Lovie owns Lambeau

A few random thoughts before I get into my week six NFL picks (I promise, no Cubs)…

1---What a comeback victory last Sunday night for my Bears. As I wrote last Friday, I actually picked against Hester, Urlacher and Co. in the game, because I didn’t see any way the Bears banged-up defense could stop Brett Favre. Too bad I forgot that Lovie Smith completely owns the cheese-heads up at Lambeau. Smith is 4-0 up there in his years as head coach, which is absolutely amazing, because the only time I remember Dick Jauron ever winning in Green Bay was the game that Bryan Robinson won with a last-second field goal block, three days after the death of Walter Payton. (As we saw Monday night, Jauron isn’t too good in big games.) Brian Griese played surprisingly well, and his two TD passes to the Bears tight ends were simply jaw-dropping. I discussed it with a friend the following day, and we both agreed we had never seen a Bears game in our life were the tight end was as much of a downfield threat as they were on Sunday. Now the Bears have winnable games coming up home vs. Minnesota, at Philly, a revenge game against the Lions, the bye week and then at Oakland. If the team plays like they did in the second half versus Green Bay - and stays healthy - there’s no reason they shouldn’t 6-3 going into their toughest stretch of the year.

2---I’m not sure about you, but basketball season sure snuck up on me. Probably because of the extended baseball season, (For example, last year’s baseball season ended for me in August) but I had no clue that Bulls training camp was underway until I opened up my ‘Tribune’ and read that Joakim Noah was penciled into start. To be honest, I’m pretty excited for the season to get underway, especially since a lot of people are calling the Bulls the team to beat in the East. Now all I need is a crazy Sam Smith trade rumor and I’ll be ready for hoops to officially begin.

3--- In case you didn’t see it on the September 16 post, I am now writing weekly college football columns for the Chicago Sports Review ( Here’s my latest piece). But that’s mostly for teams in the Chicago-land area, such as Notre Dame and the Big Ten. But the biggest story in college football took place on the West Coast last Saturday. USC, the pre-season number one team in America and the squad everybody assumed would be playing for (and winning) the crystal trophy at the end of the year, lost to Stanford. This is funny for multiple reasons. One, because the Stanford Cardinal haven’t been relevant in football since the late 1990’s, have nobody of note on their team and were 40 1/2 point underdogs. Two, because in the pre-season CFB magazine I have, the Cardinal were ranked tenth out of ten in their conference in every single category: QB, backfield, receivers, O-Line, D-Line, linebackers, secondary, special teams, coaching and overall. Ten of ten in all of them. This made me laugh out loud in shock the first time I saw it, because I had no clue a team could be that bad. And third, because the coach of Stanford is former Bears QB Jim Haurbaugh. I’m not quite sure why this is funny, it just is. To think that the Trojans lost, at the LA Coliseum, to Stanford is just stunning. I wrote a column for CSR saying there are five types of upsets, and the most shocking is called the ‘Thousand in one game’ where if teams played a thousand times, one squad would win 999 of them, but it just happens to be the underdogs lucky one game. I said it happened once in a decade, and that none had happened since 1998. Two days later, Stanford 24 USC 23. Wow.

4---Quick MLB playoff picks:
Rockies in six
Indians in seven


Now for my week six NFL picks. Obviously the game of the weekend is New England at Dallas, a battle of two of the remaining three un-beaten teams. (The Colts, the only other squad without a loss, have the week off) I like the Patriots, and I like them big. Tom Brady always steps up in games like this, and Dallas just doesn’t have the defense to shut down Moss, Welker, Stallworth, Watson and whoever is running the ball for NE. My picks: New England 35 Dallas 17

My picks in bold

Tennessee at Tampa Bay

Minnesota at Chicago

Houston at Jacksonville

Miami at Cleveland

St. Louis at Baltimore

Washington at Green Bay

Cincinnati at Kansas City

Philadelphia at New York Jets

Carolina at Arizona

Oakland at San Diego

New England at Dallas

New Orleans at Seattle

New York Giants at Atlanta


Last Week: 9-5
Season to Date: 47-29 (61%)