Wow… what a weekend in sports!

I don’t know what was the most exciting– between the thousands of late finishes in the NFL, the Rays taking out the Sox in 11 innings on Sunday, the Dodgers and Phils fighting, and Sarah Palin getting booed in Philadelphia (the only time I have watched NHL highlights all year), I felt like I was on my feet screaming at my television all break.

Aside from the Jets game being the single most boring TV event since the PBS biography of Millard Fillmore, I was thrilled with the NFL highlights this week. I can’t quite decide what my favorite play was. At first, I thought it had to be that Ronnie Brown, in the wildcat formation, tossing to Chad Pennington for the ole reverse-pass, crazy-something-or-other which resulted in a 50 yard touchdown. The best part of the play: even though the receiver was open by 40 yards, Pennington still could only barely reach him.

But then, later in the game, I was even more amazed– impressive, because I always immensely approve of trick plays. Schaub’s QB sneak to win it was awesome, and you couldn’t have asked for a more exciting finish, but the play of the game belonged to Andre Johnson. On 4th and 10, late in the fourth quarter, Schaub dropped back on a designed rolling pocket to the right. Without even looking to see if the guy was covered, Schaub wildly flung the ball across the field to his left to Johnson, who was not just completely covered by two defenders, he was completely out-positioned. Didn’t matter. I have no idea how, but Johnson just took the ball right out of the defenders hands for the first down in the ‘clutchest’ play I have seen in a while. And I hate that word. NFL.com, of course, makes you watch all of Johnson’s plays from that day to see it, but he’s a pleasure to watch, so check it out.

(Side note: How annoying is it that the NFL does not allow ESPN to show any footage? I hate watching those same 4 photos of Brett Favre over and over again whenever they talk about him!)

But even that wasn’t my favorite highlight from Sunday. No, that would belong to my buddy Dan Orlovsky, who forgot where the back of the end zone was against the Vikings. In a way, I can’t blame the guy–I would run like hell if the reigning NFL sack leader was chasing me, but this play was so typical of the Lions last 10 years, and the fact that they lost by two only made the play that much more hilarious.

So, believe it or not, I actually had something to say this week other than “I like football” and “Dan Orlovsky is funny.”

It’s taken us a few weeks to really assess the state of the temporarily post-Brady NFL, and perhaps not surprisingly, there is not a heck of a lot one can definitively say. For starters: who is the NFL’s best team?

A few weeks ago, I would have said the Cowboys, hands down. But now, with Romo hurt and back to back ugly looking losses to Washington and Arizona (good teams, no doubt), I’m not sure.

Is it the Giants? Well, before today, they were certainly looking like the team to beat; but now Eli’s incredibly weak performance against Cleveland tonight has NYG looking a bit shakier. Plus, don’t forget how week the Giants schedule has been so far. The win against Seattle was impressive, but they came awfully close to losing to Cincy, and now they got their clocks cleaned by a team that had struggled all year long.

Pittsburgh is good but struggles to score. Denver lost to K.C. the other week. Buffalo is untested. Tampa could be good, but I’m hesitant to put them in that same class. And Indy and Jacksonville seem to have regained some of their old swagger this week. Oh right, and Tennessee. I always forget the Titans. They’re 5 and 0, but 4 of those 5 are against Houston, Minnesota, Baltimore, and Cincy. Those teams will make any D look great.

So yeah, the NFL has parity. What else is new? We’ve known this for years, and yet every year it suprises the heck out of me when supposedly top teams are beaten by those below. And I know that seasons always seem more upset laden then they actually are– but this in particular seems to be a surprising year. Partly because the teams on top are surprising– Buffalo, Atlanta, Denver, and Tennessee are all wildly surpassing expectations– but also because normally reliable players are having lackluster seasons (Brady’s out, LT is banged up, Peterson’s had fumblitis (sp?), P Manning’s been iffy), I feel like this could be a changing of the guard year in more than just Green Bay.

But I seem to say that every year…