You’ve come to expect it every year right around this time. We certainly couldn’t wait for the “parity makes the NFL so great, and here’s why” piece, and Week 4 made it inevitable.
Start with the Broncos, who had a crazy enough domino-series of “Really?” moments during the offseason to fill an entire “Weekend Update” segment: The firing Mike Shanahan, leading to the hiring then 32-year-old rookie head coach Josh McDaniels, who dumped Jay Cutler for Kyle Orton, which led to Brandon Marshall immediately demand a trade.
Yeah, that had 4-0 written all over it. (For record-keeping’s sake, the Broncos averaged 27th in ESPN’s preseason rankings, and Sports Illustrated’s Peter King said they’d go 5-11.) We always knew that the Orton-Marshall combination was destined for greatness, especially the part where Marshall scores the game-winning touchdown in the latest victory on a 51-yard catch and run in which he made the Dallas secondary look like the Keystone Cops.
Not to mention, it came gift-wrapped with five sacks of Tony Romo, whose Cowboys (2-2) have the same record as the Redskins. Really.
The New York Jets were the only other team to start the year even close to as universally dismissed (No. 23 per ESPN, 7-9 according to King) as Denver. After three wins to open the year, perhaps the Jets finally have started their retreat toward mediocrity as savior — er, rookie — Mark Sanchez proved he was human, throwing three interceptions in a 24-10 loss to New Orleans, one more than he had in the first three games of the season.
But that’s really only a half-truth, as the Saints, who are 4-0 for the first time since 1993, won with dominating defense and exactly zero touchdowns from Drew Brees for the second straight game. It’s almost enough to make you quit fantasy leagues and just watch the games. Almost.
At the other end of the NFL spectrum, the winless Tennessee Titans (0-4) have turned into the Tennessee Titanic, given that they face the double-iceberg doomsday of Indianapolis and New England in their next two games.
