Football is Weird.

Seriously, I am stumped. Arizona Downs the vaunted Seahawks. Miami sinks the flagging Rams. Denver takes a big dump against the very Bengally looking Bengals. Is this the oft mentioned parity? I don’t know, but I guess it’s kind of nice when your team was in last place a year ago, and now they actually have the look of a contender. But it’s scary, too. I mean, the way things are going we have real solid shot at going into our bye with a 6-3 record. Not too shabby, eh? But, if the Kansas City Chiefs can run up 56 points on a team that actually stole one from us and went in with a 5-1 record, well, nothing is as solid as it appears to be. Also, we have to face those Chiefs twice this year, and I’m no bona fide football expert or anything, but I can say with a certain amount of confidence, that Priest Holmes is a bit more polished as a runner than Brad Hoover. This brings us to the game.

Do I believe this post Super Bowl loss funk thing? It’s getting kind of hard not to. With these Carolina Panthers, I’m going to have to say the funk is emulating squarely from the pits of Jake Delhomme. I mean, they had a run game. They were stopping ours pretty well. Sure, Steve smith is out, but Muhammed and Colbert were definitely getting open. The only problem I noticed was that Jake seems to think his receivers are much taller than they actually are. Well, Carolina’s stuck with a big, fat payroll on that guy, so they better hope he works his way out of it.

So what about the Chargers? Sometimes things just go your way, but man was that ugly. I’d love to give credit to the D for holding the Panthers to six points, but come on. Brad Hoover? A couple of seriously lucky overthrows? That game could very well have been a disaster. I will give massive credit to Jesse Chatman and Keenan McCardell. Wow, I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not see “Runny McScores-A-Lot” anywhere near the field this Sunday unless absolutely necessary. Chatman is showing the world, or at least the small portion of it that actually gets to see Chargers games, that he is more than capable of carrying the load until “The Phenomenal Portrait of Backfield Excellence” is 100% groin injury free. And McCardell? Well I’ll be surprised if any veteran players bother to show up for workouts, mini-camps or even pre-season games next year. Antonio Gates continues to make his presence known, and jersey sales have got to be going through the roof.

All in all, a win’s a win, and I’ll take it. The offense woke up a bit in the second have to completely baffle me when thinking back to the week before. The defense got manhandled which is frightening since the Raiders finally kind of got their stuff in gear and the Saints can show up at any time. For now though, let’s enjoy this feeling. Seven games into the year and one game out of the division. Oh yeah, that does feel nice.