It's an excuse to tailgate on a thursday morning. Right now I'm not sitting at a computer nor am I watching the Macy's day parade. Nor am I helping to cook anything. No I'm tailgating. Tailgating for a game I have zero intention of going to. Kegs, Eggs and drinking games. Nothing makes for a better thanksgiving than that. Hours from now I will be drunk and full enough to even enjoy the Lions game, that is before I fall asleep.

So, Have a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you will enjoy it is as much as I know I will.

Last week I was pretty adamant on how I was sippin the green kool-aid and how I thought the Jets matched up very well against the Titans. I turned out to be right and just when I went to grab the pitcher to sip on some more kool-aid, it was all gone. Why? Because it seems like the entire national media went in to get a sip before I did.

I turn on the radio or ESPN and I hear questions like, "Are the Jets the best team in the AFC right now?". Sometimes the answer to this question comes back as Yes. Yes? Seriously? The Jets played great the last three weeks, they completely throttled the Titans, I could not have been in a larger state of glee on sunday afternoon, and thoughts of SuperBowl creapt into my head for singular second... but the thought the Jets are now the best team in the AFC or even larger the 2nd best team in the NFL never crossed my mind. Did they miss when their defense got torched by the Chargers? Did they miss their inept showing against the Raiders? The Steelers have the same record and have played an infinitely better schedule. The Titans still only have 1 loss. The Colts have returned to close to SuperBowl form. And finally the Patriots are again dominating on offense, and well their the Pats.

Are the Jets on November 26th different than they were when they took the field against Oakland? Yes they certainly are. Favre is playing better, the D-Line and O-Lines are playing consistently, Leon is now dominating, but there are still holes. Massive holes in the secondary that are being ignored by the media. But as I mentioned last week the Jets can be abused by secondary receiving options of which the Titans do not have. The Colts, Steelers, and Patriots however all have the weapons to consistently take advantage of the Jets weakness, a weakness which could lead to lots of points against.

With all this being said, I'm not as optimistic this week as I was last week. Do I think the Jets will win? Yes. But I think people are dismissing the Broncos because they laid an egg last week. Well, please tell me who's covering Eddie Royal this week? Ty Law? Too Slow. Dwight Lowery? Too awful. If they decide to cover him with Revis than that means constant double coverage on Marshall which will leave Scheffler and Graham to patrol the middle in single coverage by a linebacker. That didn't work out so well against Ben Watson. The Broncos have a very good shot at putting a ton of point on the board and pulling off the upset, but because everyone in the media took a sip of Kool-Aid everyone thinks the Jets are going to roll. I do not, and I think my feelings would be completely different if the media didn't steal all my Arm Punt Kool-Aid.

Lots of big games this week and a couple of rivalry games like the Iron Bowl that just don't quite make the cut.

5. Oregon Ducks at Oregon State Beavers
Isn't this called the Civil War or something? Either way the Beavers need to beat their biggest rival to secure a spot in the Rose Bowl. If they can than they also significantly diminish USC's chances of playing in the Championship game. The Pick: Beavers by 6

4. Texas A&M Aggies at Texas Longhorns
This is usually a rivalry game and a few years back the Aggies mauled Colt McCoy almost to death in the upset victory. Unfortunately the Aggies pretty much suck this season and have little shot of upsetting their in-state rival. The Pick: Texas by 23

3. Kansas Jayhawks vs. Missouri Tigers in Kansas City
Missouri already clinched a trip to the Big 12 title game, why does this game have any meaning at all? Well that's pretty damn simple, computers. In all likelihood the Longhorns and Sooners tie-breaker will come down to the computers. The Longhorns have a victory over Mizzou which the Sooners do not. If the Tigers were to lose in their rival matchup it would incredibly help OU in the computer ballot.The Pick: Mizzou by 17

2. Florida Gators at Florida State Seminoles
The Gators are just 2 games away from playing in the National title game. The Seminoles would like nothing better than to watch Tim Tebow walk off the field disappointed and relegated to a potential Sugar Bowl trip. The Pick: Gators by 10

1. Oklahoma Sooners vs. Oklahoma State Cowboys
It's time for another statement game and a lot of politicking by Bob Stoops. Beating the Cowboys will certainly help in the computers but if they go into their rival and dominate than they could get some added human votes which could make all the difference in the world. The Pick: Sooners by 13

Chances of me following up a 12-4 performance with another dominant performance is piss poor.

5. Buffalo Bills (-6 1/2) at San Francisco 49ers
I've called the Bills overrated on about 400 occasions this year but at home against the niners who have to fly cross country and play in likely miserable weather. The Bills will win this game by a touchdown or more.

4. New Orleans Saints (+4 1/2) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Saints are back to being an offensive machine now that Pierre Thomas is getting the bulk of the carries. This game will be a close one but I'll take the Saints plus 4.

3. New York Giants (-3 1/2) at Washington Redskins
The Giants are probably due for a let down at some point but they thoroughly dominated the Redskins in week 1. Additionally the Redskins have been play eh-football the past few weeks and could have easily lost last week to Seattle. With Jacobs back the Giants once again beat down inside the division.

2. Tennessee Titans (-11 1/2) at Detroit Lions
The Lions are a mess without Orlovsky. Ha. Really they are a mess because they can't stop the run. The Titans are going to rush for 250 yards on Turkey Day.

1. Indianapolis Colts (-4 1/2) vs. Cleveland Browns
The Browns are in disarray and the Colts are on a massive hot streak. Would I like to see the Colts stumble and fall out of the playoff run? Absolutely. Do I think there's really any chance of that happening this weekend? Absolutely not.

Survivor League Pick: SCREW Seattle
Titans to bounce back over the Lions.

Non-Spread Picks

Wow You Guys Suck: The Jaguars, Remember at the start of the season when some people (cough Mike Greenberg cough) picked the Jaguars to make the SuperBowl? Right now the Jags are 4-7 and even worse at home (1-5). Runners Up: Donovan McNabb maybe you wouldn't get benched if you didn't suck, the Pack defense was a complete no show.

This Scarecrow Needs a Brain: Andy Reid, You are down by 3 points and you decide now is the time to sit your captain your leader and to put in Kevin Kolb. Bright idea jackass. Instead of a spark your team got throttled. Runners Up: LenDale White should shut his mouth post game, Norv Turner's clock management skills were superb.

Cough Cough Cough: The Chargers, Down 3 with 3 timeouts left and 4 minutes to go, good ole Norve decided it was a genius idea to go into a hurry up 2 minute drill offense. The offense stalled and the Chargers needed to kick the game tying field goal with plenty of time left for Peyton Manning to win the game. Runners Up: The Lions 17 point lead was gone in about 5 seconds, Denver losing to the Raiders is just piss poor.

The Shocker: The Raiders, They've been completely useless on offense for weeks and then they come in against the division leader and dominate. Runners Up: The Jets thoroughly dominating, the Bills are able to score 54 points who knew.

The Pimp: Matt Cassel, Making bank. One of 5 players in the history of the NFL to throw for 400 yards in back to back games. One of 5. Any more games like this and the Pats just might franchise him and look for a trade. Runners Up: Michael Turner had 4 touchdowns, Drew Brees owned the Pack defense.

You Got Jakked Up: Jason David, Aaron Rodgers is not Joe Flacco, he does not watch a dback tip toe the sidelines for a pick 6. No he throws his shoulder into the chest of the dback and blasts him out of bounds.

My Fantasy Anti-MVP: Donovan McNabb, AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, you complete dickbag you sunk my season.

New York Jets MVP: Leon Washington, It's tough to really come up with one MVP in the Jets complete domination this past weekend but will give it to Leon for 2 tds and for being a spark all the way around despite the fumble.

My Picks

My Picks: 11-5
Preseason Picks: 7-9
Picks Vs. Spread: 12-4
Pick Suggestions: 3-2

A dominating spread performance by me except in the suggestions. Who the hell goes 12-4 but 3-2 in the games they are 'most confident' in. I guess that's what happens when you A) Don't want to look like a complete homer by putting the Jets in the suggestions and B) Do it in 5 minutes on a Saturday.

I don't know if Leon is a massive play most weeks but for this week against the Broncos it's time for the pick up and play. Leon is going to dominate.

One of the most important aspects of coaching in todays environment is balancing the motivation of individual players while also getting them to buy into the team philosophy. Every squad needs players to fill roles that are not glorious or name making spots. At universities such as Florida, USC, Texas, etc. where ninety percent of the recruits are four or five star athletes with NFL aspirations it's immensely important to get them to buy into the team philosophy.

In many college jobs you only get one or two 5 star recruits and that player is slotted in as an immediate starter, motivating a player to work hard when he knows he's going to get a lot of action isn't very difficult. But what about having that freshman 5 star athlete and motivating him to continue to get better even though he's frustrated with a lack of consistent playing time or a shared role. Motivating that player to continue to improve and getting them to buy into the team concept is a much more difficult task.


Pete Carroll is a perfect example of a coach with the job of motivating players and getting them to buy into shared duties. Take his running back situation for example. This year USC has five running backs with 20 carries or more. Stafon Johnson (5 Star) was the #2 running back recruit in America in 2006. CJ Gable (5 Star) was the #4 ranked Safety in the country with aspirations to play tailback in 2006 and Stanley Havili (4 Star) was the #16 running back recruit in America in 2006. Joe McKnight (5 Star) was the #1 running back recruit in America in 2007. Marc Tyler (5 Star) was the #2 running back recruit and Broderick Green (4 Star) was the #12 running back recruit in the same recruiting class as McKnight. Each of these players could have gone to a program and been 'THE STAR' but at USC they need to do what's best for the team. Sometimes they need to take a back seat to other players and eventually when their number is called they need to be ready. Creating this depth is what makes USC the program they are year in and year out. They build incredible depth at every position and Pete Carroll gets players to stay with the program and buy into the system. Coaches win mostly on talent and nobody in the country is better at recruiting great players, continually motivating them, and getting them to accept that their time will eventually come.

So when you vote for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year, make sure you take this into account. At the best of the best teams win and lose on depth and it is incredibly important for Coaches to get a 5 star athlete or two to buy into the system even if it doesn't immediately showcase them to the NFL.

Earlier today I mentioned how Mack Brown and not Bob Stoops has a vote in the Coaches Poll. Well, it's basically all Bob's fault. Given the opportunity to partake in the poll, Stoops declined and now he's stuck to his decision which means he puts his team at a disadvantage. On Sunday the Sooners are already down 1 vote to the Longhorns in the Coaches pool and Mack Brown has the power to be as big a dick as he wants. If he decides to go all out and vote Texas 1 and Oklahoma outside of the top 25 it could make all the difference in the world.

I can't really think of any reason to not partake in the poll other than laziness, and that laziness just might bite Stoops in the ass come sunday.

In a wonderful twist to this whole Big 12 BCS tie-breaking bullshit, Mack Brown has a vote in the USA Today Coaches Poll and Bob Stoops does not. How stupid is that? The Coaches Poll consists of 61 of the 119 Division 1 Head Coaches, why it doesn't include all of them just seems ludicrous. I can't find how the poll decides who is allowed to and who is not allowed to vote but it seems completely ridiculous that Texas and Oklahoma's spot in the Big 12 title game comes down to essentially a vote and Texas starts out with a 1-0 lead.

The worst part is it's not as if Mack Brown just had a one vote advantage over Oklahoma. Mack Brown could essentially vote the Longhorns #1 and Oklahoma out of the top 25 if he chose to and while that would be disgraceful and completely shady and perhaps his vote would be relinquished next year, chances are the public wouldn't find out. Why? Because the Coaches Poll is anonymous until the final week of the year, so USA Today will not publish Mack nor anyone else's vote on Sunday.

Hoorah for College Football being even shadier than I thought ten minutes ago.

Explain the BCS to someone that does not understand it. Last night I spent approximately 20 to 25 minutes trying to explain everything to my girlfriend (not 100% sure why she was interested). We started how the BCS standings currently work, the Big 12 Championship game, the three way tie, how the winner of Bama and Florida are likely in, how some conferences have a title game and others don't, how if Missouri wins the Big 12 title then essentially the voters will be able to choose between USC, Texas, or Penn St and how some voters say they won't vote for a team in the top 2 if they don't win their respective championship, etc.

Just go over everything you can logically explain it will take awhile. And then in completing this task and explaining it to someone that has limited idea of how everything works you will gain a greater sense of just how stupid the BCS is and how stupid not having a playoff is.

"WAAAAHHHH Texas beat Oklahoma how could you possibly rank Oklahoma ahead of Texas, WAAAAAHHH". That's essentially what I've heard on ESPN the entire past few days. Half the time the analysts follow up that saying with "I think Oklahoma is the better team today but you can't rank them ahead of Texas. WAAAAHHHH" which makes zero sense at all.

Here's the main issue I have with every single one of the analysts that say you can't rank Oklahoma over Texas, you are contradicting yourself. Each of you says that Texas Tech should no longer be in consideration because they got the shit kicked out of them, which I guess I can be fine with, but then you somehow are able to manipulate that not in Oklahoma's favor. These three teams are all equal right now. They played each other they all have 1 win and 1 loss. Head to head does not mean anything. Texas > Oklahoma > Texas Tech > Texas > Oklahoma > Texas Tech ... it's a never ending loop. Your logic for ranking one over the other should immediately venture into a different realm than head to head.

Immediately you should focus on what big wins do they have. Right now big wins Texas has that Oklahoma does not, is Missouri and Oklahoma St. Meanwhile Oklahoma slaughtered TCU (10-2), Cincinnati (Big East Champs), and Nebraska. At the end of this weekend if the Sooners can knock off the Cowboys than the Sooners point of emphasis should be do you like wins against Nebraska (7-4), Cincy, TCU or Mizzou and Rice (8-3).

