NFL Week 4: A Look Back and a Glimpse Ahead
- Posted by marshall
- Tuesday, September 29, 2009, 15:23
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After three weeks, divisional races are starting to take shape as some teams are off to a strong start while others keep digging themselves deeper in a hole. Three teams; the Jets, Broncos, and Saints who didn’t make the playoffs last season are 3-0 and three teams that won their division last year; the Panthers, Dolphins, and Titans are 0-3. The only thing that is constant in the NFL is change. The Detroit Lions finally ended their 19 game regular season losing streak with a 19-14 win over Washington. They will try and make it two in a row when they travel to Chicago this week to play the Bears.
Pittsburgh’s woes continue as they lost to the Bengals on a TD pass from Carson Palmer to Andre Caldwell with 14 seconds left in the game. The 23-20 loss dropped the Steelers to 1-2 and the last second score took a game that was a push at -4 and moved it to Cincinnati as well as took the total over 37. Talk about some last second bettor’s drama. Even more improbable was Brett Favre’s 32 yard desperation heave into the end zone that was plucked out of the air by Greg Lewis for the game winning touchdown with only 2 seconds on the clock. It is plays like these that make NFL football the great sport it is.
The home team made a bit of a comeback this week as nine teams won straight up and only one of the nine, Minnesota did not cover the spread. Five underdogs won outright including two home dogs, Detroit and Cincinnati. The largest spread of the week was Cleveland getting 13 points against Baltimore. This one was never in doubt as the Ravens coasted to a 34-3 win while Brown’s head coach Eric Mangini played musical chairs with his quarterbacks.
Dallas shook of a slow start to cover the 9 point spread against Carolina with a 21-7 victory on Monday night. The Buffalo Bills held the high powered New Orleans Saints to only 27 points, but were only able to score 7 on their own and Jacksonville was finally able to find some offense, scoring 31 points against the Texans in a 7 point win.
The game totals slightly favored the under this week as nine games stayed below their total and seven games went over. Points were a little tougher to find this week as only three games went over 50 points as opposed to last week when seven games went over 50 including two that went over 60 and one, New Orleans at Philly hit the 70+ mark.
This is a sign that after of few weeks of tape, the defense is starting to scheme better against the offense. Look for this trend to continue another week or so before the offensive coordinators have a chance to adjust. Keep riding the under with teams like Kansas City, Oakland, St.Louis, and Cleveland as their offense is basically non-existent with no signs of hope for improvement.
Turning to week four, the AFC the game of the week will be Baltimore @ New England as this will be a good test for both teams. The Ravens have scored 30 + points in their first three games including 31 in an impressive win in San Diego. The Patriots’ offense has struggled to find a rhythm but hope to have All Pro WR Wes Welker back in the lineup for this one. With all due respect to the Jets, the winner of this game establishes themselves as the early favorite to win the AFC. The big game in the NFC will be on Monday night when the Packers travel to Minnesota.
Brett Favre’s last second heroics in the win over the 49ers last week will only add to the drama of this game. Green Bay would love nothing more than to halt the Vikings’ winning streak at 3 while giving themselves a share of the NFC North lead.
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marshall has written 2016 stories on this site.
