My oldest brother and a few good friends from high school still live in Maryland, and we've all come to conclusion that our Ravens, despite their 4-3 record, are just as bad as the winless Dolphins and Rams.

 

Baltimore's 4 wins include:

 

1. Barely beating the Jets at home. If not for some unforgivable drops by Jets receivers they would have beaten the Ravens
2. Barely beating the Cardinals.  Larry Fitzgerald somehow fumbled and dropped passes.  Kurt Warner only played half the game.  If Fitzgerald hadn't had a bad game and Warner

The media and fans in Chicago are, for a lack of a better word, very nice.  They love their star athletes and even when those athletes come up significantly short, you rarely see them try to run a guy out of town or bash them in the press. 

 

I'm not from the Midwest and don't have those kind of polite sensibilities.  I would describe myself as a classic hot-headed East Coaster.  So I'm going to do Chicago fans a favor and vent about their "great" defensive leader Brian Urlacher, because I know it's not in their nature to be negative

Stanford 24, USC 23

Notre Dame 20, UCLA 6

 

USC and UCLA both lost these home games.  It's universally accepted that of the 119 Division 1-A teams Stanford and Notre Dame were considered no higher than 100^th in talent this season.  Stanford was starting a backup Sophomore QB.  Plus, they're Stanford.  If this was swimming, golf or cross country then you'd have some talent, but this is football.  Notre Dame started Freshman Jimmy Clausen.  Clausen was certainly a top rated recruit, but the fact that he had 84 yards on 17 completed passes show that he's not exactly airing it out. 

 

To see the biggest

Barring injury to Tom Brady or Randy Moss, I will eat my own foot if the Patriots don't win at least 14 games this season.   I know, I know, predicting at least 14 wins isn't exactly a bold prediction, but I'm a man of my word and self-cannibalization isn't something to sneeze at.

 

In 10,000 simulated seasons the Patriots make the playoffs 9,997 times.  That's right, there's still a chance that the Spy Gate will cost the Patriots a 2^nd round pick and not a 1^st round pick.  They are winning the AFC East 9,991

Colorado's shocking upset over Oklahoma taught me a valuable lesson about college football --- these are a bunch of kids playing. 

Oklahoma was terrible in all phases of the game.  Freshman Sam Bradford had his first bad game, the Sooners couldn't run the ball, the secondary made a ton of mental errors, the pass rush was ineffective, the return coverage stunk (especially on that final punt return by Colorado) and the return game was terible (muffed punt cost them the game). 

The fact is, if even one of these units (passing offense, rushing offense, defensive

So garbage time cost me my LSU over SC pick, but I still went 2-1 raising my college football record to 8-2.  Until I have a bad week I'm going to continue focusing on college football and here's what I'm looking at this week:

AUBURN @ FLORIDA (Florida -18.5)

The worst thing to happen to Auburn is Florida putting up a lackluster performance at Ole Miss.  Add that to Florida's tough loss at Auburn last year and you have a very motivated Gators team.  Tennessee is better than Auburn and you know how Florida destroyed them at home.  I like Florida

My College Football picks have been 6-1 this season so I'm going to do something which I usually hate to do --- try to ride a hot streak and stick with college football rather than "diversify" with NFL or MLB picks.

CLEMSON @ NC STATE: Pick Clemson (-7.0)

Clemson is like Poor Man's Oklahoma.  Multiple, great Running Backs and an accurate passer in Cullen Harper who has yet to throw an interception in 276 career pass attempts. NC State has intercepted opposing QBs just once this year.  NC State is averaging 1.6 turnovers per simulation while Clemson is

I know 99.999% of you reading this have no interest in the moves that the Washington Wizards should make this off-season, but I'm going to go ahead and write a few words on why I'd love to see if the disgruntled Andrei Kirilenko would be available for Antawn Jamison.

Jamison can get a ton of points but with Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler we don't need another perimeter scorer.  Jamison is listed as PF, but he is certainly not a low post scorer in the NBA like he was in college.  I know he averages 10 rebounds, but when you are playing a ton of minutes, on a team

 

Dear Jamal,

 

I owe you an apology.  While I still think some of those long runs you got against the Bengals were more a case where the Bengals defense is terrible, than your own ability, I have to say that you showed me that you were not "washed up" as I must've said around 1,000 times in the past 3 years.  You started out poorly vs. Pittsburgh and for a quarter vs. the Bengals, but then you blitzed the Bengals for 216 yards!!!!  Not only did you actually show a burst through some of the big holes you had, you showed breakaway speed, which

 

My College Football picks were solid last week as I went with the heavy favorites LSU, Oklahoma and Penn State.  In the NFL I personally lucked out locking in the Colts / Saints Over Under at 50.  I picked the game to go over 52, which was wrong.  I also whiffed taking Oakland to cover -1.5.  Jon Kitna gave me the big f-you by passing for a ton of yards and touchdowns.  I felt vindicated when the Raiders took the lead and Kitna had thrown to costly interceptions at that point, but then saw my hopes dashed by Sebastian Janikowski and a bad late turnover by Josh