Third and Long

After having a weekend where I could actually relax and watch all four games on basic cable (as Jimmy Kimmel loves to remind me every 15 minutes), I could FINALLY write about football knowing that I wasn’t missing anything. If you were one of the few who actually believed Joey Porter’s talk about beating the Patriots...then I’d call you a liar. Same for if you told me Brian Griese would throw 67 passes in a game. And win. OR if you boisterously claimed “Oh sure, the Falcons are for real this year.” Well, I wouldn’t call you a liar just yet…we still have 14 weeks to go, after all.What is interesting though is that in three short weeks, we have many divisions that are completely flipped upside-down from what they’ve been for years. So, in regards to our title, every day we’re going to  take a look at a different division in the NFL to make sure exactly what is going on.And why the 49ers and Cardinals are tied for first in the NFC West.

NFC EAST

To keep it simple, the NFC East is one of the few divisions displaying normalcy. An impressive showing against Green Bay (2-1) kept Dallas (3-0) undefeated, keeping them atop the division. While the Giants (3-0) also squeaked out a victory in Cincinnati (0-3), the degree of difficulty in terms of opponents has me placing the defending Super Bowl champions below Philadelphia (2-1), whose defense had a coming out party against a contender in the AFC in the Steelers (2-1). Don’t agree with me? Take a look at the opponents both teams, NY and PHI, have faced:

PHI: PIT, DAL, STL

NY: CIN, WAS, STL 

With these three teams out of the way, WAS (2-1) takes third after losing inside the division as well as beating teams with no defense by a seven point margin each.The NFC East easily is the most competitive division in the NFC, with no teams under .500, and with the only two remaining undefeated teams in the NFC, but what’s interesting to note is the amount of young talent that the teams have drafted this past year. Felix Jones of DAL pictured above is an obvious example, but Deshaun Jackson of PHI, aside from his premature antics, has spread the field for PHI making defenses scared of the three-headed beast that McNabb-Westbrook-Jackson form. Washington…well, they never draft. Ever. I’m pretty sure Dan Snyder is allergic to draft picks, given his consistent ability to give them away to anyone with *insert late-twenties superstar here*. Looking at these moves, New York is the only team to really not be directly impacted by their draft, and last year’s drafting of Sinorice Moss, Santana Moss’s younger brother, is working on keeping NY’s bench nice and warm. Still though, NY’s lack of fresh talent hasn’t hurt them that badly I suppose…the zero’s in the loss column, after all.

Tomorrow: NFC North and…oh god…do I really have to write about the Lions? Crap.  

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