Degenerate Friday - Week 3

Computer issues saved you from losing money with my 8-8 picks last week, so you’re welcome for that. Now we’re on to the next week, where teams find themselves on the verge of losing their seasons before they hit the one quarter mark of the season. Are we ready to make conclusions about teams? Probably not. Remember last year when Josh McDaniels and the Broncos started 6-0 before the bottom fell out? So let’s not get too ahead of ourselves after just a few weeks and then be surprised when the truth comes out. Kind of like the categories for the games this week….celebrity surprises during the past couple weeks.

Standard disclosures apply: Picks are for recreational purposes only, spreads from the NY Post, and home teams in CAPS.

The Paris Hilton Tier

Paris was rejected from Japan this week. Not a major surprise, but then again, it was surprising that she was wearing clothes and wasn’t on a boat.

PATRIOTS (-14) over Bills

What happened to that dynamic CJ Spiller guy who was wearing a Bills jersey in the preseason? The Bills offense has been absolutely horrendous, so while this is a ton of points to lay, it may only take three scores by the Patriots to cover. So when Chan Gailey says that he doesn’t see much difference between Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick, is that an insult to both of them?

Raiders (+4) over CARDINALS

I have been playing the Raiders all season and they’ve yet to pay off. Is this the week with Bruce Gradkowski at quarterback? Considering he’s up against the worst quarterback in the league outside of Buffalo in Derek Anderson, I think it is. Is Larry Fitzgerald going to snap after yet another pass sails 5 yards over his head?

SEAHAWKS (+5.5) over Chargers

Chargers laid the lumber last week to Jacksonville and their offense seemed to find the rhythm they couldn’t find in the rain in Kansas City in week 1. So laying 5.5 against a Seattle team that lost to Denver last week shouldn’t be a problem, right? Wrong. Just like Paris Hilton, when the light is shined on them at the right angle (on the road in Seattle), the Chargers have some significant flaws and will be missing Ryan Matthews who has a banged up ankle.

Colts (-5.5) over BRONCOS

Peyton Manning will let you know when it’s safe to bet against the Colts, and after last week’s dismantling of his little brother, the Colts look ready to roll. Add to that the emotional week the Broncos have just had with the death of one of their wide receivers, and Denver could not have found a worse opponent.

The Demi Moore Tier

Ashton Kutcher was busted for cheating on Moore with an extremely average looking girl. Are we surprised that Kutcher is an idiot? He made his career by acting like an idiot on That 70’s Show, acting like an idiot on Punk’d, and being a cougar-hunting idiot. Maybe he was just never acting….

Lions (+11) over VIKINGS

Let me get this straight. The Lions have lost on a terrible call to the Bears and by 3 to the Eagles, and they’re suddenly giving double digits to an 0-2 team that has scored 19 TOTAL points in two weeks? There is a reason the casinos are so big in Vegas, but this is not one of them. The Old Gunslinger hasn’t found a WR he can trust and the difference of philosophy between him and Coach Childress continues to widen.

RAVENS (-10.5) over Browns

Despite the Ravens offensive woes to start the season, the best medicine is playing against the woeful Browns. The Ravens have gone up against the tough Jets defense and the underrated Bengals defense, so their struggles have been blown out of proportion. And I didn’t even have to mention that Seneca Wallace is starting again for the Browns.

Bengals (-3) over PANTHERS

Welcome to the NFL, Jimmy Clausen by taking on a Bengals defense that ate pre-season darling Joe Flacco’s lunch last week. Clausen struggling in his debut is less surprising than J-Woww posing in Playboy. Doesn’t it seem like Hugh is overpaying for her pictures? Would it really take more than a bottle of booze and a couple of compliments whispered in her ear?

Eagles (-3) over JAGUARS

Michael Vick is the Boston Cream donut in the Eagles locker room and Andy Reid can’t get enough. He’s so in love with his Boston Cream that he has smashed the chocolate sprinkles donut that he’s been telling everyone he loves for the past 6 months. And that came after he dumped his first love – the Long John donut because it kept making him choke. Maybe Reid just likes donuts.

Redskins (-3.5) over RAMS

So do we look at the Redskins team that build a 17 point lead against the dangerous Texans or do we look at the Redskins team that blew a 17 point lead against the dangerous Texans? I don’t know, nor do I care. What I do care about is that a spread of barely over a field goal against one of the worst teams in the league should be covered.

