(Best E Casino) - Which is the best team in the AFC East?
Is it the perennial division champion New England Patriots (5-2), who have somehow managed to remain relevant despite indications that Tom Brady's injury would effectively end their season?
Is it the Buffalo Bills (5-2), who have been the division's most consistent team through the first seven weeks of 2008, and possess some of the best young talent in football?
Is it the New York Jets (4-3), who have been nothing if not schizophrenic so far but seem capable of making a run to the division title if they can properly diagnose their offensive and defensive deficiencies?
Or is it choice D, the Miami Dolphins (3-4), the club that currently resides in last place in the East but appears to be on an upward trajectory?
There is evidence to suggest that it is Miami that could ultimately rule this division before all is said and done.
This past Sunday, the Dolphins moved to 2-1 in division play with a 25-16 victory over the visiting Bills. Factor in the road beat-down of the Patriots back in Week 3, and Tony Sparano's group has defeated both of the AFC East's current co-leaders, and they've also out-lasted the Chargers, a team that, for all of its faults, remains talented and well-regarded.
The Fins have a great deal of work still to do, and the specter of last year's 1-15 mark isn't that far in the rear view mirror, but most of the ingredients look to be in team executive vice president Bill Parcells' shopping bag at the moment.
Chad Pennington has been pretty much terrific, posting a triple-digit passer rating (100.5) in his first seven games in a Miami uniform and making capable NFL receivers out of Greg Camarillo (32 receptions, 1 TD) and Ted Ginn (27 receptions). Ginn had his coming-out party against the Bills, torching a good Buffalo secondary for seven catches and 175 yards.
The running game has been inconsistent, but Ronnie Brown (406 rushing yards, 7 TD) remains a home-run threat, especially when the team uses the "Wildcat" scheme, and Ricky Williams (267 yards, 2 TD) can still bring the lumber as well.
Defensively, outside linebacker Joey Porter (10.5 sacks) has been the menace he was supposed to be when Miami paid huge bucks for him prior to 2007, and offseason additions like nose tackle Jason Ferguson and inside linebacker Akin Ayodele have helped transform a now-solid front seven almost overnight.
What's more, the schedule looks like it's going to cooperate. Of the four remaining home games (Seattle, Oakland, New England, San Francisco), Miami figures to be a decent-sized favored to win at least three.
The remaining road has Sparano and company traveling to first-place Denver for a difficult test this week, but there are also manageable trips to St. Louis (11/30), Toronto to meet the Bills (12/7), Kansas City (12/21), and the Jets (12/28).
Conventional wisdom back in the summer said that this team - with so many new faces and a culture change afoot - would be much better in the second half of the season than it was during the first.
If that's true, thanks to some well-placed Miami victories and the failure of another team to set a fast pace in the division, the Dolphins are a last-place team that has every right to be thinking bigger as the calendar prepares to flip to November.
Among the optimistic is the head coach, who has praised his team's effort at practice during a 3-2 stretch of football.
"I think they're starting to get it, I really do," said Sparano on Monday. "And I told them [last] week after Wednesday's practice; I went in there on Thursday morning and I said to the team, 'I think...' and we don't throw this term around easily, '...you get it. You get it.' I told them that. I said I think since I've been here and I have this vision for how we would practice, Wednesday of this week was the first time I walked off this field and I said, 'They got it.' And it's been coming. We've been getting better and better and better out there, but they got it."
BILLS: It sure looked like Buffalo would make it to 6-1 on Sunday, when Bills running back Marshawn Lynch set the second-half tone with an eight-yard touchdown run to extend the team's lead over the Dolphins to 16-7.
Buffalo had done a nice job defensively over the preceding 30 minutes or so, keeping Miami off the board since a Chad Pennington touchdown pass to Anthony Fason with 9:26 to play in the first quarter.
And while the Bills hadn't been great offensively, settling for field goals on three promising drives in the first half, the presence of Trent Edwards in the lineup was seen as an indication that the team would finish the Dolphins off in short order.
Buffalo was 5-0 in games Edwards had started and finished in 2008, and Edwards' fourth-quarter heroics had previously fueled three come-from-behind wins this year.
But there would be no magic this time, as Miami scored 18 unanswered points to send Dick Jauron's club home with a loss.
