Who does Kyle Orton think he is, Jay Cutler?

Let me get this straight ...

Kyle Orton is 5-0 and Chad Henne is 2-0. Chad Pennington, whom Henne replaced, was 0-3. Kerry Collins is 0-5 while Tom Brady and Philip Rivers are a combined one game over .500. Did I get that right? It's nice that we've had the chance to enjoy some surprises even though many aspects of the 2009 NFL season have been quite predictable (e.g. Giants good, Rams bad).

This week on Fox ...

This says it all about last Sunday's slate of NFL games: Joe Buck, Fox's #1 play-by-play man, was doing the Cowboys-Chiefs game. That's right, the 2-2 Cowboys vs. the winless and hapless Chiefs. It actually turned out to be a barn burner, but Fox execs must have looked down the list of games about 10 times before finally convincing themselves that yes, that was in fact the best early game on the schedule. All the others involved either unwatchable teams like the Rams and Redskins or likely blowouts such as Giants-Raiders and Eagles-Bucs, which turned out to be blowouts indeed.

Getting the rally monkey off their back


Despite having lost 12 of 13 postseason games against the Red Sox prior to their ALDS series, and having been eliminated by Boston in 2004, 2007 and 2008, and having never EVER beaten the Red Sox in a playoff series, the Angels scored five runs in the final two innings--including three in the 9th--on Sunday to pave the way to an improbable sweep. Here's hoping they can maintain their confidence and level of play against a stellar Yankees team.

Nearly a clean sweep

Obviously, the Rockies didn't get the memo about getting swept in the first round. By winning Game 2 of their series with the Phillies, they prevented 2009 from being one of the worst years ever when it comes to the divisional round of the playoffs (introduced in 1995). No, wait, it was still one of the worst years ever. Sweep, sweep, sweep, 3-1. Not exactly the best way to tear up the ratings.

While we're on the topic of parity, or lack thereof, the four teams left standing have the 1st (Yankees), 6th (Angels), 7th (Phillies) and 9th (Dodgers) highest team payrolls, respectively. And the Phillies-Dodgers match-up mirrors last year's NLCS. Did someone say salary cap? No? Sorry, I thought I heard someone say salary cap.