It is finally time for me to fly back home to my family. After 91 days away, I fly to Anchorage today and on to Sitka tomorrow. My trip here was better than expected. The family and I coped well, and we’re all looking forward to a couple of months of “down” time over the holiday season. We had a great supporting cast throughout. I want to say thank you so much to all of the friends and family that helped out with timely care-packages, phone calls, emails, and blog posts to keep our minds off the unfortunate parts of such a trip.

The crew here was great as well. Three months is a long time to spend every waking moment with people you work with. Each person’s year-long tour here is a testament to their mental and emotional toughness, and their willingness to look out for each other. I will miss each of them, and I look forward to seeing them again this winter if I am back up here for the opilio season.

Week 7 Picks

Last week I was burnt by four favored teams losing at home and one squeaker of an upset pick gone wrong. My only true surprising loss was the Eagles losing to the Raiders. It was surprising, but not terribly harmful, as only one person in our pool picked the Raiders and he is – um, to be polite he is “not competitive”. 8-6 for the week was enough to drop me to a .622 winning percentage. (That still doesn’t make any sense to me – shouldn’t it be 62.2%???)

This week I am following the same unsuccessful formula because that’s what I do. My one upset this week will be the 4-1 Falcons over the 3.5 point favorite Cowboys (3-2) in Dallas. The Cowboys fail to impress me. They struggled in their last game against the Chiefs (who appear to be making quite a few teams struggle this year). Their offense is extremely productive in yardage, but not so much in points. Enter the A-T-L’s defense that appears to give up plenty of yards, but not the points. Atlanta’s schedule has been tough this year. Each of their wins has been impressive. Their wins were Miami, Carolina, Chicago and @ San Francisco (in extreme-stomping fashion). Their one loss came on the road @ The Patties.

The Patties have the biggest point spread (-15) this week, and it’s no surprise after their 59-0 whooping of the Tennessee Titans. They are facing the Tampa Bay Bucs, the worst team in the NFL. The Bucs retain this title, as they have the easier schedule of all the winless teams thus far. Their schedule is actually pretty tough for the whole year, but they failed to pull one out against the Redskins, and they allowed 33 points to the anemic Jauron’s Team. Could we have both the Rams and the Bucs go winless this year? Wouldn’t that be something!

The closest spread this week is the Bears @ the Bengals (-1.5). Giving a road team one-and-a-half points is like having the odds-makers throw their hands up. It doesn’t do much for my philosophy of picking the favorite either. I’m just going with an old time formula: never count on Jay Cutler to win a close one. Unless it’s against the Chargers and you have an official with a quick whistle. I picked the Bengals. Oh, and for those of you who don’t pay attention like me, the Bengals happen to be in first place, and are undefeated in their division after playing each team.

I’d say I’m excited about Week 7 in the NFL, but I fly home the next day. I get to watch Week 8 in the comfort of home with my kids rolling their eyes when I shout at the TV and make fun of Dan Dierdorf. I just can’t wait for Week 7 to be over.

Jauronimo!

For the third time in six weeks I was (technically) tied for the football pool lead going into Monday’s game. A Charger victory with a total score around 44 points would have given me the win. Enter not one, but two Brandon Marshall [oops! Not Brandon Marshall, but that other receiver from Denver that I hate!] returns for TDs and I’m toast. So are the Chargers. Don’t look for this non-Shanahan, non-Cutler team to roll over like they did last year.

The Charger’s O looked like they had that LT-potential again. We need more short passing plays to him to set up the downfield pass and his running game. No one is buying Sproles on first and ten. He’s a great, versatile back, but it was good to see them use him more sparingly then a standard half-back.

My record was 8-6 this week. It was my worst since week 2, but at least I picked more right than wrong. A couple things burnt me bad. The Ravens missed a field goal as time expired to give the Vikings a win (someone should look at that Farve kid, he looks pretty good and might be a decent quarterback in the NFL someday). Also, the Bengals didn’t show up (again) at home against the Texans. The Texans and the Cardinals appear to be the biggest on/off teams in the NFL right now. I just don’t know what to do when I have to pick their games. I usually just close my eyes and take the favorite.

How about those Almighty Saints? This was the game I thought the least about picking, and it was never in doubt. The Almighty Saints have a points for/against spread of +99. That’s more than 20 points better than The Patties (+72), even after their 59-0 win this weekend. After their matchup with the Dolphins on Sunday, three of their next four will be their first divisional games. I look forward to seeing how they’ll do.

The other side of that spectrum is the St. Louis Rams. At -115, they are the worst. They’ve averaged nine points per game. For those of you thinking that the Detroit game in week eight will break the Oh-fer season they’re having, stand by. Detroit matches up well against the Rams, and they have a bye this week. I won’t be surprised to see Detroit as the favorite to open at home next week. Looking at their other games, the Rams may never win again.

As far as Jauron’s Team’s victory this weekend… I’m just going to throw this out there. If we could Scooby-Doo ending that Leodis McKelvin fumble in Week 1, the Buffalo Bills would be in a three way tie at the top of the AFC East at 3-3. They have one of the best running games in the AFC, and one of the best pass defenses. Of course, if you have the worst run-defense in the league, even the Browns only need two receptions to beat your sorry-ass. Since you’ll be playing from behind, your running game is a non-factor, so you might as well bench Lynch and Jackson. Your only chance is for your receivers to catch those perfectly placed third down passes early in the game to sustain drives. Thanks for nothing Terrell.

Jauron Sucks.

The title pretty much covers how I feel about football this season. So I don’t really have much to write about. His team will lose to the Jets this week. The Browns only completed 2 passes that entire game. That's just sick. How do you lose to that?!?

I went 9-5 for week 5, bringing me to 48-28 overall. I was the only one to pick the Broncs over the Patties here, which nearly won me the pool (I was tied until the Phins pulled off the upset in an excellent MNF game).

The Almighty Saints are favored at home versus the Giants this week. Both teams are undefeated. It’s been awhile since I was this interested in an NFC match up. Of course, I am through being burnt by Saint victories; I will pick them to win this time around.

Meanwhile, the Buffalo Sabres have opened up the NHL season by acquiring 7 of 8 possible points in the standings. Sure would be nice to see one of those games on television. Sigh.