I'm not saying you can't vote for Texas, just please don't use Schlabach's methodology: "The Sooners would have four very impressive victories if they beat Oklahoma State. But the Longhorns would have the only victory that matters -- a win over the Sooners." Why not? Because you could simply reword that phrase to, "The Longhorns would have four very impressive victories because they beat Missouri. But the Red Raiders would have the only victory that matters -- a win over the Longhorns." It's a 3 way tie, not a 2 way tie, can you make some other logical argument please.

Last night gmreynolds71283 decided to man up for the million dollars and pick the monday night football game. He went with America's choice and not mine and chose the Packers to head into Nawlins and come out victorious. Unfortunately for him, the Pack got slaughtered and he will not be getting a million dollar check from ESPN. For his sake I hope he was able to raise funds and get his hedge bet in on the Saints or else he could end up walking away with absolutely nothing.*

After gm's demise, user Bigsam1122 is now your leader with a streak of 23. On the leaderboard, he is followed by 2 users at 22, 1 user at 21 and 5 users at 20. I think we can all agree on one thing, if someone deserves to win 1 million dollars it's definitely TurdFurg3sson. Ya Turd Furgesson it's a funny name.



*ESPN's will give 10K to the person with the longest streak if no one reaches 25 by the start of the year, so he's still got a shot to win that on December 31st.

Below there are ten Distorted Pictures of College Mascots. How well can you identify the high flyers? If you get stumped you can opt for help by either going here for 10 clues or here for the list of the 10 coaches so you can match them up to each distortion. When you're done or have given up, here are the answers.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Over the weekend ESPN did a lot of dodging but despite avoiding three bullets, one man is one pick away from a million.
First sfniners_1 was just two games away from 1 million dollars on Saturday. So what did he do? He went out on a massive limb and took Wake Forest (15.8%) at home against BC. He was rewarded by being eliminated after BC scored a touchdown with 1:12 left on the clock to take a 3 point lead and eventually the victory.

Next up user name Jordan achieved his 24th victory when BC defeated Wake. But he then waited until sunday to make his final strategic pick. He chose division leading Carolina (67%) to go into Atlanta and knock off their rival. Boom the Falcons pounced on the Panthers and took them down with relative ease. Here's hoping he was hedging.

User girlie_girl21 decided at 23 victories that she also needed to make a play at 4:15 on sunday afternoon. So she went with... the Panthers as well. Whoops.

And that brings us to gmreynolds71283, who currently sits at 24 victories after avoiding the Panthers selection and taking the Ravens and the Colts yesterday. 1 more pick and he's got himself a million dollars. Right now the only game he is allowed to pick is the monday night football game. The Saints are currently -2.5 point favorites over the Packers, yet the ESPN public likes the Packers at 62.3%.

So what do you do if you are him? Do you just sack up and pick tonight? Do you wait for what you think may be a better matchup, even though it might not come? Do you take one team and hedge by betting the spread on the other? One thing is for certain, his heart is certainly going to be beating at a rapid pace during whichever game he selects.

If it was me, I would get every single cent I could gather up via loan bank account friends etc. and bet in vegas on the Packers and then pick the Saints. Why? It's pretty much 50/50 which team wins. But here's where playing this hedge makes sense. If you pick the favorite in the Streak for Cash and they win then you get a mill, but you also have a chance to win your hedge bet as well. If the Saints ever won this game by 1 or 2 points you end up with 1 Million + your hedge. In all likelihood you wind up with either 1 Million - your Hedge or just your hedge, which certainly wouldn't be a bad thing. Now if you do the opposite and take the Packers for the Streak and hedge on the Saints there is a remote chance you lose both which would be very bad. It's kind of the pussy mans way out, but still wouldn't you rather guarantee you win money than take a 50/50 shot?

Step 1 Make Sure Your #1 Draft Pick Gets Injured

Steven Jackson is a dominant force in the backfield. Every game he plays he gets his yards he gets his tds he gets his catches. He's an all-around threat. But up 20 in the 4th quarter against a beaten down Cowboys squad he's still in the game. Why? So that he can injure his quad and manage to get 7 carries in the next 3 weeks.

Step 2 Trade Away Your 2nd Pick For a Player About to Go in the Shitter

Tony Romo is out and Owens is doing absolutely nothing on a week to week basis and you're desperate for any quarterback production because as you will see later they sucked balls. So you trade away your best wideout for a quarterback with solid stats. You trade TO for Donovan McNabb. Donovan McNabb carefully crafts back to back miserable performances starting with a 4 turnover game and increasing the ineptitude to a 3 turnover -5 point playoff hopes destruction.

Step 2b Make Sure the Side Player You Are Getting Gets Busted for Steroids the Next Day

The trade was officially McNabb and Deuce McAllister for TO and Bulger. The next day Deuce and the rest of the Saints were busted for Water pills.

Step 3 Draft a Player Hours Away from Getting Injured

Drafting in Mid-August is always fun because you get preseason injuries. Like when you draft Chad Johnson and he tears his labrum an hour after you hit the select Ocho Cinco button.

Step 4 Draft a Player Who Makes a Precipitous Decline to Ineptitude

Who's more consistent than Torry Holt? He's had over 1100 yards in every season but his rookie year. He's had 7 or more touchdowns in 5 consecutive seasons. So of course this is the year that he declines to uselessness. 11 games 2 Tds and 496 yards.

Step 5 Draft A Quarterback That Gets Injured and Drop Him the Week Prior to His Comeback

Good ole Matty Hasselbeck sucks his opening games because his wideouts are all injured, so what does he do? He gets injured of course and sits on the sidelines for weeks upon weeks. Than one week you desperately need a QB because your starter is on a bye, so you drop Hasselbeck and pick up Quinn. Hasselbeck then conveniently starts the next weekend after he's been picked off the waiver wire by another squad.

Last week Donovan McNabb was the moron of the weekend. This weekend? If pictures speak a thousand words it looks like he's not quite the sharpest pencil in the drawer.

Lendale White yesterday was a bit confused and upset after the game as to why he didn't get much playing time. Just look at what he had to say:

“I have been over it. It is a game, so what?’’ White said. “You would like to win it, but it is one game, so what? … I only played three plays so I really couldn't tell you what happened, I don't really know, I wasn't paying attention, I didn't care really.’’

“You never know, man,” White said. “I can't tell you that. I don't know if I would have gotten the ball 30 times if we would have won the game or not. I would like to be involved more, but if I am not involved I would like somebody to tell me what's going on. Coming into these games, you expect to get certain carries or see certain things going on at least that's what they tell you.

“And then you get in these games and then randomly you only play three plays. I just wish somebody would let me know what's going on before I go out there. Three plays, I don't know what you want me to do with three plays. I don't know what three plays is helping me do.”

“I ain't got no conversation for nobody, I don't care,’’ White said. “If they have something to tell me, if they need to tell me I'm not going to play, then they should tell me, you know?” Tennessean.com

Hey Lendale, I have the answers if you want to know why you didn't play. It's because you're fat. It's because you have no burst and all runs up the gut against the Jets get stuffed. If the Titans had played you more often than their offense would have performed even more pathetically. You would have averaged approximately 1 yard per carry. Perhaps instead of focusing on yourself, how about you focus on trying to improve the team for next week. You didn't play and you shouldn't have played.

Remember this is all about Quality Wins and Bad Losses so if you lose to a top ranked team its not going to kill you, if you lose to Arkansas St. in the opener it will haunt you the entire season.

And there you have it, what was supposed to be a thrilling battle between #2 and #5 turns into an epic beatdown and creates a massive Re-Org in the power rankings.

1. Oklahoma - After the TT throttling, here's why I put the Sooners above the Crimson Tide, quality wins. Losing to Texas on a neutral field is rough, but they are a top 5 team, the Tide have not come close to facing a top 5 team. The Sooners have knocked off their remaining Big 12 schedule, but the most impressive part is that they have two very good out of conference wins. Cincinnati essentially won the Big East this weekend by throttling the Wannies. TCU has positioned themselves as probably the 3rd best non-BCS team behind Utah and Boise St. The Sooners have the wins. Quality Wins: Cincinnati, TCU, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas Tech

2. Texas - So you jumped Oklahoma to 1, what logic do you have for Texas at 2? Does anybody have a better win than Oklahoma on a neutral field? They lost on the road to a top 5 team on the last second of the game. Alabama's wins just don't compel me enough right now to have them over the Longhorns. Quality Wins: Oklahoma(n), Mizzou, Oklahoma St., Kansas

3. Alabama -Simply put Alabama's schedule right now does not match up with the Big 12 teams. The SEC West is pathetic, LSU is miserable and Ole Miss is the 2nd best team in the division. Bama's best out of conference win is against Clemson who is eh. So because of this they are dropped to 3. Quality Wins: @Georgia, @LSU, Ole Miss

4. Florida - Playing the Citadel in your 2nd to last regular season game is just lame. Quality Wins: LSU, UGA(n) Bad Loss: Ole Miss

5. Texas Tech - Losing to a top 5 team on the road usually is never a bad loss, but they were thoroughly embarrassed. They go back to Lubbock praying that the Cowboys upset the Sooners, but even with that result would you pick Texas Tech over USC for the National Title game? Quality Wins: Kansas, Texas, Okie St. Bad Loss: Oklahoma

6. USC - No more big games on the schedule and the Beavers might just win the Pac 10, so its not looking good for the Trojans right now. Quality Wins: Ohio State, Oregon, Cal

7. Utah - Won the Mormon challenge and have solidified their spot in the BCS. Quality Wins: @Air Force, Oregon St., TCU, BYU

8. Penn St. - So they clinched the trip to the Rose Bowl. If the world ends they could find their way to the title game. If the world ends. Quality Wins: Oregon St., @Ohio St., Michigan St.

9. Oklahoma St. - The Mizzou win is still carrying through pretty nicely. Now they get the chance to ruin the Sooners title hopes. Will they? Doubtful. Quality Wins: @Mizzou

10. Cincinnati - I'll throw the Big East some love. Cincinatti's out of conference loss is to the Sooners and they minus one slip up against the Huskies have taken care of business in the Big East. They sneak into the top 11 because the Buckeyes and UGA are highly overrated. Quality Wins: @WVU, Pitt, South Florida Bad Loss: UConn

11. Boise St. -Scratched out the victory against Nevada. Color me unimpressed with the Smurf Turfers. Quality Wins: @Oregon

Dropped Out: Georgia their wins are weak, their losses are to top 5 teams but by utter domination.

Noticeable Absences: Ohio St. will not be ranked in the power rankings at any point this year.

Is there anything better than Ninja's on a Sunday Morning? No? I didn't think so.

Via Japan Probe

Making this quick, the five pick suggestions are the Patriots, Chiefs, Cowgirls, Bears and Redskins.

Non Spread Picks

Got Jury Duty today so the day off from bloggin...

The Green Kool-Aid is seeping into my brain at alarming rates. How do I know this? I actually think the Jets are going to go into Tennessee give them a massive fight and come out the winner. Yes I know I'm drunk on the arm punt kool-aid but listen to my non-sober reasoning for a second.

The Jets defense has done two things very well this year and done one thing miserably. The defense has repeatedly stuffed the run thanks to Jenkins and they have continually put pressure on the quarterback. Meanwhile they have sucked at covering secondary wideouts and tight ends. Well the good thing this weekend for the Jets is that the Titans really don't good secondary or primary receiving options. Sure Gage is a solid deep threat but he's inconsistent. Brandon Jones is eh, mediocre. And Justin McCareins is terrible. The Jets can match Revis on either Gage or Jones shift safety (Elam) coverage over the other and let Rhodes concentrate on the rushing attack. With this coverage if they can have similar success against the run as they have in recent weeks and big Jenks dominates again than the Jets should be able to hold the Titans under 20 points. Plus with Kerry free to wreak havoc, he could potentially get a devastating sack or two on Mr. Collins.

As for the Jets offense, I'm worried as hell that Favre is going to get back to the Arm Punt routine and I'm also worried that he's going to get the snot knocked out of him but I don't think many points will be required to win this game. I think if the Jets could score 20 points they win this game. Will they? Probably not, but maybe 17 will be enough.

Outside of this weekend, I will continue to remain incredibly frightened of the potential of playing the Chargers, Steelers, Colts or Pats in the playoffs... on second thought, I still remain very fearful of actually making the playoffs. But for some reason despite the impending doom feeling I naturally have as a Jet fan, I'm confident this weekend against the #1 team in almost all the Power Rankings. I guess that's the benefit to being drunk.

Just stop. Please just stop. Can't you just be ok with the fact that he has no friggin idea whether he wants to play next year or not? Just deal with that fact we don't need to start up the "Is Brett gonna Retire?" press cyclone now, we don't need to start it once the Jets play their final game, we don't need to start it until he actually has a press conference declaring what he's going to do. So don't speculate and just don't ask him that question, you're not going to get an answer and the only thing you're doing is pissing off sportscenter watchers.

Last weekend was incredibly lackluster but this weekend is when BCS trips are decided. All 5 of the Big 5 this week have major implications on whether you're in or your out of the money.

5. Oregon State Beavers at Arizona Wildcats
Once again the Beavers just need to win out and then they likely get a rematch with PSU in the Rose Bowl. Lose and they'll go to some boring bowl no one cares about. The Pick: Beavers by 6

4. Brigham Young Cougars at Utah Utes
In the battle of the Mormon state the Cougars have the opportuntiy to ruin intrastate rival Utah's return to the BCS. If the Utes pull off the victory than they can book their trip to whichever BCS bowl has last pick.The Pick: Utes by 3

3. Pittsburgh Panthers vs. Cincinnati Bearcats
This is the Bearcats chance to clinch the Big East championship and their BCS bid because there is no way they lose to the Cuse in the following week. Meanwhile Wanny if he could win 3 games in a row would also win he will somehow earn a trip to the BCS. The Pick: Wanny by 7

2. Michigan State Spartans at Penn State Nittany Lions
Does Joe Pa want to go to the Rose Bowl? Does Joe Pa want to give himself an opportunity to Ohio State it into the national title game like the Buckeyes did last year? If they dominate Sparty and the chips fall in the right way than the old man with his new hip may end up in Miami instead of Pasadena. The Pick: Penn State by 13

1. Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. Oklahoma Sooners
Last year Bradford sat on the sidelines woozy and out of it after suffering a 1st quarter concussion. He then watched from the sidelines as the Red Raiders dashed any chance at a national title. This year it is the Red Raiders with the definitive title hopes and the Sooners with the 'if we get voter support' title hopes and it will be the Sooners and Bradford who get their revenge. The Pick: Sooners by 6

Once again ESPN is only a few solid decisions away from forking over 1 Million Dollars in Straight Cash to some random guy named sfniners_1, I'm guessing that A) He's a niners fan and B) That he didn't pick the Niners in any of his streak picks.

