Quarters

If you need evidence that this is the most bizarre NFL season in recent memory, consider this statistic.  This is the first time in 40 years (since 1970) that there has been no 4-0 team in the National Football League.


We are just past the quarter point of what is shaping up to be a most interesting season.  Of all the teams we were supposed to be impressed with, only three, (if you count the Steelers) are living up to expectations.  The Ravens, Jets and Steelers are the only pre-season favorites playing championship quality football.  The Packers, Vikings, Cowboys, Saints, 49ers, Chargers and Colts all look like junior varsity at this point in the season.  More on them later.  I'd like to start with a couple of pleasant surprises.


The Kansas City Chiefs are 3-1, the last undefeated team to fall.  Of those three wins, two came against pre-season playoff favorites, and the loss came against Peyton Manning's Colts.  The Chiefs are very young and are bound to make mistakes as the season progresses.  But at this point they are the class of the AFC West.  Name two people that thought that would be the case four weeks ago.


This might sound like an odd this to say, but if you're looking for exciting football, tune into the Detroit Lions.  The Lions are playing their best football in decades, and are just three plays and one ridiculous rule away from being 5-0.  This may not be their year, but they are not the doormats of the division anymore.  Especially if the other three teams continue to play the way they are.


And now for the disappointments.


Unlike the Lions who probably should be undefeated, the Green Bay Packers are three plays away from being 0-5.  The offense, which blew people out last year and in the pre-season, seems utterly unable to put the ball in the end zone.  Part of that is probably due to the fact that over the last three games Green Bay has almost as many penalties as first downs.  It almost seems as though the offense is incapable of advancing the ball without holding or interfereing with or personally fouling somebody.  Add to that the injuries to the team's number one scorer, Jermichael Finley, starting running back Ryan Grant, the league's most feared pass rusher Clay Matthews, and now a concussion to Aaron Rodgers and we might be looking at the cellar dwellers of the Norris.  I can't express how disappointing that would be to at least two of the three contributors to this blog.


Almost as depressing has been the play of the New Orleans Saints.  The defending Super Bowl champs look more than a little hung over from all those Bourbon Street parties.  The offense just can't get anything going, and the defense just can't get off the field.  This is a team that routinely thrashed opposing defenses for 30-plus points last season.  But now, instead of throwing touchdowns, Brees is tossing interceptions and Saints' running backs have started putting the ball on the ground.  A formerly opportunistic defense can't get their hands on the football, and don't even get me started on the kick return team.  New Orleans is now in third place in their division.  Third place in the NFC South does not get you to the playoffs.


I understand that the San Diego Chargers always start the season losing games they're expected to win, but this is ridiculous.  While they destroyed the Jaguars and Cardinals, the Chargers have been handily defeated by the rebuilding Chiefs, perpetually pathetic Raiders and Leon Washington.  Not one of those teams got close to the playoffs last season, and two of them are division opponents.  Don't get me wrong, the only reason my fantasy team is even competitive is because Philip Rivers has to throw for 500 yards in a comeback attempt every week. But I'm sure the Chargers are probably more interested in winning real games rather than my fantasy ones.  Then again, maybe they aren't.  It's difficult to tell right now.


It used to be that the first serious conversation we needed to have about the Indianapolis Colts was whether or not they would rest their starters instead of attempting to finish the season undefeated.  This season the conversation is about just how pedestrian this team seems to be.  The offense has failed to score at will, (held to only 19 points by the Chiefs) and the defense might as well not bother taking the field.  For some reason it seems to be taking a little longer for the Manning mojo to kick into gear this years.  More importantly, nobody is afraid of them anymore.


The same might be said about the Cowboys.  (Yes, between Dallas and Green Bay it's been kind of a low-key season at my house.)  Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Miles Austin and Felix Jones have combined for a grand total of one, count 'em, one victory.  This is the year Jerryworld hosts the Super Bowl and prior to the start of the season Jones publically stated his ambition to make it a home game.  The odds of that are about as high as Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo getting back together.


I'm not even going to mention the Bengals.  I'm just not.  It's too pathetic.


What the heck is up with the San Fransisco 49ers?  They were easily everybody's pick to win the weakest division in football.  Ironically, even sitting at 0-5 that isn't out of the realm of possibility.  But come on, no wins and five losses?  In five games?  Every single game of which you could easily have won?  Wow.  I'm pretty sure no team in league history has gone on to accomplish anything of note after an 0-5 start.  This group probably won't be any different.


Finally, I know they weren't expected to compete for a championship or anything, but are the Chicago Bears not the absolute worst 4-1 team in the history of 4-1 teams?  This team has given up enough sacks and thrown enough interceptions to fill out the stat sheets of three teams for the entire year.  Even in victory this past Sunday Todd Collins completed four passes to opposing defensive backs and linebackers.  And he was supposed to be an improvement over Jay Cutler in terms of ball security.  I guess as long as they continue to get lucky playing worthless opponents who prefer to committing penalties to scoring touchdowns they can continue to win.  But you have to believe that eventually luck like that runs out, doesn't it?  Doesn't it?