Peyton Manning will be going head-to-head with his younger brother Eli on Sunday night as the Indianapolis Colts take on the New York Giants in Week 1 action. The game will not only mark the regular season opener for both teams, but it’ll also be the first time in league history that sibling quarterbacks have lined up opposite each other.

And even though the game is being played on Eli’s turf at Giants Stadium, Peyton and the Colts are currently pegged as 3.5-point favorites (with a total sitting at 48 points) for the 8:15pm ET contest. Both Indianapolis and New York made it into the playoffs last season, but it was the Colts that won 13 games in a row and had the league’s top mark.

But it was also the Colts that flamed out of the playoffs yet again - Indianapolis lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers by a score of 21-18 in their first playoff game. Peyton and company are still pegged as a top contender to win it all this year, but with every passing playoff failure there is less enthusiasm about their chances.

The Giants found themselves in the playoffs for the first time in three seasons last year, thanks in part to the younger Manning’s development at quarterback. However, New York was blasted 23-0 by the Carolina Panthers in their playoff opener, with Manning tossing three interceptions. He’ll be looking to get a second kick at the can this season.

So both teams will be looking to start the season off with a win on Sunday night. And while the Mannings have been trying to play down the significance of their head-to-head matchup, the loser won’t get a chance for redemption until 2010, when the Colts and Giants next meet (unless, of course, they end up playing each other in the Super Bowl).

With Edgerrin James out of the picture, Indy’s running back duties will fall to the tandem of Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai on Sunday night. Neither RB was great in the preseason, so the Colts might start the season more pass-happy than usual. A healthy Brandon Stokley would help - he’s questionable for Week 1 with an ankle injury. Tight end Dallas Clark (concussion) is questionable as well, as is placekicker Adam Vinatieri.

For the Giants, wide receiver Sinorice Moss is listed as questionable with a quad injury, but he isn’t expected to make an impact quite yet anyway. Linebacker LaVar Arrington had sat out some practices to rest his knees, but he’ll be on the field on Sunday night.

History buffs will note that the Giants pulled out a victory the last time they played the Colts, winning by a score of 44-27 back on December 22, 2002. New York is coming off a great preseason - they won all four of their exhibition contests, and allowed only 46 points in those four games. The Colts won only once in their four preseason matchups.

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Now Colorado State knows how the other half lives.

The Rams find themselves embroiled in scandal as they prepare to face the rival Colorado Buffaloes in the annual Rocky Mountain Showdown. The fans who will pack Invesco Field in Denver this Saturday have seen the Buffs program suffer black eyes related to sexual harassment charges and alleged recruiting violations. But now it’s Colorado State getting all the bad ink. Three current players are among those facing felony charges stemming from a bank fraud investigation. All three have been suspended.

The players in question are senior cornerback Robert Herbert, defensive back Micah Crews and defensive lineman Brian Abata. The loss of Herbert will be a crushing blow to the Rams’ title hopes in the Mountain West Conference. He was considered one of the best pass-defending corners in the country, racking up 72 tackles and leading the MWC with four forced fumbles. Neither Crews nor Abata figured to crack the Rams lineup this season.

Colorado State kept Herbert out of the starting rotation in the Rams’ season opener against Weber State, but that wasn’t about to prevent them from beating the Division I-AA Wildcats 30-6. That’s more than can be said for the Buffaloes, who got the Dan Hawkins Era off to a shockingly poor start with a 19-10 loss to Montana State, another DI-AA squad. Hawkins has some issues to deal with in his first year as head coach. James Cox showed in Week 1 that he doesn’t have the tools for the starting quarterback job; the Buffs also went through three punters against Montana State.

The upbeat Hawkins isn’t ready to hit the panic button. “To me, this is only devastating if people make it devastating,” the former Boise State coach told reporters. “We understand that most people are going to jump on when it’s rosy, but we’ll find out about ourselves when things aren’t going so good.”

This Saturday will be Colorado’s real acid test for the 2006 season. The Rams are vulnerable; not only are they missing their best defensive player, they’re also without the top offensive producer, running back Kyle Bell. He’s out for the year after tearing an ACL during the last week of practice. Without him, Colorado State will be in tough against the Buffs’ established run defense.

The Rams (the designated home team at Mile High) remained 2-point favorites at the time of publication, with no total posted for this matchup.

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I’m hoping last weeks effort vs. UVA wasn’t a smokescreen and the Panthers don’t revert to their road form of a year ago where they lost to Ohio SU as 2-TD road chalks. I don’t think that will be the case, and I’m fairly confident they head home 2-0 with their first road win and cover of the season. Pitt comes off a complete thrashing of the Virginia Cavaliers that saw them succeed offensively, defensively, and via special teams. QB Palko and the Panther offense had a much different swagger to them. He finished 17 of 22 for 283 yards with three touchdowns including a pair of 70+ yard TD passes. Their rushing attack kept the Cavaliers defense honest by churning out 107 yards as well, and the Panthers balanced attack should be a major problem for the Bearcats to contend with. The defense clamped down on Virginia’s attack as well limiting them to 52 yards rushing and a shade over 200 yards of offense overall. The Bearcats do fall into my improved list for the 2006 season, but I’m not sure they’ll have enough to keep the high-flying Panthers from storming Nippert Stadium and administering another Cincy beat down. It’s just to early in the season. Cincy was a very young squad a year ago that suffered enormously in its first go round as a Big East member. They gained confidence last week by shutting out the mighty Colonels of Eastern.

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The Marlins did exactly as I predicted they’d do in Game 1 vs. the Phills after going through the once in a lifetime experience of playing in a no hitter. They got rocked every way imaginable, and it was clearly evident they’d been partying a bit too much the night before. Ryan Howard hit his 54th home run, one of four homers by the Philadelphia Phillies, and they rallied to rout Florida 14-8 Thursday night. Now that both teams got all those hits and runs out of their system, I’m looking for pitching to once again take center stage in sunny FLA. Remember, these two teams are in the heart of the Wild Card race with Philly now sitting just 2.5 games in back of the Padres and FLA 3.5 back. Look for both of tonight’s lefty hurlers (Moyer/Olsen) to keep each teams offenses at bay, and pitch deep into this one. Scott Olsen’s found his groove once again since a three game slide in mid August, and has only given up 3 earned runs in 21 innings of work his L/3 starts. The Fish have never seen the craftiness of Jamie Moyer before, and they should struggle to get much done the first few times through the order. Florida must rebound in the next three games of this series with the Mets coming to town on Monday. I believe they will, and this game will be decided by the bullpens late in what should be a fantastic wild card chase game.
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Jake Peavy has not been as good on the road as he has been at home. He’s 3-6 with a 5.02 ERA as the visiting hurler, and he’s given up 61 hits in as many innings pitched. The Giants have seen him four times this season and have gone 2-2 overall. They smashed him the last time he visited the bay for 9 hits and 7 earned runs in only 4 innings of work. They won’t be intimidated by him tonight whatsoever regardless of the effort he put forth in his last start. The Padres and Giants finish off their season series tonight with three games at AT&T Park starting tonight. The Giants have gotten the best of the Father’s this year winning 10 of their 16 match-ups, and would do themselves a huge favor if they were to at the very least win the series. San Diego’s been a rough out of late though winning a number of games late in the game or in extra innings. Matt Cain’s currently in the midst of a four game winning streak, and he’s only given up 1 earned run during that stretch. He’s faced the Padres three times this year, and the Giants won two of those games. With so much riding on the line in this series, look for the home team to get off to the fast start behind one of MLB’s hottest young pitchers.

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