Patriots lose. They’re 3-2. Jets lose. They’re 3-2. Dolphins win. They’re 2-3.
Jets beat the Patriots. Dolphins beat the Jets.
Where the hell did either of these 3-way division races come from?
Week 5 wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be. And now it’s about to get better…
FRESH TO DEATH
New York Giants – Have they played a good team yet? We definitely believe in them, but still. Their five wins came against the Redskins, Cowboys, Bucs, Chiefs and Raiders. Next week is going to be a HUGE game against the Saints. There’s a legitimate chance this game could determine home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
Indianapolis Colts – It doesn’t matter who you put around this guy. No Marvin Harrison. No Anthony Gonzalez. All of a sudden everyone knows names like Pierre Garçon and Austin Collie. Peyton makes everyone look good.
New Orleans Saints – Is a bye week before their toughest game of the season thus far a good thing or a bad thing?
WORD
Minnesota Vikings – They do everything well. No one realized they’d be this balanced. And not just balanced but stacked. They have playmakers at every position, on both sides of the ball.
Baltimore Ravens – 3 defensive penalties on that final drive. Kind of sketch. 2 losses in a row. Going to Minnesota next week. Is it possible this team that looked so good through the first 3 weeks could be .500 by week 6?
Pittsburgh Steelers – Over .500 for the first time since week 1. Shouldn’t the Lions not be able to put up 20 points against them?
Denver Broncos – Would they be better with Jay Cutler?
New England Patriots – They were like two different teams out there. Great in the 1st half. Scoreless in the second. That said, we still think they were a coin toss away from winning that game.
Philadelphia Eagles – Eagles are good. Doesn’t matter that it came against the Bucs. Donovan looked sharp. That’s what we needed to see. Two more manageable games coming up (@Oakland, @Washington) for Donovan and Westbrook to get ready for the Giants at home in week 7.
San Diego Chargers – It will be really tough for them to win their division if they lose to the Broncos on Monday night.
Chicago Bears – Would they be better with Kyle Orton?
SOMEWHERE BETWEEN WORD AND AIGHT
Green Bay Packers – No clue.
New York Jets – They expect to win when they put up 27 points. Sanchez was sharp. Braylon Edwards was great. Defense just didn’t come through for the first time this season.
Atlanta Falcons – WTF?!?
San Francisco 49ers – WTF?!?
AIGHT
Seattle Seahawks – What a huge swing. Hasselbeck looked money. He was finding everyone. Their run defense normally sucks, but they held Maurice Jones-Drew to only 34 yards. Did NOT see this sort of dominant performance coming.
Jacksonville Jaguars – They really missed Mike Sims-Walker. Looks like one guy with three names is not enough.
Arizona Cardinals – Goal line stand for the victory is huge, but they were up 21-0 and let the Texans back in the game. They were lucky to squeeze out that victory.
Dallas Cowboys – Not impressed.
Houston Texans – How does Chris Brown not get in the end zone at the end of that game? The Cardinals stepped up for Rihanna.
Miami Dolphins – Seriously impressive win. Ronnie Brown, Ricky Williams, and Chad Henne all had relatively phenomenal games.
Tennessee Titans – Kerry Collins is not why this team is losing. Even so, his starting job looks all but lost. If the Titans feel like they can’t compete, they have to play Vince Young just to feel like they did something productive with their season.
Carolina Panthers – Delhomme might have finally turned it around. Steve Smith thinks it’s about time.
Detroit Lions – Daunte Culpepper can still play. No reason to rush Stafford Back until he is 100%. Daunte gives them as good of a chance to win games, if not better.
YOU’RE NOT GOOD
Kansas City Chiefs – It’s tough to tell because they’re really bad, but we think they’re slowly getting better. “Better” is just a weird word to use to describe it. We think they’re getting “less worse.”
Washington Redskins – Jason Campbell had his best game of the season. So, that’s nice.
Buffalo Bills – Gross.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Dear Buccaneers, Thanks. Sincerely, Donovan McNabb.
Oakland Raiders – We still like their uniforms.
Cleveland Browns – They didn’t win. They definitely lost. The Bills just super lost.
St. Louis Rams – People got cut from this team?