Edwards was at the center of the mismanagement of the would-be win. The second-year pro lost a fumble, was tackled in the end zone for a safety, and threw an interception that helped sink Buffalo's chances. He was 21-of-35 for 227 yards in the contest, but did not throw a touchdown pass.
"I think a lot of it had to do with field position and a lot of little mistakes and missed assignments and it's kind of frustrating," said Edwards of the loss. "We made mistakes that got us beat, and that's what's frustrating. We didn't play our best game and I'd rather walk off that field playing the best game we can and losing. It's frustrating."
JETS: Everyone knew what the Jets' offensive game plan would be heading into Sunday's game with the one-win Kansas City Chiefs.
New York was one week removed from a 242-yard rushing effort in Oakland, a game in which Thomas Jones broke out with a 159-yard day, finally establishing that the team could run the football behind an improving interior line.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs were fresh off being gutted by the Tennessee Titans' running game, which piled up 332 ground yards and four touchdowns in Week 7. Kansas City entered Week 8 ranked last in the league in rushing defense (207.2 yards per game), yards allowed per carry (5.6), rushing touchdowns allowed (12), and rushes allowed of 20 yards or longer (14).
So yes, it was perfectly clear what the Jets would try to do against Kansas City. Clear to everyone, that is, except for the Jets themselves.
Instead of going ground control all the way, Eric Mangini's club rushed just 24 times, throwing it on 41 occasions in a closer-than-it-should-have-been 28-24 win. Jones, who had been brilliant the week before, was given just 14 carries, totaling 54 yards. Leon Washington proved unstoppable for the Kansas City defense, scoring on plays of 67 and 18 yards, but was allowed just six offensive touches all day.
The offensive approach didn't make a heck of a lot of sense, frankly, and far be it from Mangini to say much about why he and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer failed to chart the obvious course.
"[Kansas City] had a very young secondary, starting two rookie corners, two secondyear safeties and had not gotten a lot of pressure on the quarterback. All of those things are pretty positive."
Mangini also made a strange correlation between the Jets' strong rushing attack the week before in Oakland, and the team's 16-13 overtime loss to the Raiders.
"I would say that Oakland wasn't particularly strong against the run, and we ran it for 250 yards and scored 13 points. You can look at it either way. Both teams had issues in that area, and one game we scored 28, and really it could have been more than that. I don't know if significantly more, but it easily could have been more than that. Another game, also a weakness, we were very effective running the ball, but could only create 13 points."
So, for you Jets fans scoring at home, the equation is strong rushing attack + opponent's weak run defense = potentially not enough points to justify running the football. Got that?
PATRIOTS: Back when they were gathered at their Labor Day barbecues, what might Patriots fans have thought of their team's chances had you told them that the backfield in Week 8 would consist of quarterback Matt Cassel and a running back committee of Kevin Faulk and BenJarvus Green-Ellis?
It's likely they wouldn't have thought New England would be a first-place team, but that's exactly what the Patriots became after Sunday's 23-16 win over the St. Louis Rams.
Cassel moved to 4-2 as a starter, throwing for 267 yards and a touchdown while scrambling for 22 yards on a day that also saw him throw two picks.
Green-Ellis made it two touchdowns in as many NFL appearances, powering in from two yards out in the first quarter to open the scoring for New England.
But it was the multi-faceted veteran Faulk who truly proved his value in the victory.
Charged with carrying much of the rushing load due to injuries to Laurence Maroney, Sammy Morris, and LaMont Jordan, the 32-year-old Faulk rushed 13 times for a team-high 60 yards, also catching four balls for 47 yards and the game-winning touchdown, a 15-yarder from Cassel with 3:13 to play.
The 17 offensive touches were Faulk's most since Nov. 30, 2003, when he had 15 rushes and five catches in a win over the Colts.
"It seems like you can always count on Kevin no matter what phase of the game it is in," said head coach Bill Belichick after the win. "Whether it is returning kicks, blocking, pass protection, catching, running, two point plays [or] being on the goal line. He is a clutch player and he is a good player. He does a lot of things well and I think he is a guy that we all have a lot of confidence in around here - coaches, players, quarterbacks, the whole football team. He comes to work everyday. He is one of the best team players we have. He is all about our football team. Whatever he can do to help us win he'd do - mop the floors, he'd mop them."
