Although there were a lot of good moves in the first week of NFL, and a lot of players who deserve this place, for the first week the best player is Payton Manning. 

Manning directed Denver to a 49-27 victory over Super Bowl champion Baltimore on Thursday night in the NFL opener, a much-anticipated rematch against the team that ended the Broncos' playoff run in January.

"Peyton had an amazing night," Broncos coach John Fox said. "Peyton's had a lot of amazing nights."

Not like this, though.

Manning is the sixth QB in NFL history to throw seven TD passes in a game and the first since Joe Kapp did it for Minnesota against Baltimore on Sept. 28, 1969.

The others read like a Who's Who of passers who came along before the NFL became so pass-happy: Sid Luckman, Adrian Burk, George Blanda, Y.A. Tittle.

"I felt like we had to keep scoring because Baltimore can score at any time," said Manning, who was 27 of 42 for 462 yards with no interceptions for an off-the-charts quarterback rating of 141.1.

"He's phenomenal. To continue to come out every year and put that kind of performance on for us, it's amazing," Julius Thomas said.

Nobody had ever put up 49 points on the Ravens in their 18-year history.