When the Vikings come to Lambeau Field this weekend, it’s going to be an exciting game. The first matchup almost a month ago was fantastic and tough to catch. But now we’re on our way to seeing if the Packers can make up for the mistakes they made and finally get back on the winning track. They are coming off a big win last weekend that inspires confidence in them but it remains to be seen if they can actually beat out Favre at this point. He knows many of their players and he’s good at recognizing typical plays. Meanwhile, Aaron Rodgers really needs his team to give him pass protection so that he’ll even have a chance to make some plays this time around. Otherwise, it’s going to be a cool homecoming for Mr. Favre in Green Bay.

Michael Crabtree finally started with the 49ers this weekend and made a huge difference. He made several catches in the second half to bring the 49ers back into the game. They didn’t get the come from behind win, and coach Singletary was none too happy about that. In fact, he was downright angry when the game was over, because they had let the Houston Texans get so far ahead in the first place. If they’d stayed in the game better, they would have been more likely to make that come-from-behind happen. But Crabtree did a great job staying in shape and knowing the playbook when it came time to play. He made the right plays, knows what he’s doing, and it clearly set to become one of the NFL’s top players in the next years. It will be fun to see if he can continue making a huge impact for this team. He does conduct himself well, so maybe we’ll finally see a star wide receiver that doesn’t think he’s such a top dog.

The Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers are playing a big game this weekend. This is going to be an airborne game! But it’s nothing but surprising that things have worked out this way this year. The Vikings are a team that isn’t known for big quarterbacks over the last few decades, but have had a great defense some of that time. On the other side, the Steelers are known as the Steel Curtain because of their defense. But they don’t have the defense so much anymore; instead, Roethlisberger is part of another of the top 5 offenses this year. To many viewers, this might be a preview of a Super Bowl, if things continue the way they have been. Favre and Roethlisberger haven’t met too often over the years, but it’s going to be fun!

The Denver Broncos are right at the top of the world today. At 6 games into the season, they are undefeated. No one would have thought that last spring when the entire Jay Cutler trade went down, that the team would go so far right off the bat in the season. It will be a very exciting year for them if they can keep it up. Kyle Orton is working hard to keep his team at the top. And he’s doing a better job than you can possibly imagine. Lots of people have expected him to fall at some point.But Orton, along with his coaches, are able to make huge halftime adjustments, allowing his team to be one of the best second half teams in the league. This is the kind of a team that might be able to make a bigger competition in the AFC. No one expected this, but it’s fun to watch!

So let’s talk about the upcoming trade deadline and the AFC East division. There are some interesting articles about whether the division will be full of buyers or sellers. At the beginning of the season, it looked like all of these teams would be in major contention for the title. But during the first few weeks, the Buffalo Bills have essentially dropped out of contention, so the line of argument goes. As a result, they will be sellers. They have Terrell Owens, but not too many people are interested in him, since he makes trouble and hasn’t made an impact this year. The Dolphins are suddenly interested in new players, because, despite the loss of their QB, they are back in the hunt with two division wins in a row. Patriots are looking to beef up in some spots and the Jets are not looking to change much of anything at this time.

With Denver and Cincy on the roll, we can see that the NFL is getting interesting. Last year, the Bengals weren’t anything particularly exciting. They were a mid to low-level team that couldn’t get a good win all year. But they just got a huge win over the Ravens to tie up the leading position in the AFC North. On the other side, the Denver Broncos were supposed to suffer through a tough year after their Jay Cutler left and Kyle Orton came in. But so far, the Broncos haven’t lost a game and Orton is really holding his own against all the tough competition. It also highlights the talent of Josh McDaniels, who is now one of the respected coaches in the league. Who knows if they’ll be able to keep this up in the future or if this is just a bubble that’s going to burst around Week 8, as happens frequently.

Michael Crabtree has been holding out for several months in his hope for a bigger contract. As I understand it, the rule is that a draft pick has to be paid commensurate with the order in which he was picked. In other words, he can’t just be given the top contract. It has to be less than the guy picked before him and more than the one picked after him. But then Crabtree came along and demanded to be paid as much as a 4th round pick rather than the 10th pick. His position was that he “could have” been picked at that level and therefore should be paid that much. But as the 49ers played great without him, his leverage slowly dropped. He ended up with the contract they should’ve been able to sign several months ago, with a 6 year deal worth $17 million guaranteed. It remains to be seen if he is actually going to be worse off. First off, he doesn’t get paid for the 4 weeks he’s missed already. And he hasn’t practiced in a long time! Anyway, he’ll finally be on an NFL field and we’ll see if he’s as good as he says!

The Dallas Cowboys are having a bit of a year, aren’t they? Their plan had been to keep pace with the NFC East just like they did before and try to get themselves into the playoffs, either by winning over the Giants (not likely) or through a Wild Card berth, which is a definite possibility. But despite all that hype, despite the earlier talent of Tony Romo and the huge new stadium, the Cowboys are now dropping towards the cellar of the division. They aren’t a bad team, but they haven’t been able to play against anyone. The latest victor was the Denver Broncos, who are now 4-0 on the season that was supposed to be a bad season without their top QB of previous years. Kyle Orton seems to be holding his own and the Denver Defense is shutting everyone down. But the Cowboys are tied for last place at 2-2 in the NFC East. As good as Washington, somehow.

The Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers will be playing a huge game this Monday which will be incredibly exciting. While the Vikings are one of the top teams, against Green Bay anything can happen. Many people will be there and it’ll be very exciting indeed. With Favre in the driver’s seat, Minnesota is going to put a lot of pressure on Green Bay. Meanwhile, Packers don’t want to be embarrassed by their former QB, who they pushed out of the city in 2008. There are lots of different possibilities for how this game is going to go down. It’s classic NFC North action and will be as intense as anything else can be. Hopefully it will be a good close game that will show off the strengths of both teams.