Monday Mash- Week 4

Dirty, Mark.

Yep, the clock struck midnight for Gang Green's Cinderella as Mark Sanchez went all "December '08 Brett Favre" on the Jets. The Saints won 24-10, and Sanchez was solely responsible for the 14 point difference. All Jets fans knew this ugly day would come, but most were hoping it would be against a crappy team so maybe they could still steal the victory despite rookie mistakes. But unfortunately it came against a legitimately elite NFL team, and no team could overcome Sanchez yesterday.

It looked pretty ok early, as the Jets held the Saints (40 points per game coming in) to just an opening field goal. But Sanchez threw his pick-6 and played with the poop scared out of him the rest of the game. It showed. No touchdowns, 3 picks, fumble in the endzone, 140 yards. WFAN's Mike Francesa said he was more impressed with the Jets defense yesterday than he was after any of the three wins. It's tough to argue. The defense gave up 4 points less than Sanchez on his own, and that's saying a lot.

So yeah, it was bad for the Jets. But 3-1 is not too shabby for the toughest quadrant of their season. Come to think of it, 3-1 was seen as a dream start just one month ago. Now, the schedule gets lighter, Calvin Pace is back on defense, and assuming Sanchez learns from that game yesterday, a brighter road ahead.

In case you didn't know, Sanchez was bad. I don't know whether it was curiosity or nerves, but I checked out last season's game log for rookies Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco to see their worst games. Each of these quarterbacks managed to take their teams to the playoffs. Here are their worst games compared to Sanchez yesterday.

M. Sanchez (10/5 vs Saints) 14-27, 138 yards. 0 TD, 3 INT, 1 Fumble. QB Rating: 27.0
M. Ryan (9/14/08 vs Bucs) 13-33, 158 yards. 0 TD, 2 INT, 0 Fumbles. QB Rating: 29.6
J. Flacco (12/14/08 vs Steelers) 11-28, 115 yards. 0 TD, 2 INT, 0 Fumbles. QB Rating: 22.2

Of course, all three quarterbacks lost these games. That's what happens when a rookie QB has his worst game; the team loses. But those stats above are just proof that all rookies have "that day." Ryan and Flacco were incredible last year, and were able to learn from their crappy games and pereserve. We're going to learn a lot about Mark Sanchez nex Monday night in Miami. Here are some other quick hits from an interesting week 4.

The Montauk BeverageWorks Delicious Performance of the Week:
Steve Smith, Giants. Yes, the other one. The lesser known of receivers with that name, Smith is off to a historic start in Giants history. Eleven catches for 134 and 2 touchdowns. Watching the game, he looked even better than those numbers suggest. Assuming Eli's wheel is healthy, it's all systems go for that hookup and the entire Giants offense.

• A quarter of the way through the season, the Giants are the best team in the NFL. When I picked the Eagles to win the NFC East, Steve Smith must have read it and gotten amped up. Ok, there's no way that happened. But he's been awesome, the defense has been awesome, and if Eli's foot is no big deal they are going to make some serious hay.
  
• Even though the Giants are numero uno, I'm feeling pretty proud with my prediction of the Saints as champs. They have been better than even I expected. Who would have thought they could beat the 3-0 Jets with the defense scoring more points than the dynamite offense? Their balance is impressive.
• My other Super Bowl team? Ugh. The Chargers were absurd last night in their game against Pittsburgh. The Steelers looked vulnerable without superstar Troy Polamalu, but the Chargers got stomped on for almost the entire game, before going berserk late. But it was indeed late--too late. They fall to a very mysterious 2-2. They could beat the Patriots and they could lose to the Raiders at this point. They freighten me.
• Ok, let's confront the panda in the room...my picks. Giants and Patriots got it done, but the Bengals let me down bigtime by not covering and the Jets...nuh uh. I wish I could delete the Upset Perfiction forever. St. Louis got 10 points against San Francisco. They wouldn't have covered if the point spread were 20. Or 25. Or 30. Or 34.5. Yep, thanks Rams. You made a mockery of my half-decent name. We'll get 'em next week.
  
• The Titans are the best 0-4 team in the history of the NFL. But I also think the Broncos are the worst 4-0 team in history. I just don't get it. I personally guarentee that if Stokely doesn't make that crazy week 1 catch they would be 1-3 or worse. I don't get it.
• The Dolphins were awfully impressive without Chad Pennington yesterday. And the way Buffalo looked, my last-place proclamation for Miami seems quite premature at this point.
• I don't know what to think with that Ravens-Patriots game. Baltimore probably got hosed on at least one roughing the passer calls. But I don't know. I feel like in years past, I would be fuming a lot more about this if it were really a big deal. So what's up? Maybe the Jets are just playing so well my envious rage against New England is subsiding. Maybe the calls just weren't that bad. But I'm just gonna go ahead and tell myself that the Pats have gotten so many calls and benefits of the doubt by the refs over the years that I am just immune to it. Yeah, that's good. That's sufficiently bitter.
  
• After an already-interesting Sunday, all hell breaks loose tonight. Favre vs. the Packers. The Packers vs. Favre. Yeah, it'll be better when the teams play in Green Bay, but I gotta build up this game all I can so my prediction looks better. Minnesota is favored by 5. NOT GONNA HAPPEN. Upset rains down in Minnesota. Aaron Rodgers throws 3 touchdowns, and actually flips off Favre as Greg Jennings is running into the endzone on the third one. Packers 24, Vikings 14. Boom.