NFL 2007 Week 4: NFC Edition

NFC East: The Cowboys seem to look better every week. Given, though, that their competition thus far has been poor at best (the combined record of their opponents, including next week’s Bills matchup is 4-16), I don’t know that there’s cause for commotion. When they finally play a real football team, then we’ll see how well they do. The Redskins are in second place by virtue of the fact that they’ve only played three games. Their game against the Lions this week is winnable if they can keep the points down, but they’re going to have a hard time putting up the numbers to match Detroit’s potential. Wait, now that I think of it, Washington did just sign Keenan McCardell, so watch out world. The Giants could be 0-4 right now so easily, but they’ve managed two wins. If the Eagles had shown up at all last week, New York’s pathetic offense would have failed again, but they decided to stay in Philly. I didn’t think Westbrook was so integral to the Eagles’ offense, but he clearly is. McNabb looked like he’d never seen any of his receivers before, or maybe he realized how much he enjoyed getting tackled by huge men. Either way, he spent most of the game on his back.

NFC North: I think the NFC North is some kind of transplant from Bizarro NFL and, if Roger Goodell would inspect the locker rooms, he would undoubtedly find the pods. The Commish also needs to check Favre for HGH, which is proven to slow aging. There is no reason, with the team they have, that they should be so successful, but they’re undefeated. All the hype is for nothing, though, they’re going to plummet soon, and it’ll be a hard fall. For the Lions to score 34 points in the fourth quarter, they must still be blessed by Kitna’s concussion. They were getting beaten up for three quarters and scored on by an inept Chicago offense. Then Jesus said “Enough” and the Lions began scoring at will. That Griese looked so bad doesn’t explain away Grossman’s crappiness (believe me, he still sucks), but they clearly have more problems than just at quarterback. How the vaunted Bears defense allows that many points in one quarter is explained by divine intervention, but they clearly have a lot of work to do to gain back some of their respect. The Vikings are better than the record indicates, but three losses in a row is really bad at this point in the season. The defense is performing, and Peterson has real Rookie of the Year potential, but they just aren’t putting it together. It seems strange to say, but Jackson’s return could be the piece to the puzzle.

NFC South: The Buick is gone from Tampa, probably for good. Michael Pittman has really performed better than Williams last year and this year, but they’ve stuck with Cadillac. Now, they probably won’t go back to him if he can come back next season. He’s essentially a bust with little more than four or five good games in his career. The defense looks as good as it has in years, and they’re winning the games. It doesn’t hurt that Garcia hasn’t thrown an interception yet, but he hasn’t thrown for a lot of touchdowns, either. I was always pretty sympathetic toward David Carr and thought he was unjustly blamed for the Texans’ troubles. I was wrong; David Carr is bad and has been taken apart every second he’s on the field. Carolina is struggling, Steve Smith isn’t happy, and the defense stops nothing. They will continue their slide, at least until Delhomme gets back. And, in the NFC’s version of the battle to remain defeated, the Falcons took a step backward and finally won a game. Harrington has actually looked decent these last two weeks, and it translated to a modicum of success on Sunday. The running game is worthless, and so is the rest of the team, but at least they aren’t the Saints. These guys just look terrible; all the smugness on Sean Peyton’s face after last year’s Dallas blowout has finally been wiped away, and now he looks as sad as his team plays. There’s just nothing good to say here; they’ve done nothing right in three games. They may beat a Carr-led Panthers this week, but that wouldn’t be saying a lot. They don’t have a lot of games against teams this beaten up, so they’d better get crackin’ here.

NFC West: The West is the only division this year with a clear distinction of means and extremes. The Seahawks don’t look great, but they are the undisputed best in the division. Shaun Alexander needs more production if they’ll continue their success since, as usual, the receivers are some of the biggest underachievers in the league. When his arm gets healthy again, he’ll do better. For now, they have to hope he does enough. The next two teams are converses of each other. The Cardinals were touted to be bad, and looked bad coming into the season, but are on the way up fast. The win over the Steelers is a big step for them. On the other hand, everyone was ready to hand the division over to the ‘Niners and they’ve wound up looking worse and worse every week. The worst offense in the league is punctuated by the season loss of Alex Smith but hey, look on the bright side San Fran fans, now you have a Super Bowl winning quarterback in Dilfer. That’d be great if they had that Ravens defense, but they have this San Francisco defense, so it’s really not so great. There’s nothing to say about the Rams, just a mouth open in wonder. It’s easy to see the importance of a regular offensive line, but it’s amazing that they haven’t been able to produce anything, even by a stroke of luck. I have to think that they’ll get back on track but, based on how they’re doing right now, they could be 0-7 by the time they get to Cleveland, which I hope is the CBS game of the week for the sheer comedy of it all.