Live Blogging: MNF -- Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest

First, if Jeremiah Trotter threw a punch, it was the type that a third-grader throws when taunted for popping up in kickball.

Second, if the rule is that if you throw a punch and you're automatically, ejected, why weren't both Kevin Mathis and #21, Hill, of the Falcons, ejected, instead of just Mathis?

Third, shouldn't Mathis get more penalized for having started the altercation? Perhaps Trotter should have gotten 15 yards and Mathis ejected?

Dumb: Trotter, for putting himself in a position to really hurt his team. Last time I checked, Trotter is the primus inter pares on the Eagles' defense, the heart of it. If I were Jim Mora, Jr., I'd trade Mathis for Trotter any day of the week. If I were Oliver Stone, I'd suggest that Mora his player up to it.

Dumber: The NFL and its officiating crew. You just don't do this, especially under the circumstances of opening night. Throwing these guys out of the game? Show me the punches? Trotter threw his arms out, in my opinion, and Mathis started it. Then Hill jumped in. Sorry, but this is a travesty, and the refs poured gasoline on it.

Dumbest: ESPN's pre-game crew. Tom Jackson deserves much better than Stuart Scott, Michael Irvin and Ron Jaworski. They sounded somewhat nonsensical about the whole affair, with Jaworski saying that now, without Trotter, the Eagles have to outscore the Falcons to win the game. Thankfully, Irvin quickly reminded him that that's what teams usually have to do.

Prediction: It's easy to take the Falcons now, and backup MLB Mike Labinjo's name sounds more like banjo (in, he could play banjo in a Mummers' Band) than Trotter, but somehow the Eagles will have enough mojo, with Labinjo performing well or poorly, and T.O. and Donovan will put on a show. Call it a hard-hitting, physical game. Call it Eagles, 27-17.

And then call out the officials for abject stupidity, and make sure, if you're the Eagles, you stay the heck away from the opposition during the pre-game. And look for the Eagles and Falcons both to get fined for the pre-game version of the New Zealand pre-rugby match tribal chants that took place after the Trotter-Mathis quarrel. Call it perhaps $250,000 apiece, to be donated to flood victims. As bad as the Trotter-Mathis spat was, what followed could have led to a whole bunch of ugliness.

Vince McMahon couldn't have teed this one up any better.