NFL: Week Four

Week Four is in the books, and while I can say with pride that I more than doubled my win totals from Week Three, it still ain’t pretty. Such can’t be said for the Darkhorse Badger, captained by Brad Bredemann, a Wisconsinite to the bone. As part of his reward (the other being financial) I present you with a photo of everybody’s fave, Brett Favre, with his lovely wife Deanna. (This way, everybody wins.)

The other reward? The weekly payout…yes, we can now release that vital information because almost all of you have paid. There are two folks out there who are running the risk of being deadbeats, and I just may delete their teams from the league as promised, but 2/41 isn’t bad enough to make everyone else wait. For those holdouts – PAY UP. YOU HAVE THE MONEY. DO IT.

For everyone else, the weekly payout is $75. That means four owners have now made a 50% return on their entry fee. Not bad! The yearly payouts will go like this: 1st total overall points gets $450. Yowza! Second place takes home a tidy $250, and 3rd place gets you that $75. OK then.

Lots of great games this week, and a few stinkers. It was the proverbial “coming-out” party for Eli Manning (not in that sense, last I heard he was “having fun” with Lindsey Lohan) who actually managed to have a slightly better day than his older bro Peyton, who had a fantastic day himself. In fact, there were slews of great quarterbacking days in the league – or, potentially, some really horrible days in the secondaries around the league. Same coin, different sides.

Random fact I just was reminded of: With all the hubbub about the Manning brothers, did you know that there are four sets of quarterback brothers in the league? Yup, four.

That’s the Manning, Hasselback, McCown and of course, Detmer boys. Their collective parents must be so proud.

Wow, that adventure to Mexico City was not such a good one for the 49ers. The offense scored not once against the staunch Arizona defense, with the only points coming on defense. Utterly outplayed by the Cardinals. There’s just no good way to spin that. That being said, the Niners are now 14-point underdogs at home to Indy next week. Wow…that’s terrifying no matter which way you play that spread.

The Philadelphia-KC game was really something, on the other hand. Kansas City, fresh off getting stepped on by Denver on Monday Night, took off with something to prove. And then sat back and watched the Eagles step all over them again. Noticeably, Tony Gonzalez was all but ignored in the offense, continuing the season-long trend. What’s that about? Has Dick Vermeil gotten Mike Martz fever, ignoring a potent offensive threat because it’s “too obvious?” Let’s be clear: Gonzalez led the league in catches last year. That’s probably overdoing it, but he had a lot to do with the offense KC put up, and his catching ability frees things up for the running back, be it Priest or Larry Johnson. Maybe the stent in Trent Green’s leg is preventing him from seeing the TE on the field. Also – Philly won without really using Brian Westbrook at all. Why is that? Is KC suddenly stout against the run? The dude had over 200 total yards the week before. Look into it.

So it’s time to face facts: Indianapolis is undefeated. I could have seen that coming. Washington, New York Giants, and Tampa Bay are also undefeated. I would have predicted…none of that. Wow. Of all of them, if Tampa can keep Cadillac Williams healthy (already an issue), I think they rebound the quickest. I’m not sure I buy Washington…well, at all (sorry, Amy!) and the Giants need to keep it up a little longer and beat some solid teams before I buy into them. Beating the Rams? Hell, the 49ers did that.

Some interesting matchups this week...let's have some fun out there, okay kids?