I know it’s more than half way through the season. That’s why this is a 3/4 report of the NFL so far. Now there have been some lackluster teams this year. Seven teams don’t have more than 3 wins and another four don’t even have 5 wins. Now on the good side there are two teams at 11-0. Never happened before. Another team has 10 wins. Eight other teams could potentially win 10 or more games to finish the year. These next four weeks are going to have some great matchups and likely blowouts, but lets face it. We’ll still watch them all.

Best of the Best
Colts 11-0
Saints 11-0
Vikings 10-1

Heads and shoulders above the rest of the pack. Each of these teams have MVP quarterbacks leading them and pretty good defenses to back them up on their bad days. Indy has Peyton Manning and his knack for the comeback victories. Brett Favre is a 40 year old on a mission to shut everyone up. Drew Brees is still putting up great numbers against some of the best teams in the league. Just ask Bill Belichick.

Strong Contenders
Patriots 7-4
Bengals 8-3
Steelers 6-5
Chargers 8-3
Cowboys 8-3
Cardinals 7-4

The Bengals are the surprise here. No one had them on top of their division let alone sweeping it. Carson Palmer has the offense on a good pace. The defense is why they are winning. Kudos to Marvin Lewis turning it around so fast. The Steelers I still have here because one they are still the defending champs and two they have Ben Roethlisberger. The guy is a top 5 QB now. Admit it. San Diego has a great slew of weapons on offense and the defense is finally coming around at the right time. New England even with their problems (both on the sidelines and the field) are set to win the division. Dallas will need to have a good December to silence the critics heading into the playoffs. Arizona still has great receivers, an improving defense and a running game that actually can win games for them.

Awards (if they were given out now)
MVP: Peyton Manning Colts
Defensive Player of the Year: Darren Sharper Saints
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Percy Harvin Vikings
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Jairus Byrd Bills
Coach of the Year: Marvin Lewis Bengals

Now I’m not saying Drew Brees, Brett Favre or the many other candidates aren’t worthy, but Peyton is, well, still Peyton. A darn good quarterback. The come from behind victories. It’s been a magical year for Peyton and the Colts. Darren Sharper has been the same way on the defensive side for the Saints. Eight interceptions and how all of them weren’t returned for touchdowns I don’t know. Percy has been a great find for the Vikings who have an even more explosive offense now that he has arrived. Jairus Byrd has the ballhawking mentality needed for the Bills defense. He’s taken advantage of the injuries to the secondary and emerged as a great cover safety. Can’t go wrong with Marvin as the coach of the year. No disrespect to the other worthy candidates, but did any of you have the Bengals 8-3 at this point. I didn’t either.

New Super Bowl prediciton:
Saints vs. Chargers

Now my original pick was Chargers vs. Seahawks. I know don’t remind me. The Saints are a fun team to watch. It would’ve been great to see them in Super Bowl 41 against the Colts instead of the Bears. Now I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Colts back again, but I think that the Chargers have finally found their groove and will continue the climb to a first round bye. Great games to look forward too the rest of the way.