It was a wild week three highlighted by the end of a dominant streak and fantastic finishes

SCOTT JACOBS

Wow, what a wild week of football. Who would have thought in their wildest dreams that the Patriots would get throttled by the Miami Dolphins at home nonetheless, ending the longest regular season winning streak in NFL history at 21 games. One thing’s crystal clear at this point: it takes a quarterback to win in the NFL, and yesterday Matt Cassel just wasn’t there.

Let’s get this thing rocking.

So, Ronnie Brown what do you have for an encore? After four touchdown runs and a throw to boot (he’s lefty, I never knew that!) Brown cemented himself in football lore becoming the second player in NFL history to throw for a score and run for four more. Who could have known that the answer to Miami’s abysmal offense was a run/handoff option directly snapped to a running back that was lost for much of last year with a tough knee injury? Certainly not New England, which looked absolutley lost trying to defend it. But it wasn’t just Ronnie Brown. Chad Pennington was in a word: brilliant, compiling the best quarterbacked Dolphins game I can remember in recent memory. Pennington was 17-20 for 226 yards and even had a nice little spin away from a defender to get a nifty little first down. All this proves: you don’t have to throw the ball deep to throttle an opponent.

Did we mention Miami’s defense? Because they were great. The Patriots rolled up a pitiful 216 yards of total offense and Miami forced two turnovers, while committing none. The Pats were 4-15 on third down. This much is clear: without Brady the Pats are ordinary, and boring. Kind of like that girl from American Beauty. As for the Dolphins, well it’s just one game, but could they have played a better game? No. They couldn’t do anything wrong, and if you didn’t know better, you would have believed they were the ones coming off of a 16-0 season and a trip to the Super Bowl.

As Miami beat-down the Patriots, the Bills climbed back from a 17-6 hole at home to the Raiders to win 24-23 on a Ryan Lindell 38 yarder. The Bills scored 17 points in the fourt, overcoming a late 9 point deficit with under five minutes to go, and in the process took the lead in the AFC East as they improved to a surprising 3-0. After the Pats pitiful showing at Foxboro yesterday, Buffalo’s resiliency mad a huge early season statement that they are in fact the real deal. The Bills improved to 3-0 for the first time in 16 years! That year, they made the Super Bowl. Is this year going to result in the same?

Meanwhile, the Raiders heartbreaking loss probably spells the end for coach Lane Kiffin. Kiffin was already under fire when reports surfaced that he would be canned last week. But this week, it looks like Kiffin is as good as gone. Not really sure why, considering how well Oakland has played these last two games, but desperate franchises make desperate moves. The youngest coach in the NFL is about to find himself out of a job.

Okay, so you can hold off on the Super Bowl tickets for now Cards fans. Arizona lost a tough one in D.C. to the Redskins 24-17 Sunday, their second loss in a row at Washington. Kurt Warner’s slightly under-thrown pass was basically the difference, as Carlos Rogers picked it and took it back 42 yards. The “what were they thinking play of the game” went to Arizona coach Ken Whisenhut, who inexplicably handed the game over to his defense instead of going for it on 4th and 4 at midfield with less then three minutes to go. If you want to win in this league you have to make bold, brash decisions. Playing it safe, or in this case, stupid, is just ridiculous and asinine. It may or may not have cost Arizona a win, but at least give the team a shot. So no 3-0 for Arizona. 1974 remains the last time the Cardinals won their first three.

Alright, now that we’ve got those fun friends down pat, here’s the skinny on the rest from a frantic week three.

The Giants, Bucs, Jaguars, and aforementioned Bills all won off a game winning field goal Sunday.

For the Giants, it was another clutch performance from Eli Manning, who engineered a beautiful overtime drive to ice Cincinnati’s frustrating 0-3 start. Manning made a perfect throw to Amani Toomer who made a splendid acrobatic catch on the sidelines, and dragged his toes in bounds. That set up a John Carney 22 yarder, and just like that, the Super Bowl champs are off to a flying start at 3-0. As for the Bengals, well it’s getting really ugly now. Once playoff contenders, the Bengals appear doomed back to their losing ways in the season that I believe will be Marvin Lewis’ last.

