I didn’t actually hear anything about Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan’s comments about Calvin Johnson until after the Lions had come back to beat Dallas.  Well, I suppose Ryan is eating a lot of crow since Sunday.  First of all, isn’t Jason Garrett the head coach of the Cowboys?  And second, why would Rob Ryan say something so stupid?  Basically he said that Calvin Johnson isn’t good enough to be the 3rd receiver on the Cowboys.  Excuse me? Besides the fact that Tony Romo threw two interceptions for touchdowns to get the Lions back into the game.  Calvin Johnson did catch two touchdown passes against your porous defense Robby.  If Jason Garrett is the head coach of the Cowboys, he will keep Rob Ryan in check and keep him away from the media.  So far the Cowboys have been decent defensively, but have looked really bad for long stretches of their games.  Thankfully the Cowboys are going into their bye week, but it might also be a bad thing having to think about giving up that lead to the Detroit Lions. I would think Rob would have learned something from his brother Rex about what not to say to the media before a game.  Rex would never have said that.

Yes, the Buffalo Bills are 3-1, but I’m going to focus on the other 3-1 teams that we didn’t expect to be in this position during the season.  The other surprise in the AFC is the Tennessee Titans. First year head coach Mike Munchak has a pretty good defense in place, but I didn’t expect them to be as good throwing the ball with QB Matt Hasselbeck.  That’s no slight against Hasselbeck, but being in a new system I thought it would be a tough process with hardly any time in training camp to get up to speed.  That and not having RB Chris Johnson up until the week before the season started.  Johnson hasn’t been playing well, but Hasselbeck is throwing them into contention.  The Washington Redskins are atop the NFC East.  The main reason is because of their defense.  They actually are playing to their strengths which is rushing the passer and taking away the run.  QB Rex Grossman is doing enough to score points for the Redskins and they have three capable running backs to keep some balance in their offense.  Will this last? Probably not, but it isn’t far fetched to think they can finish with a .500 record.  Lastly my San Francisco 49ers are also 3-1.  They could be 4-0, but I won’t get into that discussion.  They’ve beaten Seattle and Cincinnati.  You could argue those are teams they should beat.  But not many had them beating let alone coming back to beat the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Head coach Jim Harbaugh is going about it the right way.  Not trying to be too complex with the offense, but rather wearing out opponents with the running game and making the most of opponents mistakes.  The 49ers defense isn’t elite, but they are getting there.  I’ve said it for years that if they can get a quarterback the 49ers will be a threat every season.

Lets go through the candidates.  The Indianapolis Colts are 0-4, but I don’t see GM Bill Polian and owner Jim Irsay firing Jim Caldwell. Peyton Manning’s injury has deflated this entire team.  There should be a one year grace period for that.  The St. Louis Rams are 0-4.  Head coach Steve Spagnuolo is dealing with the same thing the Colts are.  The injury bug has affected this team dramatically on offense.  I don’t see the Rams taking Spags’ out after all that has happened.  The Minnesota Vikings are 0-4.  Leslie Frazier is getting his first chance to be a head coach in the NFL. He did a good job last year after Brad Childress was fired.  That alone will give Frazier a one year period to get things right. However, if the Vikings finish with the worst record in the league, it will be hard to justify keeping him when Andrew Luck is available and you already drafted a quarterback this past year.  If the Arizona Cardinals finish with a 6-10 record or worse this season there will be talk of Ken Whisenhunt being on the chopping block.  I don’t think it will happen since he did get the Cardinals to their only Super Bowl appearance just a few years ago.  Andy Reid is safe unless there is a total collapse this season with the Eagles.  Jack Del Rio will most likely be on his way out when the season is over. However the Jaguars have surprised many in the past under Del Rio.  Todd Haley could be gone in Kansas City if the Chiefs continue to meltdown during the season.  The only one I see being fired soon is Tony Sparano in Miami.  The Dolphins haven’t won a home game since November 14 of last year.  They’ve lost 9 of their last 10 home games.  All signs are pointing to his dismissal before this season ends.