Hey, my name is The Rabbi, and this is the first official post of the On The Sportslines blog. On The Sportslines is a bi-weekly show that can be seen live every other Thursday's at 9 in the Manhattan area on Time Warner Cable on Ch. 36 or can be seen that weekend on youtube.com/onthesportslines.

I and others will try to contribute here, starting with this (hopefully) regular feature I will post every weekend during the football season, titled 10 things we learned. 10 things that highlighted the Sunday slate of games in the National Football league. Here goes nothing....(by the way, the list is not a Top 10 list, so it's just going from 1 to 10).

Each week I will try to have a theme. This week, a show on ESPN2 called Sportsnation inspired me for this list. This upcoming Monday they plan to do a show where they will break the World's record for mentioning Brett Favre's name the most number of times in an hour. So, I will try to break the world's record for a blog post and not mention Favre's name from NOW till the end of the blog. So here we go.....

10 Things We Learned from Sunday In Week 4- The NON #4 edition

1. Donavan McNabb is not alone.

Sure I can mention the exciting Battle of Ohio that went down today between the Browns and Bengals (where Cincy won 23-20), but I really don't wanna talk about that. I'd rather tell you about this quote from the guy who was color commentator for the game, former NFL QB Rich Gannon. Here's the situation, it's overtime, and we're down to the final :7, when Bengal coach Marvin Lewis calls a timeout in order to have time to set up a field goal inside the Brown 20. Gannon immediately criticizes the decision, saying you're giving Cleveland's return man Joshua Cribbs time to return the ball for a Touchdown if Bengal Kicker Shayne Graham makes the FG. Apparently Gannon had a slip of the toungue considering the GAME would END if Graham nailed the kick. Unlike McNabb though, Gannon apologized immediately and realized what he did was just a slip of the toungue (see McNabb said after a game, ironically against the Bengals last year, that he didn't know regular season NFL games end in ties.) This makes the Browns not be the most embarassing thing about a Browns game on this day.

2. Despite a win however, Jim Zorn is still very much alone.

Yes, the Skins may be 2-2 after taking out the Bucs, AT HOME, 16-13. Problem is, when your team:

A. Get sacked twice and lose a fumble first two minutes of the game AND
B. Let a QB making his first NFL start throw a TD first PLAY on offense AND
C. Win the game only due to a blown coverage by Buc CB Aqib Telib, who did have 3 INT's in the game.

I don't think Redskin fans are doing cartwheels in the streets. Two wins at home, by 5 points total, over 2 winless teams, does not bode well for the future. Luckily for the Skins they get another winless team next week, in Carolina. Which leads me to #3...

3. It could be worse for the Skins, they could be the 0-4 Tennessee Titans.

Now, I can be real nice and put the focus on the Jaguars, a team who has won 2 straight and was 2 points away from beating the undefeated Colts in Indy....

But I'm being negative, so let's focus on the losers.

Tennessee is done. Their Defense, a rock a year ago, has basically let them down in key spots this year. Whether it be giving up every lead known to mankind to Houston, or letting a stagnant offense in the first half like the Jets look like world beaters in the 2nd half, to today's 323 yard, 3 TD performance from David Gerrard, it's looking a lot like the Titans are THE disappointment of 2009 in the NFL. The Pass defense is 29th in the NFL in yards allowed, and the Titans just don't have a good enough Offense to match up to that D. Oh and that 323 yd-3TD performance was BEFORE a Sunday night death sentence scheduled next week at home against Peyton Manning. Manning is the biggest QB star in the league. NO QB gets mentioned more than he does. (Except.....nevermind)

4. Speaking of Peyton, is he bored yet?

Remember those close first 2 games he had against Jacksonville and Miami? Yeah, neither does he, cause the last 2 weeks Indy has essentially took advantage of the strong NFC West by beating the preseason picked Top 2 teams in the league, Seattle and Arizona, 65-27. 6 Touchdowns also in that span. Next 3 weeks for Indy they play the aforementioned winless Titans, they get their bye, and then play the dreaded St. Louis Rams on the road. Wake them up in Week 8, when they play the NFC West leaders, San Francisco, who may be bored with the NFC West by then too, after the drubbing they put on the Rams today, 35- Nil. (Remember that one loss that San Fran had last week? Remember the final seconds of that game? That catch by Greg Lewis! Incredible! Let's not talk about the pass though....)

