The best seat in the house is the view from the couch

Man, I've really got to get on the ball with this. Tuesday night, I set up the ol' laptop to write up the weekly Rants & Ranks. Unfortunately I also ended up getting stuck on the phone for an hour, and by the time I hung up, all I could think about was going to sleep. Scratch Tuesday.

Wednesday, I realized that there was nothing on TV (Wednesday nights really suck for TV until "LOST" comes back), so I sat down with my laptop and got ready to start writing. Then I checked e-mails. Then I checked fantasy football teams. Then my roommate came in to "hang out" for awhile. Then it was 10:30 at night, and I still had to shower & shave for work today (where I had to get here by 7am for a class). Scratch Wednesday.

That leaves today, and today only, before tomorrow's weekly picks post. Actually, this might work out better, since injury information is more readily available, and I don't get sucked into thinking about whether or not the Chiefs can survive if LJ is only out for one week.

That said, let's do this...

The Fave 5

1. New England (9-0): I'm not going to sit here and tell you that they decimated the Colts last week. In fact, for three and a half quarters I was preparing responses for the inevitable onslaught of e-mails and text messages if the Patriots didn't manage to make a comeback. But they played it safe, didn't panic, and ground out a victory in one of the most hostile environments on Earth (even before the Colts pipe in crowd noise). That's enough to say that unless they lost three of their final 7 games, I'm keeping them atop the list until the playoffs.

2. Indianapolis (7-1): They were the best team in football for 50 minutes last Sunday. Unfortunately, they needed to do it for all 60. The AFC Title game is going to be awfully fun to watch.

3. Dallas (7-1): Completely, undeniably, emphatically obliterated the Eagles in Philly last night. If they're not in the NFC Title game, and probably the Super Bowl, then something has gone terribly wrong.

4. Pittsburgh (6-2): On a neutral field, right now, the Steelers would most likely crush the Packers, and probably give both the Cowboys and the Colts a hell of a good game. Yes, they lost to Arizona and Denver - Arizona was a fluke loss to old coaches, and Denver was inexcuseable. I'd be surprised if they lost more than two games teh rest of the way.

5. Green Bay (7-1): The only team with a chance to slow down the Cowboys before January. And if you don't think that the Thanksgiving Day game against the Lions is going to be intense, you obviously haven't watched enough NFC North football in your life.

Others receiving votes: Lions (6 wins... they haven't had 6 wins in a full season since dinosaurs roamed the Earth), Titans (can't argue with 6-2, even if nobody knows how they're doing it), Cleveland (just imagine if the Lions & Browns make the playoffs in the same year... the rust belt will be in pandemonium!), Buffalo (4-4 without 2/3 of their season opening "stars" available... that's impressive)

The Foul 5

5. San Francisco (2-6): Just a terrible showing, in every aspect of the game. Atlanta quit on the season sometime in July - there's no reason the 49ers, playing at almost full strength, couldn't have won that game.

4. Cincinnati (2-6): Everyone who had the Bengals pegged for a 10-loss season, raise your hand. If' you're not living in Pittsburgh, Cleveland or Baltimore and your hand is raised, you're lying.

3. NY Jets (1-8): The Kellen Clemens Era kicked off with a solid performance. It was still a loss, but at least he gave it a good effort and put on a strong show. Again - let's see if he leads the Jets to a 4-4 finish to the year. They've already dropped one, and the game @ New England will probably set records for largest loss in NFL history. So 4-2 in the other six... could be tough.

2. Miami (0-8): They didn't lose... they didn't play, but they didn't lose.

1. St. Louis (0-8): Ditto.

Others receiving votes: Atlanta (only escaped the list because they beat another team on it.), Oakland (I can't imagine them beating any team not included in The Foul 5 the rest of the way), Denver (44 points? TO THE LIONS?!?), Philadelphia (Maybe Donoan McNabb is the problem...).

Back tomorrow (late afternoon / early evening) with the weekly picks.

Lata.