The AFC Starts the Season With a Huge Thud

The AFC has been the dominant conference this decade. Since 2000, the only NFC teams to win a Super Bowl were the '02 Buccaneers and '07 Giants. The AFC has just had better teams and better times since Y2K hit.

That could be changing.

The AFC came out for the 2008 season with a resounding thud. Most of the much hyped contenders for the AFC Championship -- Patriots, Colts, Chargers, Jaguars and Browns -- lost something today.

Most of them lost their games. The Jaguars lost to the Tennessee Titans ... a good team who saw two of their offensive stars injured. The Colts, Chargers and Browns were each beaten by NFC teams at home.

The Chargers were stunned by the Carolina Panthers when Jake Delhomme threw a TD pass as time expired to pull out the upset. The Browns were just run over by the Dallas Cowboys. The Colts opened up Lucas Oil Field with an uninspired loss to the Chicago Bears.

The Colts and Bolts (legit Super Bowl contenders) were beaten by NFC teams that failed to make the playoffs last year.

The biggest loss went to the New England Patriots who beat the Chiefs but lost MVP Tom Brady for the season. That injury should send out a ripple effect throughout the entire league and opening all kinds of doors for the AFC teams that just took one on the chin today.

It wasn't a full free for all by the NFC. The Buffalo Bills just spanked the Seattle Seahawks, 34-10; the Steelers bulldozed the Houston Texans; and the Brett Favre Era in New York got off to a winning start.

Still, what happened today in the AFC cannot be slept on.

The Colts do have some injury issues (Dallas Clark and Joseph Addai both left the Bears game). Peyton Manning came out rusty against a fired up Chicago defense and their own defense hasn't really played together yet. Still, this was a Bears offense that shredded Indy and was ran by Kyle Orton and rookie Matt Forte.

San Diego got beat by a Carolina team without their best player, Steve Smith, who is serving a two-game suspension.

Jacksonville's vaunted rushing attack was held to 33 yards.

Cleveland may have been exposed as a fluke.

It is early and anything can happen over the next 15 games. Still, it could mean that the balance of power could be swaying back to the NFC again.