Fall Back

The H-Man, Hyman Rubin righted the ship, going from worst to first (for the week at least) -- with ten correct. James can be forgiven his measly 2 right picks, clearly showing the effects of sleep deprivation due to his one month old daughter Elin.

And tonight Hyman's beloved Gamecocks host Auburn on ESPN. Will the Cock's match the University of Buffalo and beat the spread against Auburn?

In the overall standings Craig Marcus holds a three win lead over Chuck Lyman and Walt Greason. All are performing better then their NFL teams (Pats -- I think, Dolphins, and Cowboys respectively).

The top four for the week were the only ones who took the Vikings to cover against the Bears. Those 1/2 can really add up. All of us overestimated Baltimore (or underestimated Cleveland at home) -- a pick we all got wrong. Others we mostly got wrong were the Rams on turf against the Cards and an emotional (and now 3-0) New Orleans team on MNF.

After three weeks a few good teams have established themselves: Indy, Cinci, Seattle, Chicago (the last two play each other this week on Sunday Night). Some teams are undefeated but haven't proven they belong. San Diego and Baltimore play in another battle of unbeatens.

then there is still a jumble in the middle. 7-9 looks like it could be good enough to win the once vaunted AFC East. Just how good are Denver? Philly? New Orleans?

There are also a few very bad teams. Cleveland and Oakland play this week for the early inside track on the number one overall pick. But there will be stiff competition as Detroit, Tennessee and Houston are potentially even worse.

We don't want to forget about baseball either. I'll try and post full playoff predictions on Monday. But this weekend there are still three playoff spots (NL West, Central and Wild Card) up for grabs. Will the Cards avoid an historic collapse? Will the Rocket get back to the playoffs after all? All still to be determined.

LotW goes to 2-0 with Seattle taking care of the Giants quite handily. This week we'll take Indy to beat up on the Jets. After all, if JP Losman can through for 300+ yards against the Jets, Peyton should have 400 by half-time.