King Kaufman's Sports Daily
NFL Week 4: The league offshores the Cardinals and 49ers. Plus: Can the Colts ever learn how to score?
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Sept. 30, 2005 | The NFL will play its first regular-season game outside the United States Sunday night when the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals meet at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City.
More than 100,000 fans will cheer their every move madly, then turn to each other and say, "That was nice. Now where's the NFL game?"
This isn't football, it's free trade. The U.S. is sending its least attractive jobs south of the border. Cardinals lineman, 49ers cornerback, that sort of thing.
But there are advantages beyond economics. It can get to be a real burden to sit through seven hours of NFL football on a Sunday afternoon, only to face three and a half hours more in prime time on Sunday night, then yet another game Monday evening.
The Week 4 schedule offers a welcome respite with that 49ers-Cardinals game, then the Green Bay Packers at the Carolina Panthers on Monday night. Combined records of the teams playing in prime time during the season's fourth weekend: 2-10.
When the late games are over on Sunday afternoon you can turn off the TV and go find your family, or maybe read a good book, do those dishes that have been piling up since Friday. You won't miss much. Next week's prime time is Cincinnati-Jacksonville and Pittsburgh-San Diego, so enjoy the break.
Onward to the predictions by your Panel o' Experts co-leader, sort of the San Diego Padres of prognosticators. The panel standings are in Table Talk. Winners are in caps:
Buffalo (1-2) at NEW ORLEANS (1-2): The Saints finally get a home game, sort of, as they play at the Alamodome in San Antonio for the first of three times. The Bills are looking pretty sketchy, and losing linebacker Takeo Spikes last week won't help. The Saints have been awful the last two games, but forget all the hurricane stuff. This is the Saints. They specialize in looking horrible for a while, then playing well.
Detroit (1-1) at TAMPA BAY (3-0): The Bucs have been looking pretty good, but their three wins have been over Minnesota, Buffalo and Green Bay, all of which have been looking some shade of bad. The Lions looked pretty good against the Packers, and then got smoked by the Bears, who turned around and got drilled by the Bengals. All of which means? Uh. I don't know but I don't think it's good for Detroit. If Joey Harrington's ever going to put it together, now'd be a good time, but I'm starting to think Joey Harrington's never going to put it together.
INDIANAPOLIS (3-0) at Tennessee (1-2): If the defense-first Colts could ever figure out a way to score, they might end up being a pretty good team.