Griffin enjoys strong effort in opener

Michael Griffin admits that he had a bad year in 2009 with only one interception and struggles all the way around in his play.

Griffin vowed that he would return to the form that made him a Pro Bowl safety in 2008 and did what he could to live up to that in Sunday's 38-13 pasting of the Oakland Raiders.

Griffin was in on 12 tackles, including 10 solo stops, plus had one pass defensed and a fumble recovery after Jacob Ford sacked Jason Campbell.

Griffin for a moment had a 23-yard touchdown out of that recovery, but replay overturned that when it was revealed that Griffin nudged Mario Henderson's foot while on the ground gathering in the football.

“I blame that on myself and field awareness,” Griffin said. “I got the ball, jumped on the ground and rolled. I questioned whether or not it was a fumble, because I saw the ball come out, but thought he was down when it came out.

“So I jumped on it, then sat there and noticed the ref was looking at me like, 'What are you going to do?' So I got up, and started running, the crowd was yelling, and I'm still running and running, and I'm like, 'Ok, this is about to be a touchdown.'”