The Randy Quaid Tier

Did you see the story where Randy and his wife were arrested for squatting in a house they used to own? Uncle Eddie has definitely fallen on some tough times and he sure looks like it’s been a long, strange journey.

CHIEFS (+2.5) over 49ers

The 49ers are coming off a game in which they played very well against the Saints, but playing in Kansas City is a different story. While Matt Cassel has played awful, the Chiefs will need to rely on their special teams and running game to generate points.

Titans (+3) over GIANTS

Lost in all the attention that the Jets have generated the past few weeks is that the Giants are not very good. They were able to beat a terrible Panthers team despite turning the ball over more times than Lindsay Lohan returns to rehab. Then they got splattered by the Colts. The Titans crushed the Raiders and then were shut down by what has thus far been the best defense in the league, the Steelers. Look for Chris Johnson to get back much closer to his 2500 yard pace.

Steelers (-2.5) over BUCCANEERS

It doesn’t matter who the Steelers start at quarterback as long as their defense remains as good as they have been. The Josh Freeman leading the young Tampa squad is a nice story, but beating Carolina and Cleveland hardly gives them a boost in the BCS standings.

Jets (+2) over DOLPHINS

This might be the toughest game of the week to pick. The Jets are kind of like Randy Quaid, highly entertaining, but you have to wonder if there are some serious problems behind the outward shell. The Dolphins are 2-0 and can build themselves a nice little lead in the division with a win over the Jets, but they have feasted on a poor Bills offense and a struggling Vikings offense.

The Kelly McGillis Tier

This was the shocker of the week. Kelly was everyone’s favorite military flight instructor in the 80’s blockbuster, Top Gun, and she got married this week…to a woman. I mean, it really kind of changes all the news you have heard recently about “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

SAINTS (-6) over Falcons

Even without Reggie Bush, the Saints offense has a ton of weapons. The Falcons hammered the Cardinals last week and they are at home, but I think the Saints will have recovered from their trip out west in time.

TEXANS (-3) over Cowboys

I really can’t imagine the Cowboys starting the year 0-3. Then again, I never imagined Kelly McGillis playing for the other team – not that there’s anything wrong with that. The Texans have won their first two games, first with a dominant running game and then with a dominant passing game. Look for them to light up the Cowboys in Houston.

Packers (-3) over BEARS

The Bears have proven to be legit thus far, and winning at Dallas last week was impressive. Yet it’s starting to be apparent that the Cowboys may not be as good as we expected, so it does come with a grain of salt. And the Bears should have lost in week 1 to Detroit. If the Packers can generate any kind of running game to keep the Bears defense honest, expect Green Bay to blow them out. Will Ted Thompson finally make a trade for a running back? Here’s a great read about his failed attempts to get Randy Moss a few years back, which makes you think that TT may not be able to trade for Marshawn Lynch like he should.

Brett Favre is NOT Retiring

Haven’t we seen this act before? Brett Favre is supposedly retiring…for the third time (officially the third time – unofficially it is 432,132 times). Like the Rocky movies, they keep making sequels and while the first couple times it was entertaining, at some point it just becomes an old guy who can’t let it go. And that’s where things currently stand. Two years ago he forced a trade to the Jets in July. Last year it was the boy who cried wolf when Favre waited until July to go back and forth before suiting up for the Vikings. This year, no one believes him. Just like if Sylvester Stallone decided to make a final Rocky movie more than 15 years after Rocky V…..wait, that actually happened. And then Stallone made a Rambo IV movie 20 years after Rambo III. Maybe him and Favre are related?

I feel bad for Vikings fans, because now they understand what it is like to have your franchise hi-jacked by Brett Favre, held hostage and potentially left for dead. If Favre stays retired, the Vikings will be lucky to win 8 games with Tavaris Jackson at quarterback. Yet if Favre had told the team back in March or April that he was going to retire, don’t you think the Vikings would have made a major push to get Donovan McNabb? Or at least drafted Jimmy Clausen. Instead, Brett took a big, steaming dump on another franchise who had bent over backwards to please him.

So why don’t I believe Favre is really retired? Simple: Favre is an attention whore, a greedy ego-driven diva and the king of excuses.

