The Not So Beastly NFC East

Let's start with the Cowboys getting dismantled, and I mean outplayed and outcoached by the Arizona Cardinals. Maybe people will no longer call me crazy when I say I'd rather have Matt Ryan (who doesn't turn the ball over) on my team than Tony Romo (who's turnover streak has reached 20 straight games and this was only his 5th career game w/o an interception).

The Cowboys officially have an awful defense. Outside of DeMarcus Ware, there really aren't any Pro Bowlers on that squad this year. The Offense, Owens was held in check by the 'Zona Defense. Jason Witten was the ever-consistent bright spot. Romo had about 6 fumbles that he turned over, one including an Arizona Cardinals TD. The real score of this game Ladies and Gentlemen (even if we count all but one of the turnovers taken away as field goals) the Cardinals win this game in regulation, 37-21. If that isn't a blowout, I don't know what is.

You can go ahead and say "well the refs made the right calls," come on, this is Ed Hochuli we're talking about. Whistle Blown? They took care of that a long time ago. Tuck Rule? Maybe, but it looked more like Romo had the ball knocked out of his hand.

Later on in the week I'll rank the NFC Quarterbacks... see where I put Romo, it won't be in the top 10. On another note, Marion the Barberian had a very lousy game outside of the meaningless touchdown, where most Cardinals fans will rightly say "They let him score to get the ball back". Dallas should be greatful, somewhere in an alternate universe they are 0-5... and forty years from that point they'll still be playoff winless, too. This year? Not happening.

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Out on the West Coast, most San Francisco fans sold their tickets to Eagles fans. The final count was that the stadium was packed but more than half were rooting for the visitor. Sounds a lot like last time, when there were next to no 9ers fans in the stadium at half time.

Correll Buckhalter, definitely the most all-around backup Runningback at least in the NFC. I mean think of it, who else is as good a receiver and runningback.... and if you even think Reggie Bush I will MIND CRUSH you, because he is a Receiver-Back (his own hybrid Wide Receiver position just to make the Saints fans happy). Then again, the last time the Eagles played the 9ers, Westbrook posted a 100/100, rushing just 17 times for 117 yards and 2 TDs, and catching 7 balls for over 100 and a TD. The score was different, San Fran scored a meaningless last second TD to soften the blowout of 38-24.

This was a season saving victory for the Eagles, who now have to face an Atlanta team after the bye week who is also coming off a bye week at that point. So for now we tell Matt Ryan "Only you can prevent yourself from being flat on your back the entire game"

Action Jackson was once again stellar, catching 4 3rd Down conversions and a couple of 25+ yard plays. Through 6 games he has 29 Receptions for 433 Yards and a TD. If he were to keep on pace with that production (Provided no one triple teams him like Pittsburgh did), he'll finish with 77 Receptions for 1154 yards and 4-6 TDs. While this likely won't happen, reaching the 1,000 yard mark would likely make him a shoo-in for R.O.Y.. Anyone who can literally run off Nate Clements' pants and run around with them all game and is a rookie, is a pretty darn good player.

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The Skins are one step closer to reverting to the old and deeply entrenched history of being awful without Joe Gibbs. I think we need to see where they are when they're playing good teams, that loss against the Giants makes the Giants look pretty good right now.

This team needed this win more than they knew it. Not only is the fact that they lost to what everyone acknowledges to be the worst team in football, bad enough. Their offense turned the ball over three times and was awful for almost the entire game. The two bright spots on their team today was the job the Defense did against Steven Jackson and Clinton Portis on the ground. This Redskins team didn't get outplayed at home, but they did get outcoached.

So for now we hold off the accolades and we hope that the Redskins don't start to play like this every week. In the end, they're back to what I thought they were, at worst 7-9, at best 10-6. It's just too bad for them that 10-6 doesn't make the playoffs this year... but then again Dallas might not go 8-8.

Dallas Cowboys

The game helped the Cowboys in many ways:
1. It helped T.O. be happier than he was, we still need him to be happier but he is getting better.
2. We do have a running game. After we played the Redskins I was afraid that we were loosing our running game but we had 198 yards on the ground this game. even though it is against cincy it is still good.
3. Felix Jones is looking better and better, he was definitly our best draft pick.

Things to watch:
1. our defence. i mean yes we held cincy to 2 touchdowns, but they had 3 field goals and a recovered onside kick. And we had our first interception....ouch. Come on this is cincy, not the best offence in the leauge, we need to stop teams from getting into field goal range.
2. Romo needs to stop giving the other team the ball, he did it twice in this game, he can't let that happen again

Week 4 Power Rankings... Big NFC East Letdowns

1. Tennessee Titans:

• They're like the 2000 Ravens with a lot more offensive firepower and a little bit less of a defense... but only a sliver.
  

2. Buffalo Bills:

• Young team, Young QB, Young RB, Young Defense, Young Everything... and they're 4-0. Their defense has the best players you've never heard of.

3. New York Giants:

• Bye Week, 3-0... Seahawks up next... they could be here until they face the Steelers.
  

4. Pittsburgh Steelers:

• Huge comeback win over a young, up and coming Ravens team.
  

5. Dallas Cowboys:

• They are who we thought they were. T.O. is still the team killer, Tony Romo is a turnover happy QB and Wade Philips is going to be in the same place in January, crying his eyeballs out at another playoff loss.
  

6. Washington Redskins:

• Skins are getting better every second on the game clock. Jason Campbell might be the best QB in the NFC East by the end of the year.
  

7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

• Three Defensive Touchdowns in 3 weeks have put them over the edge in their last two games.
  

8. San Diego Chargers:

• They've won 13 of their last 16 including playoffs.
  

9. Philadelphia Eagles:

• Getting 5 Starters back next week is a big boost to a team that looked very mediocre without Shawn Andrews, L.J. Smith and most importantly, Brian Westbrook. Having Kevin Curtis and Victor Abiamiri just adds Ice Cream to the Cheesecake.
  

10. Carolina Panthers:

• With Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad they're probably the favorite to be the no. 2 seed in the NFC.... if they can keep Jake Delhomme upright.
  

11. Denver Broncos:

12. Jacksonville Jaguars:

13. Green Bay Packers

14. Chicago Bears

15. New York Jets:

16. New Orleans Saints:

17. Indianapolis Colts:

18. Arizona Cardinals:

19. Baltimore Ravens:

20. San Francisco 49ers:

21. Atlanta Falcons:

22. New England Patriots:

23. Minnesota Vikings:

24. Seattle Seahawks:

25. Miami Dolphins:

26. Kansas City Chiefs:

27. Cleveland Browns:

28. Oakland Raiders:

29. Cincinnati Bengals:

30. Houston Texans:

31. Detroit Lions:

32. St. Louis Rams: