The Colts' Joseph Addai has run for 207 yards and a touchdown so far this season. David E. Klutho/SI

PERCEPTION: Without Edgerrin James around to lead the Colts' running game, defenses will be able to key on Peyton Manning and slow down the Indianapolis offense.

REALITY: Indy's offense ranked third last year (362.4), but its run game was 16th, averaging 106.4 yards per game and 3.7 yards per carry. This year? The Colts' offense is ranked fifth, with 366.5 yards per game, and their running game is 20th, averaging 100.8 yards per game with an average attempt of 3.5 yards. Interestingly enough, Indy's seven rushing touchdowns (including two game-winners the past two weeks by Manning) lead the NFL, as does its 30.2 points per game.

Oh, and did we mention the Colts are 4-0 and in their accustomed perch atop the AFC South? The running back tandem of rookie Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes has combined for 396 rushing yards, or 99 per game, with a 3.8-yard average and four touchdowns. That's on pace for 1,584 yards rushing for the pair, which would nicely compensate for the missing 1,506 yards that James ran for last year.

Edgerrin who?

PERCEPTION: The inverse of the above-mentioned myth: The Cardinals' signing of James in free agency will vastly improve their moribund running game, which ranked dead last in the NFL in 2005.

REALITY:  Well, the Cardinals' running game is better. Barely. Arizona through four games ranks 31st, with its 70.2 yards per game besting only the woeful Tampa Bay ground game (43.3 in three games). The Cardinals are averaging 2.8 yards per carry, with their longest run going for all of 14 yards, by James.

James has only 272 yards on 88 carries (3.1 average), with two touchdowns. At 68 yards per game, he's on track to rack up a 1,088-yard season, but he'd be doing it the hard way, on 352 body-punishing carries. He topped 1,500 yards rushing in each of the last two years in Indy, on 334 and 360 carries, respectively, and he's never averaged less than 3.6 yards per run in his seven full NFL seasons.

This one was actually easy to see coming, given the Cardinals' failure to improve their horrible offensive line. Many of us never bought into the theory that James would be able to overcome his lack of blocking in the desert. James got his big payday in Arizona, but chances are he might have damaged his Hall of Fame chances by taking the money and running to the Cardinals.

PERCEPTION: With Aaron Brooks on board, the Raiders have themselves a quarterback who can get the ball deep to Randy Moss and take advantage of the receiver's unparalleled game-breaking skills.

REALITY: Through three games, Moss has seven catches for 84 yards, with one touchdown and a long gain of 20 yards. His 12.0-yard average reception ranks fourth among Raiders, who have had receptions by only six players.

Brooks had an atrocious first game against San Diego in a 27-0 loss, then got hurt and left early in Oakland's 28-6 Week 2 failure at Baltimore. In Brooks' replacement's first start, at home on Sunday in a loss to Cleveland, Andrew Walter fed Moss to the tune of one catch for five yards.

We're just counting the days until Moss -- who long ago reminded us he plays when he wants to play -- decides he didn't have it so bad in Minnesota after all.

PERCEPTION: The talent drain on New England's roster will finally catch up to the three-time Super Bowl champions, as the defections from the receiving depth chart will drop the Pats into middle-of-the-pack territory in the AFC.

REALITY: The Patriots' passing game is 16th -- definite middle-of-the-pack standing -- with 213.8 yards per game and six touchdowns. And it has been ugly at times compared with Tom Brady & Co.'s usual level of execution and excellence. But in this case you can tell your statistics to shut up, because the bottom line is that no team in the NFL is more resilient or more adept at figuring out how to win with what it's got than the Patriots.

These are not your 2003-04 era Patriots, to be sure. But there they are, standing 3-1 and in first place in the AFC East, a game ahead of both Buffalo and the Jets -- whom they've already beaten -- and two games up on the supposedly improved Dolphins. After watching the Patriots beat the daylights out of the Bengals in Cincinnati on Sunday, is anybody in the NFL willing to declare their championship era definitively over? I didn't think so.