Attention Whore
He loves the attention from the media and the fans. He likes to be the center of all the storylines and loves to pose for the cameras more than Paris Hilton. He loves the specials about whether he will or won’t retire. He wants the reporters camped out at the end of his driveway so he can put on his old Wrangler jeans, beat up baseball hat, and smirk into the camera “Aw, shucks. I just play football.” Yeah right, Brett. You just love everyone begging you to play and using your “power” to get Coach Childress to pick you up from the airport himself. He also knows that Vikings fans will drop a deuce in their pants when they realize how bad the Vikings will be without him, and therefore they will love him even more when he rides in on his white horse just before the start of the regular season. And he will love the slobbering that ESPN will lavish on him from Chris Berman, Chris Mortensen (Favre might as well pay him as his personal PR person) and Sal Paolotonio.

Greedy Ego-Driven Diva
There is no doubt that a part of Brett’s ploy is to get more than the $13 million currently on his contract. He sees the enormous contract Sam Bradford signed. He sees that Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are about to break the bank. And he wants his piece of the pie. So he’s going to put the pressure on the Vikings to add another year and a few million more in his contract. He doesn’t need the money. He already has enough to buy most of Mississippi. But Brett sees it as a sign of respect to be paid among the elite quarterbacks in the league and he needs the attention and what he believes is his due respect.

Yet this is the same Brett Favre that called out Sterling Sharpe and Javon Walker when they held out because they had outplayed their current contract. No wants to talk about that. Yet what Favre is doing is basically holding out for more money and to avoid training camp. Way to be a team player, Brett.

King of Excuses
Favre’s toughness cannot be questioned. Yet every time he fails, there is always an excuse as to why it’s not Brett’s fault. When the Packers struggled from 2005-2006 it was always blamed on a poor supporting cast. Yet the reality is that Favre was out of shape, unprepared and undisciplined and as a result he threw a ton of interceptions. It would not have mattered who was lining up wide for him. When he cost the Packers the 2007-08 NFC Championship with a hideous game, it was because of the cold. It couldn’t have been because he locked on to a receiver and threw a horrendous interception, could it? When he faded terribly down the stretch with the Jets in 2008-09, it was because of a torn biceps tendon. And when he threw another unconscionable interception that cost the Vikings a trip to the Super Bowl in 2009-10, what was the excuse? Oh yeah, it was his ankle injury, not his terrible decision-making.

So by announcing his retirement because his ankle hasn’t healed correctly, he is creating his built-in excuse in case he fails with the Vikings when he makes his way back to the team during the preseason. If the Vikings don’t get to or win the Super Bowl, it won’t be Brett’s poor decision-making or deteriorating skills that are the problem. It will be the ankle that didn’t allow him to play at full strength and he was a hero just for trying to gut it out.

Listen, I loved watching Favre play when I was growing up, and I consider myself extremely lucky to have had one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time leading my favorite team throughout all of my formative years. But enough is enough. Unfortunately his amazing playing ability has been eclipsed by his pathetic ego-driven diva act.

Weekend Hangover - Love/Hate Conference Champs

LOVE

- Once a gunslinger, always a gunslinger. Brett Favre takes away the Vikings chance to win it in regulation with a terrible decision to throw it back across his body into the middle of the field, resulting in a pick. In many senses, if this is his last game, it’s very fitting. He took an absolute beating because his line could not protect him, yet he displayed his legendary toughness by limping around, keeping his team close, yet ultimately made the bad interception. And he didn’t get any help from his buttery-fingered teammates – they should have been up 14 at that point without the 4 turnovers before the final pick. Oh, and can we please blame Brad Childress for the “12 men in the huddle” penalty? We just need to make sure he takes some blame.

Was it strange that a running back had over 100 yards and 3 touchdowns, yet he didn’t play a great game and the coach had to be considering benching him at multiple points during the game because of his fumbling? Peterson will never be one of the greats if he can’t stop putting it on the carpet.

Interesting side note: Favre’s last pass as a Packer was the ill-fated interception in OT of the 2007 NFC Championship against the Giants. His last pass as a Jet was an interception against the Dolphins (not counting the double hook and ladder to end the game where he was called for an illegal forward pitch). Could this be his last pass as a Viking? Another interception, in another NFC Championship game. He is consistent if nothing else.

- Peyton Manning is the best quarterback I have ever seen. He made adjustments to the Rex Ryan blitzing scheme, and ate it up. He is the most intelligent, accurate and impressive player in the game today. He didn’t go after Darrelle Revis extensively, but he wasn’t afraid to throw in his direction – including the play where Reggie Wayne shook him after the catch and left him grasping at air. The play that was the epitome of Manning’s game control was a quick-snap running play on 3rd and 5 in the 3rd quarter when the Jets still had 12 men on the field. Manning recognized it and quickly got his team a free first down. He a master of the game the same way Bar Rafaeli is the master of a bikini.

