An NFL coach once told me the first four weeks of the season are basically a continuation of the preseason -- that no one really knows who they are until around Week 5. So if youre confused by all of the twists and turns and shockers and surprises from the first four weeks of this NFL season, dont be. That ball is not round, and it bounces funny.The Patriots were dominant in Week 3 and shutout in Week 4. The Steelers were shut down in Week 3 and dominated in Week 4. Julio Jones had one catch last week; this week he rolled up THREE HUNDRED YARDS. The Cowboys, Rams and Falcons all lost ugly in Week 1 and are a combined 9-0 since.You cant count on much in this league except Russell Wilson, the Denver Broncos and whoevers playing the Browns. But each week, we try to take a step back and figure out whats going on thats real and whats not. Here are this weeks thoughts on what we learned:The Cardinals are brokenArizona outgained the Rams 420 yards to 288, possessed the ball for 32:09, ran 75 offensive plays and had 26 first downs to Los Angeles 12. They scored 13 points. Carson Palmers concussion was surely a factor late, but the five turnovers mattered a lot more. This normally explosive offense is alarmingly inconsistent so far this season, and the Cardinals are losing to teams they should beat. At this rate, that Week 8 NFC Championship Game rematch in Carolina could be an elimination game. Speaking of which ...... The Panthers arent looking good eitherAnd not just because Cam Newton had to leave the game against the Falcons?with a concussion, either. Long before that, a Carolina secondary thats trying to replace Josh Norman with a collection of overmatched rookies was looking like a major weakness for the defending conference champs. The Falcons were the only team to beat the Panthers last regular season, so you might be able to write this off as a blip. And its hard to count on Atlanta to run away with anything after it?started 5-0 and fell apart last season. But Carolina does have some issues to fix, regardless of how soon Cam gets cleared to return to practice.The Texans are fineRemember 11 days ago, when Houston lost 27-0 to New England and everybody was talking about what a mess it?was? Remember six days ago, when we found out J.J. Watt had reinjured his back and was going on injured reserve? Remember all of that? Yeah. Now go look at the AFC South standings. Ill wait. (... examines fingernails ... ponders fantasy trades ...) Right. Bill OBrien coached this team to the playoffs last year with four different starting quarterbacks. Brock Osweiler needs to get better, but he has time to do it. The Colts are a mess and the Jaguars and Titans arent ready. Houstons one-third of the way to the win total it needs to claim a second straight division title. No one should be judged on their worst day, and the Texans are obviously better than they were that night in Foxboro. They have plenty of ways to win.Nobody circles the wagons like ... Rex Ryan?Since that ugly Thursday night loss to the Jets and the next-day firing of offensive coordinator Greg Roman, Ryans Bills have outscored two of last years conference finalists by the combined score of 49-18. Ryan may still need to get the Bills into the playoffs for the first time in 17 years in order to keep his job, but as was so often the case when he was coaching the Jets, hes not going down without a fight. New coordinator Anthony Lynn wanted to get Robert Woods more involved in the passing game and allow LeSean McCoy to operate in space. Looking good so far on both fronts.The Chargers will turn over every single rock in their weekly search for ways to loseI mean, you have to be kidding me with this one, right? San Diego was up by 13 points, at home, with the ball and five minutes to go in a game against a team that cannot play defense. The only way you can possibly lose that game is if you fumble on each of your next two plays from scrimmage. Being the Chargers, this is exactly what they did. Drew Brees was excited to go back to San Diego, and that was before he knew they were going to straight-up hand him and the Saints their first victory of the year. The Chargers blew a 17-point fourth-quarter lead in Kansas City in Week 1, blew a two-point lead with two minutes to go in Week 3 in Indianapolis, and now this. Next week, the Chargers play the Raiders, who have scored go-ahead touchdowns in the final three minutes in two of their four games. Be afraid.Buccaneers home games need to start earlierFor the second week in a row, a Tampa Bay home game in the late Sunday window was delayed during the fourth quarter due to lightning in the area. Anyone who has ever lived in Florida knows the storms roll in at basically the same time every day. (Also, that its even hotter and more humid when they end, and that turn signals are effectively meaningless.). The good news is that only one more Bucs home game this year starts at 4:05 p.m.Alex Mack was one of the offseasons best signingsThe Falcons had a lot of problems last year, but center was an underrated one. Mack has solidified the offensive line and, by extension, an offense that hung 571 yards on the Panthers on Sunday. I talked to Mack last week, after the Falcons had beaten the Saints with their running backs and before they drubbed the Panthers with the passing game. He said, This is what we expect of our playmakers. Theyre making the O-line look really good. Maybe so, but in a league where everybody seems to be putting their line together as the season goes along, Atlantas is pushing people around up front. And it matters.The Jaguars draft was even better than we thoughtThey couldnt get Myles Jack on the field for the first three weeks, then they taught him this week how to play strongside linebacker because Dan Skuta was hurt. He started there Sunday and played great. Yannick Ngakoue, their third-round pick out of Maryland, had a sack and forced a fumble for the third game in a row -- and threw in an interception this time to boot. Jalen Ramsey looks the part. Its too early to know whether Gus Bradley survives if Jacksonville doesnt recover from that 0-3 start, but whoevers coaching the Jaguars next year and in the years to come will have some very exciting young players on his defense. Cheap NFL Jerseys China .Y. -- Injured Buffalo Sabres forward Marcus Foligno did not practice with the team Monday and head coach Ron Rolston said its unlikely hell play in Wednesdays season opener in Detroit. Wholesale Jerseys Authentic . Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan scored shootout goals, and backup goalie Cam Talbot earned his second win in two nights as the Rangers shook off a late tying tally and beat the Maple Leafs 2-1 Monday night. http://www.cheapjerseysauthenticfreeshipping.com/ . Jon Montgomerys gold medal in skeleton at the Whistler Sliding Centre and his subsequent auctioning off of a pitcher of beer in the village square elevated him to folk-hero status. Cheap Minnesota Vikings Jerseys . -- Ohio States Urban Meyer has never had any issue acclimating to the biggest stages in college football. NFL Jerseys For Sale . Andreas Johnson had a goal and two assists while Jacob de la Rose also scored for Sweden (2-0-0). Esa Lindell and Rasmus Ristolainen replied for Finland (1-1-0) Lindell opened the scoring for Finland just 41 seconds into the game, but the hosts quickly regained their composure and tied the score less than four minutes later on Wennbergs first of the game. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Singapore swimmer Joseph Schooling left Rio de Janeiro known as the man who defeated Michael Phelps. And as a millionaire.In addition to winning the gold medal after beating Phelps with an Olympic record in the 100 meter butterfly, the 21-year-old Schooling also took home a reward of 1 million Singaporean dollars (about US $750,000) from his national Olympic committee.Singapore was among the many countries offering hefty cash prizes to their medalists at the Rio Games, a practice that has become more common as nations continue to give greater importance to the final medal count.Few pay nearly as much as Singapore, but almost every country has been awarding at least some sort of prize money to medal winners in an attempt to improve their position in the medal table. The bonuses usually come through the national committees, sponsors or national governments. Some also give out non-cash prizes such as cars and apartments.Twenty percent of Schoolings prize will go to the local swimming association for future training and development, Singapores national committee said. Schoolings gold was the first ever for Singapore at the Olympics.Phelps returned home with more gold than Schooling, but less money. The American great earned $25,000 for each of his five gold medals and $15,000 for the silver, earning $140,000 from the U.S. Olympic Committee.By the end of Friday, the USOC had spent about $1.8 million in prizes after 105 medals were won by its athletes.Britain, second in the medal standings, did not award any prize money to its medalists.Italy was ninth in the medal count by Friday, but with the equivalent of nearly $170,000 awarded to each gold medalist in Rio, it had already spent about $2.6 million in prizes with 25 medal winners. The amount paid for each medal was the same even for athletes in team sports.Other top payers at the Olympics included Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Malaysia, each disbursing about $250,000 for gold medalists. Kazakhsstan also gave out prizes to athletes finishing up to sixth place, while Malaysia awards a lifelong monthly pension that can reach about $1,200.ddddddddddddOf course the money helps, said Patimat Abakarova, who won a bronze for Azerbaijan in Taekwondo and took home more than $60,000. But any athlete will tell you that this is not why we are here. We dont think about the money, thats not why we compete in the Olympics.Azerbaijan also gives its coaches half of the amount awarded to the medalists.Russias federal government is giving out about $60,000 for gold, and this time there is no word on whether it will also award luxury cars to all of its medalists, as it did at the Sochi Winter Games.Host Brazil is paying roughly $11,000 for its medalists, regardless of the color of the medal. The winners in team sports earn half of that amount. The Brazilian soccer federation reportedly is also expected to hand out $100,000 to Neymar and all of his teammates if they help Brazil win the soccer gold medal for the first time, although it doesnt officially confirm or deny the bonus amount.Sweden is among the few countries that dont reward athletes with money if their athletes win. The Swedish national committee said there was no medal bonus because we spend all our commercial money on preparation for the athletes, which means that we usually support them for six to eight years to reach world class.Some countries apparently didnt give any support at all.The national committee of the South Pacific islands of Vanuatu, which competed with four athletes, said the local government did not give even a cent to help our team participate in Rio 2016.---AP Sports Writers Gerald Imray and James Ellingworth contributed to this report.---Tales Azzoni on Twitter: http://twitter.com/tazzoni. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/tales-azzoni ' ' '