The Bucs threw the ball - now you may need to re-read this more then once - 67 times on Sunday as they beat the Bears in overtime at Soldier Field. The Bucs, known notoriously for a power running game, and great defense, instead won the game on Brian Griese’s 407 yards passing and two touchdowns. Why 67 times? Because Tampa mustered nothing on the ground, getting just 47 yards from Earnest Graham and Warrick Dunn. Instead, the Bucs won a game in which they committed four turnovers. The most astonishing thing about the whole thing? Griese dropped back to pass 67 times, and was not sacked once! That has to be some sort of a record.

The Colts dropped to a shocking 0-2 at the Oil Dome as karma reared its ugly head on the team that named its stadium based off a company that gives us a product that none of us can afford. But seriously, the Colts are now 1-2 for the first time in a long time, and their September swoon looks kind of serious. The Colts appeared to have this game won, after the Jags failed to convert on a 4th and 1 with under 30 seconds to go, but a pass interference call swung changed everything. On the surface the call looked terrible, but a closer look shows that the defender impeded the receiver’s route and it was indeed a good call. After that, it was all semantics as Josh Scobee nailed a 51 yarder to put the nail in the coffin and secure a 23-21 Jags victory. More impressive was the run Scobee did after the play, running all the way to the endzone to fetch the ball that saved Jacksonville from falling to a shocking 0-3. And because of that…

The Titans now lead the AFC South by two games. Tennessee destroyed a Texans team that had it’s bye week last week because of Hurricane Ike, and this week they looked like they needed a few weeks to prepare for a Tennessee team that is just rolling right now. How good are the Titans right now? They had eight penalties for 75 yards compared to Houston’s two for ten yards, and they still won by 19. Can the Titans be an elite team with ageless Kerry Collins at the helm? It’s too soon to say, but how about that Titan’s D, holding the Texans to 3-15 on third down. Jeff Fisher, your teams never fail to amaze me.

The Falcons are 2-1 and tied for the NFC South lead after beating the lowly Chiefs 38-14. Tyler Thigpen was not the second coming of John Elway, or even Elvis Grbac for that matter, and Kansas City’s fall from relevance continued as the new look Falcons thrashed the Chiefs. Is Atlanta actually good? Their two wins are over the Chiefs and Lions, who are now a combined 0-6! Yikes. But hey, after Atlanta’s miserable year last season, they’ll take any wins they can get. It doesn’t matter who they’re against.

The Seahawks and Vikes, two playoff contenders to start the year, both got on the board yesterday with their first wins. St. Louis on the other hand, looks like it may never win. The Rams have yet to score more then 13 points in a game, and have lost by 35, 28, and 24. If there’s anything positive, it’s that the deficits keep shrinking. Everything else, well is disturbingly negative. And remember Steven Jackson’s big contract extension? Well, he doesn’t look the part right now. St. Louis’ running attack is currently the worst in football, averaging just 56.3 yards a game.

Denver and Baltimore are still perfect. The Broncos held off a hard charging Saints team to improve to 3-0, as Jay Cutler proved that yes, he was indeed the best quarterback in that first round draft class. The Ravens dropped Cleveland 28-10, and it is getting ugly in Browns-ville. The Browns still have four more scheduled national TV games, and they’ve yet to record a win. In fact, the Browns have yet to score more than 10 points! That’s not exactly the formula for winning football as the Browns plunder into the AFC North basement.

Finally, the two participants from last week’s thrilling MNF Showdown both took care of business, as the Eagles held off the Steelers 15-6, and the Boys shredded up the Pack 27-16. I think these are the two best teams in the NFC right now. And Aaron Rodgers got a reality check yesterday, as Dallas sacked him 5 times for a loss of 40 yards total. The honeymoon isn’t over in Green Bay, but it’s clear that Dallas is right now at least, the superior team.

Alas we finish up by asking the question: how does Matt Millen have a &#$%@! job?  The Lions were trashed yesterday 31-13 by the 49ers who all of a sudden, are tied for the NFC West lead.

As for my Monday Night pick: Let’s go with San Diego to get their first win 28-21. 

Popularity: 8% [?]