Mark Sanchez also played a tremendous game, and the moment was not too big for him. His only turnover was at the end in desperation time, and he was accurate with the ball, made smart decisions and made up for a running game that was stumped by the Colts defense.

- Not to dislocate my shoulder patting myself on the back……..but there was a certain someone suggesting you make easy money by betting on Pierre Garcon to have the most receiving yards in either game. That’s a nice little 10-1 payday from Uncle Trent. That is…….if gambling were legal.

And I also mentioned last week that I thought the Colts running game was underappreciated…..and Joseph Addai had 3 less yards than Thomas Jones & Shonn Greene combined. The Colts outrushed the Jets, which didn’t seem likely before the game.

- Aside from the football this weekend, there was an amazing ending to the Florida-South Carolina game on Saturday night. South Carolina’s Devon Downey was a monster in the game, including the go-ahead bucket by taking on all 5 Gator defenders. Fast forward to the 7:10 mark of the video. Unfortunately the video cuts off right before the replay where you can read the lips of the South Carolina coach going “No, please don’t go in……Oh no.”

HATE

- As much as the Colts won the game, the Jets did not play well overall. There were way too many penalties, including 3 that gave the Colts first downs. Their defense was not able to intimidate the Colts offense and the Jets offensive line was dominated by the undersized Colts line. While they knew they were underdogs and it was a successful season to get as far as they did, it has to be disheartening to not really come up big in the biggest game.

- I mentioned it above, but it needs to be mentioned in the hate section: The Vikings played awful, with 5 turnovers, countless pentalties and a porous offensive line. Favre took an absolute beating during the game, and yet he was never actually sacked. Despite his bad final interception, Favre was the only reason the Vikings were still in a position to have a shot at winning.

- Speaking of hitting the quarterback, what is the rule about hitting a quarterback after a hand-off? In the Jets game, Sanchez was hit after handing off and no penalty was called. Rex Ryan was more livid than when they ran out of wings at the all-you-can-eat postgame meal. Then in the Vikings game, the Saints were flagged for hitting Favre after he handed off. Why is that a penalty? How does the defender know that it’s not a play action fake? Why can the quarterback block, but the defense can’t hit him? Just seems like a strange rule to me where the league treats the quarterbacks more gentle than if they were playing in the lingerie football league.

- While I’m a fan of instant replay to make sure the correct calls are made, the replays during overtime of the Saints-Vikings game really grinded the game to a halt. Reviewing the spot, then running a dive play and reviewing the spot again just took all the emotion and momentum out of the game. No real solution for it, just a general annoyance.

- When will Fox realize that Joe Buck is not their best option for their #1 announcing team. Buck thinks he is bigger than the game or the moment and always tries to overemphasize the moment with his dramatic comments. We know your Dad was a good announcer, Joe, and you sir are no Jack Buck. You have less class than Jack Buck’s cufflink. Joe is a smug little wienie who has no business calling an important game – the play-by-play guy is supposed to tell us what’s happening and leave the analysis and opinions to the color guy who actually knows what he’s talking about. Troy Aikman knows what he’s talking about, so please Joe, just shut up and let him give us the accurate information. And Buck needs knee pads more than Paris Hilton for the way he talks about Favre.

- Wisconsin hoops falling behind by 15 to Penn State in the second half. Yes, they came back to win, just like they did against Michigan, yet it is getting concerning how they keep falling behind these bottom tier teams in the conference – at the Kohl Center. It’s just a matter of time before it burns them, and they won’t be able to come back against the better teams like Michigan State, Purdue or Ohio State (whom they lost to in Columbus).

Why It Must Suck To Be A Bears Fan

It is not debatable that it sucks to be a Bears fan. It is only debatable WHY it sucks to be a Bears fan. The football team in the city of broad shoulders has not excelled at the sport where broad shoulders should come in extremely useful.

So this is why it sucks to be a Bears fan…….

