Inside the NFL

Some NFL thoughts:

The way people on ESPN, etc. have been talking about Tony Romo, you might as well start preparing his Hall of Fame bust right now. The league will adjust to him once they get enough film on him, just like the league adjusted to Grossman. I think you saw a little bit of that last night. He is not Troy Aikman just yet. As you also saw last night, the Cowboys' D can be beat deep. Don't crown them as NFC champions just yet.

Jay Cutler isn't quite John Elway yet either, though people made it seem as though he was already Elway before he made his first start last week. He has a great arm, but expecting him to walk right into the league and lead the Broncos to the playoffs might have been asking for too much.

Nothing personal (ok, maybe it is a little personal after last year's playoffs), but I've felt since before the season started that Carolina was overrated. Their supposedly impenetrable defense has blown a lot of fourth quarter leads this year. On offense, there is little or no running game (because they insist on keeping DeShaun Foster as the starter), and it really just comes down to stopping Steve Smith. And yes, Smith can be stopped (remember what Seattle did to him in last year's NFC Championship Game). It amuses me how people like Sean Salisbury keep making excuses for the Panthers, I wonder what he'll say now after another loss.

If Indy doesn't do something about that run defense, wow. I watched that game yesterday and saw the Jaguars pile up an astounding 375 yards rushing. The Colts' defensive line is quick but undersized, and the defense is also missing defensive tackles Montae Reagor and Corey Simon, along with safeties Mike Doss and Bob Sanders. The tackling also was atrocious. I shudder at the thought of what LT would do to this Colts defense.

The Patriots... I'm not quite sure how to explain what happened to them Sunday. I know that the Dolphins have been playing pretty good defense lately, but wow. Not having Maroney hurt, and Ben Watson got hurt during the game, but from what I heard, Brady was taking a beating and they took him out to prevent him from getting knocked around even more.

I've been impressed by the Eagles the past two weeks. Like most people, I wrote them off once McNabb got hurt, but Jeff Garcia has shocked me with efficient performances (not even one interception since he took over), and he's even completing the occasional deep ball to Stallworth and Brown. The defense has to improve, though.

The Saints have obviously been very explosive, and they've done a pretty good job on defense the past three games, but I still have my doubts about their defense.