Week 4 NFL Barometer

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I hope you had your popcorn ready. With all the positive stories of the past week that could be filling the news, we have been constantly bombarded with Terrell Owens coverage. In my opinion, the whole thing was a huge misunderstanding because he didn’t even need his stomach pumped. The media, however, pimped, peddled, and pushed this story for all it was worth. They made a business decision because they knew people would watch.

Let’s get to the football side of things. Last weekend, we witnessed a few key divisional games that will probably be looked on by the teams as the turning point in their seasons. The city of New Orleans had its spirits lifted a mile high after their dominating win in the Superdome. Also, Brett Favre became the second player in league history to pass for four hundred career touchdowns.

There are only seven unbeaten teams remaining. How many of the them will receive their first tally in the loss column this week? At least two are guaranteed to lose as San Diego (2-0) visits Baltimore (3-0), and Seattle (3-0) travels to Chicago (3-0).

Recently, we asked five Cafe members to rank all 32 NFL teams from first to worst after Week 3 of the 2006 season. The average number for each team, based on their submissions, was calculated and the teams were ranked accordingly (to increase consistency, the highest and the lowest values for each team were disregarded).

Rank	Change	TEAM	Avg Rank	m a t t	G S O E	A l k	d a n 2 2	j a y
1 (1)		Indianapolis	1.0	1	1	1	1	1
Peyton scored with his legs for the first time in four years and they kept the Jaguars from overtaking first place in the division. They also kept themselves atop our barometer for the fourth consecutive week.
2 (4)		Cincinnati	2.3	3	2	4	2	2
That was an ugly game against Pittsburgh, but a win is a win. Now they welcome the Bengals’ all-time leading rusher, Corey Dillon, and the Patriots into Cincinnati on Sunday. He demanded a trade to greener pastures after 2003. Will he be booed or cheered?
3 (3)		Jacksonville	3.7	4	4	3	4	3
The Jags just couldn’t take the upper hand in their divisional loss against Indy. They look to get things back on track as they head into the nation’s capital for a game against the Redskins.
4 (2)		Chicago	4.0	2	6	5	3	4
Last week was Grossman’s worst performance this year, but he came through in the clutch to vault the Bears past the Vikings for the division lead in the NFC North.
5 (8)		Seattle	4.7	5	3	2	9	6
Don’t look now, but the Madden curse has struck again. Can Mike Holmgren and his Seahawks overcome the loss of Alexander against the stingy Chicago defense?
6 (7)		San Diego	7.0	7	7	7	5	7
This Sunday is going to be their first test against a legitimate team. Will Phillip Rivers lead his team to a win, or will Baltimore expose his inexperience?
7 (5)		Pittsburgh	7.7	8	5	10	12	5
The Steelers go in to their bye week riding a two game losing streak. Can Cowher rally the troops and get the team ready to make their seemingly annual push in the AFC North?
8 (11)		Philadelphia	8.7	6	12	6	13	8
They have the prime time Monday night game this week, and I’m sure the Eagles are very aware of who is coming to town in Week 5.
9 (6)		Atlanta	10.0	11	16	8	10	9
Monday’s conditions were not those of your typical away game variety. Look for the Falcons to bounce back against the visiting Cardinals and prove they belong in the top ten of our barometer.
10 (9)		NY Giants	10.3	9	15	12	7	10
There may not be a better fourth quarter team in the league than the Giants. Maybe over their bye week, Coach Tom Coughlin worked on getting them to play better during the first three quarters.
11 (10)		Baltimore	11.7	12	10	9	16	13
They needed every second last week to survive a scare against Cleveland. They’ll need to step up their game as the Chargers visit Baltimore.
11 (14)		Denver	11.7	10	11	16	8	14
Denver improved to 5-1 against Tom Brady. They are on a bye this week, so they’ll rest up and prepare for their Week 5 Monday night game against the Ravens.
13 (12)		Dallas	12.0	17	14	11	6	11
Dallas didn’t even play last week and I could write more about them than any other team in the league. Ah, the saga that is TO.
14 (14)		Minnesota	13.7	13	18	14	14	12
The Minnesota defense looked suprisingly good for the first three quarters. Unfortunately, they couldn’t hold off the Bears’ fourth quarter comeback.
15 (17)		New Orleans	14.3	15	9	13	20	15
That New Orleans crowd was fired up and provided a great home field advantage, but don’t discredit the Saints, who played a great game and are now 3-0.
16 (13)		New England	14.7	16	8	20	11	17
Corey Dillon returns to Cincinnati this week as he and the Pats look to bounce back and get their third win this year.
17 (16)		Carolina	15.3	14	19	15	15	16
The Panthers finally broke into the win column last week against the Buccaneers. A win will be harder to come by when they play the inspired Saints.
18 (18)		Kansas City	18.3	19	13	19	17	19
Larry Johnson will try to put the Chiefs on his back against San Francisco as Trent Green remains out of the lineup.
19 (20)		Washington	18.7	18	20	17	23	18
Hosting the Jaguars, Washington will find it much harder to get the easy yards they got last week against the Texans.
20 (21)		St. Louis	21.0	22	21	23	18	20
If St. Louis’ up-and-down play continues in the same pattern, they could be in for a let down against Detroit.
21 (19)		Miami	22.0	20	23	21	24	22
This team was supposed to challenge New England for the division crown. Instead, they barely squeaked out a win against the Titans to notch their first win of the season.
22 (26)		NY Jets	23.7	21	17	30	27	23
Can Eric Mangini bring his experience with the Patriots to his Jets and confuse Peyton Manning this week?
22 (23)		Buffalo	23.7	25	22	24	19	26
It is very rare when a team passes for 300 yards and rushes for 150 yards and still manages to lose, yet that is what the Bills managed to do in their matchup with the Jets.
24 (24)		Arizona	24.3	26	27	22	21	25
They were one botched snap away from winning last week. They’ll have to sharpen things up if they want a chance against Atlanta.
25 (28)		San Francisco	24.7	23	24	26	28	24
Alex Smith will have to remain poised if he wants to lead his young team to victory in Arrowhead Stadium.
26 (26)		Cleveland	25.0	27	26	28	22	21
The Browns had a win slip right through their grasp last week against the Ravens. Maybe they can capitalize for their first win against the Raiders.
27 (21)		Tampa Bay	26.3	24	28	25	26	29
Simms’ season is all but over, but you have to credit the gutsy performance he gave with a ruptured spleen. They’ll have their bye week to prepare rookie Bruce Gradkowski for his first start.
28 (25)		Detroit	27.3	29	30	18	25	28
Detroit fell to 0-3 with the loss against Green Bay. They’ll try to get rolling against the streaky Rams this week.
29 (30)		Green Bay	28.0	28	25	29	31	27
Two things are for sure, Brett can still sling it with the best of them and he is going to fight until the last snap regardless of the talent around him.
30 (29)		Houston	29.7	30	29	27	30	30
You won’t win many games when you allow twenty-two straight completions to start the game, which is exactly what they did on Sunday.
31 (31)		Tennessee	31.0	31	31	31	29	31
It’s hard to tell if Dallas will come in distracted or focused this week, so don’t count them out as a push over just yet.
32 (32)		Oakland	32.0	32	32	32	32	32
Coming off their bye week, they host Cleveland as Andrew Walter gets his first start under center.

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