Let Me Take This Time to Overhype the Upcoming #1 vs #2 Matchup

Admit it, you were surprised I didn't mention the 8-0 Patriots vs. the 7-0 Colts in my Power Rankings. I was. I got done and said, "how did i manage that?" Well guess what? I'm gonna try again. I want to preview for you some of the upcoming NFL games and my picks, and I'm not even going to mention the Pats/Colts game after this paragraph. I'll save that for later...

So here are a few games worth mentioning that I may have picked different than you or the experts and my explanation as to why I think a certain team will win.

I'll start with GREEN BAY @ KANSAS CITY
Kansas City is doing very OK this season. They are 4-3 and tied for first in their division. But the Chargers are lighting up the board lately and the Chiefs should fall to 2nd soon enough. And if they do, they are in jeopardy of losing their wildcard to the likes of Baltimore, Jacksonville, or Tennessee. So in reality, the next few weeks are must-wins for the Chiefs. But...the Packers come in to town, led by a 28 38 year old Brett Favre. They are 6-1 and vying(I love that word) for the lead in the NFC. The only team Favre has never beaten is the Chiefs and he'll look to become just the 3rd active QB to defeat all 31 opponents(after Peyton Manning and Tom Brady).
Final Say: The Chiefs are tough to beat at home but the Packers look unstoppable. I've gotta go with my PACKERS on this one.

DENVER @ DETROIT
I like this game. Denver is really struggling and looking really bad. But they could have easily won last week. And they are still only 1 game back in their division. The Lions are looking good, honestly. But I thought the same thing right before they got crushed by Philly, and again by Washington. If there is another game that the Lions could implode in, it is this one. The Broncos on the other hand, have never won a game by more than an Elam field goal.
Final Say: Lions are at home coming off a solid road victory. LIONS (by more than a Hanson field goal).

CAROLINA @ TENNESSEE
Just wanted to throw this out there: Carolina is 0-3 at home and 4-0 on the road. But Tennessee is really good right now.
Final Say: TENNESSEE. Carolina can't expect to win everything on the road.

JACKSONVILLE @ NEW ORLEANS
This should be an interesting game. Jacksonville is 5-2 and the Saints are 3-4 but making a huge surge in the standings. It's really a tossup with the Saints being the favorites here.
Final Say: JACKSONVILLE comes marching in and wins. But it's close.

CINCINNATI @ BUFFALO
Which team is worse? Right now? Gosh I don't even know.
Final Say: Cincinnati's favored to win? Then I'm taking BUFFALO.

SEATTLE @ CLEVELAND
Cleveland is fun to watch. And Seattle is really doing poor lately. But they've had a bye to regenerate and Branch and Hackett should be back.
Final Say: Cleveland will make it a high scoring game, but Seattle should be able to throw all over them. SEATTLE in a shootout.

BALTIMORE @ PITTSBURGH
Baltimore is 4-3...against no winning teams. Pittsburgh is 5-2.
Final Say: PITTSBURGH. But it won't be as exciting as last weeks MNF.

Other Picks:
@TAMPA BAY over Arizona
SAN DIEGO over @Minnesota
SAN FRANCISCO over @Atlanta
WASHINGTON over @NY Jets
HOUSTON over @Oakland
DALLAS over @Philly
Last week: 13-0
Season: 85-31

I knew I could do it!


Tomorrow: INSIDE SCOOP - The REAL reason "RomoWood" split up

N8Dogg's Week 9 NFL Power Rankings

The Elite:
1. (1) New England Patriots(8-0)
2. (2) Indianapolis Colts(7-0)
3. (3) Dallas Cowboys(6-1)
4. (5) Green Bay Packers(6-1)
5. (6) Pittsburgh Steelers(5-2)
6. (4) New York Giants(6-2)
7. (7) Tennessee Titans(5-2)
8. (8) Jacksonville Jaguars(5-2)
9. (12) San Diego Chargers(4-3)
10. (14) Detroit Lions(5-2)
About the most surprising thing here is the Lions at #10. Jon Kitna guaranteed 10 wins at the beginning of the season and everyone laughed. But they play the Packers twice in the second half and they can't seem to find a way to lose. As for the Chargers, they appear to be back. Three straight wins has them back in the top 10 and they should win at least 2 of their next 3 as well.

