5: Carolina Panthers 23,
In the Superdome, the Panthers needed yet another dramatic, come from behind, overtime performance to put away the pesky Saints.
The Panthers rode the performance of Stephen Davis, who had yet another good game on the ground, running for 178 yards and two touchdowns.
The Saints, who just can’t seem to find a way to win, are now a distant three games behind the division-leading Panthers and now need a serious run to get back into contention in the tight NFC South.
4: Philadelphia Eagles 24,
In East Rutherford, the Eagles managed to move above .500 for the first time this season, despite some poor performances from quarterback Donovan McNabb and a plethora of injuries, by beating the hapless New York Jets.
Correll Buckhalter keyed the Eagles’ ground attack, running for 100 yards and two scores.
The game also saw the return of Jets quarterback Chad Pennington, despite his sub-par outing. The Jets started veteran Vinny Testaverde, who actually played well, throwing for 112 yards and a score. But Testaverde was yanked in the second quarter in favor of the younger quarterback.
Pennington put up similar numbers in his time out on the field, but also gave up a costly interception that halted what looked like a Jets scoring drive.
3: New England Patriots 9,
In Foxboro, the Patriots beat the Browns despite not scoring a touchdown.
In one of the league’s most vanilla games to date this season, the only turnover came at the very end of the game when veteran coverman Ty Law intercepted a desperation pass by Browns quarterback Kelly Holcomb.
Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel was the star of the game with his hat trick of sacks. But it was the Patriots defense as a whole that kept confusing both Browns quarterbacks the entire game. The Browns only gained 203 yards of total offense the entire game.
2: Tampa Bay Buccaneers 16,
In the New Sombrero, the Buccaneers showed why they are the defending Super Bowl champions and why the Cowboys still need a long way to go by shutting them out.
Amid a firestorm of off-field distractions courtesy of Keyshawn Johnson and Warren Sapp, the Bucs were able to both move the ball well and defend against the young Cowboys’ offense.
Cowboy quarterback Quincy Carter was held to just 140 yards passing and was sacked four times.
Johnson, who had demanded through an agent earlier in the week that he wanted more touches, had a seven yard TD grab in the game’s only offensive touchdown.
1: New York Giants 29,
In the Twin Cities, the Vikings fell back to earth by losing for the first time this year in a game that seemed like the New York Giants wanted it more. In what is becoming a Giant tradition, they are becoming used to starting out flat-footed in the beginning of the season only to hit a hot streak late in the year to make it to the playoffs. The last two seasons have produced similar results for the Giants.
For the Vikings, Randy Moss had yet another spectacular game, grabbing 125 yards worth of receiving and two scores. But the Vikings had real trouble on defense, giving up 122 all purpose yards to Tiki Barber, 100 yards to receiver Ike Hillard, 96 yards to Amani Toomer, and 81 yards to tight end Jeremy Shockey.
Kansas City Chiefs 38, Buffalo Bills 5
In Kansas City, the Chiefs clobbered the Buffalo Bills in what looked more like a slaughter then a football game. Dante Hall grabbed his first offensive touchdown ever, and Chief running back Priest Holmes added another three scores for the Chiefs, who were never seriously threatened in the game.
Player of the Week: Stephen Davis
Davis keyed a Panthers offensive attack that was answering a lot of doubters last week asking if the Panthers were the real deal.
After getting dismantled at the hands of the Titans, a game in which Davis only had 20 yards on 11 carries, the Panthers needed a big game to get back on track.
Granted, it was only against the Saints, but Davis’ 178 yards and two touchdowns put the Panthers where they needed to be headed into the middle of the NFL season.
Disappointment of the Week:
This week heard Corey Dillon claim that he wanted to be traded to Dallas.
He picked a bad week to sit out. Dillon said earlier this week that he wanted to be traded to Dallas, “where his talents will actually be appreciated.” Dillon got in a car accident on the way to the stadium.
We all don’t know the full details of the accident yet, but if Dillon proved that he would have still been able to compete, he must have been in Marvin Lewis’ doghouse.
And Dillon is doing all this right when the Cincinatti Bengals are starting to resemble an NFL football team. Talk about bad timing.
Watch out for: the St. Louis Rams
Since getting destroyed at the hands of the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVI, the Rams have never quite been the same … until now.
After a disappointing season last year, the Rams are back and better then ever.
They are now 5-2 after their defeat of the Pittsburgh Steelers and ready to retake their place on the list of the NFC’s elite teams. Their offense is almost where it was when they won the Super Bowl four years ago and their defense is better then it has been recently. Watch for this team to do some major damage in the NFC.
