The only real upset of the week, as called in last week’s column, was Washington losing to Detroit who was riding a 19-game losing streak. But given how Washington’s season is going, it really wasn’t that big of an upset.

Washington has gotten off to a pretty terrible start, mainly because their red zone offense is up there with the worst in the league. Despite Jason Campbell continuously putting up good stats, he seems to completely crumble when he gets within the opponents’ 20-yard line. It’s a shame for them because the Redskins defense has actually been impressive in the first three games of the season, but their offense has been completely abysmal.

Philadelphia had an easy task last weekend as they took on the Kansas City Chiefs who are still searching for their first win of the season. Most impressive about the win was Eagles backup quarterback Kevin Kolb who got the start in place of Donovan McNabb who was held out of the game due to injuries. Kolb put up great numbers with 327 yards passing with two touchdowns and finished with a quarterback rating of 120.6.

The other big story heading into the game was Michael Vick’s return to the NFL after serving an almost two-year prison sentence. Despite all the hoopla, everything else about the game was pretty calm for Vick. He got into the game on about 10 plays overall and handed off the ball on most of them.

The only “exciting” play came when he had a decent quarterback draw to gain seven yards. It will be interesting to see if Andy Reid decides to insert some more packages into the offense to get Vick involved more or if they will just let him stay as one of their backups and let him get settled back into his role as a starting quarterback.

The New York Giants had a chance this weekend to beat up on the lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Pretty much everyone on the Giants had a great game as their halfbacks combined for 226 rush yards and a touchdown and Eli Manning had a respectable 161 yards and two TD.

More impressive however was the defense that ended up pitching a shutout to the Bucs and only allowed Tampa Bay to gain 86 total yards of offense. Every week it seems that New York is more and more establishing themselves as the best team in the NFC and possibly the NFL.

Now onto the Dallas Cowboys who just became another team in the league to use Jake Delhomme and the Carolina Panthers as their personal punching bag. Surprisingly however Dallas’s offense only scored one touchdown which came on a Tashard Choice run. I think we’ll see Dallas’s true colors this weekend as they head to Denver to take on the Broncos.

Speaking of which, it’s now time to make picks for the week.

Philadelphia’s got the bye week this time around which should give them ample time to rest McNabb and figure out exactly what they want to do with Vick.

In a matchup of two of the worst teams in football, Washington has a home game against Tampa Bay. While the ‘Skins are bad, the Bucs are completely terrible. And given the fact that Josh Johnson was just named the starter for Tampa Bay I think that things are only down from here. Washington probably won’t score too many touchdowns, but a few field goals could easily get it done. Washington 23, Tampa Bay 10.

The Giants have an easy task this week as they take on the Chiefs. While Matt Cassell is finally back as the starting quarterback for Kansas City, as I’ve said before the Giants are very possibly the best team in all of football. Manning will continue to lead the charge and New York takes this one easy. New York 31, Kansas City 14.

Now on to one of the most intriguing games of the week. Both Dallas and Denver have a chance to prove this weekend if they are contenders or pretenders. Denver’s defense has been extremely impressive this year, led by offseason acquisition Brian Dawkins, and has allowed opponents to score just over five points per game. Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton has also played well since being traded from Chicago and has played mistake-free football. Meanwhile on the other side of the ball Tony Romo has proven that when he has to go up against a worthy defense he tends to crumble. By no means am I calling the Denver D one of the best in the league, but they are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were last season. I think Dallas shows their true colors in this game and drop back down to .500 after the game is over. Denver 24, Dallas 17.

Last Week: 4-0 Season: 6-1