I’m Miles Miller!

Game of the Week: Saints and Chargers.
Player of the Week: Brian Westbrook

2-1 in my Stone Cold Picks, with my Titans and Giants pulling off the wins and somehow Dallas also finding a way to win.

Before I go into my Power Rankings, we need a little explanation about what exactly the Power Rankings are for and what they mean.  Several factors go into the formula:
a) W/L record
b) recent play
c) strength of team
d) impressive wins and embarrassing defeats
A team should not lose a home game against a rival with a lower ranking.
A team should not lose a road game against a rival with a lower ranking of more than 4 spots.

Here are my Power Rankings for week 8.
1.  Titans.  Only undefeated team and now two full games ahead in the AFC (4 ahead of the division).
2.  Giants.  Arguably the best team before the Titans win Monday night.  This defense is very good and the offense is very balanced.  Eli makes management mistakes (calling back to back timeouts early in the 4th) but then comes back with big plays.

(3, 4, and 5 teams from last week lost so we got to chart some new territory here.)

3.  Panthers.  Quality wins over Arizona, New Orleans, Atlanta, San Diego, and Chicago (and 34-0 over Chiefs).
4.  Steelers.  Big Ben is good, but their offensive line is not.  He gets sacked a lot. 
5.  Redskins.  Clinton Portis is thankful to play the Lions.
6.  Patriots.  Benefiting from an easy schedule, but they aren’t complaining.
7.  Bills.  A win over the Jets will do much for their playoff hopes.
8.  Packers. Five tough games in a row starting in Tennessee.
9. Cardinals.  Nice to see Boldin back and finding the endzone.
10. Bears.  Beat the Lions 34-7 in Detroit, what will they do at home?
11. Saints. Impressive “home” win in London.
12. Cowboys.  Strong game on defense, but this high-powered offense didn’t show up.
13. Bucs.  How they couldn’t get through the Cowboys patchwork secondary is beyond me.
14. Eagles.  Westbrook also makes a fine return last week.
15. Ravens. Can reach last year’s win total next week at Cleveland.
16. Dolphins.They can only beat good teams.
17. Falcons.  I like Roddy White.  Matt Ryan does, too.
18. Chargers. Already with five losses heading into their bye.  This defense looks very beatable with out Shawn Merriman.
19.  Jets. Brett Favre is erratic as they come.
20.  Broncos.  Get an extra week to shake off that embarrassment in New England.
21.  Colts.  No longer a shoo-in for the division title.  Playoff chances in doubt.
22.  Vikings.  They were supposed to have the best defense in the league coming into the season.  How did Kyle Orton’s Bears dump 48 on them?
23.  Texans.  Don’t look now, but since that debacle by Sage, Schaub’s Texans have won 3 in a row.
24.  Rams.  Do they have a gripe about the Patriots game, being penalized 12 times to the Patriots 1?
25.  Browns.  Could be turning things around with their 3rd win in 4 games.
26.  Jaguars.  This team doesn’t look like a Super Bowl contender.
27.  Raiders.  Make for boring games: only 2 of 7 games decided by ten or less points.
28.  Seahawks.  As bad as I think they are, they made the 49ers look a lot worse.
29.  49ers.  Remember when they were 2-1?
30.  Chiefs.  Tough game against Brett’s Jets says more about the Jets than Chiefs. 
31.  Bengals.  They look like they’ve given up.  Last two games they’ve given up 10 TD’s, scored only 1.
32.  Lions.  Worst tackling team I’ve seen in a long while.  And the offense sucks, too.

Oh, what a difference a week makes. 

In week 6, teams in my Power Rankings ranked 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, and 13 all lost, and most of the ones in between (2, 3, 10) didn’t lose because they were lucky enough to have a bye week.  Carolina got blown away by Tampa Bay 27-3, and then blew out a Saints team that blew out the Raiders the week before.  Miami beats the two teams from the AFC Championship Game last year, then lose to the 0-4 Texans.  In fact, the Texans and Rams, who started 0-8, are 4-0 the last couple weeks.

I know the new week begins tomorrow with a full slate of games but I still want to do an abbreviated Power Rankings.

1.  Titans.  The Chiefs’ defense made roly-poly LenDale White look like Usain Bolt last week.
2.  Giants.  Heading into last week, did you know that the Giants (minus Strahan and Osi) led the league in sacks?
3.  Steelers.  Who needs Willie Parker or Rasheed Mendenhall?  Mewelde Moore scored 3 times and rushed for 120 yards last week.
4.  Bills.  Forced 3 turnovers and 2 sacks against the Chargers, allowed zero.
5.  Buccaneers.  Their two losses are on the road.  Let’s see if they can win one in Dallas over a hurting Cowboys team.  