Let's Take a look at his picks, in parenthesis is the percentage that the rest of the world selected his same pick.

October 19th: The streak started with 2 NFL picks on October 19th. The Bears (76.8%) pulled off a 7 point 48-41 victory over the Vikings and then the Bucs (98.4%) easily knocked off the Seahawks on NBC.

October 21st: He went against America and picked the Temple Owls (48.1%) to knock of the Ohio Bobcats which they did 14-10.

October 22nd: He went Hockey for the first and only time and took the Devils (95.1%) over the Stars. The Devils won 5-0.

October 23rd: He went Baseball for the first and only time and took the Rays (77.9%) and James Shields to win Game 2 over the Phillies and Brett Myers. The Rays won 4-2.

October 24th: He went with all of America and took Boise St. (97.8%) over San Jose St. The Smurf turfers won 33-16.

October 25th: He double dipped on a Saturday and picked the Red Raiders (89.7%) at noon over the Jayhawks. They struggled to a 63-21 victory. Than at 7:45 he took #1 Crimson Tide (98.9%) over the Volunteers and they won 29-9.

October 28th: In his closest call yet, he went against America and chose 60 points or more (17.8%) in the Houston Cougar vs. Marshall game. The final score was 37-23 Marshall and hit exactly 60 points thanks to 6 second half touchdowns including a final Cougar touchdown with 2:21 remaining on the clock. Had the Cougars been stopped on that possession the streak is dead at 8.

October 29th: The NBA season has started so he got into the action and took the Hornets (96.6%) over the Warriors on the road. The Hornets won 108-103.

November 1st: A college double dip again. At noon he took West Virginia (70.9%) on the road in Connecticut and the Mountaineers won easily 35-13. Then at 3:30 he went with the Gators (72.7%) in the Cocktail Party and Timmy Tebow definitely got his revenge taking UGA down 49-10.

November 2nd: He wnet for the NFL double dipper and took the Cardinals (93.3%) over the horrendous Rams, and Kurt beat his former mates 34-13. Then for the Sunday Night Game he took the Pats (50.3%) to out rush the Colts which they did 140-47 in their losing effort.

November 4th: On election day he went with everybody else and took Obama (84.4%) to win the presidency.

November 7th: He apparently knew something the rest of America didn't when he chose the Nevada Wolf Pack (7.0%) on the to defeat the Fresno St. Bulldogs. The Wolfpack defeated the Bulldogs 41-28

November 8th: Again he went with the #1 Crimson Tide (86.2%) this time in the Bayou against Saban's former squad. The game went into OT thanks to a late blocked field goal, but was easily won by the Tide then because Jarrett Lee likes to throw passes to the wrong team.

November 10th: For the monday night game featuring the Cardinals and 49ers he went with 48 points or More (52.7%) which turned out wise because the 49ers actually put on their scoring shoes and put 24 points on the board in a 29-24 defeat.

November 11th: On the 11th however he mixed it up and finally took the under when he went with 54 points or Less (53.3%) in the Ball State vs. Miami of Ohio game. The game got off to a 30 point first half start but he won in thanks to the Ball St. defense which heald Miami to only a field goal in the 2nd half in their 31-16 victory.

November 14th: He went to the Big East and took the Cincinatti Bearcats (94.3%) on the road against the Louisville Cardinals. Cincy won 28-20.

November 15th: It was time to go with some Beaver as he picked the Oregon St. Beavers (86.8%) to stay on the Rose Bowl path and defeat the Cal Golden Bears at home which they did 34-21.

November 16th: If the undefeated teams in college football worked so well, than why not the NFL undefeated team and so he went with the Titans (86.9%) over the Jaguars on the road. Once again Kerry Collins improbably lead his team to victory.

November 19th: Finally yesterday he went with Josh Howard to have more points and rebounds than Yao Ming had points but then Yao was scratched so it was canceled. Perhaps just inspired to make a pick he went with 55 or More Points (77%) scored in the Central Michigan Ball State game. The game finished with 55 points exactly thanks to 5 second half touchdowns including the game winner by Ball St. with 7:29 remaining.

After a little over a month and 23 straight picks 1 in overtime and 2 by the exact margin he sits two correct decisions away from 1 million dollars. Can anybody say.... Hedge Bet?

Because I just haven't been really paying attention aka I'm in denial. But I'll Give a prediction for the game...

You're going to see a lot of this.

And a lot of this.

And probably some of this.

And a good chance of this.

He just said something along the lines of "I like how people say that he's (CC Sabathia) never been hurt before because that means he's going to get hurt." He went on to rationalize that a Major League Baseball Arm is going to eventually get hurt at some time. Great logic there Michael. I can't decide whether this is better or worse logic than all the times he said that CC was eventually going to get hurt because he is fat, because you know that has infinite amount to do with his shoulder strength and stability.

Let's do some reverse Michael Kay logic...

That Rich Harden is in great shape, there's no way he ever gets injured.

That Mark Prior is always so unlucky and gets injured all the time, he certainly is going to be healthy the rest of his career.

I knew Ben Sheets was bound to have season where he didn't get injured. {September of 2008)

Andy Pettitte has a ridiculous work out regimen, there is no way his elbow will ever get injured.

I think sometimes Michael Kay should be smacked in the head just to see if it will shake up his brain enough to give semi-intelligent thoughts.

I've gone on the record before in saying how much I hate fans being allowed to vote for any All Star game. 99% of the time they vote strictly on popularity and barely get anything right. For instance The Jets Blog put up the current Pro Bowl Voting Leaders in the AFC and highlighted what Jets are on the list. And of course the Fans got almost nothing right.

~Brett played great last week, but top AFC vote getter? That's probably a bit much.

~D'Brickashaw is 2nd in votes for Tackles? Hasn't he been labeled a bust by the media? Plus the only person ahead of him is Jake Long. Voters obviously just say ooh top 5 draft pick, I'll check the box.

~Thomas Jones is 1st in the AFC in yards, carries and tied for 3rd in tds and he sits out of the top 5.

~Kris Jenkins is the reason why the Jets are 3rd in the NFL in rushing defense and yet he sits 3rd on the list.

~Darrelle Revis is arguably one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL and yet because it's his 2nd year and because no team ever throws the ball in his direction he is not in the top 5.

~Leon Washington is 2nd in the NFL in kick off return average and 3rd in the AFC in punt return average but 4th in the Pro Bowl voting.

Ok so I've got at least a semi-solution. Sure you can't stop people from being dumb and voting based on people they like, but at the very least you can give them a context of their stupid voting. Like first and foremost how about you put the statistics of each player directly next to their name so that you could know that Champ Bailey has only played 7 games and has one lone interception. Perhaps it should be important to remind voters one last time the teams record so that perhaps they could use that as a tie-breaker in their decision making process.

Eh, who am I kidding people are morons, there will never be a way to stop their stupidity.

Hey, who wants to go to the next Jet Game wearing an official New York Cheesecake Head? Why, because we want to pretend like we're the Green Bay Packers of Manhattan Jersey apparently. Annoying.

Beating the Pats to Brett Favre is... "Fuck yeah." Yep that pretty much sums it up.

Via Deadspin

Manny Ramirez never won an MVP for the Red Sox. Ortiz never won an MVP for the Red Sox. Pedro never won the MVP. Schilling never won the MVP. Nomar never won the MVP. Jason Varitek was the team captain but never sniffed the MVP. Crazy Carl never won the MVP. The Papelboner hasn't won the MVP.

Nope your first Boston Red Sox player to win an MVP since Fatty Mo, is this guy.

When you're filling out your ballot this year for the NFL Pro Bowl, just remember this 1 thing, only one Strong Safety in the NFL had the biggest impact on your teams chances to win the Super Bowl. Not Bob Sanders if you are a Colts fan. Not even Troy Polamalu if you are a Steelers fan. No, the man with the greatest impact is of course our National Hero Bernard Pollard. So make sure you Vote Pollard for 2008 AFC Strong Safety.

Darrelle Revis (or Relle Rev aka Shutdown) is emerging as one of the elite cornerbacks in the National Football League after just two seasons in the league. He's just beginning to get recognized by both the New York and National media thanks to the Jets division leading 7-3 start, and with this recognition comes radio and television interviews. And of course like every other athlete on the planet he has some kind of product he wants to push during and at the end of his interviews. For Revis, it's his fashion line, Loco S Star, which specializes in what I can only describe as Asian Style Cartoon Characters for the Urban / Asian Child Community.

Below there are ten Silhouette's of NBA Superstars taking it to the hole. How well can you identify the high flyers? If you get stumped you can opt for help by either going here for 10 clues or here for the list of the 10 coaches so you can match them up to each Silhouette. When you're done or have given up, here are the answers.

Feel free to click on any picture to see a larger version.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Rich Rodriguez is having a miserable year, the worst in the history of Michigan in fact, and so the fans aren't being very nice right now. You know, going on a message board and probably saying stuff like he should be castrated or fired or shipped back to West Virginia. All of those statements are probably a bit harsh (except maybe castration) but its on a message board, who cares. Well apparently Rodriguez does.

"It's amazing some of the things that people would say [on a message board] or yell at you of a personal nature," Rodriguez said Monday. "You almost want to tell them, 'Get a life.'

"There's a whole lot bigger problems. Look at the economy." ESPN

Ok first of all, why the hell are you, your family members or any of your players on Message Boards? Shouldn't there be better things to do with your time, like you know find some good recruits preferably a Quarterback that doesn't completely suck? Secondly, you really are in no position to bitch, and whine about anything when in your first year as coach you not only break the Nation's leading consecutive bowl streak but you have the worst team in Michigan History.

So RichRod, in the Immortal Words of My High School Coach Ed Morocco "Stop Whining". Get your ass on the recruiting trail and return the program to the elite where it belongs and stop focusing on the meaningless comments of obviously pissed off college kids.

I hate when at 4:15 on Sunday afternoon you are told by Curt Menefee or James Brown that "Due to NFL Rules we can not show you the remainder of the game." Well thanks for that douches. Every damn weekend there seems to be a game going down to the wire or into overtime that is outside of my market that I can't watch because the NFL wants me to switch the damn channel over to whatever 4:15 game they have on the other station.

This weekend Fox politely turned on the Bengals vs. Eagles game which was on the brink of overtime. This was a game the Eagles needed to win, a loss or tie put them a game back and could do irreversible damage to their playoff hopes. Additionally, I have McNabb on my team and was praying for a breakaway td pass, so I was excited to watch the game. It was on for a few minutes and then... click, back to New York and Curt Menefee and his bullshit "Due to NFL" blah blah blah shit. The Steelers vs. Chargers was a quality game on CBS but excuse me if I'd rather watch an overtime session than the first quarter of another game.

I really don't get how this truly benefits either network. I understand they want you to click over and watch the entire second half of the double header and both network wants you to do this, but really most games are done by 4:20. Many games per year have a game winning field goal or game winning drive after 4:15 that unless you are in the market or fork over the ludicrous fees for the NFL Ticket you miss. And what's really the benefit? So I flip over to the double header 2 minutes earlier but annoyed I can't watch the end of an exciting game? Seriously that's bull shit.

In the long run it would all balance out. One week there would be a 1 pm game on Fox that drags out past 4:15, than the next week there would be one on CBS. No harm no foul for either network plus the fans get what they want. Would it be that hard to do the right thing?

Wow You Guys Suck: The Rams, I don't know if it's possible to get yourself more embarrassed in two weeks than the Ram did. It's bad enough to be getting pummeled by a division leader, but to get destroyed by a 2-7 team? Ouch. Runners Up: the Iggles needed a win and could not get it done, Da Bears had Da worst offense of the weekend.

This Scarecrow Needs a Brain: Donovan McNabb, I mean this is obvious. Runners Up: Trent Edwards decided it was best to throw the ball to the other team the entire first quarter, the Refs in the Pittsburgh game.

Cough Cough Cough: The Raiders, The Raiders offense was atrocious yet again, but this week they were bailed out by an enormous punt return and had the opportunity to win but couldn't stop a last minute drive. Runners Up: the Iggles on every single drive in overtime, Ryan Lindell missing the game winner.

The Shocker: Tie, There hasn't been one in 6 years so anytime you see two NFL teams unable to score in an overtime it's a shocker. Runners Up: The Jets actually beat New England, the Bears decided not to show up in Green Bay.

The Pimp: Matt Cassel, 400 yards passing and 60 yards on the ground plus 3 touchdowns and zero turnovers against a division rival is pretty pimp. Runners Up: Kurt Warner can not throw less than 350 yards, Justin Gage broke away for massive plays in helping the Titans stay unbeaten.

You Got Jakked Up: Isaac Stockton, Best catch ever? Or just most painful ever?



My Fantasy Anti-MVP: Donovan McNabb, The Bengals are terrible and you turn the ball over 4 times? Shit.

New York Jets MVP: Thomas Jones, He keeps on getting it done week in and week out.

My Picks

My Picks: 12-4
Preseason Picks: 10-6
Picks Vs. Spread: 10-6
Pick Suggestions: 2-3

I counted the Bengals Eagles game as wrong for both the preseason picks and my picks. Is that right or is it a push?

