A decent week, if you ignore over/under. I did pretty good.

• Baltimore 17, Detroit 35 (-1) (33 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.26, T: ($10.74)]: This had to be one of the ugliest games of the week. Detroit won this on the ground - they had 4 rushing touchdowns despite gaining less than 100 yards (if you take away Bryson's 77 yard run). Looking at the stats, Baltimore deserved to win, but Detroit did, mainly because of the defensive play of Dre Bly. Oh, and 21 penalties. That hurt too!
• Chicago 10, Cleveland 20 (-3) (36 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]: Chicago won this game, if you take away the last 3 minutes of the game, or cover Antonio Bryant.
• Miami 14, Buffalo 20 (-2.5) (33.5 O/U) [P: $7.04, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $7.04]: The Bills definitely look better under Holcomb, who had a solid, if not spectacular, day. No picks, but only 170 yards. As expected McGahee got the bulk of the load, taking the hand off 31 times and scoring a TD. Just when I thought Saban had this game figured out, he lets Gus Frerotte throw the ball 30+ times. and only rushes his top back 17 times. I know they were down 17-0 early, but still. Frerotte threw up 3 INTs. Maybe next week they'll run more with the return of Ricky Williams. That's a pretty good 1-2 punch!
• New England 31, Atlanta 28 (-2.5) (44 O/U) [P: $13.20, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $32.29]: I still can't believe people jumped off the New England bandwagon that fast. Yes, their defense is hurting, but they are still the defending champs, and Atlanta was either going to play with a hurt Vick or an inexperienced back up. As it turns out, Shaub played, and performed very well, putting up almost 300 yards and 3 touchdowns. That's probably better than Vick would have done healthy. And they still lost. On a Viniateri field goal. Imagine that. Viniateri is clutch!
• New Orleans 3, Green Bay 52 (-3) (41.5 O/U) [P: $6.90, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.52, T: $26.42]: Ouch. For New Orleans things go from horrible to worse with McAllister now out for the season with a torn ACL. Combine that with the spanking Green Bay gave them, and you've got a very bad week.
• Seattle 37, St. Louis 31 (-3) (49.5 O/U) [P: $13.40, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $13.40]: Both teams ran a lot of plays in this one (SEA: 68; STL: 57), but Seattle got the W, and they were more dedicated to the run. It helps when your back is Shaun Alexander, I guess. He racked up 119 yards and scored twice. It looks like the much maligned Mike Martz will be missing from the St. Louis sidelines for the forseeable future. Will the play calling be more predictable with him gone?
• Tampa Bay 12 (-3.5), New York Jets 14 (31.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]: Vinny! Vinny! Actually, Vinny didn't have a great game - he only threw the ball 19 times for 163 yards, but they got the win. Why did Tampa Bay pass the ball 42 times? Pittman is a usable back, but they didn't even attempt to use him! It's amazing how one player can affect a team - without Cadillac, the Bucs look like last year. With him, they look like their Super Bowl past.
• Tennessee 34, Houston 20 (-3) (40.5 O/U) [P: $13.30, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $13.30]: The houston offensive line continues to impress, only giving up 7 sacks! That's now 27 in 4 games, for a pace of 108 on the season. This was just an all around ugly game!
• Indianapolis 28 (-15), San Francisco* 3 (46.5 O/U) [P: $0.87, S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($19.13)]: Alex Smith was thrown to the wolves in this one. San Fran has a bye week next week - why put Smith in now? Give him 2 full weeks to run the first offense. Or, start him last week against a hapless Arizona team. But against the Colts, who have finally figured out how to play defense? It's no wonder he threw 3 picks in one quarter! More suprisingly though, is that Manning threw 2 INTs to his one TD. And once again, E. James was the difference, rushing for 100+ yards again.
• Carolina 24 (-2.5), Arizona 20 (43 O/U) [P: $7.46, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $7.46]: Arizona held the lead until the 5:00 minute mark of the 4th quarter. That's amazing really. Luckily, Carolina got it done. This is why establishing the run is so important - they wore down the Arizona defense, and was able to put up 14 unanswered points in the 4th to get the W.
• Philadelphia 10 (-3), Dallas 33 (44.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]: Bryant Westbrook ran the ball six times. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. You will struggle if you don't. And if you're still doubting me, ask the Eagles. Dallas knew they weren't going to run the ball, and defended accordingly. They limited McNabb and Detmer to a meager 145 passing yards in this slaughter.
• Washington* 19, Denver 21 (-6.5) (34 O/U) [P: $3.52, S: $10.00, O/U: $10.10, T: $23.62]: These are the toughest games for me to pick and the sweetest to get correct. Pick a team to cover but lose! This one was close though. With just over a minute left, the Redskins couldn't get the two point conversion to tie it up. Notice something though: despite being down 21-10 at one point, the 'Skins still ran the ball - Portis got 20 touches and broke the 100-yard mark.
• Cincinnati 20, Jacksonville 23 (-2.5) (37 O/U) [P: $6.62, S: $10.00, O/U: ($10.00), T: $6.62]: Andrew called this one?- he said it would come down to the last five minutes, and it did. This was the first test of Cincy, and they did fairly well, despite coming up short. They aren't the best team in the league, and that undefeated mark was a little misleading, but they are a good team to be reckoned with.
• Pittsburgh 24, San Diego 22 (-3) (45 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]: Explain to me how Tomlinson only gets the ball 18 times while Brees throws up 35 passes. They lose when Tomlinson doesn't get the ball enough, and he didn't get them last night. On the other side, the Steelers are praying that Roethlisberger is OK. Do they even have a back up? Or will they be calling a 40+ year old retired QB back onto the field, ala the Jets?

Results Summary

• Picks (this week): 9 - 5 (64.29%) - Winnings: $22.31: My picks are getting better! Things are starting to settle down and it's becoming clearer who should beat who.
• Picks (season): 41 - 33 (55.41%) - Winnings: ($95.53): Still down big - I need to be at about the 60% mark to make money.
• Spread (this week): 8 - 6 (57.14%) - Winnings: $20.00: Up again. Like I said, it's becoming more and more obvious who should be winning. The spread is still touch and go, but I'm getting more and more solid.
• Spread (season): 30 - 43 (41.10%) - Winnings: ($130.00): Down big, but coming back!
• Over/Under (this week): 4 - 10 (28.57%) - Winnings: ($62.03): As expected, my over/under picks are hurting me. I was getting lucky in the early part of the season, and it's showing now. I would have been up $42.00 for the week without over/under.
• Over/Under (season): 31 - 42 (42.47%) - Winnings: ($128.06): I was positive 2 weeks ago, and now I'm down over $100. Ouch.
• Total Weekly Winnings: ($19.71): Over/under killed me, and I lose 4.7% of my $420 in bets.
• Total Overall Winnings: ($353.60): Still down very big, and only digging deeper. 16% loss.

Picks on Thursday. See you then!