Week 8 -- By Popular Demand

Sure it seems convenient, for me to return after I win the week. But I have been urged to bring back the weekly update and I'd hate to disappoint those of you faithfully making your picks each week. My choice (with James) of the Texans to get of the schnide and my bold pick of the 49ers (come on getting 10.5 at home) made the difference.

Somehow, Jeff managed to correctly pick Dallas, while Hymen stood alone with the Rams, and they still managed to get only 5 total picks. Yes, I know I shouldn't talk, having three 4 win weeks on the season. Of course adding insult to injury was my thrashing of Jeff's injury-depleted Fantasy Football team.

Overall, it was a week of consensus -- the only game with more then 3 dissenters was the Monday night game, in which the Steelers, at home and playing a Ravens team without their two best defensive players (not to say two of the best in the league), needed a last minute field goal to win the game. We were moistly right about Oakland, Green Bay, Chicago, Miami, and Buffalo and mostly wrong about Arizona, Jacksonville, and Minnesota.

Those picks are indicative of larger trends. The Cardinals and Vikings really are that bad. The Pats are not what they once were (though the Bills are still worse) and the poor, poor Saints.

In the overall standings, Derek is clinging to his one win lead over James, with PJ only two off the pace. Scott Ward and I find ourselves in the cellar -- obviously a direct correlation between new babies and poor performance. Apparently sleep deprivation does impact your ability to make accurate Sports Gambling picks.

Moreover the sad many that don'tmake their picks have slowly been sliding backwards, as Karma takes the game by the hand.

People we would like to have been for Halloween:
Peyton Manning, Brad Pitt (I prefer Angelina too), Paul Konerko (show me the money),


People we would not wanted to have been for Halloween:
Brett Favre -- first his house gets wiped-out, now his worst season as a starter
Mike Tice -- how does this man still have a job
Theo Epstein -- for those of us without athletic talent (at least at anything less then 13.1 miles) being the GM is the corresponding dream to playing Centerfield. And they're going to pay you $1.5 million. For the team you grew up rooting for. And you don't want the job???
Scooter Libby


Lots of key injuries (TO, Big Ben) make this an interesting week for Lock of the Week and lots of home dogs to boot. We'll take our pre-season Super Bowl pick, the 5-2 Carolina Panthers over the City of Tampa, giving 1.5.