16-3 halftime lead.
Haley thoroughly confused Pittsburgh's veteran offensive line, sacking a frustrated O'Donnell four times as the Cowboys' defense hardly acted like it missed departed veterans Tony Casillas and Ken Norton.
Rams 14, Cardinals 12
Buddy Ball was a rousing success Sunday - for the Los Angeles Rams, not the Arizona Cardinals.
The opportunistic Rams took advantage of mistakes and played solid defense in beating the Cardinals 14-12 in Buddy Ryan's debut as Arizona's head coach at Anaheim, Calif. That's the formula expected from Ryan-coached teams.
The win was the first in a season-opener for the Rams since 1989, while the Cardinals lost for the fourth time in their last five openers.
Turnovers set up both Los Angeles touchdowns and Arizona's Steve Beuerlein threw an interception the only time the Cardinals threatened in the fourth quarter.
The Rams, 0-4 during a listless preseason, went ahead for good midway through the first quarter when Joe Kelly forced a fumble by Arizona's Larry Centers. Cornerback Todd Lyght caught the ball on the fly and returned it 74 yards for the first touchdown of his NFL career.
Arizona's Greg Davis kicked field goals of 37 and 34 yards in the second period.
Los Angeles extended its lead to 14-6 early in the third quarter on a 1-yard run by Jerome Bettis, capping a 55-yard, three-play drive that included a 39-yard pass interference penalty against Arizona's James Williams. An interception by Marquez Pope of a pass by Beuerlein set up the TD.
Beuerlein threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Centers with 1:43 left in the third period, but Beuerlein's pass on a 2-point conversion attempt fell incomplete, leaving the Rams ahead by two points, and there was no scoring after that.
The Cardinals drove to the Los Angeles 34 early in the fourth quarter, but Keith Lyle intercepted Beuerlein's pass.
Dolphins 39, Patriots 35
At Miami, Dan Marino's healing leg looked fine, and his arm was never better.
The Miami Dolphins quarterback made a stunning return in his comeback from a ruptured Achilles' tendon, throwing for 473 yards and five touchdowns Sunday to rally his team past New England 39-35.
Marino threw for at least five touchdowns for the sixth time. Irving Fryar caught five passes for 211 yards and three scores, including the game-winner, a 35-yarder on fourth-and-5 with 3:19 remaining.
Drew Bledsoe threw four touchdown passes for the Patriots.
A crowd of 69,613 roared as the Dolphins avenged a loss to New England that eliminated them from playoff contention in the final game of last season.
Marino, who missed the final 11 games of 1993 with the most serious injury of his career, completed 23 of 42 passes with one interception on a deflected pass. His yardage total was the second-highest of his 12-year career.
Marino's performance gave him a career total of 303 touchdown passes. The only other NFL player to reach the 300 milestone was Fran Tarkenton, who threw 342 touchdown passes.
Fryar beat cornerback Rod Smith down the sideline for the winning score. The Patriots' last chance ended when they lost the ball on downs at midfield with 12 seconds remaining.
Fryar also caught touchdown passes of 54 and 50 yards, the latter on a flea-flicker. Marino's other scoring passes covered 64 yards to Mark Ingram and 26 yards to Keith Jackson.
Seahawks 28, Redskins 7
Tom Flores won his 100th game Sunday. Norv Turner is still waiting for his first.
Rick Mirer's passing, the running and receiving of Chris Warren and a bunch of mistakes by Washington helped the Seattle Seahawks past the Redskins 28-7 Sunday at RFK Stadium.
"I will remember this victory for a long time," said Flores, in his third season as Seattle coach after spending nine years with the Raiders. "I am very proud of my guys and happy for them. It's nice (to get the 100th win). It's hard to explain without getting too emotional.
"Obviously there's no comparison to winning after what we've been through the past couple of years. Washington is going through what we were going through the past few years."
Mirer completed 17 of 28 passes for 183 yards and one touchdown, leading scoring drives of 12, 53 and 45 yards. Warren rushed for 100 yards and scored two touchdowns. It was Warren's seventh 100-yard game. He also caught three passes for 42 yards.
"I think we did a pretty good job of keeping our composure, taking what was given to us and not making too many mistakes," Mirer said. "Everyone on offense did well. The guys in front did an excellent job of keeping the pressure off me."
Their efforts ruined Turner's first regular-season appearance as Washington coach; he came to the Redskins after spending three years as offensive coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys and helping them to Super Bowl championships the last two seasons.
Lions 31, Falcons 28, OT
Battling a leg cramp, Jason Hanson kicked a 37-yard field goal in overtime to beat the Falcons in June Jones' coaching debut for Atlanta.
Lions tied it 28-28 on a 15-yard pass from Mitchell to Anthony Carter with 30 seconds left. Hanson's kickoff dribbled to Alton Montgomery, who scooped it up and rambled 37 yards to the Atlanta 44. Norm Johnson's try on a 52-yard field goal sailed wide right as time expired.
Detroit's new quarterback, Scott Mitchell, was 15 of 30 for 173 yards with three touchdowns. Jeff George, the new guy for Atlanta, completed 29 of 37 passes for 281 yards and three touchdowns.
Andre Rison had personal bests with 14 catches of George's bullets for 193 yards.
Browns 28, Bengals 20
The Browns became the first team since Detroit in 1977 to return a kickoff and a punt for touchdowns in the same game.
Randy Baldwin ran a kickoff back 85 yards, and Eric Metcalf went a club-record 92 yards with a punt within a three-minute span in the second quarter.
The Bengals made it close in the final quarter, when David Klingler lofted a 24-yard touchdown pass to rookie Darnay Scott with nine minutes left.
Chiefs 30, Saints 17
Joe Montana improved to 10-0 in the Superdome, throwing two touchdowns and completing 24 of 33 for 315 yards.
New Orleans' defense gave the Chiefs quarterback 40 different looks, but nothing bothered him.
Kansas City totally dominated the first half, with two touchdowns and a field goal on its first three possessions. The Chiefs had the ball for 18:16 and outrushed New Orleans 86 yards to 16.
Jim Everett, making his first regular-season start with the Saints, completed 26 of 37 passes for 325 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Packers 16, Vikings 10
One day after threatening a walkout, Sterling Sharpe was back at work, catching a 14-yard touchdown pass for the Packers, who agreed to adjust his contract.
Sharpe caught seven passes for a game-high 53 yards, including the toss from Brett Favre that gave Green Bay a 10-0 lead in the second quarter.
Packers safety George Teague intercepted two of Moon's passes, spoiling his debut with the Vikings at Lambeau Field.
Moon completed 20 of 37 passes for 166 yards with three interceptions and no touchdowns. He was sacked three times.
Giants 28, Eagles 23
Dave Meggett returned a punt 68 yards for a touchdown, ran 26 yards for another and recovered a fumble to set up another as the Giants capitalized on early errors by the Eagles to open the post Lawrence Taylor-Phil Simms era.
The Eagles never got closer than the final margin when Randall Cunningham - 20 of 39 for 344 yards - hit Calvin Williams on a 10-yard touchdown pass with 1:17 to play.
Bears 21, Buccaneers 9
The Bears scored on their first possession, bogged down in the middle of the game, but were able to put the Bucs away with Erik Kramer's late scoring pass to Chris Gedney.
Kramer, signed away from Detroit as a free agent, made his first opening-game start after starting the last three seasons on the bench. He connected with Gedney on two scoring passes, completing 18 of 25 passes for 212 yards.
Tampa Bay got two third-quarter field goals from Michael Husted to pull to 14-9.