Sucked Into the NFL's Black Hole, Week 4

Everything on this planet is soon going to disappear into a massive black hole. Each Monday, we’ll present those football-related elements that have already been swallowed into the abyss.

Any Sans Redskins Discussions of the NFC East’s Dominance. The NFC East is still the best division in football, and is still home to the three best teams in the conference, but after yesterday, those three teams are the Giants, Cowboys and Redskins.

As it turns out, The Zorn Star’s little project in Washington isn’t the ugly stepchild of the division. They proved it by beating the Cowboys, the team that most have going to the Super Bowl. On Dallas’ home turf. After going in as 11-point dogs. And they did it in dominating fashion, despite the two-point final score. The Skins still haven’t turned the ball over once in four games, and Jason Campbell is looking Hawaii-bound, not to mention the outstanding seasons Santana Moss and Clinton Portis are having thus far. I have no idea who that team was that played up in Jersey in Week 1, but their ineptitude seems like a distant memory now.

The East’s Perfect Non-Divisional Record. Sticking with the NFC East is dominant theme, we should point out that the division was 8-0 against non-East teams going into Sunday Night Football’s Eagles-Bears game. Philly had to go and tarnish perfection, losing by one-yard to a Chicago team that I still can’t figure out. They beat Indy, lose to Carolina, lose to the Bucs, then take down Philly.

Scott Linehan’s Tenure in St. Louis. After losing to the Bills to cement an 0-4 start, Linehan is out as the Rams head coach. This season they have been outscored by 104 points, and during his tenure the team is 14 games below .500 with an 11-25 record. Jim Haslett, who you might recognize from the 3-13 2005 New Orleans Saints, takes the headset.

Your Chances in that Survivor Pool. If you weren’t knocked outta your survivor pool with last week’s Miami over New England upset special, surely you’re dead after the Chiefs beat the Broncos and the Skins dumped Dallas yesterday. My pool is more like a bloodbath, with six left standing out of 60+ participants. I am not one of the six.

Warner’s X-Mas Cards From the Boldin Family. We can joke about it this morning now that we know Anquan Boldin seems to be fine, but it was a terrifying few minutes in New Jersey yesterday after the receiver took a huge helmet-to-helmet hit. Kurt Warner led Boldin over the middle, where safety Eric Smith knocked him totally unconscious on a meaningless, garbage time play. We’ve hidden the hit after the jump because it was truly ugly.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.