Remember this is all about Quality Wins and Bad Losses so if you lose to a top ranked team its not going to kill you, if you lose to Arkansas St. in the opener it will haunt you the entire season.

Not very much movement in the power rankings due mostly to an incredibly boring weekend of college football.

1. Texas Tech - Headed to Sooner territory this week. Quality Wins: Kansas, Texas, Okie St.

2. Alabama -#2 is never a bad spot to be. The next two games are against Miss St. and Auburn both very winnable games. Then the tester against Florida. Quality Wins: @Georgia, @LSU

3. Texas - Hoping for an unimpressive Sooner victory. Quality Wins: Oklahoma(n), Mizzou, Oklahoma St., Kansas

4. Florida - Gave Papa Ball Coach a beatdown. Quality Wins: LSU, UGA(n) Bad Loss: Ole Miss

5. Oklahoma - Week off and now host Texas Tech in a make or break game. Quality Wins: Cincinnati, TCU, Kansas, Nebraska

6. USC - Still hoping someone knocks off the Beavers. Quality Wins: Ohio State, Oregon, Cal

7. Utah - Boredom weekend for them. Quality Wins: @Air Force, Oregon St., TCU

8. Penn St. - Indiana is terrible. Quality Wins: Oregon St., @Ohio St.

9. Oklahoma St. - The Mizzou win is carrying through pretty nicely. Quality Wins: @Mizzou

10. Boise St. -Another easy victory. Quality Wins: @Oregon

11. Georgia - Losing to Auburn would have been piss poor. South Carolina isn't good and neither is LSU so they flip flopped with Okie St. Quality Wins: Vandy, @LSU Bad Loss: Florida(n)

Dropped Out: TCU

Noticeable Absences: Ohio St. will not be ranked in the power rankings at any point this year.

The revelation in mid November that the Red Sox were on the brink of suspending Manny Ramirez is a complete and utter non-story. Obviously the Red Sox were pissed, they traded him and two other players for Jason Bay who is a solid but obviously inferior player. If they were willing to make a bad trade just to get rid of him, then why wouldn't they have suspended him? And really it's November the Sox lost in the playoffs, the Dodger lost in the playoffs, who really cares about this story?

The Ras has been sold to the Tohuku Rakuten Eagles. Here's how it went down.

Ras: "Hey Brian, so I heard you just offered CC 140$ million dollars. Just guessing I have zero chance to start this year right?"

Cashman: "Hey Darrell, ya no shot at all. "

Ras: "Ok so I have an idea. I always wanted to go to Asia, so, what if you just you know sold me to a team."

Cashman: "Someone is actually going to buy you?"

Ras: "Ya the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles, want me."

Cashman: "Um who?"

Ras: "The Tohoku Rakuten Eagles. I think they'll give you a mill."

Cashman: "A Million Dollars for you? Sweet. Here's my Cell #, tell them to call me immediately."

It's completely understandable when Refs make mistakes on play during the heat of the moment. Sometimes it's just impossible to see. Sometimes they can't get the right angle. Shit happens, people make mistakes but in the long run it balances out.

But when a ref makes mistake and overturns or upholds a replay incorrectly it's 100% completely unnacceptable and it happens way too many times. Yesterday, the Steelers Troy Polamalu on the final play of the game scored a touchdown. The desperate Chargers down 1 went into lateral mode and he knocked the 2nd lateral away picked it up and scampered into the end zone. It looked as if the Steelers would just have to come on and knock home the meaningless extra point to cap an 8 point victory, but instead the play was reviewed? Why was it reviewed? Who the fuck knows but it was reviewed. Then 5 minutes later the ref comes onto the field says that there was a penalty on the play for a forward lateral and that the touchdown did not count? Huh? The Chargers threw two laterals. LT threw his directly behind him, and Chambers (I think) threw his 2 yards behind him while falling down. Both were 100% obvious from every camera angle that they were backwards and legal and yet the call was overturned.

But who cares right? It didn't cost the Steelers the game, they still got the win, it's just Troy didn't get to pad his stats. Well, Vegas cared. Vegas cared a lot. 100$ million was bet on this game legally in Vegas. 66% of the bets were placed on the Steelers. The spread was 4 1/2 in favor of the Steelers. So by taking away the touchdown, which the NFL admitted later was a mistake, the Refs gave a 64$ million dollar swing to Vegas. Complete horse shit.

The Gunslinger Never Leaves Home without his Hunter's Ball.

Episode 5 of Arm Punt Formations starring the "Gunslinger" and his new product, The Hunter's Ball.



Check out more Episodes of Arm Punt Formations

Below are pictures of following NBA players Yao Ming, Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Chris Paul.

How well can you match up who is who? If you need any clues, here are 10. And when you are done here are the Answers.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

1 Game in 1 game correct. Oh and I'm off the Lions train without Orlovsky.

5. Denver Broncos (+5 1/2) at Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons are playing great and just beat up on the Saints last week plus the Broncos run defense is poor, but Cutler is back on a roll and will keep this game close.

4. Indianapolis Colts (-8 1/2) vs. Houston Texans
While the Texans should have beat the Colts at home behind Sage weeks ago, the Colts are not the same team. They will at home beat up on the Texans.

3. Philadelphia Eagles (-9 1/2) at Cincinnati Bengals
The Eagles desperately need this game and the Bengals are terrible.

2. Carolina Panthers (-14 1/2) vs. Detroit Lions
Hey, I told you without Dan-O I'm off the Lions spread winning bandwagon. They shall lose by mucho this weekend.

1. New York Giants (-6 1/2) vs. Baltimore Ravens
The Giants shall beat up on Joe Flacco and easily beat the Ravens by a td at home.

Survivor League Pick: SCREW Seattle
Indy at home vs. the Texans

Non-Spread Picks

As a football coach at a college university there should be two objectives, win football games and mold good men. The Liberty Mutual College Coach of the Year Award is meant to be awarded to a coach that does both extraordinarily. In my first post about the award I broke down coaching football into Integrity, Sportsmanship, Responsibility and Excellence. In my last post I talked how much responsibility a coach has to his community. In this post I will break down the current leaders and eliminate some who have not shown this year that they are both excellent on and off the field. First let's take a look at the current candidates from 1 to 15.

Paul Johnson (Ga Tech), Mark Richt (Georgia), Nick Saban (Alabama), Bronco Mendenhall (BYU), Joe Paterno (Penn St.), Mark Dantonio (Michigan St.), Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern), Randy Shannon (Miami), Les Miles (LSU), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), Skip Holtz (ECU), Brady Hoke (Ball State), Jim Tressel (OSU), David Cutcliffe (Duke), Urban Meyer (Florida)

Off the Field Incidents

If you want to be a well rounded coach then you need to be able to teach your student athletes responsibility to the community. Every year Every Day Should Be Saturday puts together the Fulmer Cup, a standings of the College Programs who suffer off season arrests. To me if you want to win a Coach of the Year award that tags responsibility as one of its prerequisites, that you can't finish on this least.

So, as a result Nick Saban should be eliminated as his team had the most arrests in the offseason. Next, Mark Richt and Joe Paterno should be eliminated from contention as they finished 7th and 8th respectively.

Excellence in the Classroom

Again if you want to be well rounded you should excel both on the field and in the classroom. You should not only be top 25 in the AP rankings but top 25 in the Graduation Rates. So let's take a look at which coaches should be eliminated because their student athletes don't care to be students.

Bob Stoops and Oklahoma finished 2nd to last amongst BCS conference schools with a 46% rate so he's out. Jim Tressel and Ohio St. finished 58th of the 65 BCS schools with a 52% rate. Les Miles and LSU finished 52nd with a 54% rate. Mark Dantonio and MSU finished 60th with a 51% rate.

But I think it's not enough to just note failure but also excellence. Duke and Northwestern stick by their academia and have graduation rates of 92% which ranks 3rd in the BCS.

Excellence on the Football Field

And finally we break down to who performed the best on the field. Let's eliminate those outside of the BCS because none of them have accomplished the extraordinary. This leaves us with Randy Shannon, Urban Meyer, David Cutcliffe and Pat Fizgerald. David Cutcliffe managed to get Duke 4 more wins than they usually have, but at 4-5 that's not cutting it. Fitzgerald has great kids and has a perennially doormat at 7-3 and amongst the elite in the Big Ten. Urban Meyer has a chance to go to the National Title game and is in the low top 25 in graduation rate, second in the SEC. Randy Shannon took a downtrodden Miami program got them clean, got them in the classroom and could potentially get them an ACC Crown.

Fitzgerald, Meyer and Shannon are all worthy of your vote but for me I'm taking Shannon because when you think Miami you do not think classy players and he's seemingly kept them out of trouble, kept them in the classroom and has them winning again.

BOOORRRRING WEEK. So this will be quick.

5. Northwestern Wildcats at Michigan Wolverines
Yes I know this game isn't big, but doesn't it seem odd to see 7-3 Wildcats and 3-7 Wolverines? The Pick: Wolverines by 6

4. North Carolina Tarheels at Maryland Terapins
Both squads have a shot at the ACC title game, so I guess that makes this one important. The Pick: Terps by 6

3. California Bears at Oregon State Beavers
Again Beavers win out equals trip to Rose Bowl. The Pick: Beavers by 3

2. Kansas Jayhawks vs. Texas Longhorns
Weren't the Jayhawks supposed to be good this year? They just lost to the F'n Cornhuskers. They're gonna get drubbed this weekend. The Pick: Longhorns by 14

1. South Carolina Gamecocks at Florida Gators
This is obviously the biggest game as it pits two ranked teams and Spurrier headed back to the Swamp. The problem is the Gators are currently playing out of their minds and they have much more talent than the Cocks. The Pick: Gators by 17

~Hoorah for the NFL's lame overtime rules. The Jets showed at no point in time from half time on that they could stop the Pats driving. But it didn't matter thanks to the NFL and a 16 yard completion to Dustin Keller to keep the drive alive at the start.

~I truly thought the Pats were going to go for 2 after their touchdown because they were dominating the Jets offense and I was thrilled they didn't.

~“Randy Moss told me to throw a pick after the coin toss in overtime.” Favre

~At no point in time last night was I confident the Jets were going to win. I've witnessed first hand Jay Feely's shanking clutch field goals and until I saw the ball go through the uprights I still didn't think the Jets were going to win.

~That's why I'm a pessimist / glass half empty guy.

~I despise the prevent defense. When the Pats got the ball on their final drive it was blatantly obvious that the Jets were going to be ok with allowing the Pats opportunities at the end zone. They let them complete every single pass

~If you're a Pats fan and you want to bitch about the holding penalty that set up the Jets on the goal line, don't. You got the same call in the third quarter on Calvin Pace down the field on 3rd down. It came on a 3rd and 6 in your own territory, you would have needed to punt the ball away and the lead would have stayed at 11. Instead you got the call and went down the field and scored a td. Same call, same result.

~Both teams had receivers just fumble away balls with limited contact.

~Brett Favre won that game for the Jets. They don't win that game with Pennington. It's blatantly obvious to anyone who has ever watched a Jet Pat game in the past. Pennington would have kept them in the game until a final drive where one of the Pats Dbacks jumped a quick slant for a pick.

~Must everyone ask Favre "Is this what you came back for?"

~Solid job by Mangini challenging the Coles play on the opening drive.

~With that said sometimes the Jets play calling is still completely baffling.

~Cotchery's catch was completely ludicrous.

~Ha the New York Post did not put the score of the Jets game in the paper and did not put them on the backpage. Rather Nick Swisher was on the back page. Ha.

~Leon Washington is amazing.

~Dustin Keller looks like he has some solid future pro bowler potential... but he should have caught the td on the 2nd drive.

~Dwight Lowery is not good. Imagine what it would have been like last night if they did not get Ty Law. Sure Law didn't play great, but the dropoff from him to Barrett is massive.

~Because of Dwight Lowery, Jabar Gaffney had his biggest game of the season.

~Getting Thomas Jones for a flop of 2nd round picks was a complete steal. He's not dynamic, but he's like a Curtis Martin he gets the job done. It's not flashy and he does it differently than Martin did but he gets it done.

~I think Jenkins takes too many plays off and the Jets don't appreciate him as a pass rusher completely. You can't single him on any play. When the Pats tried to do that in the 4th quarter on their second to last drive, he just tossed the Pats guard to the side and destroyed Cassel.

~Matt Cassel made himself a lot of money last night. 400 yards, 3 tds and 60+ rushing yards. Not to mention a perfect 2 minute drill with a perfect throw with 1 second left. The reasons they lost the game do not include anything Cassel did.

~Cassel put up 48 points in my fantasy league this week. So, chances are good Ole Rick is gonna win and stay ahead of me via tie-breaker... F You Drew Brees.

~He did however miss Moss on a wide open touchdown.

~Moss's catch was depressing on many levels.

~So all this talk on ESPN this week was about the Pats newfound rush attack. I know they went down by a good amount and needed to fight back through the air, but it was for the most part non-existant all game.

~Ty Warren being out made a big difference in the Jets ability to rush the football.

~I hope the Titans go into next Sunday at 10-0.

Tonight must be the night. It doesn't matter how, the score it doesn't matter, blown calls won't matter or any ridiculous plays of luck won't matter, tonight is simply a Pass or Fail Course. To Pass means that potentially the Jets can beat the Patriots. It means that even when Tom Brady comes back next year and their roster is healthy that there will be some hope of victory. A failure no matter how close no matter the cause means that this is the same old Jets, little brother who tries to challenge the older brother but always gets smacked in the face and laughed at.

Coming into the season I just accepted that the Jets were going to lose 2 games to the Pats and hoped that they would find a way to win 10 other games and sneak into the playoffs. But it's a different scenario now that Brady is injured. I have hope, I have legitimate reasons for thinking the Jets can win tonight. They have a better ranked defense. They have a better ranked offense. They have the second most sacks in the NFL. They have the quarterback with more experience. They have one significant injury to Harris while the Pats are without Harrison, Thomas, Brady and are on their 4th string running back.

