If the beginning of this year's NFL season made some fans question the league's oft-praised parity, Week Seven quickly reminded them why the league is characterized by the phrase, "any given Sunday ..."
Going into Sunday, each division around the league looked more like baseball's AL East than the typical close standings we've come to expect from the NFL. Two teams - if that - battled for the top spot while two or three teams hopelessly played for the distinction of not being last.
Case in point, the AFC East: Through six weeks, the New England Patriots and the New York Jets were each 5-0, while the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins had combined for a whopping one win. It was Buffalo's. It came over Miami.
In the NFC South, the Atlanta Falcons made everyone forget that Michael Vick is having serious problems running the West Coast offense as they cruised to a 5-1 record. The rest of the division, comprised of the New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers, had tallied four wins between them.
The NFL looked like it was being dominated by a handful of teams. Fewer teams had a higher proportion of the wins around the league than in any year in recent memory.
Then, like Terry Tate when the office aid forgets to refill the coffee maker, Week 7 came slamming into our worlds. As evidenced by the sheer and utter misery of this paper's editors' picks, (the winners of the week went just 8-6) this week's games took everyone by surprise. Parity's back. Some teams that had been thought of as playoff locks mere days ago took costly and often embarrassing steps backward, while teams that experts had counted out are now right back in the playoff hunt.
The Dolphins pulled off the biggest upset of the week, finally getting their first win of the season as they dominated the St. Louis Rams 31-17. "Inside the NFL" has referred to the Fins as "hapless," "helpless," "woeful" and "pathetic." Unfortunately for Miami, this game told us a lot more about the Rams then it did about the Dolphins. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue is already practicing his "With the number one pick of the 2005 draft, the Miami Dolphins select ..." speech.
The Rams, on the other hand, looked great heading into the Miami game. They had won three in a row, including an incredible late game comeback against the Seattle Seahawks two weeks ago. So what happened? Well, the Rams may have showed their true colors in South Florida.
Mike Martz coaches the team as if he is playing Madden against the computer on rookie. He only throws (although they've been effective with this at times), choosing to ignore a Hall of Fame running back in Marshall Faulk and a great up-and-comer in Stephen Jackson. Defense seems to be an afterthought.
This is where one would expect to read about why the Rams would fall apart and the Seahawks would run away with the NFC West. Except the Seahawks lost the other big upset of the week, getting dominated by Dennis Green's upstart Arizona Cardinals and the ageless Emmitt Smith, who rushed for over 100 yards for the 78th time in his career.
Its not even out of the question that the Cardinals become more than a third party in the NFC West. They are 2-4 with upcoming games against Buffalo and Miami, and the Seahawks and Rams sure aren't impressing anyone.
In Atlanta, Week 7 was a reality check of the worst kind. What had been the best rushing defense in the NFL let up an astounding eight rushing touchdowns to the Kansas City Chiefs, who still won't be able to pull off any sort of playoff run without stepping up their defense. The Chiefs were certainly helped out by how lost Vick continues to be in the new Atlanta offense.
In the Monday night game, the Cincinnati Bengals brought the cruising Denver Broncos down to earth in their first appearance on Monday Night Football in 12 years. In an effort to avoid headaches, try thinking of the game as an anomaly.
Also in the "even good teams have hiccups against miserable teams from Ohio" category, the still undefeated Philadelphia Eagles needed overtime to beat the Cleveland Browns. The Eagles should be fine, although they are going to have to play better run defense to keep winning.
The undefeated Patriots handed the Jets their first loss, 13-7, extending their winning streak to 21 and their regular season streak to an NFL record 18.
The Pats and Eagles remain atop their respective conferences, but below them things got a lot more interesting as the status quo of the NFL took some twists and turns. Expect the "any given Sunday" parity to continue to shake things up as playoff races begin to take more form.
