PETER KING'S THINGS I THINK

1 I think the reason the NFL is so compelling is that coaches like Jay Gruden come up with ideas that sound strange—until they work. Then they're genius. The Bengals' O coordinator has a rookie WR, Mohamed Sanu, who played QB in high school, and Gruden saw that the Redskins, when facing Wildcat, played safeties near the line to snuff out a likely run. On Cincy's first play on Sunday, Gruden lined up Sanu at Wildcat QB, and he threw 73 yards to A.J. Green in single coverage. Touchdown. Now that's fun.

2 I think no team will feel the loss of a player more than the Jets will with Darrelle Revis, who's out for the year with a torn ACL. No coach leans on his CBs to play man coverage as much as Rex Ryan, who'll likely compensate with more odd blitzes. In Baltimore, where he had poor CBs, Ryan did crazy things like rush three men over one tackle.

3 I think Cardinals QB Kevin Kolb shows the fruitlessness of judging by the preseason. Arizona was 1--4 this summer, then beat New England and Philadelphia during a 3--0 start to the season. A great plan by Ken Whisenhunt: He turned the deep-throw-challenged Kolb into a chains mover. Just don't turn it over.

PHOTO

DREW HALLOWELL/PHILADELPHIA EAGLES/GETTY IMAGES (KOLB)