Sports Notes

-Chris mentioned the Braves mediocre bullpen, and while I thought they wouldn't get past the Cardinals, I did think they could get past the Astros. No matter how bad the bullpen of the Braves has been, the Astros hitting has been even worse. The Braves, when it's all said and done have had a miraculous year. Weren't there like six rookies in the line-up at one point. If they can grab a few key players for their bullpen in the off-season they will be right back up there and might even be more tempting as a World Series pick. Dan Kolb was a huge bust, and that has got to suck.

-The Titans did what they needed to do yesterday and got the job done; that was a good sign. I'm never going to be sold on this team this year, even if they do beat the Bengals, which is a lot more probable than people realize. Even if they were to perform some kind of miracle and win ten games and go to the playoffs; they've got the Colts, Patriots, Steelers, and whoever comes out of the West to deal with. But for this young of a team (average age is 24) they're a lot better than anyone would have thought, and this bodes well for the future; possibly even next year. It would have not surprised me at all if they were 0-5, so 2-3 is not too shabby in my book. And two less mistakes against the Rams and they're 3-2. That would have been a nice win.

-How much does the NFC North suck? The Lions sit atop the damn thing at 2-2; the Bears had the first place spot going into this week for the simple fact they didn't play last week, and then they go lay a turkey against the Browns. I'm curious to see who wins this division. I still think the Vikings will do it, because they should be able to handle the Bears and Lions and win at least one against the Packers. That would give them seven wins at least which might win the division.

-On the other end of the spectrum how awesome is the NFC East race gonna be? The Eagles get blown out by the Cowboys who are playing now how I expected them too. Eli Manning seems to be for real, and if the Giants could improve on defense there in it. The Redskins defense might be the best in the NFC after Tampa Bay. Until yesterdays game they hadn't given up more than 18 points since last October. There is no reason for me to think that the Eagles won't win the division, but it's at least going to be interesting and it should go down to the wire.

-The opening line on the Notre Dame/USC game is 14. Maybe this is just the Notre Dame bias in me, but that seems pretty damn high. USC has played all cookie cutter schools with the exception of Arizona St., and they haven't really blown anyone out except for Arkansas, but who hasn't? They're playing at Notre Dame, and Notre Dame has had three quality wins (Pitt, Michigan, Purdue). I will admit those teams have not lived up to their early season hype, but it's still three more quality wins than USC has had. Give Notre Dame some respect people; USC should be favored, but 41/2 points would seem fair enough to me.