?

• Arizona* 13, Dallas 34 (-9.5) (40 O/U) [P: $2.65, S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.26, T: $1.90]: I had the pick right, but I didn't expect Dallas to win by that much. Why did they win? They established a running game, and, despite using their backup (Marion Barber), they dominated the Cardinals defense.
• Chicago 19, Detroit 13 (-3) (32.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]: I watched the end of this one. How can you throw a pass over the middle while running left in your own territory in overtime? Ask Jeff Garcia. I thought he was a good quarterback. I'm starting to think that it's not the quarterback. It's Detroit. Detroit makes quarterbacks bad. So bad that they can't even go play elsewhere. Detroit already was the places for coaching careers to die (no Detroit head coach has ever had another NFL head coaching job after leaving Detroit). Maybe now it's a place for quarterbacks to die too.
• Cleveland 16, Houston 19 (-1.5) (37 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.26, T: ($10.74)]: Houston wins! Dom Caper's season is saved! Wait - it's only one game, you say? Ahh, well, at least they won't have the perfectly imperfect season now.
• Green Bay 14, Cincinnati 21 (-9.5) (46 O/U) [P: $2.70, S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($17.30)]: Five INTs from Favre? I hope Green Bay is positioning themselves to trade up to get Leinert, or at least have something in mind. Those fans will have trouble swallowing not having Favre - but please don't make them also swallow a poor quarterback. Here's?an interesting note: All NFC North quarterbacks have thrown 5 picks in one game - and three of them have done so against Cincinnati. That hurts.
• Jacksonville 21 (-3), St. Louis 24 (42.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.09, T: ($10.91)]: This was a close one. The Jags held the lead for most of the fourth quarter - but when it mattered: when the clock hits 0:00. Fred Taylor had a good game?- when he's healthy, he's awesome - but it wasn't enough, as St. Louis had it's own stud running back.
• Miami 21, New Orleans 6 (-2.5) (41 O/U) [P: $12.00, S: $10.00, O/U: $10.00, T: $32.00]: Finally, Miami gets the two headed monster going - Both Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown had good games. New Orleans is still reeling from the loss of McAllister, and even though Joe Horn's back on the field, having Brooks lead your team with six rushes isn't going to cut it.
• Minnesota* 7, Carolina 38 (-8) (44.5 O/U) [P: $2.99, S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.80, T: $2.80]: Could losing Culpepper be a blessing in disguise? He was flat out awful this year, and to me, it only seemed that Tice didn't yank him because he's "Daunte Culpepper" and not because he deserved it. If most other quarterbacks performed the way Daunte did, they would get yanked. Culpepper gained leeway (rightfully so) from last year's performance, and it's not totally his fault (offensive line losses definitely hurt him), but sometimes a change is needed to jump start a team. Minnesota needs a jump start. They aren't out of the NFC North title run, but they need to get back on track if they want to have any chance. Oh yeah. Carolina - Steve Smith burned Smoot big time, and Delhomme had a great day.
• Oakland 34 (-1), Tennessee 25 (45.5 O/U) [P: $8.62, S: $10.00, O/U: $9.09, T: $27.71]: Tennessee held the control in this one. They should have won, right? So what went wrong? Tennessee got off to a slow start, and the Raiders jumped out to a quick 17-0 lead in the first. That's tough to come back from, unless your name is Peyton Manning.
• Washington 0, New York Giants 36 (-2) (42 O/U) [P: $7.87, S: $10.00, O/U: $10.00, T: $27.87]: Or Eli Manning. He's been the comeback kid so far, but that wasn't needed this week. But he didn't have to make a come back this week. In fact, all he needed to do was hand the ball to Tiki Barber all day. Barber dominated this one, gaining over 200 yards on just 24 carries. His domination helped edge the New York time of possession advantage to almost 19 minutes. It's hard to put up much of an offensive threat when you only hold the ball for 20 minutes!
• Kansas City 20, San Diego 28 (-6) (50.5 O/U) [P: $4.17, S: $10.00, O/U: $10.30, T: $24.47]: Tomlinson once again goes without a touchdown, but they win this time. And they do it by coming back after being down 21-3 at half time. That's a pretty good comeback, and they did it through the air. For everyone who passed on drafting Anthony Gates, well, I know of 31 teams who would like to rethink that right about now.
• Philadelphia 21, Denver 49 (-3.5) (42.5 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.43, T: ($10.57)]: Denver ran all over the Eagles. Anderson and Bell scored three touchdowns between them, but here's an interesting thought: Plummer for MVP? That's the talk after he threw four touchdowns, and is making better decisions with the ball. I'm still not a huge fan of Plummer, but he's starting to change my mind. The lack of a running game is starting to haunt the Eagles - no, I don't really buy a short passing game as a substitute for a real running game. Until they start using Westbrook as a real back, they'll suffer the same fate as the past four years - losing in the playoffs. For the past few years, the NFC was weak, and the Eagles could hide their deficiencies for longer, but this year, the other teams are getting better.
• Tampa Bay 10 (-11), San Francisco 15 (36 O/U) [P: ($10.00), S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($30.00)]: How can a team who loses their starting quarterback and has Cadillac Williams and Michael Pittman as your backs not turn to a run-heavy offense? I thought Gruden was a solid coach, but his play calling (34 passes versus 17 RB touches) is insane. The 49ers got it right. They don't have a solid quarterback right now, and they ran 36 times and only passed 19. They didn't lead for more than 10 minutes the whole game, but persistence paid off, and they lead when it matters - at 0:00.
• Buffalo 16, New England 21 (-9.5) (44 O/U) [P: $2.74, S: ($10.00), O/U: $9.90, T: $2.64]: Bruschi made the difference in this one. Not necessarily his play, but the motivation of getting him back. Of course, it was only Buffalo. Somehow, Buffalo wins the game on the field, but loses on the scoreboard - they are something like plus eight in turnovers, and in this one, they lead in a lot of categories (total yards, rushing yards, passing yards, to name a few) yet lost. That's a tough pill to swallow.
• Baltimore 19, Pittsburgh 20 (-10) (44 O/U) [P: $2.25, S: ($10.00), O/U: ($10.00), T: ($17.75)]: Pittsburgh just barely squeezed by on this one. Everyone expected a hard, grinding game, but that's not what we got here. Why did Pittsburgh go away from the run? Parker averaged 4.5 yards per carry, yet only got the ball 14 times. Yes, Pittsburgh got the win, but Baltimore isn't good enough to deserve to only lose by one to the Steelers.

