Week 6 Recap:

vs. W/L (7-7)
vs. Spread: (7-7)
vs. Aggregate: (6-8)

For The Season:
Vs. W/L: (59-29)
Vs. Spread: (49-39)
Vs. Aggregate: (42-46)

Vs. “The Sportsline Experts”:
Richard: 52-35-0
Judge: 49-38-0
Madden: 49-38-0
PFN: 49-39-0
“SpiN”: 44-43-0
Prisco: 43-44-0
Harmon: 41-46-0

Fantastic Finishes Redux!

Talk about a wild weekend, this one was really something to behold as Atlanta, Houston, St. Louis and Minnesota all pulled out last second wins on Sunday.

We went back to .500 in Week 6 and we’re still holding our own with the Sportsline.com experts. This week’s big losers were Washington, Denver and Dallas (who will now have Romo out of the lineup for the next four weeks). The Redskins loss may be a tell tale sign that they’re not quite yet a contender. Denver is not a legitimate contender while the Cowboys continue to be the biggest underperformers in the NFL. They will not win as long as Son of Bum is at the controls.

The biggest disappointment of the week was New England’s crushing loss in San Diego. We picked the Chargers to cover, but expected the Patriots to give them a challenge. No points are given for just showing up in the NFL. New England’s pass defense never touched Rivers, allowing him all night to torch the secondary, most notably Deltha O’Neal, who was brutal out there. Belichick and McDaniel need to ask whether the “Cassel Experiment” has reached the point of diminishing returns. Failing to score on a first-and-goal opportunity and allowing San Diego to go 99 yards on the following possession was like being in a time warp, back to the days when the Patriots were a joke. It wasn’t simply that they lost, they got their asses whipped. The team really needs to look in the mirror, as there is no excuse for the defense to allow an opponent to humiliate them again this year. They can make excuses or make plays. What’s it going to be?

The only trade made at the deadline was Dallas’ acquisition of Roy Williams from Detroit for a pair of #2’s, in ’09 and ’10. It was a move that made sense for both teams as the Lions need to completely retool and the Cowboys get another deep threat.

The NFL Commissioner stepped in to clean up the latest “Pac Man” mess by handing down an indefinite suspension to the “troubled” Mr. Jones. At least Goodell had the courage to do what the Cowboys’ loathsome owner failed to do. One would have reasonably concluded that Jones’ one-year “indefinite” suspension in 2007 chastened him sufficiently to amend his ways. Guess not. After begging his way back into the NFL (and another multimillion deal), it only took a few weeks for him to resurface at the club scene. It’s time to pull the plug on this kid’s career in the NFL right about…now.

Because of this young man’s athletic gifts, people have been covering up his miscues and crimes, but comes a time when a young person needs to be told that his abilities mean nothing if he will not take responsibility for his actions and function as a productive individual in society. The very idea that a team needs to hire off-duty police officers to control an employee’s behavior (protect him from himself) away from work is utterly absurd. Of course it should follow that such a person would assault and batter his “handler”. Professional sports are littered with stories of wasted talent; players who were given third-and-forth chances for redemption but lacked the courage to change their lives. We’ve seen and heard it too many times; whether it was drugs, alcohol or other sordid vices, the sports pages have been filled with the likes of Pac Man Jones. These knuckleheads come and they go. Athletic gifts are fleeting; once a player’s skills have diminished players are yesterday’s news. Among players “NFL” stands for “not for long.”

People don’t want to hear another victim story. There are millions of Americans of all races, ethnicities and creeds who have made their way out of disadvantaged backgrounds to make positive contributions. His choices are simple: Grow up and behave like a man or self-destruct. He should pause to consider the example of Michael Vick (well-documented), or Lawrence Phillips, another wasted talent whose off-field escapades filled newspapers and police blotters for the better part of a decade. Phillips was recently sentenced to a 10-year stretch in California for running over some kids in a park with his car a few years ago. What a hero…