Quick Week 4 Preview at 11:01 AM

Thanks to some computer issues after my trip to Muncie (I'll cover that later), the football post is a bit late this week. Let's get to it, shall we?

It seems the story of last week was injuries. Key players on three AFC East teams went down for good (assuming Chad Pennington can't make it back). What's this mean for these teams? Well, I'm going to wait and see before I say that injuries will impact the Patriots. They always seem to bounce back pretty quickly from that sort of thing. The Bills will be hurting without Takeo Spikes at the heart of their defense. I still think Buffalo will be a force either next year or the year after, but this year will be a learning time for J.P. Losman without winning a whole lot of games. As for the Jets, well I don't know a thing about Brooks Bollinger. That's not necessarily a bad thing, because who knew anything about Tom Brady before he took over for Drew Bledsoe? (That one's for you, Myq.)

And for those wondering, Donovan McNabb is freaking tough. He's got a sports hernia, which is basically an abdominal injury that hurts a lot. He's still got the bruised sternum from the illegal hit he took in week 1, and now he's also got an injured shin. This guy is tough. Abdominal injuries are extremely painful. He'll keep playing because technically the injury can't get worse or cause structural damage. It's just going to hurt a lot. I still think he'll be effective with one of the best offensive lines in the league protecting him, but the teams the Eagles play are going to come after him a lot. McNabb is the third-most frequently blitzed quarterback in the NFL right now, and I'm sure that won't change now that his mobility will be more limited. I'm expecting the Eagles' game against the Chiefs today to be a good one. It'll be a tough one to win, but I think they can pull it out.

The Chargers finally got it going against the Giants this week (although Eli Manning looked pretty impressive). That's the team I picked to win the AFC--not the one that played the first two weeks. We'll have to see what they do against the Pats this week. That will be an interesting game for sure. Also in the AFC West, the unpredictable Broncos just destroyed the Chiefs on Monday night. That was just an embarrassing loss for Kansas City. The Eagles will have their hands full when the angry Chiefs come into Arrowhead this week. Also in the AFC, the Bengals look to be the real deal. Carson Palmer is going to be huge. I've said it before, and I'm saying it again.

Some things to look for this week:

-The teams playing on Sunday and Monday nights are a combined 2-10. To me, that's an argument that the NFL ought to be able to change the Sunday and Monday night games if they look to be stinkers. How about having Eagles-Chiefs and Chargers-Pats instead?

-Why are the Colts running the ball so much with Manning as a quarterback? I know Edgerrin James is good, but you could put the game away early against a team like the Browns. Why run the whole game and give them the opportunity to bust the game wide open with a couple of big plays? (See Cowboys-Redskins from week 2.) I'll be interested to see if they keep that up against Tennesee this week. (My wife won't like it if they do--she's got Manning on her fantasy team.)

-We should be able to see if the Vikings really are any good against the Falcons this week. I've said before that Atlanta is overrated, but they're certainly better than the currently-homeless Saints.

-Will the Ravens pick up win number one this week, or will they take the Jets too lightly and stumble over themselves? Honestly I can see it going either way. I think the Ravens will win it, but it might be closer than some are thinking.

-I think this week is one of those games where Mike Martz shows that he can coach sometimes, as he uses the running game against the Giants.

I guess that's about it for this week. Sorry to those who enjoy the football columns that this one was less in-depth than usual. I'll be back with the full column next week. And I'll even throw in some regular posts this week to boot. Until then, enjoy the football.

(P.S.: for those wondering why I haven't said anything about the Phillies yet, I'm trying not to think about it. We're one game down in the Wild Card race with today's game being the last in the regular season. I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high, as I do that every year and end up being disappointed. But I'll throw in a little "Go Phillies" here for good measure.)