Week 4 Preview:

You can thank me later.

(Editors note: the writer was fairly drunk while penning this article)

After my column earlier this week about the officials, the Referee lockout ended less than 24 hours later. So stay tuned for my next column next week about why more hot girls don’t want to hook up with me. Because apparently my columns are magic.

Seriously though, the NFL lockout ending is huge. Not only will the officiating get better, but there will just be less of an excuse factor going forward. We already have asterisks next to Green Bay and Seattle’s records this year, and if they finish one game out of something, we’ll have the replacement officials in Monday’s game to thank. Another few weeks, and another couple weeks might have had similar stories, and the whole year might have felt like a tainted season (good news for Redskins fans- 2 of their 3 titles came in strike shortened season)

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Anyway, week 4 looks pretty good, except for a certain point I have to raise:  WHY IN GOD’S NAME DO BYE WEEKS START IN WEEK 4?

Think about it. There’s 32 teams in the NFL, playing 16 gam

es over 17 weeks. Yet for some reason, 2 teams have Bye weeks after playing 3 games.  Meaning after their 4 days off this week, they play 13 games in a row, including a Thursday night game? I have always said that the NFL should adopt a 2 week Bye-week formula. 16 tams off in Week 8, 16 off in Week 9. This gives everyone a week off roughly in the middle of the year, but you can still make decent games out of those 2 weeks. Sure, with a Thursday, Sunday, and Monday night game, you’d only have 5 games during the day day both Sundays. But with careful planning, you can make enough of those games marquee, and get the byes done quickly, and fairly.

Back to the actual games: We’re through 3 weeks and 27 of the 32 teams are either 2-1 or 1-2. So it’s clearly too early to judge anything. But that doesn’t stop us, now does it:

Undefeated Team Most Likely to Lose: Arizona. Look, everyone is shocked they are 3-0. And looking at their schedule, they have a real shot to be like 7-0. That’s why you have to be weary. This was not a time most were real high on even a week ago. Sure, Miami stinks, but  e very year a team gets off to a gppd start and people proclaim they are making the leap, only to see them lose 3 out of 4. I like what I’ve seen from the Caridnals so far, but they are a definite candidate for this.

Team Under the Most Pressure:  Has to be New England. A tough loss to Arizona, followed by a controversial loss to the Ravens puts then at 1-2, first time with a losing record since every guy in Boston suddenly became a huge “Pats” fan.  I expect them to roll Buffalo, but a 1-3 start would have to scare even the most die-hard (read: drunk, probably  racist) Boston fan.

Close second: Green Bay: Playing a desperate New Orlenas team, easy to overlook they are 1-2 themselves. Even accepting the outcome of the Monday night game, they still have looked awful a good portion of the first 3 games of the season. San Francisco hammered them at home, and a mediocre Seattle team kept it close enough for incompetent officiating to give them the game. An 0-3 Saints team coming in seems like easy pickings, but if the Saints win, both  teams will be 1-3, facing a 2 game deficit (at least) in their respective divisions.

Game of the Week: Bias aside, has to be Giants-Eagles. Both teams 2-1. Giants cannot afford to go 0-2 in the division: Eagles have looked shaky and QB Michael Vick has looked awful so far. A loss for wither team makes a division title a longshot- even in Week 4. Philly has won 7 of the last 8 vs. the Giants, suggesting they have the edge, but the Giants are the defending World Champions and are 33-17 in their last 50 road games, so this could go either way.

3 and Out:

11)      Every article I read about Ron Gronkowski makes him seem exactly like Jeremy Shockey. Young,  wild guy shaking up a conservative franchise. Drinks a lot, parties hard. We’ll see if the ending is the same, but the beginnings have been almost identical.

22)      The NFL not having Darrel Revis this year sucks. It’s no secret I hate Rex Ryan and his method of coaching a team. I almost always root against him and the Jets. But the fact is, Revis plays Corner better than anyone else in the NFL does anything. The second best CB in the NFL is closer to the 10^th best CB than he is to Revis. That’s how good he is. And like when Brady got hurt in 2008, the league takes a hit for not having him this year.

33)      My fan take: Brian Dawkins being honored by the Eagles at halftime tomorrow night. I’ve read a ton of articles about how much Philly loves him. Of course they do. He was a bullshit, cheapshot artist who never won anything when it comes down to it. He basically ended Ike Hilliard’s career with an absolutely filthy hit in 2002 that earned him a huge fine. Well, he can get his jersey retired tomorrow, with the knowledge that the last 15 years gave been the “golden era” of Eagles football. In which they’ve won 1 NFC Championship and no Super Bowls. Meanwhile, in this Eagles golden age, the Giants have won 3 NFC Championships, and 2 Super Bowls. That will be all.