The NFC East, a beast on the first weekend of the NFL's regular season, will begin sorting itself out Sunday.
All five NFC East teams won their openers, but two head-to-head matchups will break the early tie. The Cardinals are at Philadelphia on Sunday and the Cowboys play host to the Redskins Monday night, while the Giants go outside the division to face the Rams.The Cardinals-Eagles game is a matchup of backup quarterbacks as Philadelphia plays its first game in four years without Randall Cunningham as the starter and Phoenix again will have Tom Tupa in place of Timm Rosenbach. Both Cunningham and Rosenbach suffered season-ending knee injuries.
The Eagles' Reggie White, named NFL Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in a 20-3 victory over the Packers, said the game could become a defensive struggle.
"It's up to us to create some things. Get some turnovers, make things happen," said White, who had five tackles, three sacks and forced two fumbles, recovering one. He also tipped a pass that was intercepted. "When Randall went down, we knew that we had to win it. That's nothing against Jim McMahon. He's been a champion. He knows what it takes. I have the utmost respect for Jim. But we have to get him field position."
The Eagles, featuring White, end Clyde Simmons, tackles Jerome Brown and Mike Pitts and a young, speedy secondary, held the Packers to 44 yards rushing and 201 passing.
The Cardinals, who opened with a 24-14 victory over the Rams, forced seven turnovers, with four leading to all their points.
Elsewhere in the NFL on Sunday, it's Chicago at Tampa Bay, Cleveland at New England, Green Bay at Detroit, Indianapolis at Miami, Minnesota at Atlanta, New Orleans at Kansas City, Pittsburgh at Buffalo, San Diego at San Francisco, Denver at the Los Angeles Raiders, the New York Jets at Seattle, and Houston at Cincinnati.
It was 0-0 when McMahon, a 10-year pro who led the Bears to a Super Bowl victory in January 1986, replaced Cunningham. McMahon completed 17 of 25 passes for 257 yards and two touchdowns, one a deflection.
Meanwhile, Tupa completed 10 of 18 passes for 124 yards and one TD for Phoenix.
The Cowboys-Redskins game will break some other ties besides the 1-0 records the teams take into the meeting. Washington coach Joe Gibbs is 10-10 against Dallas while Johnson is 3-3 against the Redskins.
"Our victory on Thanksgiving last year was very important to our franchise because it showed that we can be successful against a top team like the Redskins," Johnson said. "We know we can be successful against them."
The Redskins lost quarterback Mark Rypien for six weeks in the 27-17 Thanksgiving loss to the Cowboys.
"This Dallas team is much, much better than the one last year," Gibbs said. "They have good balance on offense and play great defense. Their defense always gives us problems."
Gibbs said his toughest games have been against the Cowboys.
"Dallas is always tough on us even when they don't have good teams," Gibbs said. "I don't know what it is. I guess they just match up well or something."
Another matchup of unbeaten teams is the Steelers-Bills game in Buffalo, where quarterback Jim Kelly is finding much the same football mania he saw in his youth in East Brady, Pa., when Pittsburgh won four Super Bowls in the 1970s.
"The Steeler-mania back then was wild and crazy and it's definitely wild and crazy up here," Kelly said of Rich Stadium, where the Bills have a 10-game winning streak.
Kelly said he only went to one Steelers game during Pittsburgh's string of championships.
"I still root for them when we're not playing them, but believe me, I'm not rooting for them this week," he said.
Denver, which started with a 45-14 rout of the Bengals, faces a Raiders team that has been outscored 98-20 in their last two games, including a 47-17 loss to the Oilers last week.
"We were embarrassed by the score," Raiders coach Art Shell said. "I've been involved in games like that before. You must move forward, we've got it behind us."
The loss to Houston was the first game for the Raiders since they were demolished 51-3 by the Bills in last January's AFC Championship game.
"You can throw out last week," Broncos coach Dan Reeves said. "They'll come out fired up, ready to play.
"I think they feel they're kind of backed into a corner. If we aren't ready to match their intensity, we'll be in for a long afternoon. But this is one game I don't have to worry about our players being up for. This is one of the great rivalries in pro football."