The Tecmo Bowl: Looking Ahead: Week Four

It's full-steam ahead into Week 4. With the conclusion of these contests, we will officially be around 23.5% done with the 1992 Tecmo Bowl season (pause for sigh), but we'll be fair and round it up to a quarter. There's a lot on the docket for this week, including TWO head-to-head contests between undefeateds. There are also six teams on a bye week, seven if you include Buffalo in their contest against New England, which means even more focus to be paid on these here matchups. Let's get to it!

In some parts of the country, the marquee match-up may be between Denver and Cleveland. Let's face it, these teams have to win sometime. Of course, most eyes will be fixated on the battle for the NFC West, as the two teams topping our power rankings fight for a fourth win. Bobby Hebert and his Saints have been the best team in the Tecmo Bowl so far, but Steve Young and his 49ers aren't far behind. You can trust there'll be fireworks in the bay when these two USFLers take over.

Other early games include Houston continuing to dig themselves out against a tough San Diego team, also still undefeated behind Stan Humphries. Our Tecmo Bowl AFC representative, Miami, will hope to battle back to relevance against a hungry Seattle team after being blown out by the Rams. And Chicago and Atlanta will meet, two 2-1 teams that are on opposite ends of that spectrum. Each team is looking to continue a surprising start to their season, though if Jim Harbaugh comes out of the game with his spine still in his body, we'll consider him a winner either way.

The late games feature a surging Rams team out to prove us wrong against a Jets team standing tough in spite of their holdout quarterback. The Packers, behind rookie Brett Favre (have we gotten that name in enough times to be considered a professional blog yet?) will try to bounce back against a struggling Pittsburgh team. The Steelers showed promise in Week One, defeating their division's standard-bearer in the Oilers, but since then have tried to make fools out of anyone not named Bubby Brister. Buffalo will roll out the red carpet to greet Hugh Millen to the AFC East, while Kansas City and the Raiders will apparently play a game at some point during the evening.

Monday night's contest will highlight the other match-up of undefeateds as the Vikings butt heads with the Bengals. Both squads were playoff contenders that we predicted to struggle a bit more this year. Boomer Esiason and Rich Gannon have been equally as mediocre, with 3 touchdown passes each and throwing for around 450 yards. For the Bengals, however, the story of the year has been former Seahawks-castout, Derrick Fenner. Fenner's got 6 touchdowns on the year, living up to the high standards set for him by previous Bengals standouts Ickey Woods and Robert Brooks. The Vikings hope to have an answer for him, as well as seeing Roger Craig return from the infirmary to make up for the ineffective Terry Allen. It's a battle of 3-0s that shouldn't be, with only one team coming through unscathed. And the Vikings better hope it's them, or they'll be hearing Coach Dennis Green in their sleep.