Well - How about them Cubs?

You know that age old saying ,that people say when they want to diffuse a situation or change the subject...Fits here...............

After hours of research and number crunching and constant e-mails from football fans, what do you end what with? It all comes down to 50% stats & 25% guessing & 25% gut feeling...

Actually probably more gut then anything else, while I was writing and analysing all the stats for this weekends game, inside my gut was telling me they're going to be upsets, there always is...

I thought the Colts could/would do it, but my gut feeling on the Atl/Ariz game was that Arizona was going to pull a rabbit out of the hat and then make the elephant disappear...Yes they did...

How the up-sets happen? let's look for a minute and see:

Atl @ Ariz: My earlier prediction - - Key points to watch for: To win Atlanta QB Matt Ryan needs to throw at maxium only 1 interception. Atlantas RBs Michael Turner and Jerious Norwood need to combine for 100+ yds. Should handle the job with a offense that has a 32 total ranking.

For Arizona to win their defense needs to pressure Ryan into mistakes/interceptions and keep Turner/Norwood from rushing 100 yds. Of course with a defense total ranking of 85, might make for a long day...

Well Mr Ryan, threw 2 interceptions and all other game stats showed that when he throws more than 1, Atlanta has loss. He also was sacked 3 times. Turner & Norwood had 54 yards combined, not the 100+ they needed to win. Side stats this year also, has been that when Atlanta does not score first, they have lost, Arizona scored first... Arizona did what they needed to do to win, pressured Ryan into mistakes/interceptions and kept the Turner/Norwood team from 100 yards...

Colts @ S.D. : My earlier prediction - - Key points to watch for: To win Indy must find a way to keep SD RB Tomlinson from the ball (-20 carries) or keeping him at minimum yardage. (-40), while at the same time picking up Sproles. Also, 2 to 3 sacks on Rivers will help immensely. Very doable if their total 48th ranking defense comes to play.

For San Diego to win, they have to hope by chance that P.Manning of early season shows up. If not that than defense needs to sack him 3+ times and force 2+ TOs, also keep in check Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes from racking up yds, while containing Reggie Wayne from getting in the open so much. Hard to do when your defense has a total ranking of 82...

First off, Indy really could have done better at keeping Tomlinson from the ball, he was hurt and only played the 1st half, and even at that he had 25 yards and 1 TD. The other thing was SPROLES! the man is like the Duracell energizing rabbit - 105 yards & 2 TDs - well they didn't pick him up, like they needed to. Indy did get the sacks, 4 of them but could not capitalize on any of them... Oh! and then there's Dungy, racing down field to call a time out when Indy was leading and with 30+ seconds left to play - what was that about?? Colt penalties on SD final drive in OT, did not help them either...

San Diego, had to deal with a very good Peyton Manning - 310 yards & 1 TD, and they only got to sack him once but, that sack came at the most critical time of the game, in OT and throwing him for a 8 yds lost back on Indys 1 yard line. Indy had no turnovers, SD did keep Addai & Rhodes from having any break out runs - they only had 56 combine yds & 1 TD. Reggie Wayne though had his way with SD defense - 129 yds. receiving and was helped by A. Gonzalez who had 97 yds. receiving. So this game did actually come down to a 50/50 toss-up and SD came out with the better half of the 50/50....

So where do you go from here on today's games? Last night we had 2 under-dog home teams win, will that happen today? or will we have the opposite and 2 favored away teams win or maybe 1 of each. I don't know...

Right now @ 9am Sunday morning, my gut tells me it's time for breakfast and that I don't think the up-sets are done yet. Which team will pull them off, it's hard to say. The stats are in the article below, and I'm sticking with my picks, because there is a 50/50 percent chance that I'll be right and that's all anybody can ask for out of life - a 50/50 percent chance to be right........

See you later this week........