NFL Rundown - Week 4

This post written while drinking coffee... sweet, sweet nectar of life. Oh, and while listening to non-stop coverage of BrettFavre.

Week 3 Recap

Chris	Adam
Most Surprising Team: Cincinnati. After their last couple seasons, nobody really gave them any credit for beating Green Bay. The conventional wisdom was that Green Bat just wasn't as good as we thought. Well, then the Bengals beat the Steelers for the first time since Week 3 of 2006. It's time we start paying attention. Yeah.	Most Surprising Team: Jacksonville. After watching them in the first two weeks, I had officially written them off. I didn’t think they would be able to give Jones-Drew any holes to run through. Apparently I was wrong, and Jacksonville may be a dark horse to make the playoffs. They don’t play another team with a winning record until week 10 (@ NYJ).
Most Disappointing Team: Arizona. It was supposed to be a duel between two Super Bowl MVP quarterbacks, Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning. As it turns out, Warner's gun got stuck in his holster. Warner threw 1 TD to 2 picks at just a 6.38 YPA clip. Manning? 4 TDs, 1 INT, 10.83 YPA.	Most Disappointing Team: Washington. Congratulations, you are now worse than the Detroit Lions. Don’t worry fans; you won’t have to put up w/ Zorn too much longer. Before the season is over you should be on your 7th coach in the last 10 years. Snyder? That’s another issue altogether.
Offensive Player of the Week: Peyton Manning. He led the league in week 4 in passing TDs (4), passing yards (379), and passer rating (130.5). The Colts have a 10.2 YPA through 3 weeks of the season. For reference, that's a full yard and a half per pass better than the Saints and Chargers, who are tied for 2nd.	Offensive Player of the Week: Maurice Jones-Drew. He didn’t have the most yards or touchdowns, but 147 yards & 3 touchdowns mean MJD is the beast we thought he was. He’ll be hard-pressed to match those numbers this week, though, against a stingy Tennessee run defense (2nd best in the league).
Defensive Player of the Week: The Broncos LB corps. Williams, Dumervil, Davis, and Haggan combined for 15 tackles and 2 assists in holding the Raiders to just 3 points and just 61 yards passing. Dumervil had 2 sacks, and Williams and Haggan both forced fumbles in the win.	Defensive Player of the Week: Terrence Newman. Newman only had 3 tackles on the night, but Dallas’ leading tackler only had 4. What Newman did to the ball was more important that what he did to the player this last weekend though. Not only did he force a fumble, but also had a pick-6 against Delhomme and the Panthers.

Top 10:
1. New York Giants (3-0) - The Giants played one of the worst teams in the NFC, but you can hardly drop them out of the top spot after they posted a shutout. Another easy opponent this week.
2. New York Jets (3-0) - Big win over a Tennessee team that's better than their record. Even bigger game this week. If they beat the Saints, they might be number 1 next week.
3. Indianapolis Colts (3-0) - The Colts are in the softer part of their schedule, with their next 3 games against the Seahawks, Titans, and Rams, plus a week 6 bye.
4. Baltimore Ravens (3-0) - Lets say that the Ravens win this week. What would be bigger news - that Baltimore is 4-0, or that the Patriots are 2-2?
5. New Orleans Saints (3-0) - They won with defense and a running game. Wait, that can't be possible... (checks)... huh, apparently it is.
6. Minnesota Vikings (3-0) - Close one against the 49ers. Now Brett Favre gets to play against the Packers and Aaron Rodgers.
7. New England Patriots (2-1) - Man, this is a great weekend we have coming up. 2 games between top 7 teams in our rankings, plus a great Steelers-Chargers game.
8. Cincinnati Bengals (2-1) - This team was a fluky tipped ball away from being 3-0 - and a strong 3-0. They could very easily steamroll the Browns this week.
9. San Francisco 49ers (2-1) - That's a heartbreaking loss. Still, Mike Singletary has turned this team around. I still like them to win the division.
10. Denver Broncos (3-0) - The Broncos are looking a little better now that Cincinnati is 2-1, but that's still a pretty weak 3-0. If they beat the Cowboys this week, they'll get (and deserve) real respect.

Week 3 Picks:

	Chris	Adam
Detroit @ Chicago	Detroit	Chicago
Baltimore @ New England	Baltimore	New England
Cincinnati @ Cleveland	Cincinnati	Cleveland
Tampa Bay @ Washington	Washington	Tampa Bay
N.Y. Giants @ Kansas City	N.Y. Giants	N.Y. Giants
Tennessee @ Jacksonville	Tennessee	Tennessee
Seattle @ Indianapolis	Indianapolis	Indianapolis
Oakland @ Houston	Houston	Houston
N.Y. Jets @ New Orleans	New Orleans	New Orleans
Buffalo @ Miami	Buffalo	Buffalo
St. Louis @ San Francisco	San Francisco	San Francisco
Dallas @ Denver	Dallas	Dallas
San Diego @ Pittsburgh	San Diego	San Diego
Green Bay @ Minnesota	Green Bay	Green Bay
Week #3	9-7	9-7
Overall	32-16	30-18

Players to Watch

Chris	Adam
Offensive Player to Watch: Darren McFadden. The Texans have the worst rush defense in the NFL, allowing over 200 yards per game and 6.2 yards per carry. They are on pace to be significantly worse than the 06 Colts run defense. Look for McFadden to have a real breakout game here.	Offensive Player to Watch: Jay Cutler. Cutler has had QB Ratings over 100 in two straight games against top 15 Pass Defenses in Pittsburgh and Seattle. This weekend they play Detroit, who ranks 30th in pass defense, giving up over 275 pass yards a game.
Defensive Player to Watch: Antwan Odom. He was held without a sack against the Steelers, but now he gets a Browns team with serious problems at QB and who have allowed the second most sacks in the NFL so far (11).	Defensive Player to Watch: Mario Williams. Williams is going up against Oakland this week. That means 6-10 tackles and 1-4 sacks, depending on how often he is double-teamed.