5. Speaking of teams who are bored....

You get the feeling the Giants are bored right now? Dominating win versus Tampa Bay last week, ho hum victory versus KC today (where the game STARTED with a fumbled kick off), a game against the 1-3 Raiders next week, where they may or may not need QB Eli Manning, who left the game early in the 4th with a bruised right heel. Maybe Oakland keeps it close, but you gotta feel like the game is a warm-up almost for the possible NFC Game of the Year: Giants at Saints in 2 weeks at the Superdome. (And no, i'm not counting tomorrow's game.....)

6. Speaking of the Saints, who is this team?

OK, you take the Week 2 drubbing of Philly by the Saints as typical New Orleans offense overpowering a down Philly team. You take Week 3's quiet performance by Drew Brees as a way for the Saints to show off their running attack. However, today the Saints made Jet QB Marc Sanchez not look just like a rookie to the NFL, but to a rookie of all of football, by exploiting every one of his mistakes. Two of his mistakes (a fumble in the end zone and a 99 yd TD returned), accounted for the margin in the game. The Saints DEFENSE (yes DEFENSE), was the reason they won today. Almost reminds me of when the Colts weren't great defensively 3 years ago, but they forced turnovers like you wouldn't believe. With another +3 turnover margin today, I'd say the Saints are well on their way to staking a claim to best in the NFL.

7. The Jets aren't easily gonna go back to their winning ways next week.

That's cause they're at Miami next Monday night. In the year when being a Michigan QB is cool again (thank you Tate Forcier), Chad Henne won his first start in the NFL. (You know what QB did that in his first start? Matt Ryan and countless others!) He did that thanks in part to a rushing attack for 250 yards (200 from the combo of Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown). The Dolphins looked completely dominant today against a team that they were actually underdogs against, which makes me wonder if the Dolphins have enough tricks up their sleeves to make a run at it aginst the Jets next week. Now THAT will be a Monday night game i won't get sick of.

8. I know you're sick of running, so let's talk some wide recievers!

OK, you give me one guy who I want as my wide reciever at crunch time, give me Brandon Marshall. No, I'm serious, I'll take Brandon Marshall over anyone else. I'm gonna give you 5 reasons why this is the case:

a. Did you SEE that catch he made versus the Cowboys in the final 2 minutes today?

b. He makes Kyle Orton not just respectable as a QB, but above average at times.

c. His catches mean something, almost every time.

d. He's playing cool in the clutch, even though he hates his coach (reportedly, through what we heard every 4 seconds in preseason)

e. Seriously, did you SEE that run after that catch! He basically burned an entire secondary with it!

Denver's defense may be playing like a Top 5 one in the league, but if you're gonna go undefeated, you have to have an offense with it. Mission accomplished just cause of Marshall.

9. Rashard Mendenhall and Brandon Marshall have something in common.

Both have made their coaches unhappy this year, but both have come back in Week 4 to have some spectacular peformances. But seriouslty, WHERE DID MENENDHALL'S PERFORMANCE COME FROM? Lost in the 38-28 shootout in which the Steelers beat the Chargers for the 3rd time in 11 months (which for about half the 4th quarter was a game where Steelers fans put their hearts in their throats), Mendenhall became the first back to go from no playing time due to a horrible week of practice one week, to starting, 168 yards, and 3 Touchdowns the next week. A nice way for the Steelers to perform in a game where they almost HAD to win in order to get back in the AFC North race. Speaking of the Broncos, the Chargers are now 2 games behind them in the AFC West. Yup, just as all had predicted to start the season.

10. We learned something from the OTHER AFC Game of the Week.

Actually 2 things: Baltimore is...almost there and New England is not dead yet, especially when you play them at home. Despite not trailing for most of the game, you never got the feeling the Pats would dominate the Ravens and 2nd year QB Joe Flacco like the may have in the days when they won 3 Super Bowls in 4 years. Tom Brady had an efficient 258 yards and a TD (with no running attack, but when you play Baltimore what's new), but the Ravens made Brady earn every yard. Joe Flacco was almost as efficient (264 yards- 2 TD's - 1 INT), and he would have probably been a winner had Wide Reciever Marc Clayton not dropped a SURE first down on the Pats 10 with under 30 seconds to go. The Pats are hard to beat at home, even in a time when they've thoroghly been unimpressive in their wins, but the Ravens almost got them. Now there are only 5 unbeaten teams left in football: the Colts, Broncos, Giants, Saints, and Vikings (with #4 Brett Favre leading the way into their showdown Monday night).

Damnit. I guess it's ALMOST a Favre free list. See you next Sunday night.