Just one week in the NFL

Jumping to a conclusion after week one in the NFL, The Monk asks this question: is the balance of power shifting from the AFC to the NFC? Until the Giants beat the Pats in Super Bowl XLII, the AFC had won 8 of the previous 10 (following an NFC win streak of 13) and four in a row.

Coming into this season, the AFC again supposedly had three of the four strongest teams in football: Pats, Chargers, Colts (Cowlumps from the NFC round out the foursome). But this weekend, excepting the Bills rout of the S'hawks, the most impressive teams have been from the "weaker" conference:

(1) Carolina goes TO San Diego and drops the Bolts on a final-play touchdown;
(2) Dallas makes the Browns (10-6 in '07, tiebreakered out of the playoffs) look like a Pop Warner team and does so IN Cleveland;
(3) The Iggles dump the allegedly improved Rams 38-3;
(4) The Giants stifle the 'Skins (9-7, playoff team in '07), even without the Pro Bowl DEs they lost in the offseason and preseason;
(5) Da Bearz go TO Indianapolis and on the opening night of a new football stadium drub the Colts 29-13.

With Brady's injury, the Pats are no longer one of the top five teams in the NFL. They already had secondary questions and age issues on both defense and the O-line. Now they have a quarterback question. The Colts looked old and slow last night. The Chargers again seem to be missing something. And seemingly everyone's favorite dark horses, the Jags and Browns, were terrible.

We'll see in the coming months whether the balance of power has shifted again. Right now, the best teams in the NFL (unordered) are the Cowpatties, Steelers, and Iggles, and the Giants, Panthers, Vikes, and Pack don't suck.

Sounds like balancing in the works . . .