So last week I my computer wasn’t working, and I was a little sour about how my picks went the week before that I didn’t get around to last week’s Stone Cold Picks.  The week before I went 1-4.  I’m done keeping track.  I’m 0-3 so far when I pick against the Colts.  I hope I don’t create a jinx. Whatever, here I go, but only 3:
-My Titans will beat the Colts.
-Tampa Bay will beat the Cowboys to continue the downward spiral for Big D.
-Giants will win the game of the week over the Steelers.

Quarterbacks did me in last week.  Brian Griese got hurt early so that game didn’t go as expected, Trent Edwards got hurt on the 3rd play so the Bills got blown out.  I was excited for the Texans as they were up by 17 with 5 minutes left, and Sage Rosenfels went into outer space and lost the game.  They didn’t even cover the spread.  1-4 (ouch!) gives me an uphill climb at 10-13-2.

But do I ease up this week?  Heck no!  Here are 5 road wins. 
-I haven’t learned my lessons about picking against the Colts.  Baltimore will pull the upset in Indy.
-Green Bay will get back on track by beating the pathetic Seahawks.
-Carolina will continue to play well by beating Tampa Bay. 
-Bears will win in Atlanta.
-Patriots will march into San Diego and win (or at least cover the spread of 5).

As the baseball regular season has come to an end, it is time for some follow up and accountability.  Sometimes I am right, sometimes I get embarrassed.  This season in the American League was one of the latter.

Okay, so I picked the Tigers to win the Central, Mariners to win the West, and Yankees to win the East (they ended up last, last, and 3rd).  It’s funny how things work out.  Tigers did NOT score 950 runs, actually only 821 with that “loaded” lineup (less than the Twins!), and won 23 games less than I picked.  Mariners didn’t score any runs but allowed a ton and won 32 games less than I picked.  I picked their coach to win Manager of the Year and he was the first guy fired.  Yankees dealt with injuries to starters Wang, Joba, Hughes, and Kennedy, so they were left with 35 starts by Ponson and Rasner, and they also dealt with injuries to Posada and Matsui.  They still somehow scrapped together a respectable 89 wins, only 5 less than I predicted.

But some good notes: I predicted correctly within 2 games the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Royals (as well as the Phillies, Reds and Dodgers in the NL), and other than the Mariners, I correctly picked the Orioles to be the worst team in the league.   At the midway point I picked the Dodgers to jump ahead of the Dbacks.  I picked Josh Hamilton to hit less than 12 homers after the All Star break, he hit 11.  KRod did break the single-season save record.  I said Ryan Howard would strike out 200 times and he came within 1 at 199. 

I’m very pleased with the Rays this season.  They are playing like a true team.  They showed that they are not going to let the Yankees and Red Sox mess with them as early as spring training, as they had brawls with both those teams.  I think that set a good tone that this team means business.  I wish them well in the American League Championship Series and I will be rooting for them.

I watched the Obama/McCain debate tonight.  This is what I come away with. 

 Barack says talk with our allies, talk with our enemies.  Try to work things out and don’t go in this alone.  John says “talk quietly and carry a big stick;” don’t talk, just come in and do what we want. Diplomacy is always the best idea.

McCain says Obama wants more government control in regards to health care.  He says give people a little refund and let them find the best plan for themselves.  He complains that Obama’s plan would impose fines for companies that don’t comply.  Obama points out that this results in health care and insurance companies looking for loopholes and being unavailable when you need them. If control means better accountability and protection, then I’m all for it.

McCain says wait and assure victory in Iraq before coming home in failure.  He says Obama wants a timetable to pull out of Iraq.  Obama says focus on the real threat, Afghanistan.  I say, there is no victory to be had in Iraq.  Obama says let’s get our economy figured out before we keep launching out to fight new wars. 

McCain was for a quick solution to this economy crisis by a monumental bailout.  Obama says study it out before making hasty actions.  The government was hasty in it’s actions, and the stock market, the “standard of the economy”, has plummeted ever since.

All I ever hear from McCain is that he deserves to be president because he fought in wars and has combat experience and cares about soldiers.  There’s more to leading this nation, many more issues.  War experience doesn’t give you all the training to lead a nation.  Obama says he is for change.  The last administration has been one of the worst in a century.  McCain is a grumpy old man who supports Bush and likes to pick fights with everyone else.  A significant change would do this nation some good, and Obama gives us the greatest opportunities and benefits of change. 

Player of the Week: Big Ben Rothlisberger.