The Hopefuls:
11. (11) Seattle Seahawks(4-3)
12. (17) Cleveland Browns(4-3)
13. (13) Tampa Bay Buccaneers(4-4)
14. (15) Baltimore Ravens(4-3)
15. (9) Washington Redskins(4-3)
16. (16) Kansas City Chiefs(4-3)
17. (10) Carolina Panthers(4-3)
18. (18) Denver Broncos(3-4)
19. (19) Arizona Cardinals(3-4)
20. (22) Philadelphia Eagles(3-4)
21. (25) New Orleans Saints(3-4)
22. (20) Houston Texans(3-5)
Washington and Carolina took a nose dive here. The Redskins looked to have it going their way but the Patriots put up a wall. Expect them to get going again right away as they play the 1-7 Jets. Carolina can't win at home. Good news for them as they go on the road this week. Bad news is they play the 5-2 Titans. Should be a good game. The Saints have resurged and are looking more like the team they were last year. Expect them to keep climbing. Meanwhile, after Houston's excellent 2-0 start, they've gone 1-5. It's apparent they still suck and are looking forward to losing at Oakland this coming week.

The Wannabes:
23. (21) Chicago Bears(3-5)
24. (26) Buffalo Bills(3-4)
25. (24) Minnesota Vikings(2-5)
26. (23) Cincinnati Bengals(2-5)
27. (27) Oakland Raiders(2-5)
28. (28) San Francisco 49ers(2-5)
29. (29) New York Jets(1-7)
30. (30) Atlanta Falcons(1-6)
31. (31) Miami Dolphins(0-8)
32. (32) Saint Louis Rams(0-8)
No big surprises here. Unless you count the Bears at 23. They should either be a "Hopeful" or the Texans should be a "Wannabe," but I could only choose one and since I hate the Bears, well yeah. Plus I had the Texans ahead of them last week, it wouldn't be fair to them to switch places. I can hear it now, "then explain why Minnesota and Cincy flip-flopped." Alright I will. Brad Childress named Adrian Peterson as the starter. Simple as that. They still suck, just not as bad as the Bengals. The most depressing thing about the "Wannabes" is that in the bottom 5, 2 of the teams play each other (49ers and Falcons) and the worst 2 teams have a bye this week meaning neither can climb out of the hole. Good news for San Fran, though. If they beat the Falcons they might edge their way out of the bottom 5!

Favre Really IS God...

So not only did Brett Favre have another historic Monday Night game, and another comeback to add to his resume, but he also secured the final win in my NFL Pick'em league to make me 13-0 this week!
That's right, even though the "experts" unanimously picked teams like Chicago and Minnesota, I picked the same way I always do and somehow managed to pick the "upsets" that actually happened. Whether it was Detroit over Chicago, Philly over Minnesota, or New England over Washington, I picked them all!!!! Thanks to Brett Favre of course, since it seemed as if the Packers defense did everything in their power to let Denver score 6 in the last minute.
This puts me to 85 games correct on the season! (For reference, the highest scorer in Yahoo has 89) So go me! I am purely amazing!


Coming soon:
Week 9 NFL Power Rankings
Week 9 NFL Picks (So you can follow along as I am crowned champion of Yahoo)

The Red Sox Hate Beer

The Boston Red Sox have just won their second World Series in four ninety years. They have won eight straight World Series games and swept both the Cardinals and Rockies.

Let's look back at the teams they've beaten.

To start, the 2004 Cardinals, who after an intense roller coaster ride in the NLCS headed to Boston to face the (un)cursed Red Sox, who pulled off the greatest comeback in sports history. In four games, the Red Sox continued their winning streak and won the World Series for the first time in 86 years.

