Trav's Thoughts

That's right. One year ago today I published my first post. It wasn't much of a post. I think I've gotten a little better at it. This post today will be #392.

It's odd to have pieces of writing for an entire year. I don't think they tell the story of the last year, but maybe they do. Perhaps not in exacting detail. But the imagery of my life over the last 362 days is certainly on display for anyone who cares to go back and read. Very odd.

But I'm no more introspective than that today.



Here are the BCS Top 10 results from this week:

1 Ohio State beat 25 Penn State
2 Boston College beat 8 Virginia Tech
3 LSU is idle
4 Arizona State vs beat Cal
5 Oregon beat 12 USC
6 Oklahoma is idle
7 West Virginia beat Rutgers
8 Virgina Tech lost to 2 Boston College
9 Kansas beat Texas A&M
10 South Florida lost to 23 Connecticut

Georgia beat Florida, so that removes one potential two loss SEC choice from BCS national championship contention. Again, no offense to Gator fans. I just don't agree that a two loss team should ever play for a national title unless they have earned the spot through a real tournament play off.

So the top 7 should stay the same. But who replaces Virginia Tech and South Florida?



If Vince Young wasn't going to play, I might give my Raiders a chance in this game. They know back up Kerry Collins and would have more of an advantage forcing him to make mistakes. Oakland still could have a chance, but I don't think I can realistically pick them to win on the road. Although my Raiders are in last place and have only won 2 games, I'm still pleased with the progress. They have been competitive, and they aren't the worst at anything although they do come close in a couple of categories. I didn't expect an overnight turn around, but with 10 games to play the prospects are still good that they can at least double or even triple the two wins.

New Orleans visits the Bay Area on Football Night in America. NO and SF are a couple of 2-4 teams going in opposite directions. The Saints got off to a rough start, losing their first 4 games before winning the last 2. They seem to have corrected whatever was wrong and are back to playing a wide open style that capitalizes on speed. SF is just the opposite. They won their first 2 games and then have lost 4 in a row. The problem is offense...they don't have any. The good news is that 49er QB Alex Smith should return to the line up this week. He wasn't great before he went down with the shoulder injury, but SF won both games he started. We'll see if they can get back on track.

Indy is at Carolina in my feature game on CBS this morning. YAY! It's always a good football Sunday when I get to see the Colts. Indy has been methodical on their way to a 6-0 record. They haven't put up the spectacular numbers a certain other AFC team has. They just do whatever it takes to win. Offensively they are ranked 3rd in points scored and total yardage, and 6th in both passing and rushing. They are also solid defensively and ranked 1st against the pass. Carolina leads the NFC South, but doesn't appear to be good enough defensively to fare well against the Colts. Teams always play better at home, and Indy has the big Super Bowl champs target on it's back. This should be a good game.

I bounced back big time with picks last week. Here's how it looks so far:

Week 1 = 12-4
Week 2 = 11-5
Week 3 = 10-6
Week 4 = 8-6
Week 5 = 9-5
Week 6 = 7-6
Week 7 = 10-4

So I'm still staggering along at 65%, 67-36 on the season. But it's good to get back in double digits for winners. I may be guilty of over-thinking a couple picks this week, so we'll have to see how it goes. There are still a couple of winless teams out there, and they can be dangerous because you just don't know when the stars will align and they'll have that one game. It's the same with undefeated teams. That's why they play the games.

Colts over Panthers
Bears over Lions
Steelers over Bengals
Giants over Dolphins
Vikings over Eagles
Browns over Rams
Titans over Raiders
Bills over Jets
Chargers over Texans
Bucs over Jaguars
Patriots over Redskins
Saints over 49ers
Packers over Broncos

Pam's Seahawks have a BYE this week as do the Cardinals, Falcons, Ravens, Cowboys, and Chiefs.

See ya later with some observations.