Eisen: Four teams back from the dead

[Kerberos]

Chiefs are 2/3 down the page



Once left for dead, suddenly these teams are in the land of the living

By Rich Eisen | NFL Network


If the NFL had an official Ouija board (the press release announcement would read: "NFL Ouija replaces NFL Europa!") then its pointing indicator, or planchette (no relation to Suzanne Pleshette), would have been moving left, right, up and down this past weekend. In Week 4, a handful of teams officially came back from the dead.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the 2007 New York Giants back to the world of the living. After a disappointing season-opening loss to the Cowboys, the Giants followed it up with a troubling home-opening loss to the Green Bay Packers –- two contests in which the Big Blue defense went through the paces like the undead.

Then came this past Sunday night’s re-opening of the New York Sack Exchange against the hapless Philadelphia Eagles, who, let’s be honest, need to bust out those Team Sweden uniforms again, post-haste. Just the week earlier, against Detroit, the Eagles were a virtual offensive juggernaut in the throwbacks proudly celebrating Philadelphia’s heretofore underexposed Swedish heritage. Back in their traditional green unis against the Giants, the Eagles played football like, well, a team from Sweden.

Sack-religious

The Giants set several records with their defensive performance against the Eagles. The unwilling recipient of New York's historic pass rush was Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb:

» Sack team record: O. Umenyiora (six)
» Career team mark: M. Strahan (133.5)
» NFL team sacks one game: 12 (tied)
» M. Kiwanuka career-high three sacks

With fireplug running back Brian Westbrook out with an abdominal injury and brick firehouse left tackle William Thomas also inactive, Donovan McNabb more resembled a sitting duck than an eagle. Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora sacked McNabb so many times, he was asking McNabb "Paper or Plastic?" by the end of the night. Umenyiora bagged McNabb six times (one shy of the NFL record) as the Giants defense tuned McNabb up to the tune of 12 sacks. (Holy David Carr, Batman!) On the heels of New York’s stunning second-half comeback on the Redskins in D.C., this was a downright season-awakening performance.

Now at 2-2, the Giants are still within hailing distance of the streaking Cowboys and, even more impressively, are now the only other team in the NFC East with a winning record. And they did it the hard way –- dealing with injury. Plaxico Burress' ankle was supposed to have fallen off by now and yet he still leads the NFC in receiving touchdowns. Remember when Eli Manning was supposed to miss the rest of September because of his supposed separated shoulder?

The burgeoning Big Blue quarterback has played hurt and has played nothing but solid and consistent football in 2007. For their frequent grumbling and mumbling about the quarterback's play, the Big Blue faithful know their team would have a Ray Handley chance in you-know-what without Manning. And if there are any naysayers still left in the electorate in Giants Nation about their quarterback, all they need to do is check out the team that actually won the NFC last year and see Grossman, Rex.

And how about running back Derrick Ward, the winner of the First 3/17ths of the NFL Season Fantasy Darling of 2007? Who knew that the guy who could fill Tiki Barber’s immense shoes would not be the injured Brandon Jacobs, but rather Ward, a fourth-year journeyman out of the football hotbed Ottawa College who has as many rushing yards through the first four weeks as 2005 MVP Shaun Alexander? Kudos, Derrick. Kudos.

So, one more time, ladies and gentlemen, a big round of applause to welcome the Giants back from the dead. And while you’re clapping, keep it going for the Cleveland Browns!
Derek Anderson, QB
Cleveland Browns
2007 Statistics
Rating: 88.4
Comp./Att.: 61/116
Yards: 964
TD/INT: 9/5
Admit it, people. You stuck a fork in the Browns after their mind-numbing season-opening loss to the Steelers, didn't you? I did. On NFL Total Access, Terrell Davis did, announcing it with certainty. We all did. Some of you had Romeo Crennel practically running off his resumes at Kinko's.

But, clearly, it wasn't his fault. It was Charlie Frye's fault. I mean, how else to explain the team's remarkable turnaround? The minute they banished their opening-day starting quarterback to the Pacific Northwest, the Browns offense has been on tilt. Derek Anderson is playing like Brian Sipe, Jamal Lewis like, well, Jamal Lewis, version 2K, and Braylon Edwards has turned into the big-play threat Cleveland hasn't seen since, well, coming back to life … in 1999. The offense has helped right a listing ship despite that ship listing a defense ranked 31st overall.