All I can think about is if not now then when? If we can't beat a beaten down Pats team without the greatest QB of our time, without two of their starting defenders and with a mediocre secondary, then how exactly could I ever expect the Jets to beat the Patriots. If they don't win tonight, I won't be pissed off, I will be depressed. I will light up the white flag from here til Tom Brady's retirement in understanding that the Jets just aren't good enough.

But if they win, oh if they win, I will celebrate. Everything will look better this weekend. I will enjoy a friday at work I will enjoy waking up at 6 am and going to class on saturday. I will enjoy the winters cold. Nothing will be able to deter my glee.

Want to talk trash about the Pats? Why not do it anonymously and talk to a New York Reporter. Here's the New York Post's Mark Cannizaro:

One Jets offensive player, who spoke under the condition of anonymity because he didn't want to provide bulletin board fodder for the Patriots, talked about being "sick to our stomachs" about the Jets' 19-10 loss in Week 2 at the Meadowlands. He felt the Patriots were vulnerable - particularly on defense. Not to mention it was the first game with Matt Cassel at quarterback, after Tom Brady was injured in Week 1 vs. the Chiefs.

The player spoke matter-of-factly about how "slow" and "old" a number of the New England defenders are and how he believes the Jets should be able to put up "a lot of points" on them tonight.

The Week 2 loss was maddening to the Jets. They thought that was their chance to finally beat their division rival. Cassel was starting his first NFL game. Yet the result was the same - a teasingly close game in which the Patriots simply made fewer mistakes and won. Again.

Ok talking trash anonymously is lame. Pure and simple it's lame. And it won't keep anything off of a bulletin board. But honestly I'd rather see someone on the Jets say they think the Pats are old and slow and that they should be able to put up a lot of points then some of the other stuff they have been saying. If anything overconfidence is better than the second fiddle feeling that other Jet players seemingly have.

Oh and if I had to guess who said it, I'd go with Thomas Jones.

I mean if he can run bag kicks for Wanny than he certainly is a golden god.


The music in this video is priceless. I feel like it was put together in the 80s.

As entertaining and close fought as the Jets Pats game may be tonight, it probably won't be half the battle that a Kris Jenkins vs. Vince Wilfork Sumo Wrestling Match would be. Both men are absolutely huge and strong like ox. Let's look at the tale of the tape.

It's time to get amped up for the first place show down, so what better way to do it than some Fireman Ed Videos.


The classic version.


Hell ya, in your face Kindergarten. Jets fans can spell 4 letter words.


I wonder if he lives in Shea Stadium?


Just your everyday Jets chant.


He actually injured himself last year in his firefighter duties and missed the season. So welcome back, and let's get it done tonight.

Today is Jets vs. Pats day so that's where my brain is. Screw everything else. The Degrees and Big 5 can wait til tomorrow. Paul Pierce hitting a buzzer beater is out of my mind already. Every single thought is on tonight and so will all of todays posts.

This shall be short but sweet because it's a day late.

Wow You Guys Suck: The Lions, Bring back Orlovsky. Runners Up: Jake Delhomme 7-27 for 4 INTs?, the Raiders the opposing QB had that line and you still lost comfortably.

This Scarecrow Needs a Brain: Andy Reid, You are not a power running team. Get it in your fucking head. Runners Up: the 49ers entire offensive staff, anyone who said the Colts were dead.

Cough Cough Cough: Cleveland Browns, You had the chance to get back in the thick of things and you choked. Runners Up: The Pack could not stop Peterson, the Herminator could not get that 2 point conversion.

The Shocker: Kerry Collins, I really didn't know he could still throw for over 200 yards. Runners Up: the Dolphins are in position to make a playoff push, Flacco and Matty Ice have a better record than Peyton Manning.

The Pimp: Kurt Warner, Old man just might win the MVP. Runners Up: ToGo apparently still has something in the tank, Cutler wanted to throw for nearly 500 yards on thursday night.

You Got Jakked Up: Joe Kemp, That looks painful.



My Fantasy MVP: Meaningless Hail Mary, Ya I lost by that exact f'n margin.

New York Jets MVP: Thomas Jones, 150 yards and 3 tds is beast worthy.

My Picks

My Picks: 9-5
Preseason Picks: 9-5
Picks Vs. Spread: 8-6
Pick Suggestions: 3-2

Mediocre week but at least back on the positive side. The Lions covered yet again.

The biggest matchup of the AFC East might be tomorrow night, but with 4 teams within a game of the lead it is certainly worth it to break down the schedule by week.

Week 11
New York Jets @ New England Patriots
Oakland Raiders @ Miami Dolphins
Cleveland Browns @ Buffalo Bills

The biggest question for this week will be the play of Brady Quinn. The Dolphins at home against the lowly Raiders should be an automatic move to 6-4. The winner of the Jets Pats game immediately moves to front runner for the division while the loser falls back to the pack. The Bills are not playing well right now and Quinn had a solid game for his career first start. If the Browns win then the Bills might just fade away. If the Bills win then they will continue to have a fighting chance at the division crown.

Week 12
Buffalo Bills @ Kansas City Chiefs
New York Jets @ Tennessee Titans
New England Patriots @ Miami Dolphins

The revenge game for the Pats. The Dolphins have zero difficult games remaining outside of the division and if they could manage to repeat their Foxborough success than they very well may cruise to a playoff spot. The Chiefs on paper are awful, but for some reason Tyler Thigpin has been playing very well his last few games and they nearly defeated the Chargers last week. This game could be very tricky for the Bills. Finally the Jets faceoff against the currently undefeated Titans. I honestly think the Jets matchup better against the Titans than the Pats mostly because they do not have the mental block, I'm not saying I'm taking the Jets to win, I just don't think it's the automatic loss many would sign them up for.

Week 13
San Francisco 49ers @ Buffalo Bills
Denver Broncos @ New York Jets
Pittsburgh Steelers @ New England Patriots
Miami Dolphins @ St. Louis Rams
The Steelers will need the victory in week 13 with the Ravens playing extremely well and with a matchup against the Chargers in Week 11 they may actually end up trailing the Ravens. The Broncos will also come into New York needing a victory to hold off the Chargers so that should also be a tight matchup. Meanwhile, the Niners are a joke and should be wiped out by the Bills and the Rams are useless without Steven Jackson so if he's out of the lineup it's an automatic victory for the Dolphins.

Week 14
Miami Dolphins @ Buffalo Bills
New York Jets @ San Francisco 49ers
New England Patriots @ Seattle Seahawks
The Bills need to be in position in Week 14 or they can probably kiss their chances goodbye as they finish with 3 division games and the Broncos. In the home matchup versus the Dolphins the Bills will certainly welcome any and all snow they can get. The Jets and Pats meanwhile get to travel cross country to face basement dwellars. Both should be easy wins unless Hasselbeck is healthy and playing well by week 14.

Week 15
Buffalo Bills @ New York Jets
New England Patriots @ Oakland Raiders
San Francisco 49ers @ Miami Dolphins
The Bills get to head into New York and look for revenge after their rush attack was dominated by the Jets. Meanwhile the Pats and Dolphins should lock up easy victories.

Week 16
Buffalo Bills @ Denver Broncos
New York Jets @ Seattle Seahawks
Arizona Cardinals @ New England Patriots
Miami Dolphins @ Kansas City Chiefs
More Cross Country travel as both the Bills and Jets fly out to the far west. Again the Seahawks could be a very different team in Week 16 then they are now so this could be a very tricky matchup for the Jets. Meanwhile the Broncos will likely be fighting for the Division or a Wildcard in 16 and should give the Bills all they can handle. The Cardinals might be the best team any AFC East squad faces in week 16, but chances are good that they will have clinched the division and will have absolutely nothing to play for in New England. The Herminator also might throw a little wrench in the Dolphins plans come week 16 at home with LJ back and Thigpen fighting like a Power Chanticleer.

Week 17
New England Patriots @ Buffalo Bills
Miami Dolphins @ New York Jets
The final week has two division games and that's it. Week 17 could include anywhere from 2 spectacular games to two meaningless games.

Episode 4 of Arm Punt Formations starring the "Gunslinger" with Special Guest the "Sex Cannon"



Check out more Episodes of Arm Punt Formations

Rudy Fernandez might be my new favorite player. Why? The 3rd person.

"Rudy is not everyday a shooter," Fernandez said. "He's defense. He's passes. He's assists." The Oregonian

My college basketball predictions last year were pretty damn close. 3 of 4 final 4 teams, and if Memphis could have just hit a damn free throw I would have gotten the champion right. So... these will probably be much worse.

Conferences I Don't Care About Winners

America East: Hartford, CT Bias.
Atlantic Sun: Belmont, Gonna enjoy a #1 drubbing in the tourney.
Big Sky: Montana, The Sky is Blue in Montana.
Big South: Coastal Carolina, Chanticleers all the way.
Big West: Pacific, They're As West as you Can Get.
Colonial:UNC Wilmington, Colonel Wilmington dominates.
Horizon: Butler, They win a lot right?
Ivy League: Penn, It's always the Quakers.
Metro Atlantic: Marist, Foxes are delicious.
Mid-American: Akron, Zip Zip Zippy Dooo.
Mid Continent: IUPUI, Too many Vowels to contain.
Mid-Eastern: Morgan St., Sure why not.
Missouri Valley: Southern Illinois, Saluki power.
Mountain West: UNLV, Rebs take it home.
Northeast: CCSU, Connecticut homer.
Ohio Valley: Samford, And his sons.
Patriot League: Holy Cross, Worcester Homer.
Southern: Davidson, Have a buddy named Davidson, big fella.
Southland: Stephen F. Austin, Stonecold.
Southwestern: Southern, Aptly named.
Sun Belt: Louisiana Lafayette, cause their Ragin Cajuns.
West Coast: Gonzaga, Oooh tough one.
WAC: Nevada., Gonna gamble on Reno.

Unlike last year, I changed a few of those picks, but not too many.

Important Conference Winners

Technically the winner in each of these conferences are their respective tournament victors. However this is meant to be a pick of whom will win the regular season as the Tourny is more of a crapshoot than a full seasons worth of conference games.

ACC Winner: North Carolina, The universal #1 team in the country should be able to take this home. But hopefully Hansbrough chokes again in the tourney.

Atlantic 10 Winner: Xavier, the only real reason I care about this conference anymore is because I still reside in the Northeast, else wise it has fallen further away from the Power conference. Give it to Xavier cause they typically take home the crown.

Big East Winner: UConn, Despite being born and raised in CT I am not a UConn fan but I think they'll take home the Big East mostly because of the downlow combo of Thabeet and Adrien. Thabeet has been a wildly inconsistent offensive player for UConn so far in his career, but last year he seemed to steadily improve and this year he could emerge as a Dikembe Mutomboesque force.

Big 10 Winner: Michigan St., Wisconsin may finally not be great which will be good for everyone. The Spartans should be able to cruise to the conference crown.

Big 12 Winner: Oklahoma, Kansas shall be down this year thanks to their championship exodus, and the Sooners will come in and hold off the Longhorns for the title.

Conference USA Winner: Memphis, Not really sure how good Memphis is actually going to be this year with all the players they lost, but they still always dominate the ConfUSA.

Pac 10 Winner: UCLA, UCLA is annoyingly boring and good every year. They will continue to dominate the Pac 10.

SEC Winner: Tennessee, Going with the sweaty pastel orange suit jackets.

First Team All-America

G Dominic James - Makes even more noise at Marquette with Crean gone.
G Stephen Curry - Cinderella will get noticed at the end of the year.
F Luke Harangody - I had to pick the Goofy looking white guy
F Tyler Hansbrough - Pretty much a consensus All-American.
C Hasheem Thabeet - Staying in school one more season will get Thabeet an All-American selection and a top 10 pick in the draft.

Seasonal Awards

Freshman of the Year: Tyreke Evans, We'll make it back to back Memphis freshman to be the best diaper dandy in the nation.

Player of the Year: Tyler Hansbrough, He's white and a 'fighter' so the voters love him and he'll win again.

Coach on the Hotseat: Coach K, Ya, I know Duke saw you completely blow off the summer by taking a massive vacation in China. What a f'n slacker. You're gonna get canned after this year.

Coach of the Year: Bob McKillop, Davidson will be beastly once again and people will reward him on the tourney run from last year.

Sleeper Squad to Make Tourny: Michigan, Ha, in my dreams.

Final Four

UCLA - Stupid UCLA makes it every year so why would that change now?
Michigan St. - Izzo seemingly always has the Spartans overperforming in March and he will again this year.
North Carolina - Pretty Much Automatic Selection.
UConn - They bring back much of the same team from last year and it's about time Calhoun make another run.

National Champion: North Carolina

I want to take someone other than the Tarheels, I really do, but I don't think I can. They return so much talent and have supplemented with some additional freshman studs. And as much as I would find it hilarious if Hansbrough never gets it done, I just don't think there are teams as strong as Kansas and Memphis last year who will be able to match up and beat UNC. Ugh, let us all hope for the Hansbrough Sad Face again.

I've got Veterans Day Off from the ole job and shall be taking the day off here as well.

Matt Holliday is going to be a free agent after next year. His agent is high power devil Scott Boras so he shall be seeking a very very large contract and thus the Rockies wanted to get something for him before getting nothing. So they shopped the markets that can afford Holliday. They had discussions with the Phillies as a replacement for the Pat Burrell. They discussed a deal with the Cardinals for Ryan Ludwick. They gave the Yankees a phone call. But alas there was only one large market team that had the money and talent to acquire him.................

THE OAKLAND ATHLETICS??????

