Smashmouth Football League Articles

Week 4 of the 2006 SFL season is in the books! And just when you think you have some teams figured out, more surprises. Another 8-6 week in week four, bringing the total for the season to 37-23. Not too impressive, but fortunately, there is still a lot of football to be played! So, based off nothing more than my gut feeling this evening, here is how I see week five playing out:

Cleveland Browns 32 @ Carolina Panthers 24
Interesting that the Browns are 2-0 without Ronde Barber and 0-2 with him. More telling is their schedule, as they have faced three top-10 teams and now two teams in the bottom-2.

Buffalo Bills 25 @ Chicago Bears 24
Bears pulled it off last week as I thought they might. For some reason I didn't go with my gut feeling. They will almost pull it off again this week too, but my gut feeling is this time come up just short.

St. Louis Rams 23 @ Green Bay Packers 27
Odds are the Bobby Taylor doesn't play against this week. The Rams' defense will miss Taylor, Coakley and Gregg causing them to lose another heartbreaker in Green Bay.

Tennessee Titans 34 @ Indianapolis Colts 35
The Colts #1 passing offense and ability to create turnovers on defense has led them to a 3-1 record thus far. I think they continue that formula and move to 4-1 this week, but it won't be easy against a Titans team that played their best game of the season last week.

Detroit Lions 13 @ Minnesota Vikings 34
The good news for Detroit is that Vick should only be out for one game. The bad news is they travel to Minnesota this week. What looked to be a tough game now looks nearly impossible. While it would be cool to have a gut feeling about a huge Detroit upset and end up being right, I don't.

Miami Dolphins 23 @ New England Patriots 27
The Patriots losing to the Bengals last week was not a huge surprise, but the way they were manhandled was. Still, very good teams not wearing green usually don't lay eggs two weeks in a row. Nothing leads me to believe the Patriots don't get back on track this week.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17 @ New Orleans Saints 24
I have a gut feeling that I should be climbing aboard the New Orleans Saints bandwagon about now. The loss of Joe Horn hurts, but they should still be able to score more than the Tampa Offense (30th) going against the Saints Defense (3rd).

Washington Redskins 28 @ New York Giants 22
The Redskins continue their trek through the softer portion of their schedule and look to make it four-in-a-row this week to keep pace with the Eagles. I think they are successful. The loss of Santana Moss for the Giants isn't major - they won without him against the Seahawks in week three - but it definitely won't help.

Kansas City Chiefs 24 @ Arizona Cardinals 28
Both the Chiefs and Cardinals got their first win of the season last week, each by limiting turnovers on offense (which had been killing the Cardinals in particular). Carson Palmer on pace for 4 TD passes for the season, which isn't going to happen so he's due for a breakout game. I think it's this week against the 32nd-ranked pass defense.

New York Jets 30 @ Jacksonville Jaguars 31
It's easy to say both of these teams are better than their record, but as Parcells famously said "You are what your record says you are." The Jaguars' Offense has three more giveaways (14) than the next closest team. And neither team has shown the ability to stop anybody.

Oakland Raiders 27 @ San Francisco 49ers 22
On paper, the Raiders appear to have a big advantage in this one. But I have a gut feeling this is going to be a closer game than expected. It may depend on which Niners team shows up, the one that beat the Cardinals and Eagles, or the one that lost to the Rams and Chiefs.

Dallas Cowboys 19 @ Philadelphia Eagles 31
How does a defense ranked #1 in total yards and a +2 turnover differential end up ranked 26th in points allowed? My guess is there are a lot of scores by opponent defenses and special teams occurring. The Cowboys need to clean that up if they hope to get off the hot seat. Even that may not be enough this week against the #2-ranked Eagles' scoring defense.

Pittsburgh Steelers 31 @ San Diego Chargers 20
This was looking to be an extremely close game. Thus far, both teams have beaten the lesser teams and lost to the better teams - signs of a .500 team. However, the recent announcement by the league that Chargers QB Kerry Collins has been suspended for this game, tilts the scales heavily in the Steelers' favor.

Baltimore Ravens 24 @ Denver Broncos 23
This should be an interesting (ugly) game as the worst-ranked offense meets the worst-ranked defense. But with turnover differentials of -8 (league-worst) and -3 (26th), it's clear the young quarterbacks share much of the blame in both cases. Give me the Ravens and the Turtle Offense versus Air Sorgi.