Will the real contenders please stand up?

This far this year we’ve had plenty of story lines to keep things more than interesting and it actually started in the pre-season with the JC drama out of Denver and into Chi-Town (and now with a contract extension!), but now it’s time for the real contenders to step up and take their respective divisions and put the pretenders to bed. Please note this warning does not hold true for the following teams: New Orleans, Minnesota, Indianapolis, and Denver, yes Denver. All of the afore mentioned clubs have beaten everyone they’ve put in front of them and as we approach the mid-way point in the season look like they deserve to host one and perhaps two games. But we’ve talked about them before. This is about any team that with a blemish or two on their record but wants to play with the big boys, starting with the defending World Champion Pittsburgh Steelers (4-2), tied for first and winners of 3 straight, but the upcoming stretch of Vikings, Broncos, Bengals will truly show if they are ready to step up to the “Steel City” teams of the 70’s and compete for back to back rings. Thus far they have been inconsistent and have not been able to put teams away once they’ve had them down. New England Patriots (4-2), we still don’t think you’re all the way back and a 59-0 drubbing over a winless team with a banged up secondary doesn’t change anything. The Pats have lost two of their three biggest test this year with (Jets, Broncos, and Ravens) but have another one coming up with the Colts in a game that used to decide home field for the AFC Championship in the past, but right now the Pats haven’t shown the consistency to be in the same class as the unbeaten Colts. Atlanta Falcons (5-1) if they didn’t have to deal with the Saints they would be screaming about a trip to Florida come February, but unfortunately New Orleans does reside in the same division and is currently unbeaten, but don’t worry Black Bird fans as your chance to pull the mutiny will come soon enough in two weeks as long as you don’t get caught looking ahead. Lastly, the Jets are now 3-3, Sanchez has come back down to earth (5 picks in his last start) and the Jet-Mets have no where to turn for sports as they can’t watch baseball either. If Sanchez is not have a come-to-earth experience then teams have begun to scheme for him and he’d better start looking defenders off and mixing things up or he will soon suffer ‘pine disease’ like his predecessor Matt Leinart. Are any of the second-tier teams for real?