NFL Week 5

Get your picks in for week 5. As usual, post your picks (against the line) in the comments section. You can post anonymously, but if you want me to keep track, please give me some hint as to who you are.

Favorites to the left, underdog to the right. Spread is in the middle. Home teams are capitalized. Please, when making your picks, list them in the order shown and use the 3 letter codes. It just makes my life easier.

NFL
Sunday, Oct. 9
CLEVELAND	3	Chicago	35
GREEN BAY	3	New Orleans	41½
Tampa Bay	3½	N.Y. JETS	31½
ST. LOUIS	3	Seattle	50
ATLANTA	3	New England	43½
BUFFALO	3	Miami	33½
DETROIT	1	Baltimore	33
HOUSTON	3	Tennessee	40½
Indianapolis	14	SAN FRANCISCO	47
Carolina	2½	ARIZONA	42½
Philadelphia	3	DALLAS	45
DENVER	6½	Washington	34
JACKSONVILLE	3	Cincinnati	37
Monday, Oct. 10
SAN DIEGO	3	Pittsburgh	44½

View the results for week 4 here.

Patriots

If you had a magic wand?

The WEEI idiots were talking this morning about "If you had a magic wand, and you could make any one of the following 5 true (but only 1!) for the series against the Angels, what would you pick?

1) Pick any one starting pitcher and turn him into "Josh Beckett" from a few years ago.
2) Take Timlin and turn him into a great closer.
3) Renteria will not make any errors at all.
4) Papi and Manny will be lights out hitting.
5) the 5,6,7 and 8 hitters will pick up the slack they've been dropping lately.

What would you pick (let me know in the comments!)?

If I had that magic wand, I would make 2 happen. Our starting rotation can keep them in games, and Anaheims' pitching doesn't scare me. But our bullpen does. If we could ensure Timlin was in perfect form to shut the door on any late inning come backs, I think we'll be all set.

By the way, the idiots picked 1) for Clement to pitch lights out. Their reasoning was fairly simple in that he may pitch twice in this series, and he's the only starter they feel is shaky (in the head).

Red Sox

Why the Patriots lost

Everyone is talking about how the injuries have finally caught up to the New England Patriots. Everyone talks about how the the coordinators have moved on. But that's not what I saw yesterday. What I saw was the defensive line getting beat.

It looked like it was part of the game plan. They weren't pressing Drew Brees like they did Big Ben last week and the reason behind that is LT. They were hanging back, waiting for what the Chargers were going to do, reacting instead of acting.

Since they weren't pressing Drew Brees, he had all day to get his passes off. Which led to a big day for Drew 19/24, 248 yards and 2 TDs. By trying to contain LT (which they weren't very successful at), they ended up relying on a depleted secondary, which had a hard time keeping the passing game down. Instead of making the Chargers defense work against their strenght (i.e. the defensive line), they let them charge ahead into what is their weakest unit right now, the secondary.

Maybe I'm mistaken. Maybe the Chargers were just the better team. Maybe they just took advantage of the injuries. But the 1-2 record the Chargers came into town with says differently.

Red Sox

They didn't back in.

By taking two of three from the Yankees this weekend, the Red Sox showed they belonged in the playoffs. By being swept by the White Sox, the Indians proved they didn't. Ortiz and Manny put on a show, with Ortiz getting the nod for American League Player of the Month for September. Ortiz should be the MVP, no doubt about it. The pitching was there except for Wakefield, who had a tough time on three days rest.

Despite articles on why you should have been rooting for the Indians over the Red Sox or the Yankees, I think it's pretty clear that the better teams won out. If you go 6 of 7 against the (AAA team of the)Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay in the last week of the season, you simply don't deserve the win.

I'd list this under things you need to worry about, not things to be proud of:
Mike Timlin faced the final two batters of the game to establish a new Sox record with 81 relief appearances. The previous mark of 80 was set by Greg Harris in 1993. ``As you get up in age, you're a little more prideful that you can keep up with the younger guys,'' Timlin, 39, said. ``And it's even better if you can set the pace for younger guys to keep up with you.'' Manager Terry Francona said he wanted Timlin, who stabilized the closer role when he took over in August, to have the opportunity to celebrate yesterday.



This is probably the most succint explanation I've seen of the whole playoff scenario that might have been:
Why didn't the Sox and Yankees, who finished this season with 95-67 records, have a one-game playoff to determine the division champion? Because Major League Baseball rules stipulate that in the event of a tie, regular-season head-to-head records determine the winner when both teams are assured of a playoff spot. But if the wild-card race is affected, a playoff game would have been necessary. Once Cleveland lost to the White Sox on Saturday, eliminating the possibility of a three-way tie, the Yankees were declared winners of the AL East on the basis of a better record against the Sox (10-9). Had there been a three-way tie, the Sox and Yankees would have had a one-game playoff in Yankee Stadium today, with the loser facing the Indians tomorrow.

Red Sox

Yesterday, I predicted

Yesterday, I predicted the game would be a slugfest. I said Wells would be out of the game by the 5th inning. And I had no faith in the bullpen. But I did predict they would win this first game. What a difference one day makes when it's the playoffs.

Of course, for today's game, I would predict it would be another low scoring game as it was when Wakefield and Johnson last faced each other in NY. I wonder what that means?

Red Sox