ORS

Parker had time for tea and crumpets on that screen. 10-7

Questionable call, Randle El ran out, but he didn't give up on the play. No call would have been right there.

Impressive follow up drive from the Bengals. Maybe you can win with a Kitna (and get loads of styling product advice along the way).

Pretty intense opening. It sucks that Palmer may be out for the game, because was looking like it would be the best game of the opening round. Both teams are fired up though, so emotion could go a long way for the Bengals now. That said, my better judgement says you don't win in the playoffs with a guy named Kitna. A name like Roethlisberger sounds as tough as rusty nails. Tom Brady and Carson Palmer sound like golden-boy pure passers. John Kitna sounds like he should be hosting "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy".

No offense, but given the way you've picked in the past, I can.

Pre-game says the wind is picking up in Cincy. That bodes well for my pick. EDIT: "Our" picks.

I'm not trying to take anything away from the Pats, but when comparing dominance in the two games, just look at the total yards. Pats 307 vs. Jags 292 Panthers 338 vs. Giants 119 - with 2:00 left in the game

If the Giants were even able to sniff the Panther's side of the field, I'd agree with you. The Jags were able to threaten the endzone a couple of times last night, but the Giants would be better served punting on first down at this point.

Wow, Colbert got ass-raped on that play. The DB had his back to the ball, how was there no flag there?

Hey, nice picks by the way. You, shillingouttheks, and I are looking pretty sweet if Pittsburg can make Palmer's playoff debut look like Eli's.

Kind of funny. Eli gets a boatload of hype and lives up to it in the regular season, but is flopping in his first playoff game. Chris Simms gets a boatload of hype, fails to perform in his regular season chances (until the end of this year), but plays well in his first playoff game (both his picks yesterday were tipped at the line).

17 (19.5) - 0, half way through the 3rd, and the Giants can't seem to move the ball at all. Not looking for for those NY picks.

Yeah, I do like the college system much better. However, I think a mix of the two would be best. Leave it up to the booth to call for reviews, but they can mess it up too, like when Young's knee was down before the TD pitch in the Rose Bowl, so give the coaches one challenge.

I understand the whistle argument, but the system would seem to do a better job of getting the call right if they at least awarded possession to the proper team at the spot of the fumble. And, you know as well as I do, that the whistle rarely stops players from trying to gain possession of the ball. Just say it can't be advanced from there.

Looks like Carolina gets one of their own, so it's evened up.

I'm not sure if they can or not. Here's why I don't like it (I'm not suggesting that you don't agree, just want to voice my opinion). There are two possible rulings on the field for the outcome. Either it is ruled a fumble or down by contact. One of those can be overturned the other cannot. It's an uneven system. Like you said, Giants didn't take advantage, so it only affected field position.

Giants get a gift from the zebras. They really ought to make that reviewable.

10-0, Carolina with 0:34 left in the half. 12.5-0 with the line. EDIT: Clock runs out, so that's the score at the half.

Moss's presence wasn't there in week's 9, 10, 11 when he sat with an injury. Culpepper averaged a 68.4% completion pct., 8.05 yds./att. (season average was 8.6), threw 7/1 TD/INT, and his ratings were 121.3, 117.9, 97.5. Your argument that Moss made him as a QB just isn't holding up. He's a good QB that had a bad year this year. I don't know why you keep trying to pound a square peg into a round hole.

I think Cora fits that description. If, however, you meant that they only need a good fielding CF, well Stern and Durbin fit it as well. If the lineup has Cora and Stern/Durbin in it, then will definitely score less runs than the past three years where they eclipsed 900 runs each season. It is also reasonable to expect that they will have better pitching, provided Schilling and Foulke bounce back, and better defense, thus allowing less runs. I think the FOs caution about overpaying for Damon and trading off the future to improve the '06 club hinges on the question marks that Schilling and Foulke provide going into the season. It is very unlikely that this club, regardless of the offense, makes a deep October run if those two suck as bad as they did last year. If things were more certain concerning those two, then it would make more sense to adopt a "win now" mentality. But as it stands right now, relying on those two is a big risk, which is why 2006 seems to shaping up as a stay-afloat year. If those two are good, then they can take a loss in offensive production. If they continue to suck, then they haven't put all their eggs in one basket.

Your theory about it hurting the future would be correct if any of the things you mentioned happened, but none of them have as of yet. Marte in CF? You aren't serious are you? I'd love to know where you saw this talk going on. If it was a paper, it wouldn't surprise me a bit since those guys know less about baseball than you or I do, and they fill a lot of column space with mental diarrhea. Blue-chip 'spects for Crisp, Reed, Lugo, or Gathright? Doubtful. If it's a package of lower level 'spects, then so be it. The farm is deep enough with mid-level prospects to take a hit in order to obtain young MLB level talent. I think there is a strong possibility that the team doesn't make a move for a CF if a good deal doesn't present itself. A combo of Stern/Durbin/ and either Murphy or Moss won't be anything to write home about, but I can see this FO going with that option before they ship off key parts of the future club. That said, I think their patience is a bit telling. I feel that Wells for Roberts is in their back pocket, but they are just waiting for someone to flinch. EDIT: Damon will be untradable at $13M per in two years.

It doesn't take long to look up the stats, and more importantly, it doesn't take long to avoid making foolish comments like this. Culpepper's best year was 2004, where he passed for 4700+ yds, 39/11 TD/INT, 69.2% completion pct., and a 110.9 rating. It just so happens that this coincided with Moss's worst season ever, 13 games, 49 catches, 767 yards (15.7 yds/catch, 13 TDs, weren't his worst seasons ever, but on the whole this was his worst season). If Culpepper was totally dependent on Moss, then why did his best season as a passer come when Moss provided the least amount of help to him?

I think abysmal is a bit of hyperbole. Inconsistent is how I'd classify it. They've put up some big numbers against some good teams. But, yeah, if the offense plays like it did today, they have no shot in Seattle. That said, today's performance was against the #1 defense (in yds/gm) in the league. They were able to put up 35 points against the same defense just a few weeks earlier. See, inconsistent.

I'm 2 to the good also, but shillingouttheks and ARod2212 both made the same picks I did, so I won't stand alone at the top if Carolina and Pittsburg beat the spread.

Scobee-dobee-don't! Missed FG, 28-3 still.