After one month...

With home dogs going 6-3 and all six of those teams not just covering, but winning outright, I find myself in the top spot for the week with ten overall wins. LotW also got off the schnide as 12.5 point dogs Kansas City spanked the Chargers in SoCal.

But don't say I didn't warn you. Strange things happen in the desert, as they did last Sunday with the 3-0 Steelers succumbing in the valley of the sun to their former assistants. Both Atlanta and the Bills got their first Wins of the season at home against mediocre opponents.

This week the Bills will be featured on MNF for the first time since 1994 -- Chris Jenkins wants to know what you were doing in 1994? The bad news is they will be playing the 4-0 Cowboys. When the Bills were last good (not coincidently 1994) they couldn't beat the Cowboys and I don't expect they can do it now.

Elsewhere, Jamal Lewis extracted a measure of revenge against his former employers taking the Browns to an improbable 2-2 record.

It is October now. The NFL season is pne-quarter over. So what have we learned:

The Bears are not very good and the Saints are even worse. but the Rams (full disclosure: one of my playoff picks) could be the worst of all -- with the possible exception of Miami. Still, buck up Dolphins fans (that means you Scott Ward) -- it's not like Miami managed to blow a seven game lead with seventeen games to play or something. Didn't you expect to see Tom Glavine doing the Tomahawk Chop as he left the mound in Shea after the worst start of his career?

Here in South Jersey the biggest Phillies fans in town have to be Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb because the baseball playoffs is distracting people from our poor the Eagles truly are. Like the Saints, they have laid two gi-normous Eggs on National Television.

Norv Turner is a bad head coach. He may be a great offensive coordinator; a genius with quarterbacks but I think we have now firmly established he is a bad head coach.

The Patriots dominated once again and already the 16-0 discussions have started. Is there any team against whom the Pats would not be favored, home or away?

Meanwhile, the Packers winning streak continued them on their inexorable run to the Super Bowl. Sunday offers Brett Favre and company a chance to put the division away early as they host the 1-3 Bears on Sunday night.

Baseball Divisional Playoffs Interlude:

NLDS picks: Phillies and Cubbies
ALDS picks: Red Sox and Yankees

This week I will try and break my current pattern of alternating between the high and low weekly totals.

LotW (3-2) on the year doesn't see an obvious bandwagon game this week.

We'll go with St. Louis to get their first win off the season at home -- I mean if you can get points betting against the Cardinals on the road don't you think you should do it?

Don't forget -- those genius's in the NHL scheduling office decided to start the season on the same day as the MLB playoffs begin -- so don't forget to check out your free trial of NHL Center Ice on Digital Cable between baseball games, a great slate of College Football this Saturday and the NFL. I have not seen one story on TV or the front sports page of the paper devoted to the Flyers. Maybe that is just moving from Buffalo to Philly, but I would think someone would at least mention it.

And also, Friday Night Lights premiers on Friday night at nine -- so put the kids to bed or set the Tivo/DVR. You can add ESPNs "Tuesday Morning Quarterback" to the ranks of Dillon Panthers fans.

I'm off to get Phillies shirts for Andrew and I.

Make it a good week.

Jono