Afc Putting On Best Show Forget Super Bowl For Now, But Nfc Just Can’t Compare

With a quarter of the NFL season gone, one thing is evident.

The AFC may lose the Super Bowl for the 12th straight year, but it’s deeper, better, and far more interesting than the NFC, which has two legitimate teams in Dallas and San Francisco … and maybe Minnesota.

Could the St. Louis Rams be 4-0 in the AFC? No. Could the Atlanta Falcons be 3-1 in the AFC? They’ve beaten three teams who are a combined 1-10 and the one win was by the New York Jets - over expansion Jacksonville.

What’s worse, watching Tampa Bay beat Washington 14-6 or Houston beat Cincinnati 38-28 in that classic Chris Chandler-Jeff Blake shootout?

The NFC East, which won four straight Super Bowls with three different teams from 1990 through 1993, has Dallas on top followed by four teams that are 1-3. If any of them makes the playoffs it will be with records of 8-8, although 7-9 isn’t out of the question.

The AFC West is now the best division the San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs, all 3-1, and the Denver Broncos, 2-2, are all contenders. They’re 5-1 against the NFC East after the Raiders scored 48 straight points against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, and the only loss was by Denver to Dallas.

OK, so the Rams are 4-0 because they have an unheard of turnover margin of 14-0. Those things even out. But they have yet to play an AFC team.

They’re clearly not in a class with Miami, Oakland, Cleveland or San Diego, and would be no better than even against Kansas City, New England, Denver or even Buffalo and Indianapolis (where they go next week). And they couldn’t approach Pittsburgh if Neil O’Donnell were back. (Imagine, making Neil O’Donnell into a savior.)

Want an assessment:

“We played terrible,” said Kevin Ross of the 3-1 Falcons after they stumbled to a 13-3 win over the Jets, who stumbled even worse.

“I’m not really satisfied with the performance, including mine. We’ve got to play better, we’ve got to play harder, we’ve got to play smarter. If we’re going to be a playoff team, we can’t talk about it. We’ve got to demonstrate it.”

Actually, in the NFC, that’s not necessarily true. Dallas and San Francisco need someone to beat up on in the early rounds of the playoffs.

Sterling, anyone?

Robert Brooks, who replaced Sterling Sharpe at South Carolina and now with the Green Bay Packers, is ahead of Sharpe’s receiving pace in his first season as Brett Favre’s primary target. He has 25 catches for 308 yards in four games, a pace that would give him 100 receptions for the year.

That’s more than the 90 Brooks had in his first three seasons, 58 of them last year, when Sharpe was hurt for a portion of the time.

That also gives credence to the theory that Favre often locked on Sharpe too much until last year, when he emerged as one of the NFL’s best young quarterbacks.

Teasers

Joe Montana is gone, but there are journeyman quarterbacks who from time to time can look like him. The problem is that it’s from time to time.

On Sunday:

Dave Krieg, Arizona Cardinals, 24 of 33 for 324 yards and two TDs against the Cowboys. Krieg also throws three interceptions and loses 34-30.

Chris Chandler, Houston, 23 of 36 for 352 yards and four touchdowns. Jeff Blake, Cincinnati Bengals, 24 of 46 for 356 yards and two touchdowns. Chandler wins, 38-28.

Erik Kramer, Chicago Bears, 27 of 38 for 317 yards and four touchdowns. Kramer loses to Rams 34-28.