Upon Further Review - Week 6 in the NFL

... New England is just unstoppable - and I hate them. I've tried every reverse-jinx I can think of, praising how good they are in every Friday column I write. But nothing seems to be working. So I might have to pull out the ultimate reverse-jinx... I might have to start cheering for them (see the comments section from yesterday's Headlines). As one of the unluckiest people around, my support might actually lead to the Patriots' downfall.

... One more New England tidbit and then I'm not mentioning them again until Friday. I, unlike Tony Kornheiser, can actually stop talking about the Patriots for 30 seconds (if you watched Monday Night Football last night you know what I'm talking about). Keep this in mind when you're thinking about how dominant the Pats are: they have beat one team - one - with a winning record this year (Dallas) and the combined record of teams they've played this year is 17-28.

... St. Louis has a very realistic shot at 0-16, more so than Miami I think - even though Miami has lost their starting QB and RB this season. Even when the Rams get Steven Jackson back I don't think it's going to make much of a difference - they are just totally in disarray. I'm sure glad I didn't have the 2nd overall pick in my Fantasy Draft because I would have taken Jackson for sure. If that had happened I may have not won a game yet... oh wait.

... Lots of last second wins this week - Rob Bironas' 172 field goals put Tennessee over Houston (ok it was only 8 field goals, still a record - but one was a game-winner too), Jason Elam's winning field goal over Pittsburgh (Denver should be 0-6 but instead they're going to be in the playoffs), Chicago got a last-minute touchdown to beat Philly (there are going to be riots in Philly pretty quick). Arizona almost had a last-second game-winning field goal but Niel Rackers sailed it just wide (how did Washington let the Cards even hang around?).

... And speaking of the Houston/Tennessee game, did anyone see what I saw? Instead of showing Houston's go-ahead touchdown and Tennessee's come-back field goal - CBS showed their studio team watching the game and reacting to what was happening, and then the audience got to see the plays a second later. Did anyone hear why that was? I missed it the explanation - I'm hoping it was due to technical difficulties because that was a very strange way to watch the last minute of a very exciting game. I'm pretty sure I would have been just as well off without Boomer Esiason putting in his two cents every 10 seconds. Next time just show the game please.

... Shaun Alexander is done - stick a fork in him. I've never seen someone run so timidly in my life. The Seattle fans have had enough with him and are booing him with regularity now. I made a trade push for him early in our Fantasy season but it didn't work out - I'm sure glad it didn't or I might be winless right now... oh wait.

... Of all the bad quarterbacks in the League - and there are plenty - at the top of my list is Minnesota's Tarvaris Jackson. He is straight up bad. He's got one of the best running backs in the league at his disposal, Adrian Peterson, and his line against Dallas was 6 of 19 for 72 yards. If Minny had even a functional human body at quarterback they could be a pretty scary team. Jackson's broken finger might be the best thing to happen to the Vikings - not a good sign when Kelly Holcomb is an upgrade for you at quarterback.

... Why oh why do the New York Jets still allow Chad Pennington to throw those long out patterns across the field? He had another one picked off and returned for a touchdown on Sunday... the Jets lost by 7. Pennington seems like a really nice guy and I wish he didn't have a rag for an arm... but he does. He actually played pretty well in that Cincy game (270 yards and 3 touchdowns) but that interception for a touchdown (I will never call it a 'pick six' by the way, that's the stupidest expression I have ever heard - I'm looking at you Rich Eisen) was just a killer.

... Baltimore coach Brian Billick obviously isn't as smart as he thinks he is. The Ravens, attempting to come back against Buffalo, had a 3rd and 1 and 4th and 1 from the Buffalo 49. Willis McGahee had already run for 114 yards in the game but Billick elected to throw the ball, twice. To no one's surprised, except apparently Billick's, Baltimore couldn't convert either time (we're talking about Kyle Boller here people) and the game was over.

... Well I was wrong about how many times Byron Leftwich would get sacked. I was thinking somewhere in the range of 17 to 20 times. But it was only three. However, throwing a lead-footed quarterback behind a terrible offensive line proved to be a bad idea anyway as Leftwich was hurt while getting hit by a defender. While I never cheer for a guy to get hurt, this is poetic justice in a way because Joey Harrington should never had been benched for Leftwich anyway. It was not Harrington's fault that Atlanta's receivers are just awful and can't hold on to the ball.

... It's pretty clear to me now that the CRTC needs to be abolished - that way I can just pay for ESPN and avoid these absurd Canadian broadcasting middlemen hacks. Don't know what I'm talking about? If you tried to watch NFL Sunday Countdown on TSN you know exactly what I'm talking about. Instead of broadcasting Countdown TSN decided to show a pre-race Formula One program. Now I realize that this was the last race of the F1 season and the championship was on the line but C'mon! It's not like it was even the race that preempted Countdown it was the pre-race show.