Studs and Duds, Week 4: F _ V R _

Each week in the NFL, there are players that impress and players that distress. One week a certain quarterback might toss four touchdowns and run around pointing skyward, while the next he's laying on his back, holding his facemask as the other team returns one of his three interceptions for the game-winning score. With that in mind, here's Studs and Duds.

Studs

Brett Favre, QB Minnesota (24-31, 271 yards, 3 TDs) -- I hated to do it, but it had to be done. Favre, no matter his age or hair color or unique ability to make 49 out of 50 states hate him profusely, went out against his old team and basically, and excuse my language, whooped their a***s like a Wrangler commercial gone bad. Make no bones about it -- Green Bay isn't a bad team, and Favre picked apart its secondary like it was a Division-II squad.

Favre is 4-0 for the third time in his career, and with the pathetic Rams up next (we will get to them in a minute), he might move to 5-0 for the first time in his career. ESPN did everything in its power to make you want to root against No. 4 all Monday night, but the guy is playing good football, and a 135.3 passer rating isn't so bad for the (gulp) gunslinger we've come to love. A few more games like this, and Adrian Peterson might be talking about having a guy on the offense unlike anyone he has ever played with before.

Darren Sharper, S New Orleans (5 tackles, 2 INTs, 1 TD) -- Here's a quick game. I'll ask you a question, and you answer it honestly as if it was the preseason. "Out of four games, Drew Brees doesn't toss a touchdown pass in two of them ... what is the Saints record?" Tell the truth, there's no way you would've answered 4-0. Well, thanks to the New Orleans defense, highlighted by Mr. Sharper and the job he did defending against the rookie quarterback in New York, it's perfect. If it continues down this path, I'm with my colleague Jay Mariotti -- the Saints might run the table.

Sharper was everywhere on Sunday, so now, if it isn't the offense picking up the defense, it's the defense taking care of Brees and company. New Orleans has rapidly become a good team, and it is because the Saints are balanced.

Steve Smith, WR NY Giants (11 catches, 134 yards, 2 TDs) -- What was that guy's name? Plexico? Plaxica? Something that reminded me of unbreakable glass. Well, the former Giants wideout has been replaced by Steve Smith, a Wes Welker-type that has made Eli Manning look, well, like a Manning this season through four games. The Giants are the best team in the NFC, and it helps that Eli has a reliable target to throw to.

Smith might have a lot to live up to, through his team, his college (USC), and his namesake, but it seems through four weeks he's the right guy for the Giants.

Duds

Tony Romo, QB Dallas (25-42, 255 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT) -- The Cowboys were up 10-0 on the Denver Broncos, a team from the AFC West most thought would fail quickly and let the Chargers claim a weak division. And that seemed to be playing to script, until Romo needed to make something happen.

Romo was supposed to be the answer in Dallas, but right now, he is more of a problem. He can't find his receivers. He struggles against mediocre defenses (with the exception of Denver), and if he can't start producing, Jerry Jones and company will turn on him for the last time. People remember the botched snap. They also remember the Eagles game from '08. At 2-2, they might remember 2009 as the season Romo finally cemented himself as a legacy ... the "Jessica Simpson's ex-boyfriend" type of legacy.

St. Louis Rams -- They have played four games this season, and scored more than a single touchdown in just one of them. In two games, they didn't have a single person put up a point. On Sunday against the 49ers, they lost 35-0, netting just 177 yards the entire game, turning the ball over three times and allowing Shaun Hill to put up a triple-digit passer rating.

They were once The Best Show on Turf. At this point in '09, they wouldn't even be ... the Best Infants Playing Nerf?

Braylon Edwards, WR Cleveland (0 catches, 1 assault) -- This doesn't happen a lot: a player fights a guy after a game in which he lost, only to get called out by a better athlete, and someone that would probably be better than the initial athlete if he decided to play the initial player's sport.

Edwards didn't catch a pass in the Browns overtime loss to the Bengals. Fine. But then he allegedly goes out and beats up a guy that was friends with LeBron James, only to be called out by the NBA hero because, "My friend is 130 pounds. Seriously. It's like hitting one of my kids. It doesn't make sense."

Personally, I'm surprised Braylon could connect on the punch. These days it seems rare his hands ever succeed in anything they're trying to accomplish.