Aaron Mueller: This is ridiculous!

Published 10:15 pm Monday, October 4, 2010

You hear a lot about parity in the NFL, but this is ridiculous.

Take the Indianapolis Colts for example. In the preseason, they were considered a Super Bowl contender. A loss to the Texans calmed those talks. Two straight convincing wins and everyone is back on the bandwagon. Then a loss on Sunday to the lowly Jaguars has analysts scratching their heads, waiting for a team to separate itself as elite.

I would argue that right now, there is no elite team in football. Any team can beat another team any given Sunday. It’s a cliche, but this year it’s actually true — unless you’re the Buffalo Bills.

Look at the logjam at the top of the NFC East with the Redskins, Giants and Eagles all at 2-2. There is the same situation in the wildly weak West where Arizona, St. Louis and Seattle are all at .500.

I know a lot of experts are high on the Packers, but they lost to a suddenly weak Bears team last week and nearly did the same to the Lions this week. Green Bay has an incredible defense and a strong aerial attack, but without Ryan Grant, the running game is nonexistent. And they’ve looked overly amped at times, leading to stupid penalties and miscues.

The Bears are somehow 3-1, despite the fact defenses are spending nearly  as much time in the backfield as Jay Cutler.

The defending champs narrowly escaped against the winless Panthers, and it looks like defenses are slowly figuring out Drew Brees. The Ravens, Steelers, Jets and Patriots all have just one loss, but none of them stick out as the best.

The only undefeated team remaining in the NFL is Kansas City but shouldn’t be for long after the team next week will run into a Colts team, enraged by this week’s loss to the Jags. Or maybe not, maybe the Chiefs gut out a three-point win on a last second blocked field goal.

But this is why we love the NFL. We love predicting the upsets, picking apart the film of a close game and overanalyzing every team until our heads explode.

We love that one week Chris Johnson explodes for more than 30 fantasy football points in a Tennessee win and follows it up with a four-point performance in a loss. We love that Michael Vick discovered redemption and how to throw. We love that then Donavon McNabb and the Redskins put him in his place.

We love to hate the referees and debate “the process” of a catch.

We love the second guessing of coaches, the throwing of helmets into stands, the quarterback carousels and the unlikely no-name heroes like Peyton Hillis and Tim Jennings.

The lesson of the first quarter of the season? Expect the unexpected.

Aaron Mueller is a reporter for the Niles Daily Star. He can be reached at aaron.mueller@leaderpub.com