Another week gone, another average week. At least I'm starting to see a trend. Maybe I'll get better. Or maybe not. Who knows. NFL parity makes this pick business tough. Anyway, here's my weekly review of the past weekend.

• Miami 10, New England 24 (-13): Congrats to the Patriots, who extended thier winning streak to 19 games. I have a feeling the '72 Dolfins will be watching a New England game this year to determine if it's time to pop the champagne. I still think they'll get to pop it, but they'll probably be the last undefeated team this year.
• Cleveland 23, Pittsburgh 34 (-6): Ok. I'm on board with Pittsburgh now. They are 4-1, and in first place. I guess they are legit.
• Oakland 14, Indianapolis 35 (-9): Indy continues to roll, on a four game winning streak now. Their only loss came against New England. This offense is awesome, and almost unstoppable. The problem is their defense. It's just not going to get the job done in the long run.
• Detroit 17, Atlanta 10 (-7): I picked Detroit, but I thought Atlanta would win. Guess I was wrong. It looks like the odd week Falcons showed up, and Detroit took advantage. I read TMQ's column weekly, and he always chides teams who blitz. One play sticks out. Detroit, down by 7, faced 4th and 1. They go for it. Atlanta sends 7 men across the line, Az-Hakim runs a slant, and with only 4 defenders left, Az-Hakim is able to follow a pack of receivers to the end zone. As TMQ would say, I wrote the words Game Over in my notebook.
• Tampa Bay 20, New Orleans 17 (-3): Ho hum. Quite a division, the NFC South. Atlanta is in first, at 4-1, although they are sporadic. The rest of the division? Well New Orleans is 2-3, Carolina 1-3, and Tampa Bay uses this game to get their first win. I'm not seeing a Super Bowl coming to the NFC South this year.
• New York Giants 26, Dallas 10 (-4): The Giants have quietly put together a four game winning streak for themselves. Dallas, whose formidable defense was supposed to be rock solid, couldn't handle their offense, and the Giants defense looked pretty good.
• Minnesota 34 (-4), Houston 28: If I'm Minnesota, I'm very happy and very sad at the same time. Happy because their offense is clicking, but sad because they have the same problems they have every year. Last year, they looked unstoppable, until teams started running over their defense. Houston almost did that, but an overtime score (Culpepper's 5th TD of the game) saved the day for the Vikings.
• Buffalo 14, New York Jets 16 (-7): The AFC East is an interesting conference. The Jets and Patriots are undefeated, and the Bills and Dolfins are winless. Other than the Eagles, they are the only teams with a 0 in either the win or loss column. I have no idea what that means, other than I think Buffalo and Miami are both about to become mathematically eliminated!
• Jacksonville 21 (-3), San Diego 34: San Diego may no longer be the laughing stock of the NFL. Well, they were always behind Arizona in "laughingstockness" but not far behind. Now, they seem to be in a groove. Drew Brees is playing well, and they put up good numbers against the Jags.
• Carolina 17, Denver (-5.5) 20: I thought Carolina would be better than they have been this year. On the other hand, I didn't think Denver would be as good as they seem to be. I'm still amazed how Denver can plug in a new running back and he'll get 100+ yards. They have a good system there.
• St. Louis 33, Seattle 27 (-7): Just when I thought I had this thing figured out, Seattle gives up a 17 point lead to a team I thought was on the down slope of their reign atop the NFC. No wonder everyone loves the NFL!
• Arizona 28, San Francisco 31 (-1): I'm sure this overtime thriller was just that: thrilling. But outside of Arizona and San Francisco, did anyone really care?
• Baltimore 17 (-1), Washington 10: Down by 10, the Ravens do two things: Score 17 points, and hold Washington to no points in the second half. Ouch. I guess that defense is still pretty good. And Washington isn't.
• Tennessee vs. Green Bay (-3): Ouch. Apparently Lambeau Field has lost its Mojo. And Favre looked bad from what I saw. No running game for Green Bay, and a poor passing game. Add in a horrible defensive performance, and what do you get. A slaughter. I did like the exchange between Michaels and Madden about the coaches - Al taked about how Fisher had a chance to be a head coach at 33, and the GM was worried about it because of his age. Madden immediately jumped in, saying Al Davis took a shot on a 33 year old - Madden! Funny stuff.

Here's how I'm doing, after a .500 week.

Ok. So will Jake Plummer get fined for his tribute to Pat Tillmann? I hope not, as I think each player should be allowed to show tribute to him if they want to. On the other hand, I also know the league has uniform rules for a reason, and that breaking them for any reason undermines the rules themselves. I guess we'll see where the league falls on this one.

Jamal Lewis is going to prison - in the off season. And the NFL will suspend him for 2 games. That will definitely hurt the Baltimore offense, as Boller is not a very good quarterback. Although, there's something in the back of my mind that says Lewis is getting off easy. How many other people are able to get their prison sentence delayed because of their job? Maybe I'll try that - but your honor, I have to work. I'll serve my sentence when I'm 65!