After the one-quarter mark of the 2011 season, we have just two undefeated teams left in the entire league. And they’re both in the NFC North!
Those pesky Lions have mounted major comebacks for two consecutive weeks now. And they have won eight consecutive games going back to the end of last season. I’m a little tired of hearing about them. I assume they are due for a letdown, like the one the Bills clearly suffered this past week against Cincinnati.
Meanwhile, the Packers are also undefeated heading into Week 5. Peter King devoted considerable attention to the Pack in his MMQB column on SI.com. He cites the historic day Aaron Rodgers had against the Broncos -- 400+ yards passing, 4 passing touchdowns, and 2 rushing touchdowns. Then he goes on to call Rodgers the MVP for the 1st quarter of the season:
Rodgers, of course, won the Super Bowl last year and had a terrific, borderline MVP season. Look how much better he is this year. He's on pace to be six percent more accurate, with 20 more touchdown passes, while throwing for almost 1,400 more yards. He's in the Brady-Brees-Manning pantheon now, except he has the ability to run and make tacklers miss. You don't want to blow too much smoke at Rodgers, but even if he falls off some, and just has average (for him) numbers the rest of the way, his season will be, across the board, 15 to 20 percent better than any of the three MVP seasons of Brett Favre.
And in his Power Rankings, King continues to rank Green Bay as #1, with this summary:
1. Green Bay (4-0). I don't know how you play better than Aaron Rodgers right now: 73 percent accuracy, 331 passing yards a game, 12 touchdowns, two picks.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the NFL spectrum, there are four winless teams going into Week 5. The Vikings, Rams, Colts, and Dolphins are all 0-4 now.
I am surprised by just how bad the Vikings seem to be. I knew they would fall off from last year, but this is pathetic. Not that I’m bothered by it, mind you. But this is an astonishing fall for a team that was in the Conference Championship game just two years ago.
Elsewhere, the Colts are proving just how essential Peyton Manning has been to their long run of success. The Dolphins look like the first team that’s going to get a coaching change. And the Rams have become the softest part of the softest division in the NFL.
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