I. The Fan Base

First and foremost, it sucks to be a Bears fan because you are lumped together with the overweight, sausage-eating, baker’s-dozen-heart-attack-having, Ditka-loving group from Saturday Night Live. Talking about da bears and dem guys dat can’t win dat game against dat udder team. It’s not a pretty sight to see the passionate fans of Chicago watching their team come up short time and time again. And the fans are passionate, because let’s be honest, what else do they have to cheer for? The Cubs? Yeah, that “curse” from 1908 isn’t going to end anytime soon for the loveable losers that fill the stands with people who don’t know anything about baseball, but know that they want to be seen at the game. Oh, and they just declared bankruptcy, so do you really expect them to improve any time soon? No. The Bulls? Ever since Jerry Krause ran Jordan out of town, the team has been a laughing stock. Oh, and that was more than 10 years ago the last time the Bulls were relevant. The White Sox? Please. There are only a dozen people that know the White Sox play in Chicago and 2 of them are still on probation from their booze-fueled attack on the Royals first base coach a few seasons ago. The Blackhawks? They have a great, rich tradition of success, but no one outside of Canada cares about a sport where they call the jerseys “sweaters.” So the fans in Chicago have no choice but to have blind faith and hope for the Bears success.

II. The Ownership/Management

The McCaskey family controls about 80% of the team, and I don’t think you can question their passion for the team and for football. Unfortunately, the problem has been with hiring poor personnel people and messing up the roster. The McCaskeys hired Jerry Angelo as the GM in 2001, yet their coach at the time, Dick Jauron, had in his contract that he would get final personnel power, so their GM essentially had no authority. That’s like having Barney Fife as your town sherriff and replacing him with Aunt Bea!! Amazingly, that didn’t work out well, and Jauron was eventually fired in 2003. The personnel decisions from Angelo have been horrendous. Free agency and trades haven’t treated the Bears well, bringing in Brian Griese, giving up a draft pick for John Tait, and giving away Thomas Jones. The same Thomas Jones who led the AFC in rushing last year, and is 5th this year. And it’s not pretty looking at the first round picks since 2001: David Terrell, Marc Columbo, Rex Grossman, Michael Haynes, Tommie Harris, Cedric Benson, Greg Olsen and Chris Williams. He gave up Thomas Jones to give the job to Cedric Benson who was eventually cut before resurfacing with the Bengals, and is now 3rd in the league in rushing. Is there such thing as a Reverse King Midas? Jerry Angelo might be King Turd – everything he touches turns to a turd until they are out from under the Bears’ grip. Oh, and then there’s Kyle Orton……..

III. The Quarterback

Speaking of Kyle Orton, it deserves its own section. The Quarterback of the Chicago Bears, it doesn’t sound that complicated. Play caretaker for a team with a good defense and a predisposition to run the ball. Yet the Bears have not found a quarterback since Sid Luckman – and he retired in 1950. Yes, Jim McMahon won a Super Bowl in 1986, but he was not the key to that team like Walter Payton and the defense were. Fans want to have a quarterback to see as the face of the franchise. Bears fans have had the following guys as their quarterbacks: Mike Tomczak, Jim Harbaugh, Peter Tom Willis, Eric Kramer, Steve Walsh, Dave Krieg, Rick Mirer, Shane Matthews, Cade McNown, Jim Miller, Chris Chandler, Henry Burris, Kordell Stewart, Rex Grossman, Kyle Orton, Brian Griese, and finally Jay Cutler. I’ll take “Quarterbacks I will always bet against and will win much more than I will lose” for a million, Alex. The Bears threw in Kyle Orton along with first round draft picks to get Jay Cutler, and all Orton has done is lead the Broncos to a perfect 6-0 start with a passer rating over 100, good for 8th in the league.

I mean, Jay Cutler just signed a two-year contract extension yesterday. That’s a sign of how bad it’s been for the Bears quarterbacks. Five games, 10 TDs, 7 INTs and a rating under 87.0, and yet that is far and away better than anything they’ve seen before, so they wanted to lock him up as soon as possible. Your kid only got in a fender-bender during his first 5 weeks with his license and didn’t total the car, so you might as well upgrade him to a Bentley.

IV. Lack of Success

And finally, the biggest reason it sucks to be a Bears fan is that the Bears suck. They won the Super Bowl in 1986 (after the 1985 season), and since then, made one flukey trip in 2006, where they were demolished by the Colts. The Bears fans still rely upon that 1985/6 team for an identity, and idolized Coach Ditka, Walter Payton, Mike Singletary, and Richard Dent so much that they have failed to realize how poor the team has been in the past 20+ years. Oh, and Ditka is from Pennsylvania, not Chicago. The Bears are 5-9 in the playoffs since winning that lone Super Bowl, and have only won their division 3 times since 1991. The Monsters of the Midway are about as intimidating as the Baby Muppets. Even Paris Hilton realized that the Bears suck, and dumped Brian Urlacher because she couldn’t date someone that was more overrated than her.