What the Hell is Going on in this Upside Down World? Every year the A's go out and trade one of their ace starters to get prospects, now they are trading their prospects to get an all star outfielder? The players Oakland is giving up hasn't been 100% revealed by any source but it will likely include any combination of Greg Smith, Huston Street and Carlos Gonzalez. No matter who they give up, this certainly strays from the typical Billie Beane move. And apparently it is not going to end their as according to Ken Rosenthal the A's are very interested on dropping loot on Rafael Furcal. Huh?

If this is any indication of what the MLB Offseason is going to be like then prepare for a very very entertaining few months of wheeling and dealing.

Yesterday down 34-13 with 6 seconds left, Drew Brees threw a meaningless hail mary which ricocheted off 3 bodies into the hands of Lance Moore for a touchdown. It had no baring on the game or the spread or anything really, but it cost me my fantasy victory. Crappy.

If you Want to Watch the Painful Video Go Here and Skip to the Last 20 Seconds.

Yesterday on Pitt's final drive, Nantz had a brain fart and said that the Steelers should spike the ball to stop the clock. The problem was it was on 4th down which Phil Simms quickly pointed out. It was dumb, but it was a rushed spur of the moment suggesting. Unaware of the settings, which is kind of piss poor for a play-by-play guy who is supposed to always be in tune with the situation.

Than last night, Madden implored that Andy Reid must challenge whether or not Jacobs fumbled the football in the 4th quarter when driving to go ahead 13. He probably said it 5 times that Reid had to challenge the play. The problem? There was no doubt at all that Jacobs was down by contact prior to fumble. Not one semblence of a doubt. His elbow, his hip, his ass, and his back all hit the turf before the football popped out. It was obvious that challenging the play was simply throwing away a timeout. What happens? The challenge fails, obviously. The next play ends with another questionable fumble which should have been challenged because it was actually close. Reid wound up losing both challenges, the Giants scored a td, and at the end of the game the Eagles only had one timeout left allowing the Giants to easily run out the clock.

So which comment was dumber? My vote goes to Madden because he watched the replay several times and knew that it wouldn't be overturned yet he kept stubbornly saying that Reid had to challenge the play. At, least Nantz's was a result of quick paced play calling and not thought out stupidity.

Remember this is all about Quality Wins and Bad Losses so if you lose to a top ranked team its not going to kill you, if you lose to Arkansas St. in the opener it will haunt you the entire season.

And now the Power Rankings are slowly resembling the BCS rankings.

1. Texas Tech - If your Mike Leach I understand loyalty to a program that gave you your first major coaching job, but just imagine how high powered his offense would be if he could recruit 5 star players instead of molding unknowns into gems. And doesn't Harrell look like a douche in that picture? Quality Wins: Kansas, Texas, Okie St.

2. Alabama -#2 is never a bad spot to be. The next two games are against Miss St. and Auburn both very winnable games. Then the tester against Florida. Quality Wins: @Georgia, @LSU

3. Texas - The Longhorns can not be pleased with the results on saturday. If Texas Tech wins out than they are screwed. If Oklahoma wins out then they are probably screwed. But I guess that's what happens when you can't make an easy INT or tackle with under 15 seconds to play. Quality Wins: Oklahoma(n), Mizzou, Oklahoma St.

4. Florida - They did not fall victim to the Degrees, and now thanks to the Hawkeyes they control their own destiny. Quality Wins: LSU, UGA(n) Bad Loss: Ole Miss

5. Oklahoma - Snoozer this past weekend, but this weekend is their chance to make the Big 12 title game. Quality Wins: TCU, Kansas, Nebraska

6. USC - Threw a massive celebration after the Penn St. loss, now all they really need is Mizzou to dominate the Big 12 title game.Quality Wins: Ohio State, Oregon, Cal Bad Loss: Oregon St.

7. Utah - TCU had the chance to secure the non-BCS conference BCS birth but could not hang on to their 4th quarter lead. The Utes now need to get past their mormon neighbors and they are in. Quality Wins: @Air Force, Oregon St., TCU

8. Penn St. - Yay, no Big 10 team in the BCS title game, unless the apocalypse happens again. Quality Wins: Oregon St., @Ohio St.

9. Boise St. - I shall include Boise St. even though their wins outside of Oregon are not very solid. Quality Wins: @Oregon

10. Georgia - Barely beat Kentucky this week end and perhaps are not for real. Quality Wins: South Carolina, Vandy, @LSU Bad Loss: Florida(n)

11. Oklahoma St. - A 40 year old man can not apparently cover the spread very well. Quality Wins: @Mizzou

Dropped Out: TCU

Noticeable Absences: Ohio St. will not be ranked in the power rankings at any point this year.

It looked as if Joe Pa was going to beat the arrow of Hawkeye for the majority of the afternoon, but alas Hawkeye was resilient. And at the last minute Hawkeye intercepted the floating duck, drove down the field and and shoved the arrow through Joe Pa's heart at the last second... And the greater good has been served.

Wins should not cost you a spot in your ranking. I repeat winning football games should not drop you in the standings and yet they do.

View Exhibit A, the Colley Rankings which beautifully has a feature where you get to play God and either add wins or take wins away. The current Colley Rankings has Penn State at 4th behind Texas, Alabama and Florida. Now let's play with the rankings for a second to see what happens when we add or remove victories.

Michigan is essentially the worst team in the Big 10 this season. So what happens when we eviscerate this victory from Colley Ranked #4 Penn State's season? Well Penn State actually moves up to third in the rankings.


Ok now let's flip the switch. What would happen to Florida's ranking if they also beat Michigan this season? Well of course they drop below Penn State.


And obviously, if Florida beat Michigan instead of Penn St. than... you guessed it Penn State would be ranked higher.


I don't know whether to scream at the stupidity of all of this or scream at the fact that somehow Michigan is so bad this year that they could actually cost Penn State a spot in the National Title Game.

The Raiders cut Deangelo Hall early this week, this we all know. The reason for cutting him is a little mysterious. Obviously they didn't want to pay him the massive money that they stupidly agreed to in the offseason, but it does seem a bit rash to cut a man in the middle of the season who was unwilling to renegotiate his deal again during the middle of the season. Shouldn't he be concentrating on playing football?

Anyway one of the reasons that was thrown about as to why they were so in need of cutting cap money was opening up the monetary sources to resign the better Cornerback on their team Nnamdi Asomugha. Well they might have to go in another direction with the offseason spend cause I don't think he wants to be there:

"I'm not on board with what happened to DeAngelo," said Asomugha, a defensive team captain. "I don't agree with what's going on. ... You can only bite your lip and play football."

"This is a soap opera over here," Wilson said. "I've never been in a situation where you cut one of the best players. That's strange to me. It's almost like you're throwing in the towel." SF Chronicle

Throw on top of this the fact that DeAngelo Hall's agent said that he has been contacted by 15 teams about signing Hall, and the Raiders should just be turned into a Sitcom.

After 8 games of the season the Jets sit with the exact record I thought they were going to have, 5-3. The path to that record is highly different than what I expected however.

Week 1 I thought was basically a must win. I know it's ridiculous to say week 1 is a must, but this team needed to get off the right foot and they were playing the lowly Dolphins. They won the game but almost choked it away and as a fan you came away feeling well that just wasn't good enough, the Dolphins are going to be bad this year. Well, we were wrong. At 4-4 the Dolphins are not a miserable team. They have as good a chance to push for the division as the other 3, and potentially the last game of the season at the Meadowlands will be huge.

Then the next two weeks I predicted they were going to lose and they did, it was just the way they lost that left a sour taste in the mouth. When Tom Brady went down as a Jet fan you had to figure that this was the time. This was our time to knock the snot out of them. This was our time to take advantage of the Pats playing an inexperienced or ill-equiped QB. And well it wasn't to be. The rush defense, which has since come on to be a massive strength, was abused by of all people Lamont Jordan.

The following week they went out to San Diego and faced off against a reeling 0-2 team coming off a screw job in Denver. The Jets looked poised for success after an pick 6, but that lasted less than a blink of an eye. Before you knew it Kris Jenkins was out, Philip Rivers was hitting everybody in site. Brett Favre was throwing tds to the other team and the Jets were blitzed out of the building.

The next week the Jets hosted the Cardinals forced a billion turnovers, Brett Favre looked like a touchdown machine and as a Jet fan you regained some of the confidence you lost the previous weeks. And into the bye week at 2-2 as expected.

The 3 games following the bye week included 3 miserable miserable teams. The first the Bengals they started off with a beautiful Favre fumble for a td but were able to cruise to a relatively easy victory. Not really confidence building but a victory.

The next week the Jets got to make their yearly voyage to Oakland. An Oakland team who was in shambles after firing their coach. An Oakland team with no semblance of structure. An Oakland team that two weeks later only 76 yards and had a total of 3 fucking first downs. And what do they do? They lay a big fat egg. A massive pile of shit on the field. Sure they score a late field goal to send it into OT. But in OT they did nothing absolutely nothing and they deserved to lose to one of the shittiest teams in the NFL. And that certainly brought down the confidence another notch.

The following week they made Tyler Thigpen look like a Hall of Famer, Brett Favre helped spawn Arm Punt Formations, but somehow they came back and won the game. It was a victory that lowered confidence but still a victory. They sat at 4-3 1 game out of the division. Not bad.

And then last week happened. Sure I haven't been a believer in Buffalo at any point this season, but they were 5-2 and at home. The Jets were underdogs and with the exception of the first Bills drive and Mangini's brain fart turned gold they completely outplayed the Bills. If not for Brett deciding he wanted to make it interesting by throwing a td to Buffalo this game would have been a breeze.

And that leads us to this week and what is to occur. 5-3 was expected, the way they got there certainly was not. The Jets have a legitimate shot of winning the division. Will they? I have no idea. One week they go and blow the doors off the Cardinals and Bills both division leaders at the time. And others they show up completely flat against the Chiefs and Raiders. I have no idea what is going to happen. This team could potentially finish 11-5 and win the division or they could finish 8-8 and miss the playoffs. Am I confident at all in this team? Not really. But do I have hope for success this year? Absolutely. Thanks again Bernard Pollard.

I absolutely hate the first Thursday night game because every single year I forget to make my pick for that game. Whatever I probably would have backed Brady Quinn anyway.

5. Detroit Lions (+6 1/2) vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
Ok ok this pick seems really really dumb and I really wouldn't put any money on it, but I'm loyal. The Lions have been spread champs the past few weeks and well I'm still riding the wave until the crash. (Which will almost certainly be sunday)

4. New Orleans Saints (+ 1/2) at Atlanta Falcons
I think that after the London victory the Saints are ready to bust into the next gear and start rattling off win after win after win.

3. Tennessee Titans (-3 1/2) at Chicago Bears
The Titans will lose this regular season but it will not be against the Sex Cannon, protegee of the Great Arm Punter.

2. Carolina Panthers (-9 1/2) at Oakland Raiders
The Raiders got three first downs last week. 3. Do we need to elaborate anymore why they are going to lose to a 6-2 football team by double digits?

1. New England Patriots (-3 1/2) vs. Buffalo Bills
The Bills are a product of luck and an easy opening schedule. They have come up flat the last two weeks within the division and they will do it again in the Razor.

Survivor League Pick: SCREW Seattle
San Diego because Norv Turner likes to dick people over in survivor leagues.

Non-Spread Picks

Below there are ten Silhouette's of Very Fat Football Coaches. How well can you identify the belly button bursting guts of the gridiron? If you get stumped you can opt for help by either going here for 10 clues or here for the list of the 10 coaches so you can match them up to each Silhouette. When you're done or have given up, here are the answers.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Check Out the Answers

He's a man he's 40 and he's facing the #2 team in the Nation with a chance to move closer to a BCS Bowl birth.

5. Oregon State Beavers at California Los Angeles Bears
This is not a high profile game mostly because Oregon St. remains unranked and UCLA is just plain old bad, but every game the Beavers play is huge. I'm not a believer that they will automatically win games given their poor play early this year, but if they go out and win their remaining 4 which they should then they, not USC, win the Pac 10 and get the invite to the Rose Bowl. The Pick: Beaver by 10

4. Florida Gators at Vanderbilt Commodores
In this weeks Degrees of Loss Separation the Gators get toppled by the Commodores. In this weeks reasonable Simon's picks the Gators go out and pummel Vandy because right now they are an unstoppable offensive force.The Pick: Florida by 17

3. Texas Christian Horned Frogs at Utah Utes
The Utes are undefeated and highly ranked after their opening victory over the Wolverines. The Horned Frogs have 1 loss to top 6 Oklahoma and have already beaten Mormons to a bloody pulp. The winner has a great chance at a BCS birth, the loser is all but done. The Pick: Purple Frogs by 6

2. Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Louisiana State Tigers
It's the Saban Bowl. Good ole Nick gets to come back to the program he built up to a national title just to bolt for the NFL and come running back into the SEC West almost immediately. LSU has major offensive problems but outside of the LSU game the Crimson Tide do not have any incredible wins. This is their only real test left before a trip to the SEC title game, will they slip up? The Pick: LSU by 3

1. Oklahoma State Cowboys at Texas Tech Red Raiders
The Red Raiders get the top spot two weeks in a row as they face off once again against a ranked opponent. After pulling off the upset against the Longhorns they are big favorites at home over the Gundys. Okie State's defense was solid in the loss at Texas and should be able to stifle the Raiders offense some, I just don't trust their offense to put up the necessary points. The Pick: TT by 7

I voted Tuesday. I voted apathetically. I honestly put limited thought into my vote and voted on the principal of A) It doesn't matter who I vote for anyway because I live in Connecticut and a Democrat always wins and B) I really really really don't want to hear Palin talk ever again. So I voted Obama. Yes, pretty much the lamest reasoning ever but I don't care because again it doesn't matter. The last time Connecticut voted republican was 1988 when everybody and their mother voted against Dukakis.