This Browns team has moxie that no one knew it had, rebounding from the horrid loss to the Steelers by blitzing the Bengals with 51 points. On Sunday, Cleveland took apart the Ravens in every phase of the game from the coin toss to the final gun. This came on the heels of a disheartening loss to the Raiders that a die-hard Browns fan friend of mine still blames on the Broncos. How? Well, you see, the Raiders beat Cleveland in Week 3 with the very same ploy –- negating a place kicker's crucial field goal by calling a timeout at the very last second –- that the Broncos used to beat the Raiders the week before. My buddy, Jeff Schaffer, emailed me with a new twist to a familiar Lake Erie lament: "The Drive, The Fumble, now The Timeout –- the Broncos are still screwing the Browns, they just used Lane Kiffin as their instrument of torture this time."

No matter! Crennel’s crew overcame the bad mojo by dismantling the team that personifies bad mojo for the Cleveland Browns –- the former Cleveland Browns. It was a stunning win that brought the Browns back to life at 2-2 ... just like the Oakland Raiders.
Yes, the Black Hole and all its zombie-like creatures have new blood on which to feast. In fact, if it weren’t for the last-second timeout Shanahan-igans employed by Denver, the Raiders would be 3-1 and, dare we say it, AFC West division leaders heading into their bye week. Instead, they hit their mid-season respite at an even 2-2, with an offense now led by another guy left for dead in Daunte Culpepper. What a first start in Oakland for Culpepper, who had a hand in five touchdowns against his former team. In fact, the only dish served colder in Miami that day was at Joe's Stone Crab.
Eliot J. Schechter / Getty ImagesDaunte Culpepper and Justin Fargas have the surprising Raiders at 2-2 entering their bye week.Of course, it helped that Culpepper could count on a bruising rushing attack –- led by Son of Huggy Bear. The Dolphins had to figure they had their former teammate on the ropes when they knocked Oakland’s leading rusher Lamont Jordan from the game. But, in came Justin Fargas, son of Antonio Fargas aka Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch and Flyguy from the 1988 underappreciated cult classic I’m Gonna Git You Sucka. Well, on Sunday, no one in a teal uniform got Fargas, who torched the Zach Thomas-less Miami defense for a career-best 179 yards rushing. By the way, the sound you were hearing all this week was the entire NFL Fantasy Football nation picking up Fargas on waivers.
The defense may be underperforming (ranked 27th through four weeks after ranking third overall in 2006) but it is still playing opportunistically –- eight takeaways, as many as the ball-hawking defenses in Pittsburgh and Green Bay. And then there’s the Kiffin Factor. For a guy who was supposed to be in over his head, he doesn’t appear to be, you know, in over his head. Plus, it looks like Son of Monte has a little bit of Al Davis in him. Case in point: Kiffin's dialing up of a Culpepper bootleg on fourth-and-1 at the Miami 3-yard line despite being up by 11 with thirty seconds left in the game. That was a Commitment to In Your Face. Ladies and Gentlemen, give it up for the Oakland Raiders now back from the dead!

And while you’re at it, please stay on your feet for the Kansas City Chiefs! Considered by many as dead on arrival for 2007, this team had no pulse as recently as five quarters ago. Weeks upon weeks of offensive frustration built on top of Larry Johnson’s summerlong holdout and the team virtually begging Brodie Croyle to win the job over Damon Huard finally reached a breaking point in the second half of the Chiefs' Week 3 home opener against Minnesota. Huard screaming at Tony Gonzalez, Gonzalez screaming back, Larry Johnson no doubt railing within. Head coach Herman Edwards later admitted he pondered pulling Huard but thought better of it. It may ultimately prove his best coaching move of the season.
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Huard suddenly began finding himself on the same page as the Chiefs top 2007 draft choice –- Dwayne Bowe, who made Kansas City's first play in the end zone all year to beat the Vikings.


Then came Sunday. How in the world did the Chiefs beat the Chargers in San Diego? Why, with as solid a half of football as anyone has played to date –- 24 unanswered points thanks to a third-ranked defense that kept the lid on the boiling Philip Rivers-LaDanian Tomlinson pot while Gonzalez tied Shannon Sharpe’s record for most TD catches for a tight end and Bowe and Huard connected again for a score. In all, Bowe scorched the Chargers for 164 receiving yards. Toss in Larry Johnson’s 132 yards on the ground and the Chiefs, of all teams, had the Chargers faithful chanting "Marty!" in derision at Tomlinson and Co.

"They pay their money," Tomlinson said. "They showed their frustration with us, and the way we’ve been playing I can't say I blame them."
The Chargers left in a 1-3 hole and cast about in a sea of frustration ... by the Chiefs? That deserves a rousing ovation, ladies and gents. One last round of applause for the back from the dead and don’t hold it until the end. The Giants! The Browns! The Raiders! The Chiefs! And let’s toss in the 3-1 NFC South division leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers for good measure!


Now, then.