Did you see the end of the Texans/Colts game?  It may take a team to win a game, but it can sure take one player to single-handedly completely blow it.  Those Texans played so well for 55 minutes and then Sage Rosenfels tries to be a hero.  He should have been stripped when he stretched for the extra yards earlier. Didn’t the coach have a word with him about protecting the ball?  He already had a fumble earlier in the 2nd half.  Yet four plays later he tries to leap over two defensive backs and gets smacked.  3 plays later he leaves the ball hanging behind him and gets stripped again.  All he has to do is hand it off or take a knee, anything.  The next drive, in need of a touchdown, he throws a pass nowhere near any Texan, though there were three Colts waiting to catch the ball.  This performance goes on the list with Damn Uggly Uggla for Biggest Bonehead Plays of the Decade.

This was quite an exciting week all around the NFL.  Let’s get right to it with Miles Miller’s up-to-date NFL Power Rankings.  It gets really hairy after the top 5 until the bottom 8.

1.  Giants.  No surprise here.  Tom Coughlin turned this into a true team, winning no matter who isn’t on the field (Tiki Barber, Jeremy Shockey, Strahan, Osi, Plexico Burress).
2.  Titans.  Still the most complete team in the AFC.
3.  Steelers.  Big Ben shrugs off the pain and has a big game on road against a good Jaguars team, even without a decent running back behind him.
4.  Redskins.  Back-to-back big division road wins against the Iggles and the Cowboys. 
5.  Cowboys.  Romo has thrown a pick every game this year.  A win is a win, but should it be that tough against the Bengals?
6.  Dolphins.  Did you see that goal line stand against LT?  Nobody can stop the Wildcat formation.
7.  Broncos.  I want to say this team is way overrated, but they did just win a good game against the Bucs and the defense played well.
8.  Panthers.  DeAngelo Williams wishes they could play the Chiefs every week.
9.  Cardinals.  That was quite the blowout.  I would put them lower but I how can I put them right below the Bills?  I’m glad Kurt Warner will keep playing.
10. Bills.  How important is Trent Edwards to this team?  4-0 with him, they got blown out by Arizona without him.
11.  Patriots.  Ho-hum.  Matt Cassel shows he can finally get the ball to Randy Moss downfield.
12.  Chargers.  It’s time for them to make a statement against New England this week if they want to show they are still for real.  The score was much closer than the game showed this week.
13.  Ravens.  The defense is sure tough, two tough losses in a row.
14.  Bucs.  Is Brian Griese actually better than Jeff Garcia? 
15.  Bears.  They’re in first!
16.  Falcons.  Matt Ryan continues to show flashes of brilliance.
17.  Colts.  A very unimpressive win.  Baltimore, at Green Bay, at Tennessee.  They won’t squeak away in the next three games.
18.  Eagles.  They are still +30 point differential, but in that division you can’t afford 3 losses in 4 games.
19.  Jets.  Three comfortable games coming up for Brett’s Jets to get back into gear.
20.  Vikings.  Gus Frerotte was a real hero tonight, stepping up completing several big plays throughout the second half despite a big hit coming in.
21.  Green Bay.  If they want to show they need respect they can’t lose at home to the Falcons.
22.  Saints.  Reggie Bush was running all over the place this week.   
23.  Jacksonville. I thought this team was supposed to be a power running team.  38 yards?
24.  49ers.  JT O’Sullivan can’t throw 3 INTs anymore.
25.  Texans.  How did this team lose??
26.  Raiders.  Al Davis should be the next to go.
27.  Seahawks.  Got outgained by 336 yards and outscored by 38 (to the likes of Domenik Hixon and Senorice Moss).  They might have a lot of injuries in the offense, but this defense sucks.
28.  Browns.  Bring on the Giants.
29.  Bengals.  At least they are competitive. 
30.  Chiefs.  LJ still hasn’t showed up.  Neither has the defense, offense…
31.  Rams.  The new coach trusts Mark Bulger.  Does anyone else? 
32.  Lions.  No defense, no offense.  Millen is gone, but the monster he left behind takes time to die.

Last week I picked Baltimore (6 point dogs) and they brought it into OT, so that’s a tie.  3-1-1 puts me at 9-9-2.

-I like Tampa Bay to march into Denver and upset the Broncos in a high-scoring affair.
-Jacksonville will beat the Steelers.
-Houston will upset the Colts in Indianapolis.
-Patriots will take care of the 49ers.
-Buffalo will remain undefeated by beating the Cardinals.

As much as I don’t care about baseball that the Yankees are done, life must go on and I need to make my picks so I can have bragging rights later on.

Angels over Red Sox in 4
Rays over White Sox in 3

Rays over Angels in 6

Phillies over Brewers in 4
Cubs over Dodgers in 5

Cubs over Phillies in 5

World Series:
Cubs over Rays in 5
Playoffs MVP: Alfonso Soriano

It’s gotta happen this year, right?  We can’t wait another 100 years…