More recently, the 2007 Rockies. Winning 21 of their final 22 games, the Rockies entered the World Series being the only team to sweep their competition in the playoffs. However the Red Sox pulled off another improbable comeback and took that momentum straight into the World Series and the streaking Rockies never won another game.

What connects the two series? It could be as simple as where they were played. For both series', the Red Sox had home field advantage, meaning when they won it all, they were on the road. Looking at those two stadiums, we have Busch Stadium and Coors Field.

Ladies and Gentleman, the truth is evident. The Red Sox hate beer. If you name your team's stadium after your local brewery, the Red Sox will make sure they meet you in the World Series, with home field advantage, and they will sweep you to the floor in front of your drunken home town fans. Try and stop them, you can't.

Just one team remains for the Red Sox to sweep away on their anti-beer World Series campaign - the Milwaukee Brewers. That's right. The next time the Red Sox make the World Series, they will be faced up with the Brewers. And game 4 will be in Miller Park. And the Red Sox will sweep their hopes and dreams away.

After that, who knows. Maybe we will have to wait 86 more years for the Red Sox to find another set of opponents to target. Until then, anyone who ventures within 50 miles of Boston with a beer in their hands not labeled "Sam Adams" shall be swept away to their home city and beaten with the bats of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez...

You have been warned.



***On a side note, thank you to Jacoby Ellsbury for stealing second base in Game 2 of the World Series, my free taco from Taco Bell was very delicious!!

Celtics Petiton to Broadcast Games on FOX

As the Patriots wrapped up their 52-7 slaughter of the Redskins, (this is nothing new, google "Wounded Knee") I began to wonder how a team facing their toughest defense yet, managed to put up the most points in team history since 1984. Then about an hour later, on the same channel, pre-game for the Red Sox/Rockies World Series Game 4 began. As I looked back on the recent games broadcast on FOX, I noticed that not only was it the first time this season that the Patriots played on FOX, but also the historic comeback by the Red Sox over the Indians, as well, aired on FOX. And not only did the Patriots outscore their opponent by 45 points, but the Red Sox outscored the Indians and Rockies by 36 points in their 11 games on FOX. In fact in the Red Sox final 7 games, they outscored opponents 59-15, a difference of 44 points, nearly unheard of in baseball.

As this recent "trend" became apparent to me, I realized that the Red Sox and the Patriots are not Boston's only good teams in sports. Earlier this year, the Boston Celtics made a trades to bring in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. Those two, combined with Paul Pierce, make one of the strongest offensive "Big Three's" in the NBA. I checked in with my insider in Boston and he indeed confirmed the fact that the Celtics want to broadcast on FOX.

According to the source, Celtics GM Danny Ainge reports,

"It is obvious that Boston sports teams are unbeatable when they play games on FOX. The Celtics organization is currently researching ways to broadcast more of our games on FOX. This team is good. We are really excited to finally win some games this season. What we are hoping is that by putting more games on FOX, we will crush the competition. I don't think we can make the Finals, to be honest, if we don't get outside help from FOX. There's no way the Red Sox would have came back over the Indians if those games were on TBS. I'll say it now, if we get the majority of our games broadcast on FOX, we will win 70 games this year. Anyway, we're really excited about this season. I can't emphasize that enough."

So there you have it. The Boston Celtics are doing everything in their power to broadcast games on FOX. Now I understand why you think your team is really good. But explain to me the comment about not thinking you can win the NBA Finals. I mean if you really have faith in your team, does it matter what channel your games are on?

According to Danny Ainge,

"Yes."

Getting Started

Alright, I've never done this before but I have a few ideas so I'm gonna start with them and see where they fly. I guess I'm going to keep everything sports related, since my first few ideas all have to do with sports. I'll bring you my weekly NFL Power Rankings, maybe some news about my fantasy teams, and anything I can think up that will make you laugh. So come along for the ride as I explore the world of sports journalism!!!