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Once the applause subsides, we’re still left with a sobering question about the newly undead in the National Football League: Are any of them good enough to challenge, let alone beat, the Patriots and Colts or, in the NFC, the Dallas Cowboys?
You never say never, but right now I say no. The Patriots should provide the first bit of proof Sunday when the re-born Browns pay them a visit. This appears to be the proverbial one-step-back game for Crennel and Co. because the Patriots are currently playing, shall we say, at a high level. Again, anyone surprised that Randy Moss has worked out so well in New England? Not me. Two more touchdowns for Moss in New England’s Monday night thrashing of the Bengals, whose early-season optimism now officially lies in a pile of smoking ashes.
"If you don’t want to be on this team, please don’t show up!" Bengals coach Marvin Lewis could be heard bellowing at his team through the locker room door after the 34-13 beatdown. "You don’t call the offense, you don’t call the plays. You just play! Nowhere in the NFL do guys act like this. We’ve got figure this out!"
And that’s just the offense. On defense, the Cincinnati linebacking corps is so banged up Adam Schefter has learned they just called Reggie Williams and Carl Zander to see if they can suit up. So, for the moment, let’s forget about the Bengals as a possible AFC challenger for New England and Indianapolis. The same can be said for the suddenly inconsistent Baltimore Ravens, whose version 20.06 is clearly better than the current 20.07.
So which team can possibly step up, throw their hat in this AFC ring and make sure that the Week 9 regular-season meeting between New England and Indianapolis isn’t some de facto preview of the AFC Championship Game?
Special to NFL.comSee Rich run... and read about his NFL Network adventures. Click here to pre-order his new book on Amazon.com. Can it possibly be San Diego? Perhaps. I know the Chargers are 1-3, playing with some sort of virus that has effected virtually every phase of their game. But, I still believe they’re just too talented to keep flailing about on a week-to-week basis at the most crucial moments of a game. Plus, they’re next two games are within the somewhat diluted AFC West –- at Denver and home vs. Oakland. Win those two and they hit the bye week in the hunt and moving forward. That said, the Chargers are fast running out of time and are, to use the Parcells vernacular, in danger of being what they are -- an underachieving disappointment.
So, if you’re casting about for a third team poised to make it a triumphant AFC triumvirate, look to Pittsburgh. Sure, the Steelers juggernaut hit a bit of a speed bump in Arizona last Sunday as the Cardinals and their merry-go-round at quarterback handed Mike Tomlin his first professional loss as head coach. But, the Steelers are one stout football team on both sides of the ball. Their overall defense ranks second only to the Patriots while their rushing attack ranks second only to that of ... the newly undead in Oakland. Plus, take a look at the Steelers schedule –- they play both the AFC East and NFC West, the only divisions in football to currently sport an 0-4 team. I like their chances in the AFC North and I like their chances in any given Sunday come January. First things first ... stay healthy, remain consistent in the regular season and, perhaps, take care of business on Dec. 9 at New England.
As for the NFC, it’s been the Cowboys and, with all due respect to the equally 4-0 Green Bay Packers and the 3-1 Seahawks (who the entire Pacific Northwest believes I disrespected last week by mistakenly referring to them as 1-2), everybody else. Right now, the Packers are a young team with a veteran quarterback seemingly setting records with every throw all on a hot roll together, having won eight straight games dating to last season. Question is: Can they keep it up? The Packers have a huge game this Sunday night when they can serve notice to the rest of the country with the proverbial torch-passing win over the once-mighty Chicago Bears. All year long, the Packers have played games they could win. But for the first time all year, the Packers are faced with a game they should win. How will they respond? Of course, I’ll be tuned in. I’ve got to host NFL GameDay afterwards.
In the meantime, I’ll welcome the Giants back to the world of the living, keep an eye peeled on the Seahawks to see if they’ll resemble the championship version 20.05 or the faulty 20.06 version and wonder if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are who we thought they were or instead are what they are. They visit Indianapolis Sunday. My Ouija board is at the ready.

[Donger]

That may be the most difficult thing to read that I've ever seen.

[Extra Point]

I read to the middle, and just couldn't go long. This guy's still in HS.

[DaFace]

I like Rich. But he's a better commentator than writer.

[boogblaster]

Back from the dead...wonder if any will rub-off on my "ole-woman" .......

[PhillyChiefFan]

Its nice to see at least someone giving us some credit. Everywhere else is saying how we blow, and its a fluke that we have won a game let alone 2.

[Kerberos]

Originally Posted by PhillyChiefFan

Its nice to see at least someone giving us some credit. Everywhere else is saying how we blow, and its a fluke that we have won a game let alone 2.

That is what I was thinking when I posted it.

Donger is corect. The way the layout came out when I cut and paste and the way it was written makes it difficult to read.

[StcChief]

Chiefs not doing bad for DOA on Sept. 9th.

the talking heads (aka "Sports Analysts") would talk less if their paycheck was involved.