Randall Cobb’s return, and the Top 5 moments from opening night games

Today is football Christmas. Breathe it in, and give it a big bear hug. Real, meaningful football is finally back in our lives.

Traditionalists will say that the season doesn’t start in earnest until the first Sunday of frenzied activity. That’s when the multiple game-watching skills you’ve honed over years come back quickly, and you can successfully seclude yourself in a room far away from any loved ones, emerging only for nature calls and nourishment.

That opinion isn’t wrong, because football Sundays are the greatest way a person can spend their time. But right now, on this day, we care so very little about tradition, because since 2002 the NFL has given us this opening night showcase gift.

It was surely a marketing eureka moment when the league decided to place one game by itself in the spotlight on the Thursday of opening week in early September. It’s also a decision that cranked the NFL’s hype knob a few notches further when the league returns each fall. The only drawback is the popularity of the Thursday night opener eventually led to games regularly on that night throughout the season, most of which have been dreadful.

But the opener itself has given us many reasons to jump from couches, spill things, and yell at our televisions. Let’s get a little nostalgic then, and look back on five of the best moments from the Thursday night kickoff games.

The night we met Randall Cobb

Randall Cobb has the sort of unique, versatile talent and speed that can lead to history fast. And in his first game, he did just that: Cobb made history.

In a thrilling 2011 opener won by the Packers over New Orleans 42-34, Cobb received a kickoff in the middle of the third quarter, and he was only a few yards from the back of his own end zone when he caught it.

He sprinted just past the 20-yard yard line and was whacked twice, which is when for a second the viewers at home and at Lambeau Field looked to the sideline, waiting for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay offense to trot onto the field. Cobb had other ideas.

He spun, somehow maintained his footing, and kept running. His 108-yard kickoff return touchdown tied a league record at the time that’s since been broken by Cordarrelle Patterson. But Cobb is still one of only five players in league history to record a kickoff return of that distance or more.

Remember when Randy Moss played for the Raiders?

I tried to forget the two-year period when Randy Moss was in Oakland. And so did Moss, because although he often didn’t need an excuse to not try, the Raiders provided an easy one just by doing Raiders things.

But there was a time when, ever so briefly, Moss gave Raiders fans a reason for hope. He toyed with their fragile emotions during his very first game in Oakland, when he played high atop the Thursday night opener pedestal in 2005 against the Patriots.

His first reception went for 29 yards, but the real tease came with his second catch: a 73-yard touchdown.

The Raiders lost to New England that night in a Tuck Rule Game rematch, and Moss would move on to mess with emotions a little more with 257 receiving yards over the first two weeks of that season.

When Manning threw all the touchdowns

This one is fresh because it happened almost exactly one year ago.

Peyton Manning’s repeated touchdown chucking came in an opening night game that had all sorts of calamity before it even started. The Broncos’ clash against the Ravens should have been in Baltimore, as it’s customary for the defending champs to be the host. But there was a scheduling conflict with the Orioles, so the Ravens were already at a disadvantage in the first game of their championship defense.

Then a severe thunderstorm delayed kickoff for a half hour, making us wait and pace before finally seeing regular-season football. But none of that mattered once the Manning show started.

A season that ended with the Broncos quarterback smashing a whole lot of passing records started with him tying a long-held single-game mark. Manning became only the seventh quarterback in league history to throw seven touchdowns in one game, and the first in 44 years.

The touchdown that shouldn’t have been a touchdown

Another foggy memory: remember when Nick Saban was an NFL head coach? That happened too, and the start of his second (and final) season in 2006 with the Dolphins was lowlighted be a mental stutter, and a “does not compute” in a loss to the Steelers.

Midway through the fourth quarter Heath Miller — who isn’t exactly known for blazing, breakaway speed — lumbered 87 yards for what would be the difference-making touchdown in a game Pittsburgh won 28-17. This will shock you: that still stands as easily the longest catch of his career, with the second longest a 50 yarder. Too bad the touchdown wasn’t a touchdown.

Replays clearly showed that while trying to tip-toe down the sideline, Miller stepped out of bounds just before the endzone at about the one-yard line. Maybe the Steelers still score from there (yeah, probably), or maybe they don’t. But Saban should have thrown the flag and forced them to attempt a goal-line plunge.

Instead he waited with the red hanky in his hand, waited some more, and then finally threw the challenge flag just before Steelers kicker Josh Reed converted the extra point. But his hesitation meant no official saw his toss, and it was too late.

After the game Saban was understandable in a growling mood:

"“We can’t challenge something until we see it. When we saw it, I threw the flag. It was well before the kicker kicked it. The official said he didn’t see it, and when he said he didn’t see it, there was nothing he could do. That shouldn’t happen.”"

Kevin Ogletree?

Kevin Ogletree is little more than a journeyman receiver, and a guy who can supply fine depth is that’s something you need. But on opening night in 2012 he was so much more than that: he was a hero.

Over six NFL seasons and 62 game appearances, Ogletree has currently scored only six touchdowns. And if we exclude 2012, his highest single-season receiving yardage high is 199 yards with the Lions last year.

You need those numbers to realize just how absurd his opening-night game was two years ago: 114 yards on eight catches, with two touchdowns.