Best Division in the NFL

In the last couple of weeks, the opinion has been that the NFC South was catching up to, if not passing, the NFC East in strength. That all changed Sunday. The NFC East reclaimed its spot as the strongest division in the NFL and they did it by beating 2 NFC South teams and one AFC playoff team.

The suddenly-suspect Cowboys beat the Tampa Bay Bucs. Big deal, you say, but they accomplished this feat without Tony Romo.

The Eagles beat the Falcons in what could have become a blowout, but the young Falcons made it interesting in the fourth quarter.

The Redskins got by the lowly Lions, right on the spread.

Finally, in what many thought might be a Super Bowl preview, the Giants beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

Certainly, Carolina can play with any team in the NFC East and beat them, and the Bucs would be in every game as well, but the East is top to bottom the best division in Football. The NFC South is about one Falcons full year of maturity away from being an incredibly dominating division, but this is just not quite the year.

By the way, I exclude the AFC divisions in this argument because there is not one division in that conference as good as the NFC East, or South, top to bottom.

Good quarterback play is the mark of both the NFC East and South (with the exception of Romo last week, who was injured). Drew Brees is early MVP, Delhomme is back as a top tier QB, and Ryan is better than advertised. Donovan---nough said, Jason Campbell is managing his game, and Eli is a Manning. The seperation between the two comes in the teams' defenses. Atlanta's and New Orlean's are shaky at times, while Carolina and Tampa are perennial top 10 Defenses. Every team in the NFC has an above average defense, with New York and Philadelphia harboring the same blitz-happy philosiphies.

These divisions need to be closely monitored, because it is likely that each will bring two teams to the playoffs, and one might bring three.