Week Three Roundup:

For Week 2:
Vs W/L: 10-6-0
Vs Spread: 7-9-0
Vs. O/U: 9-7-0

For The Season:
Vs W/L: 27-21-0
Vs Spread 22-26-0
Vs. O/U: 25-22-2
Here’s where we’re at via the Spread relative to the “Sportsline Experts”:

Expert “P”: 32-15-0
Expert “J”: 29-18-0
Expert “D”: 26-21-0
Expert “S”: 24-23-0
Expert “H”: 24-23-0
PFN: 22-26-0
Expert “R”: 20-27-0


Buffalo at New England: The good news for the Bills is they played a terrific quarter of football. The bad news was just about everything else. Losman went down and out early on an allegedly “dirty hit/cheap shot” by Vince Wilfork. It depends on the eye of the beholder. It looked just as much a case of having been pushed into the quarterback. Buffalo suffered another debilitating injury when rookie linebacker Paul Posluzny broke his arm and is lost for the season. They will be lucky to win 2-3 games this year. After those two went down, the Patriots woke from their slumber and went on to another big day, winning easily, 38-7. Patriot fans (who have spent far greater time in Buffalo’s straits) should remain humble and grateful that the team has enjoyed success since 2001. It wasn’t that long ago when the Bills were the best in the AFC.

The Ghost of a famous football coach is smiling somewhere at the thought that his Packers have started off the year 3-0. Count this writer among those who were pleasantly surprised by their 38-14 win against the Chargers. The old man Favre has had a banner start to the year, considering the Pack has no running game of which to speak. They’ve gotten off to a nice start but there’s a world of football yet to be played. We’ll see where they are at the end of October.

On the other side, it appears that Tomlinson is proving to be a very poor loser. No one likes defeat, especially in business. But to publicly “call out” the quarterback while cameras roll is especially bad form. When Turner’s offense learns his system, San Diego will do just fine. It seems as if the players are treating him as if he’s Captain Queeg.

Carolina at Atlanta: Steve Smith baited DeAngelo Hall and Hall’s inability to behave like a mature professional cost his team a football game. At a time when a team’s psyche is fragile, any worthwhile performance immeasurably boosts the group’s confidence. Atlanta was ahead and Harrington and the offense were playing well. All it took was one stupid display of behavior from a bonehead (three 67-yard penalties on one drive) and the game was lost. Coach Petrino needs to assert his authority right quick. It’s better to set the tone early before things seriously get out of hand.

Indianapolis-Houston: Coach Dungy’s team expected a tough game and they got one. Over the past two weeks, it seems that the “vaunted” Indy defense is slowly beginning to revert to form. Without Booger McFarland stuffing the middle, teams are having more success running the ball. It just puts more pressure on Manning and the offense to maintain their dominant performance. Sooner or later, things have a way of catching up. The Texans suffered a crippling blow with the loss of Center Steve McKinney, who is lost for the season with a knee injury.

Philadelphia-Detroit: McNabb had a great afternoon and should be basking in the glow of the fickle Philly fans. The heat is on for him and Reid to start producing, and they shredded Detroit’s defense (which was not surprising). Much ado was made earlier in the week of McNabb’s comments of how the pressures faced by black quarterbacks are “different” than the white guys. These remarks do little, if anything, of benefit to the discussion of Race In America.

Of course, the ESPN-types trot out the old canard about not judging anyone without having walked in their shoes. Spare us the drama, please. Anyone who does not realize that each individual’s journey is as unique as a snowflake is a complete idiot. Race, gender, creed and national origin are just a few of the determinative factors but do not necessarily define who we are. Somehow, I thought the conversation had moved much further along than that, but the media keeps baiting celebrities and they just keep falling into the trap.

By anyone’s standards, McNabb has had an extremely successful professional life. He was, or still is, a Trustee of his alma mater, Syracuse University in addition to his exemplary athletic career. Such prestigious seats at the table of fiduciary responsibility are not endowed upon “jocks” or designated solely on account of the individual’s skin color. McNabb had to have “a lot on the ball” to succeed in academic management.

In the most simplistic terms, he is paid a lot of money to perform a specific task that is of interest of a lot of people. His skill requires high intelligence and superior athleticism to succeed. The color of his skin is (or should be) irrelevant to the discussion of his performance. If he performs well and the team succeeds, he does well and is appreciated. If not, then the inhabitants of the City of Brotherly Love have never been shy about sharing their thoughts on the matter. It doesn’t matter if he was Ron Jaworski or Randall Cunningham, he gets paid to produce results, period.

Thank God we no longer live under de jure segregation, as was the case in my childhood days. We also thankfully no longer live in the days when football players were stereotyped by race to certain positions on the field. Black men have distinguished themselves in every facet of the game on and off the field, and presentlt comprise the majority of NFL players. Both head coaches in last year’s Super Bowl are African-American. Their race is no longer something that’s even brought up in the discussion. They’re football coaches, period. (People tend to forget that it’s not only blacks who are and were the victims of discriminatory practices and disparate treatment. One need only consider the Life and Times of Vincent T. Lombardi to understand the depth of racial/ethnic/religious intolerance that was the prevailing norm two generations ago). Talent and smarts generally win out in sports and that is how it ought to be. But every time an athlete or celebrity creates a firestorm with ill-chosen remarks, it only serves to widen the gulf. With a great performance on the field, McNabb made the story go away quickly and quietly. Next time, Donovan, think before you open your mouth.

San Francisco-Pittsburgh: The “Stillers” remarkable run continues, but they’ve only danced with the cupcakes…Miami-NY Jets: As goes Pennington so go the Jets. Reports indicated that D’Brickashaw Ferguson had the game of his life in Sunday, which was about time as some in the NY media were about to label the kid a bust. The Jets may not go 10-6 this year, but they’re a good team…Arizona-Ravens: the Education of Matt Leinart continues…Coach Whisenhunt stuck the Beverly Hills Kid on the bench for awhile as Kurt Warner (now there’s a name from the distant past) stepped into the captain’s seat and had a pretty good afternoon. Back on Friday For the Week 4 preview...