Around The League
By Matt DeLucia
It’s Monday and we can now get back to normalcy. The Patriots are back at work after their bye week. Now for news around the league for week 4 of the season. Sunday began with six teams that were undefeated still, but at the end of the day that number is trimmed by two. With both the Denver Broncos and Dallas Cowboys going down in defeat. One more game remains on tap for tonight between the Ravens and the Steelers, we’ll know if it stays at four or leaves us with only three teams undefeated in the league.
The New York Jets and Brett Favre had a great day in the Meadowlands with the visiting Cardinals in town. Favre tosses a career high six touchdown passes and just absolutely man handles the non existent secondary. At the end of the day what was being talked about most was the cheap shot that strong safety Eric Smith of the Jets used on Anquan Boldin that just layed him out. The result of that play had Boldin leaving the field and stadium in an ambulance. In my opinon Smith speared Boldin and the league has to act quickly with a fine and or suspension.
They even played some football in Ohio, not that we or most of Ohio cared about it much. You had a very lifeless game between two teams that should just be strongly be considered for removal from the NFL. It’s a win win situation for all involved. You disband the teams and shuffle their players off to other teams and we can finally have the divisions and teams to a way that it makes sense. Oh and did I mention that the Browns beat the Bengals by a 20-12 score in the game that most could care less about.
For a second straight week the Jaguars win on the foot of their kicker Josh Scobee. Scobee kicked a 37 yard field goal a few minutes into overtime to win it again for the Jags. In Chicago the Bears out dueled the Eagles on Sunday night, as they came away with a 24-20 victory. The loss sends the Eagles to the bottom of the NFC East at 2-2.
The two best games of the weekend if you were lucky enough to see them both. They belonged to the Broncos and Chiefs in Kansas City. A game that the Broncos were suppose to roll easily over the Chiefs saw the Denver defense having fits trying to contain Larry Johnson. Johnson finished the day with 198 rushing yards and a pair of scores. Fantasy owners that have been riding Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler were just giddy with the match up with the Chiefs. But the Chiefs defense pressured Cutler and forced him into making mistakes that they capitalized on. Cutler finished 29/49 passing for 361 yards one touchdown and two big interceptions.
The other big game was between the Redskins and “America’s Team” the Cowboys who entered the contest undefeated, for the final regular season game at Texas Stadium. I had the chance to see this entire game and it was a classic. Of course anytime that the Cowboys lose it’s a classic for me. The talk of Dallas going unbeaten this year is now out the window. As for them winning the Super Bowl only time will tell on that one.
The game featured rookie head coach Jim Zorn of the Redskins doing what other Washington rookie head coaches have tried and failed at. Winning in Dallas on their first trip there. Zorn’s newly installed west coast offense looks likes it’s finally sinking in with team leader Jason Campbell and the rest of the offense. Campbell looked comfortable most of the day and hit his receivers Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle El with ease most of the day. The Cowboys scored late in the fourth and it all came down to converting the on side kick. Nick Folk did his job on the kick but Sam Hurd of the Cowboys just couldn’t quite get his hands on it to recover it. So the Redskins walk away from Texas stadium for what might of been the final time ever with a 26-24 victory and second place in the division for now.