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After each week that passes in the NFL season we learn new things, develop new questions and are completely baffled by some things that take place on the gridiron. This past weekend during Week 7, things were no different for this handicapper who’s now completely given up faith in one specific team. But a little more on that later.

To begin with, if we hadn’t already realized it after the first seven weeks of the year, this season has shown that despite the much talked about parity in the NFL, right now there could quite possibly not be any less. There has arguably never been a time in the league where the league’s elite teams have been able to consistently dominate the bottom feeders to the extent to which they are now. After seven weeks there are still three teams who have yet to find the win column and another three who’ve managed only a single victory. Overall I would put a good third of the league, or at least 10 of the 32 teams into a category which can only be considered utterly awful, and no I’m not even counting you Jacksonville, or you Seattle. The following teams have a shocking 12-55 combined record and by virtue of either their record, overall lackluster play or a combination of both are clearly some of the league’s worst. They include: Buffalo (3-4), Cleveland (1-6), Tennessee (0-6), Oakland (2-5), Kansas City (1-6), Washington (2-5), Detroit (1-5), Carolina (2-4), Tampa Bay (0-7) and St. Louis (0-7).

Some of these teams were expected to have down years, others were expected to compete and some has underperformed to a greater extent than anyone could’ve imagined. I won’t go too in depth with them all but here are some overall thoughts on this group. The Bills may have the best record of this bunch at 3-4 but wins over the winless Bucs, needing six turnovers by the Jets to narrowly escape victorious in overtime and their most recent win in spite of themselves vs. Carolina, hardly instils confidence. While we’re on the topic of the Panthers, they are my candidate for most disappointing team so far. Actually to be fair, it may be more accurate to say their QB Jake Delhomme is the most disappointing player this year. Why this guy is throwing the ball is anyone’s guess. I’ve never seen someone go from being one of the more reliable QBs in the league to one of the worst in such a short span of time. The Panthers may have lost 20-9 to the Bills this Sunday but they outgained them 20-9 in first downs, 425-167 in total yardage and 34:20-25:20 in time of possession. For most teams this would be enough to easily put away the Bills, a team who only two weeks prior lost 6-3 at home to Cleveland. However Jake Delhomme once again decided to gift wrap a victory for his opposition by tossing 3 INTS. On the year Delhomme is 106/177 with 1172 yards, with 4 TDs compared to a mind boggling 13 INTS. As someone who had more than one ticket riding on the Panthers this week to cover as home chalk, I can clearly say that after seven weeks of play I have definitely learned that the Panthers and specifically Delhomme are no where near the team they were last season when they went 12-4.

Besides teams dealing with injuries, three teams from this group have already pulled the plug on their starting QBs and have opted to see what they can get from their backups. Josh Johnson already supplanted Byron Leftwich in Tampa back in Week 5 which hasn’t helped turn things around. What else I’ve learned is that in no way, shape or form is Browns’ QB Derek Anderson any kind of upgrade over Brady Quinn

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