Columnist Sal DeFilippo: Bengals, Chargers unlikely battle of unbeatens

Sal DeFilippo

Friday, Sept. 28, 2001 | 9:53 a.m.

Sal DeFilippo's pro football column appears Friday. Reach him at sal@lasvegassun.com or 259-4076.

Before the season began, anyone looking ahead to this weekend could have envisioned a few matchups as potential intraconference battles of unbeaten teams -- matchups that could have an effect on playoff seedings.

Tampa Bay at Minnesota. New Orleans at the New York Giants. Baltimore at Denver.

However, the Vikings, Giants and Ravens -- three of last year's final four teams -- have already lost this season. The Vikings are 0-2.

Only two games this weekend involve teams without a defeat. One, Miami at St. Louis, was foreseeable. It's the other that makes your brain hurt.

Can this really be right? San Diego and Cincinnati each are 2-0?

The Chargers have already doubled their win total of last season. The Bengals, who lost more games than any team in the 1990s and followed with a strong 4-12 mark in 2000, just defeated the defending Super Bowl champion Ravens.

I know the NFL can be a strange league sometimes, as evidenced by the recent quick decisions made by a couple of Martys.

To wit: Last week, Detroit's Ty Detmer throws seven interceptions, and has an eighth called back by a penalty. On Monday, despite an upcoming bye week, Lions coach Marty Mornhinweg -- who named Detmer to the starting role a week into the season -- felt the need to announce that Detmer will retain his starting job.

That evening, Jeff George's Redskins are blanked at Green Bay. On Tuesday, Redskins coach Marty Schottenheimer cut George, a longtime NFL player and the team's starting quarterback since training camp opened.

To make it worse, the Skins signed Kent Graham to fill the spot vacated by the release of George. That's a move I'd expect from Marty McFly of "Back to the Future" fame, not an NFL coach of 15 years. Think, Schottenheimer, think.

Such are the quick judgments made in the NFL. Fortunately, there's no need to make that type of almost instantaneous decision about the actual talents of the Chargers and Bengals. But one thing is certain -- whoever leaves that game 3-0 will force a few teams to take notice.