I don't think in my lifetime we will ever see Popular Vote actually decide the election, but at the very least I think its time for States to follow in the footsteps of Maine and Nebraska and utilize the Congressional District Method. Sure its never amounted to splitting the electoral votes in Nebraska or Maine yet and chances are it wouldn't do anything in CT but at the very least by splitting up the state your vote would seem more relevant. And by splitting the electoral count up by region the election will not be solely decided by swing states like Ohio, Florida etc. It's evident every single time they zoom in on Ohio that Cleveland, Cincy and Columbus vote democrat and the rest of the state votes Republican. It seems ridiculous that one way or the other a candidate wins the entire electoral vote of Ohio despite there being such differing opinions in two distinct settings.

It's obviously still not perfect, but at the very least it would make me feel like my vote somewhat mattered rather than voting with the distinct knowledge that no matter what I say Connecticut is blue.

The Degrees of Loss Separation is a simple concept, I go out and find a highly rated team with some losses playing against a crappy team with lots of losses. Next I find a chain of losses which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt (not at all) that the underdog is going to pull the major upset and storm the field. The Final Outcome is calculated simply: Add up the scores of the losers, add up the scores of the winners in the degrees of loss separation and divide both by the # of degrees.

The Game: Florida Gators vs. Vanderbilt Commodores

Lots of talk is going on throughout Florida and the SEC conference as well as the rest of the nation that Florida may just have the inside track to the National Title game. This all runs under the assumption that the Gators will run the table and Texas Tech loses a game somewhere down the line. But what happens if the Gators get caught up in the hype and slip up at a weaker conference opponent, like say Vandy.

2º of Loss Separation : Vandy > Ole Miss > Florida

The simplest of all the degrees, one team separating the two. Ole Miss played undefeated Vanderbilt at home in the 4th week of the season and lost by 6 after they failed to score at any point in the 2nd half while Vandy pulled off two field goals. The following week the Rebs went into the swamp and pulled off a shocker. They forced 3 fumbles had a 17 point outburst in the 3rd quarter and were able to hold off the Gators by a single point.

Final Outcome: Vandy 27 Florida 24

The match is pretty simple here. Ole Miss beat Florida by 1 and lost to Vandy by 6. Divide by 2 and round down and you get a 3 point BCS stunning victory by the Commodores.

I've never been a Penn St. hater, it's kind of hard to when your team dominates them on a year to year basis but still I don't wish them harm on a yearly basis. In most cases I'd probably say I want them to win. If they do get into the National Title Game I will pull for them there. I just don't want them to be there. Why? Basically because of Ohio St. the last two seasons.

I just can't easily get over the embarrasment that was the past two title games. I do not want to waste another January evening pretending as if a team in the Big 10 is one of the top two teams in the Nation. And for this reason I want whatever it takes to be done to avoid this situation. Over the next 3 weeks I will hope that either Iowa, Indiana or Michigan St. pulls out the upset card. If that doesn't happen than I will regretfully pull for Texas Tech and Alabama to go undefeated, two teams I care little for. If either team loses I will hope for either Florida, Texas or Oklahoma to look like gods in the final weeks and somehow drug the voters into jumping them over PSU.

I'm sorry Joe Pa for what may end up being your 5th undefeated screw job, but it's for the greater good of college football. We need a good championship game again. We need a championship game devoid of a Big 10 team with a weak out of conference schedule.

So let us all agree that we need whatever it takes to avoid another Big 10 embarrassment.

Note: I'm actually a Michigan Fan. If you are a Penn St. fan, feel free to call me a douche or tell me how much Rich Rodriguez blows or whatever.

Step 1: Sweep the Remainder of the Schedule

No two loss team will be playing in the National Championship game thus if USC loses they are out.

Step 2: Get Lots and Lots of Help

The Pac 10 is not highly regarded this year and thus will not be getting the love from the pollsters, thus they will need at least 2 of the following.

A) Penn St. loses one of the remaining 3 games.
B) The SEC is won by a team with 2 losses. This would mean Florida needs to lose between now and the title game or Bama would need to lose twice.
C) The Big 12 is won by a team with 2 losses and there is no 1 loss team in the Big 12 not in the title game. If OU or UT is left out of the title game with 1 loss they will be ahead of USC already and will probably stay there no matter what.

In essence the chances for USC to make it to Miami are very very very bad as of right now. They need losses everywhere and ASAP.

Step 1: Get to the Big 12 Title Game

Getting to the Big 12 Title game starts this week, and not necessarily with Oklahoma. See Oklahoma obviously needs to win the remainder of their games to get into the Championship game, especially with two coming against Okie St. and TT, but it also needs to avoid a two way tie with Texas. Thus, the Sooners either need A) Another Texas Loss which is doubtful or B) A three way tie between them, Texas Tech and Texas. As I identified in the Texas edition, the tie-breaker is BCS standings and all of this favors Oklahoma. For whatever reason they are currently ranked ahead Texas in both the Harris and Coaches poll. If they win the remainder of the games this will stay the same, they will eventually creep up in the computer polls thanks to two more quality wins and they will overtake Texas in the BCS poll.

Step 2: Get a Loss from PSU or Bama

Just like Texas and Texas Tech the easiest scenario is if Penn St. loss. But assuming Penn St. wins out that means they need to Bama to lose and then on top of that they need to win the style points over the SEC champ or have the SEC champ wind up with 2 losses.

Step 3: Politic

One thing that will be key for Oklahoma's politicking ability will be TCU's result on Saturday night. If TCU manages to beat Utah on the road they will climb and stay in the top 10 in the BCS standings. This adds another crucial chip in their corner. The would be able to argue quality wins and quality losses over Florida or Bama and would just have to fight off the SEC > Big 12 common assumption.

So let's match them up:

Oklahoma would have wins over TCU, Mizzou (in title game), Okie St. and Texas Tech. And a loss to top 5 Texas.

Florida would have wins over FSU, Miami, Bama, UGA, & South Carolina and a loss to Ole Miss. Florida's case would be much bolstered if Bama came into the SEC title game as Undefeated and #1.

Bama would have wins over Florida, UGA, and potentially LSU. Their loss would be against either LSU, MSU, or Auburn.

Oklahoma would most likely be able to over politic Bama and Florida if Bama already has a loss coming into the game. But if Bama is undefeated, it might be very very difficult to convince voters not to jump Florida into the title game.

Step 1: Run the Table

Any loss for Florida immediately eliminates them from title contention.

Step 2: Get Some Help

If both Texas Tech and Penn St. run the table it will be very very difficult for the Gators to get to the title game no matter how many Style points they garner. So they really need one of them to lose, preferably Penn St. If Penn St. loses than winning out should be enough to get to the title game. If TT loses than style points come into play big time*. So here are Florida's style point options.

Option 1: Alabama is #1 and Still Undefeated

In this situation Florida would likely come into the game ranked behind Penn St., Bama and potentially Oklahoma and/or Texas. The benefit for the Gators will be in their matchup and the hype of the game. If the Gators go in and beat the #1 team it should be pretty simple task for them to pass the Big 12 South Rep whose win will likely come against 2 loss Mizzou.

Option 2: Bama Loses in the Next 3 Weeks

If this happens it significantly diminishes the Gators chances of jumping the Big 12 team. The worst case scenario would be if Bama picked up 2 losses and the Gators played LSU in the title game. This game would get even less hype than the Big 12 game. A win over LSU or 1 loss Bama would not give much of a boost over a Oklahoma or Texas team dump trucking Mizzou who will probably be top 10 at the time.

Step 3: Politic

The need to politic will come if A) Penn St. and TT are undefeated or B) Option 2 occurs. If A, then Florida will have to drug a lot of people and convince them to vote them over Penn St. They will need some pretty ridiculous style points to have any chance at this. This means facing #1 Undefeated Alabama in the title game and winning by about 40. If B then again its about style points and who they're up against. After the game Florida's signature wins will be UGA, Bama and LSU. No matter which Big 12 team makes it their wins will be comparable. Texas would have wins over Oklahoma, Mizzou *2 and Okie St. Oklahoma would have wins over TCU, Mizzou, Okie St., and TT. TT would have wins Texas, Mizzou, Okie St. and/or OU. Style points and politicking would decide who conference is in and which is out.

*If the Big 12 North Wins the Title Game than it matters not style just winning the out should do the trick.

Step 1: Getting to the Big 12 Title Game

1. Win Out
2. Texas Tech Must Lose to Either Oklahoma St. or Oklahoma and preferably both

So here's where it breaks down after that. If Texas finishes in a two way tie with TT they are out of the Big 12 title game. If Texas finishes in a two way tie with Oklahoma or Okie St. they are in.

Three Way Tie Scenario 1: If Texas finishes in the 3 way tie with Texas Tech and Oklahoma St. they are likely in. Again the tie-breaker would be BCS standing and in the what have you done for me lately world Tech would fall below UT immediately after their loss. In addition in this scenario Okie St's victory over OU would be diminished because OU would be coming off a loss to TT. This would point to it being hard for OSU to overtake Texas.

Three Way Tie Scenario 2: If Texas finishes in a 3 way tie with TT and OU then they are almost certainly out. Why? Again in the what have you done for me lately world (WHYDFML), OU would finish with victories over #2 Texas Tech and a ranked OSU squad and those wins would put a twinkle in the voters eye. But in reality its not those wins that will boost them in the voters eyes its what the voters are already doing. Thanks again to the WHYDFML philosophy OU is already ahead of Texas in both the Harris and Coaches poll and just sits behind them in the intelligent computer polls. When OU beats OSU and TT coupled with TCU's impressive standing OU will certainly gain the needed ground on Texas to overtake them in the BCS.

Step 2: Get Some Outside Help

If Texas does in fact win the conference title game than they probably still need some outside help in the Big 10 or SEC but should be able to easily hold off USC.

A. Penn St. Loss: A Penn St. loss is a simply and clean open doorway for the Longhorns. If Penn St. loses than all they should have to do is take home the Big 12 title and book the trip.

B. Get a Alabama Loss: Preferably a loss this weekend to LSU or in the next two conference weeks. The last thing Texas wants is and undefeated Bama ranked #1 in the country facing off against a top 5 Florida squad. The hype of that matchup would dominate that of the Big 12 title game and would almost certainly put the winner in the championship. Any losses by either squad will certainly help out Texas immensely. If Florida loses and then beats Bama in the title game then Texas is a big winner. If Bama loses to LSU and then beats Florida in the title game then its on the Step 3.

Step 3: Politic

Mack Brown is great at politics. He will whine like a champ after the Big 12 title game that the Big 12 is the best conference this year and that they deserve to get in over USC and the SEC winner. And then it will be all up to the voters to decide if the SEC or Big 12 is better and that usually doesn't work out to well for the Big 12.

Possibility #1, Win Out + Some Help: If Penn St. wins out they could still be the odd man out in certain situations. The first being if Texas Tech and Bama both run the table. If Texas Tech loses before the Big 12 Title game then there could be a scenario where Oklahoma or Texas dominates the remainder of their schedule and the title game and somehow jumps Penn St. but I find that unlikely. What I would find more likely is if Florida goes into the SEC Title game against #1 and undefeated Alabama and obliterates them. If that happens then there is a decent chance that the Gators jump Penn St. in some voters minds and in the computers. So, in essence Penn St. wins out they need to a Bama or TT loss and hold off whoever replaces them as conference champ. So they need to tack on some style points in the next 3 weeks.

Possibility #2, Lose and Pull a Buckeye: Last year the Buckeyes seemingly lost their opportunity to play in the title game when they lost to Illinois on November 10th then the world collapsed and they somehow still garnered a trip. If Penn St. loses in the next 3 weeks they will need a similar if not more far fetched result. They would need all but one of the following. The Big 12 title team has 2 losses and none of the Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma St. or Oklahoma teams sit outside of the title game with 1 loss and ranked ahead of Penn St. in the BCS. In addition if Texas Tech is in undefeated than their loss would need to be significantly embarrasing for them to fall past Penn St. in the standings.The SEC Champ either Bama or Florida has 2 losses. If Bama loses the title game after going undefeated during the regular season they will need to get crushed by the Gators. And finally USC loses another game.

So... the world will essentially need to collapse over the remainder of this month for Penn St. to get in if they lose a game in the regular season. Why? Because it's hard for me to A) See USC losing a game the remainder of the year. B) See Florida and Bama losing a game before the SEC Title game. C) Seeing the Big 12 South team losing their conference championship.

Today or Tomorrow is a massive layoff day for my business. The rumors start swirling around the office. This number or that number are going to get laid off. The layoff is going to happen in this location or that location. You hear them all. Different people have different information but chances are you want to know everything because you're curious about calculating the odds that your heads will be one of those on the blocks.

And then the day finally comes and eventually you see someone crying on your floor telling everyone they've been laid off. You'll see someone just resigned to the fact that they no longer have a job as they pack up their stuff into little brown boxes. It is nothing short of an incredible company moral boost.

Anyway, come this time tomorrow or Friday I may no longer have a job or a computer or a cell phone or essentially anything. We shall see.

Possibility #1, Win Out: Just like Bama they control their own destiny, they win out and they head to Miami.

Possibility #2, Lose 1 Game But Win Big 12 Title: Their victory over Texas puts them in the poll position but it could easily become null and void if they finish in a three way tie. Why? Because if you take a look at the Big 12 Tie Breakers, the likely tie breaker for the Division Title is #5 BCS standings. Given the fact that their loss will be the freshest in the minds of voters and the likelihood that their computer rankings will be lower than that of Texas and either OSU or OU than they would almost certainly be left out.

So how do they go about avoiding a three way tie if they do lose another game because chances are likely that Texas runs the table given they finish with Baylor, Kansas at home and A&M which means and if they for some reason don't then a two way tie with OU or OSU would be deadly. If TT loses to OSU this weekend then they to stay at 1 loss will defeat OU, in order to avoid the 3 way tie OSU would need to lose an additional game. If they beat OSU than the opposite would need to happen, TT would lose to OU and then OU would need to lose an additional game. In either scenario TT ends up in a two way tie with Texas and advances thanks to head to head.