Results Summary

• Picks (this week): 9 - 5 (64.29%) - Winnings: ($4.01): See? You have to hit that 65% mark to be profitable. 64.3% just doesn't cut it.
• Picks (season): 67 - 49 (57.76%) - Winnings: ($114.56): If 64.3% doesn't do it, there's no way 57.8% will do it. I'm still bleeding, but not as much.
• Spread (this week): 4 - 10 (28.57%) - Winnings: ($60.00): I did horribly picking this week. It's amazing that you can pick 9 winners, but then be so off on spreads. Of course, I picked two teams to lose but cover, and neither did so - those are tough to pick!
• Spread (season): 47 - 68 (40.87%) - Winnings: ($210.00): Ouch. I should just reverse my picks. I'd be up pretty good right now.
• Over/Under (this week): 10 - 4 (71.43%) - Winnings: $56.14: This is amazing to me. I always thought I would be horrible at over/under, but here I am, up almost $60 this week.
• Over/Under (season): 54 - 60 (47.37%) - Winnings: ($89.48): Still down big, but I expected that.
• Total Weekly Winnings: ($7.87): Barely down this week. If just one wrong pick reversed, I would have most likely been in the black for the week. Oh so close!
• Total Overall Winnings: ($414.04): Way down, but it's slowing. Now, it's time to reverse the trend for the rest of the season, and get back above 0.

This is late getting posted, so my picks will be out shortly!