Several NFL teams keep everyone guessing
Redskins beat the Cowboys and Eagles on the road in successive weeks, the Dolphins upset San Diego a week after doing the same to New England, and the Colts barely hang on in Houston.
A month ago, we'd never dream of asking these questions:
Can anyone stop the Miami Dolphins?
Are the Indianapolis Colts finally good enough to win a home game?
Do the New England Patriots recall a guy named Randy Moss?
Is Jim Zorn the NFL's coach of the year?
OK, so that last one's a little premature, but considering the way Zorn's Washington Redskins are playing -- with consecutive road victories over NFC East rivals Dallas and Philadelphia -- he's certainly in the early running. But so are fellow rookie coaches Mike Smith, whose Atlanta Falcons won Sunday at Green Bay, and Miami's Tony Sparano, whose Dolphins beat San Diego.
It's hard to overstate the difficulty of beating the Cowboys and Eagles on the road in successive weeks. Where some might curse the scheduling gods, Redskins running back Clinton Portis sees a conspiracy.
"I think the NFL was trying to throw us to the fire, to get rid of the 'Skins out of this division," he said. "I think that we play our best football with our backs up against the wall."
Now, with that wall reduced to rubble, the Redskins are looking at miles of open road ahead. Their next three opponents are a combined 1-11.
Then again, when it comes to the most unpredictable league in sports, losers can become winners almost overnight. The Dolphins know something about that, reinventing themselves just a season after they were nearly perfection's mirror image, going 1-15. The franchise now has beaten New England and San Diego in back-to-back games. You might remember those teams from last season's AFC championship game.
Speaking of remembering, the Patriots shook their collective amnesia and worked Moss back into the offense Sunday after he all but disappeared from the radar screen for two games. He caught five passes for 111 yards, including a 66-yard bomb from Matt Cassel, who, if you squinted, bore a fleeting resemblance to Tom Brady on the play.
The Patriots are a far different team without Brady, but San Diego has no convenient excuse for its struggles. The Chargers can't even say they were caught off guard by the 11 direct snaps to Miami running back Ronnie Brown, who turned one of those into a touchdown. The Dolphins did the same thing to New England, with Brown running for three touchdowns and throwing for a fourth.
(New England even tore a page from Miami's playbook, scoring a touchdown against San Francisco on Sunday with a direct snap to Kevin Faulk.)