Now if they make the Big 12 Title game with 1 loss there will be multiple keys. Obviously they will need either a Bama or a PSU loss or both. Similarly to Bama's situation a PSU loss would be preferable as it would completely eliminate them. Next its all about style points. Preferably for Texas Tech they will face off against a Mizzou team on a win streak for a showcase victory. After that victory they will need to country watch. In all likelihood the SEC 1 loss Championship winner will be given more love than Texas Tech, so they will need either an incredibly ugly win by Bama or Florida as a 1 loss in the title game or they will need one of the 2 to win the title game with 2 losses. Finally they will have to peak to the West Coast and take a look at USC. USC by the final week of the season will be a sleeping Giant.

Moral of the story is that if TT loses at any point before the Big 12 Title game they really really need that team to lose another game because if they end up in a 3 way tie they are likely screwed.

Possibility #2, Lose Big 12 Title Game: Essentially they would need three of four things to happen. They would need Penn St. to look awful in a loss. They would need USC to lose a game. They would need the SEC Champ to have 2 losses. Finally they would need to stave off a Texas jump in the standings meaning they either would need a Texas loss or would need to put a big space in front of Texas in the voters eyes by crushing OSU and OU and barely losing the title game.

Possibility #1: Win Out, Obviously as the #1 team in the country if Bama wins out no matter who their conference championship game opponent is they are not going to get jumped.

Possibility #2: Win SEC But Lose 1 Game, If the Crimson Tide stumble in the next three weeks either to LSU, Miss St. or Auburn they will not be completely eliminated. Rather they will drop depending on the severity of the loss to spot probably around 5. This means that they will first off require a loss by either Texas Tech or Penn St. to eliminate all undefeated teams. Depending on which team(s) loses it shall follow 1 of three paths.

Path 1, Penn St. Loss: A Penn St. loss (& TT running the table) is perfect for Bama in this situation. If Penn St. loses they will be all but eliminated from the championship picture. This means that Bama will have to hold off 1 loss squads USC and Texas which should be easy. Pollsters already have shown an avoidance of rematches in the BCS Title Game so Texas by proxy will be jumped by Bama. Next if Bama puts on a good show versus Florida or Florida comes in with 1 loss after continuing their dominance Bama should be able to hold off USC.

Path 2, TT Loss: Similar to the above except the main competition for the final slot would be the Big 12 Title winner. TT, OSU, OU, and Texas all have 1 loss and are all considered amongst the top teams in the Nation. Any of these 4 teams win the Big 12 Title game with 1 loss and they would significantly push a 1 loss Bama. In order to overtake them as well as stave off USC, Bama would need Florida to come in looking good and put on a quality showing. In addition if the Big 12 North winner was a 3 loss Kansas squad that would also help.

Path 3, PSU & TT Lose: If both undefeated teams lose than Bama just needs to stave off getting overtaken by USC which should be easy as the Trojans have no big signature games left.

Possibility #3: Lose the SEC Title Game, In order for Bama to get in while losing the SEC title game absolute hell is going to need to break loose. The first being Florida must have 2 losses coming into the title game. Next USC must lose an additional game. Either Oklahoma, TT, Texas, Missouri or Kansas wins the Big 12 title game with 1 loss or Penn St. loses handily in one of their remaining games. Simply put its going to take a near miracle for Bama to make the title game without winning the SEC Title.

Been awhile since the last Rebus, but it's a special day so here goes. Click on the Picture for a larger view.

Wow You Guys Suck: The Raiders, Not to beat a dead horse here, but holy shit the Raiders are terrible. 3 first downs the entire game? 3 first downs? Your QB gains more yards rushing on 2 attempts, than he does passing for the day. Runners Up: Dallas QBs are just awful, did I mention the Raiders suck.

This Scarecrow Needs a Brain: The Raiders, If being awful wasn't enough, the Raiders top it off with stupidity. See last week they introduced a new segment in practice, practicing touchdown celebrations. You know so they actually get to pretend to know what it feels like to score 6 points on a single play. Runners Up: Derek Anderson probably does not want to throw a screen pass to Terrell Suggs, Brett Favre probably wants to not throw any more Pick Sixes.

Cough Cough Cough: Kansas City Chiefs, Not like it really matters if the Chiefs win or not given their horrible record and 0% chance at the playoffs, but they certainly had the game in their hands this weekend and let it slip away. Runners Up: Thew Lions spit away their chance to get off the schnide, Cleveland lost their opportunity to reemerge as a playoff contender.

The Shocker: The Jaguars Aren't Good, I figured the Bengals would eventually win a game because well all NFL team eventually win. I just figured the Jaguars were eventually going to start rushing the ball like last year, and figured the Bengals were the perfect opponent to do so. Well, nevermind the Jags just aren't that good. Runners Up: I predicted 6 victories for the Dolphins which was favorable to most and they already have 4, the Falcons are currently 5-3 who knew.

The Pimp: Justin Tuck, Justin Tuck is an unstoppable force right now for the Giants. It doesn't matter that they lost Osi and Gap Tooth from last year because Tuck has emerged as one of the best defensive players in the entire NFL. Runners Up: Kurt Warner continues to throw for 300+ per game, Adrian Peterson had an under the radar beastly game.

You Got Jakked Up: Trent Edwards, Any time a 360 pound man lands his full body weight on you multiple times than you know you got jakked up.

My Fantasy MVP: Texas Quarter, Already been over this.

New York Jets MVP: Kris Jenkins, The man was an unstoppable force this weekend. 2 Sacks as well as stuffing Marshawn on almost every play. If he plays like that every week the Jets could emerge as the best rush defense in the league.

My Picks

My Picks: 9-5
Preseason Picks: 8-6
Picks Vs. Spread: 8-6
Pick Suggestions: 3-2

Mediocre week but at least back on the positive side. The Lions covered yet again.

If that doesn't get you fired up to hit people for 3 hours I have no idea what would? Shit I wish I had that to motivate me prior to gym trips. I'd probably be benching 3 bills by now.

Courtesy of Blood and Mud

Episode 3 of Arm Punt Formations starring the "Gunslinger" with Special Guest the "Sex Cannon"



Check out more Episodes of Arm Punt Formations

Down 3 going against Chris Cooley and having Jason Campbell going I had to make a decision. Do I go with Santana Moss who came into the game questionable but has scored a ridiculous amount of points throughout the season or do I go with Santonio Holmes and hedge my bets just in case the Redskins did shit on offense? Naturally I asked my buddies and most of them said Moss, but instead of listening to them I left it up to God and a Texas Quarter... The quarter chose Holmes, Holmes scored a touchdown, Moss did limited, and I won by 2. Way to go Texas.

This is Justin Tuck hitting Brooks Bollinger a fraction of a second after Bollinger releases the ball. Tuck is running at full speed wraps up Bollinger and drives him into the ground, because well that's how you tackle someone. Additionally Bollinger left his feet on the throw so Tuck naturally lifted him into the air. All in all in looked like a hard but 100% clean hit. There was no spearing, no helmet to helmet just wrap up and drive to the ground. And yet he was flagged for a 15 yard personal foul for quote unquote 'Tackling with all his Body Weight'.

Seriously Roger if you don't want QBs to get injured just throw a red shirt on them and make it 2 hand touch because if a similar call is ever made in an important situation and not when a team is completely dominating it would be a complete sham.

Talk about a bad day for fat college coaches. Two staples of the stomach will be out of their jobs at the end of the season. Earlier today, Tom Amstutz the fat coach of Toledo who got the fun win at the Big House, announced today that he will resign at the end of the season. And now the news out of Knoxville is that Philip Fulmer is also out and the end of the season.

What a sad day for fat coaches everywhere. Amstutz while not prolific certainly shows the girth to make himself a household name in the future and this is certainly a setback. For Fulmer 17 years sweating through pole shirts in the SEC was an impressive run and its sad that we no longer shall envision him shoving his face into a pile of donuts after all of the losses against Florida.

Currently there is no word out of South Bend about whether Charlie's Staples are still intact, however sources in Lawrence claim that Mangino is still making his weekly trip to dominate the buffet.

Kurt Angle just appeared on the Max Kellerman on 1050 ESPN Radio to announce his intentions of shopping himself around for an MMA fight. He stated that he is in great physical shape, planning on getting a physical for MMA on Tuesday and that his intentions are to get himself a high paying fight due to the itch to test out his skills in the MMA ring. His ideal fight would be facing off against the winner of Lesnar and Couture, and he further stated that in a backstage fight against Lesnar he was able to get the better of the bigger man thanks to his quickness and center of gravity.

The interview centered mostly around Kurt Angle's history as a fighter and his decision to join the WWE rather than venture into the world of MMA following his gold medal victory in Atlanta in 1996. His decision was obviously a financial one. In the mid 90s MMA still in its infancy did not offer the cash that was available at WWE, so despite the itch to still fight Angle chose the more stable option. Monetarily it certainly worked out for Angle who turned out to become one of the WWEs top draws in the late 90s and early 00s but during the course of the interview it was highly evident that he never lost the itch to fight and semi-regretted the decision in retrospect.

Angle now 40 currently employed by TNA and far removed could potentially still be a big draw based on name value alone. The obvious choice from my perspective would have been Elite XC before they folded as they would have gratefully taken an unproven but easily marketed individual. But now I'm not sure where he goes, but I doubt it will turn out to be UFC who seemingly isn't in it for the quick fix.

Remember this is all about Quality Wins and Bad Losses so if you lose to a top ranked team its not going to kill you, if you lose to Arkansas St. in the opener it will haunt you the entire season.

And the Power Rankings get a major shakeup thanks to me being wrong about TT.

1. Texas Tech - And the Red Raiders shall rise to #1 in the land thanks to Michael Crabtree being a hero on the greatest play in program history. Now they just need to get by Oklahoma and Okie St. Not an easy task.Quality Wins: Kansas, Texas

2. Texas - So... I obviously had the drop the Longhorns behind the Raiders after their loss but... I couldn't drop them any further. I'm sorry they have one loss on the road to an undefeated team on the last play of the game. They also have the best collection of victories of anyone in the country. Granted their schedule is now cake so others have a chance to overtake them, but right now they are #2 to me. Quality Wins: Oklahoma(n), Mizzou, Oklahoma St.

3. Alabama -Bama drops because UGA didn't look so good this weekend against the Gators. Quality Wins: @Georgia

4. Penn St. - Pardon me as I root for all teams remaining on Penn St. schedule so I can not see the Big 10 get trounced in the National Title game 1 more time. Quality Wins: Illinois, Oregon St., @Ohio St.

5. Florida - So revenge is a dish best served with an assload of cocktails. Quality Wins: LSU, UGA(n) Bad Loss: Ole Miss

6. Oklahoma - So much for the rivalry with the black shirts. Up 35 nothing after 1 says game over. Oklahoma now has regained that shot at the BCS title game and I expect them to run the table the rest of the way. Quality Wins: TCU, Kansas, Nebraska

7. Oklahoma St. - Okie St. beat the crap out of Iowa St. which equals no big deal. With the TT win they now have new life and could potentially run the table and win the Big 12. Quality Wins: @Mizzou

8. USC - They shut out Washington, big deal. Quality Wins: Ohio State, Oregon Bad Loss: Oregon St.

9. TCU - The mormon victory keeps them in the top 11. Quality Wins: BYU

11. Utah - Utah played like garbage this weekend but held on. They get TCU next week in a power ranking elimination game. Quality Wins: @Air Force, Oregon St.

11. Georgia - Florida is great and all but UGA was embarrassed. That's a bad loss but I'm not going to kick them completely out of the top 11. Quality Wins: South Carolina, Vandy, @LSU Bad Loss: Florida(n)

Dropped Out: Nobody

Noticeable Absences: Boise St. is on the brink of the top 11.

So I'm checking ESPNs Photo Wire for the College Football Caption and well, I don;t really understand why it includes pictures from a Proposition 8 Pro Gay Marriage Rally.

Leave it to Jet fans to play with Penises.

Nothing really special here, just thought that this ad for Black Singles on the ole website via Google Ads was a tad humorous.

1. Nike loves this guy.

2. Their head football coach decided that he would rather root against his rival rather than securing a potential BCS birth.

3. The mascot is sitting on a motorcycle

4. He's lucky

5. This college looks tall twins

6. Bitter rivalry

7. Guns up

8. Boring basketball

9. Classic breakfast juice

10. National Champions

Syracuse, Stanford, UVA, Wake Forest, Texas Tech, Michigan St., Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, Oregon, Kansas, Notre Dame

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Mark Mangino
Ralph Friedgen
Eric Mangini
Romeo Crennel
Mike Holmgren
Tom Amstutz
Phil Fulmer
Tom Cable
Charlie Weis
Andy Reid

1. 5 of the Coaches are College Coaches and 5 Are NFL Coaches

2. Two Coaches stepped down on the same day this week.

3. 3 Coaches are disciples of the Hooded Monster

4. One Fat Man is Wearing a Puffy Jacket in His Picture Making Him Look Fatter Than Normal

5. 4 of the 5 College Coaches Coach at their Alma Mater

6. 1 Coach is Forced to Deal With Arm Punt Formations

7. 1 is an interim coach this year.

8. 3 Coach Teams With Birds as Mascots

9. 1 Coaches Sons Aren't So Good With Obeying the Laws of the United States of America

10. 1 Coach Plans on Unleashing a 2007 Outsports Favorite as a Starter Tonight

What Montoya said. Just click the back button because your choice is obviously moronic and will never happen...

#1 is a member of the US Olympic Squad

#2 is without his Superman cape.

#3 is an MJ clone

#4 is a king

#5 is a point guard

#6 Team Asia is a fan of the 3rd and 6th picture.

#7 Lead his college squad to a National Title

#8 Picture was taken during the Playoffs

#9 is a quiet superstar on the Olympic Squad

#10 is Multiple time NBA Champion

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10.