Week 10 picks

HOUSTON at Jacksonville (-11) If Rutgers is able to go into Morgantown and defeat West Virginia, they need to get a shot at the National Championship. If you find yourself disagreeing you probably hate America.

BALTIMORE at Tennessee (+7) The truth is, these kind of controversies are great for college football. It there was a playoff system college football would be even more boring than it is now.

Washington at PHILADELPHIA (-7) A Philly loss here, and Eagle fans get to spend the rest of the season hoping T.O. continues to blow games for the Cowboys.

San Fransisco at DETROIT (+6) "49ers" will be awkward if the franchise decides to leave the Bay Area. Although it did work out for the "Lakers."

SAN DIEGO at Cincinnati (+1.5) I usually get my election night coverage from Chris Mathews. Sure, he spends most of the time enthusiastically quoting himself, but he happens to know a lot about politics and elections. Unfortunately his pairing with fellow big-mouth Keith Olbermann almost made my head explode. I have gained a lot of respect for Dan Patrick.

Jets at NEW ENGLAND (-10.5) So MSNBC was out, and I was flipping between CNN and Fox. They couldn't be more different -- and it's not what you think. CNN broadcasts from a futuristic, airplane hanger sized, flat screen TV showroom, while Fox broadcasts from a draped table. None of the graphics Fox used would have been out of place in 1985. Which made it all the more striking when none of them worked properly.

KANSAS CITY at Miami (Even) Yet Fox's coverage was far more watchable than CNN's. The waves of commentators CNN had in their airplane hanger just cluttered things. It was like that gag in the Naked Gun when, during the baseball game, the play-by-play guy introduces his booth and he keeps going and going until you see he has ten people sitting next to him. Fox had a few commentators who knew their stuff and, unlike CNN, Fox didn't use election day as an opportunity to promote their regular talent. Although their coverage was, at times, a little glum.

GREEN BAY at Minnesota (-5.5) Now that Brett Favre is officially good again, all those who write comedic-inclined football picks are suffering.

CLEVELAND at Atlanta (-8) Luckily Michael Vick is back to being bad.

Buffalo at INDIANAPOLIS (-12) When a non A-list celebrity -- Kevin Fenderline and Ryan Phillipe recently -- gets dumped by his higher profile wife or girlfriend, it makes me think of Peyton Manning. I'm not sure why.

DENVER at Oakland (+9) The Raiders even screw up their knee-to-the-groin cheap shots.

NEW ORLEANS at Pittsburgh (-5) Bigger disaster: Katrina or Roethlisberger?

St. Louis at SEATTLE (-3) God is just not that into the slow-healing Shaun Alexander.

DALLAS at Arizona (+7) With Rumsfeld out, the seat gets a little hotter for Denny Green.

Chicago at GIANTS (even) It's really too late, and I doubt she's reading, but Maureen Dowd needs to learn the name is Rumsfeld. See, it's OK that I refereed to Arizona Cardinal head Coach Dennis Green as "Denny" once, on my blog. It's not OK (for her credibility) that Dowd called Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "Rummy" a couple thousand times on the pages of the paper of record.

Tampa Bay at CAROLINA (-9) Writing this, I realized how much I appreciate the bye weeks.