Week 6 Hangover - Love/Hate

Couple quick airline stories from the weekend before the Love/Hate…….

7:00 am flight out of LaGuardia, boarding up around 6:45, and then become plane #31 in line to take off, so there’s some time to kill on the run way. Girl in the center seat wearing sweat pants and a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up decides she’s hungry. Rustles in her bag and pulls out a full size bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. Really? Who brings a full-size bag of Doritos on a plane? For a 7:00 AM flight!?! So it’s now just after 7 in the morning, with the smell of cool ranch Doritos dominating the plane. And she doesn’t have any napkins and since you don’t want to waste any of that great cool ranch flavor, the natural thing to do is lick your fingers and hands to make sure you get all that goodness. Ugh. As the plane finally takes off and the flight attendants come by for beverages, what does she request? A Mountain Dew, of course. And no diet for this one – go for the Mountain Dew heavy. Amazingly, the attendant didn’t have any.

On the flight back Sunday night, Ed Westwick and Jessica Szohr of Gossip Girl were sitting two rows behind us. Yeah, I watch Gossip Girl. Yes, I have a wife. Yes, it’s an excuse to watch Blake Lively and Leighton Meester. (note: Squirrel, get used to giving up the remote dude. You only have 2 weeks left.) In reality, Westwick is really short, and Szohr looked homeless.

LOVE

- The winner of the Florida-Alabama game will play Texas for the national title. No one wants to see Boise State or Iowa in the title game. No one.

- That Notre Dame-USC game had the 2 best QBs in the country. Barkley is a stud for a true freshman, and Claussen might be the most pro-ready prospect out there. USC is having their typical season, beat Ohio State early, lose the following week against a middle of the pack Pac-10 team, then round into form and be the best team in the country right before the bowl season.

- The Patriots are not dead and looked an awful lot like the 2007 Patriots – running up the score and squashing inferior opponents. Oh, and that Brady guy goes for 5 TDs in the second quarter. Titans were embarrassing to watch. The fall out? Jeff Fisher might get the axe in Nashville because that team showed they quit. Maybe it’s time for a change, and Fisher will immediately become the leading candidate for the soon-to-be-open Cowboys job.

- The Badger Snuggie was everywhere at the game this week. Also everywhere at the game were many Iowa farmers/fans. I was concerned that there was going to be a corn shortage since all those farmers were at the game and not tending their farms. Then again, they might as well travel to watch Iowa play, what the heck else are you going to do if you stay in Iowa?

- Modern Family is the best new show on television. Al Bundy is having a career resurgence.

HATE

- Mark Sanchez had never played in a game when the temperature was below 55 degrees in his life. Grew up in Cali, went to USC and now with the Jets. And in his first game in that weather? A game almost as bad as Jake Delhomme’s season opener. The Jets had a 210 yard rusher and a 99 yard rusher and lost in OT. Hopefully he figures it out, because the Meadowlands has a slightly different climate than southern California.

- The Angels look nothing like the disciplined and talented team that they were most of the season and they are in serious trouble. Down 2 games and facing Pettite is a tough task.

- The 2-3-2 format for the playoffs is ridiculous and asinine. If the Angels win just their home games, they will have 2 shots to close out the Yankees in games 6 and 7. If you don’t have home field advantage, you should never be leading the series just by winning your home games. I get the travel and cost constraints, but the schedule is stupid. And don’t get me started on the number of off days.

- You cannot be a Super Bowl contender and lose to the Raiders. There are no excuses for McNabb or Andy Reid. Because Reid is a jovial fat guy, everyone will give him a pass and say it was a one week slip up and they’ll learn from it. If it were the Cowboys that lost to the Raiders? Or the Giants? But that is the sign of team that is not mentally tough. McNabb has never been mentally tough and continues to prove it.

- Nice game Ohio State. Terrell Pryor is a joke. He’s not even as good as Kordell Stewart ever was.

- Have to feel bad for Sam Bradford. The guy would have been among the top picks in the draft last year, and went back to school to fight for a national championship and be a college kid for one more year. Now he’s injured his shoulder twice and his draft stock is going down faster than Paris Hilton in front of a video camera.