Another thrilling week in the NFL this past weekend, punctuated with a great Monday Night matchup.  But what did we learn from watching the games this week?  The Pro Football Realist will be happy to tell you.

-          Falcons played well enough to dump the Redskins, although at this point who isn’t beating the slumping boys from DC.  Things aren’t getting any easier for Washington with a home game against Denver and consecutive road matches against Dallas and Philly.  Atlanta shook off their first two game losing streak under Mike Smith and let Michael Turner run wild to the tune of 9.2 yards per carry.

-          The Cardinals are who we thought they were (funny little skit by Ken Whisenhunt at the press conference).  After Kurt Warner played so poorly the week before, he came back to throw 5 touchdown passes.  The Bears are in disarray, it turns out Jay Cutler wasn’t the answer he was touted to be and the defense isn’t helping giving up 438 yards of total offense to the Cardinals.

-          Bengals are looking like the real deal after sweeping the Ravens.  Tough to lose Chris Henry for the season, but Cedric Benson is playing well and the Defense is making plays.  Their next match against the Steelers will truly show how far they have come.

-          Speaking of the Steelers, their second half offensive explosion against the previously #1 rated Denver Defense was quite impressive.  As for the Broncos, it’s back to the drawing board.  Josh McDaniels needs to do something to make the offense less one dimensional, it appears they are struggling with blitzing physical defenses.

-          A team the Broncos should be concerned with, the surging Chargers.  A great comeback by Philip Rivers and the Bolts to send the Giants to their 4^th consecutive loss.  If I’m a Giants fan, I am concerned with the coaching of Tom Coughlin.  With a chance to seal the game late he took the easy FG and a 6 point lead which came back to bite them in the end.  At this point they need to use the weapons they have to put these games away.

-          The Saints again find a way to win downing the Panthers 30-20.  I love their never give up attitude, but I think their defense is showing signs of wear.  371 total yards to the Panthers is 25% more than their usual output.  They have 2 weeks to correct this with the Rams and Bucs on the schedule before welcoming in the Patriots.

-          Is there any other team that gets more hype than the Patriots?  I think they are a fine team, and at 6-2 are definitely one of the better teams in the league but the teams they have beaten lately haven’t shown me much.  Let’s talk after their next 3 games when they have to travel to Indy and New Orleans with a rematch against the Jets in between. 

-          What a terrible loss by the Packers in Tampa Bay, especially while wearing those hideous throwbacks.  The amazing thing about the Packers is that they are #3 in Team Defense and #7 in team offense, however they are constantly losing the field position battle.  Aaron Rodgers is taking too many sacks by refusing to throw the ball away and they are dead last in Net Yards punting.  Constantly giving your opponent short fields like this will not help you as the season goes on.

-          A great comeback by the Texans, but Indy is still the class of the AFC South.  With a full 3.5 game lead on the Texans this race could be over by Thanksgiving.  Houston matches up well with the Colts, but a win could have reduced their deficit to only one game with the win in hand.  Houston is making strides though and is definitely in the running for a wild card berth, a fact not lost on the Colts if they should meet in the playoffs.

-          SOL – Same Old Lions.  To snatch defeat from the jaws of victory is just another way they have lost 24 out of their last 25.   Up 17-0 at the end of the first quarter, they proceeded to be outscored 32-3 down the stretch.  And even late in the game only down 5, they couldn’t muster any offense while Matthew Stafford threw a pick 6 to seal the loss, his 5^th interception of the game.  Give Seattle credit though for never getting down and fighting back.  They have a big matchup to go with the Cardinals next week, win that and the NFC West race becomes somewhat interesting. 

-          Titan fans have to be pleased with Vince Young coming in and making some plays to win.  Over the last two weeks he has completed 73% of his passes and compiled a 105.3 QB rating in 2 consecutive victories.  He may not prove to be the game changer he was drafted to be but he could game manage 4 more down the stretch and turn what was looking to be an awful year into a slightly better one and possibly disrupt some opponents playoffs plans down the stretch.

-          The Chiefs attempted a furious comeback down the stretch scoring 14 points in 91 seconds, however it still wasn’t enough.  Jacksonville is in a comfortable spot with a 4-4 record with Maurice Jones-Drew having a very quiet, yet spectacular season averaging 5.1 ypc with 11 touchdowns.  If they shake off their on-again off-again nature from the first 8 games, I could see them winning 5 or 6 games and possibly qualifying as a wild card.

-          The Cowboys have quietly ascended to first place in the NFC East with a hard fought victory in Philadelphia.  Sure, Brian Westbrook was missing, but they had several opportunities to win this game and didn’t capitalize.  Donovan McNabb’s 2 Interceptions led to 10 Dallas points and proved to be the difference.  Unless New York decides to get back in the race, it looks like these 2 teams will battle for the division crown to quite possibly be decided January 3^rd in Dallas for their rematch.