Sean B. Fitzgerald It doesn’t go something like this, it goes exactly like this.

Sunday, Week 16

As much as I love football, I'm not a fan of the fact that I have to make my picks on Wednesday the last few weeks of the season because of the NFL Network game. It's a real burden. How am I supposed to fully assess the upcoming weeks games, when I haven't even digested the dip I ate while watching the Monday Night Football game? There is NO time between games anymore. And that's the best part about football. It's all jam-packed into one huge Sunday every week. Not anymore though. We're slowly coming to the point where at least one NFL game will be played from the first Sunday in September to the last Saturday in December. And every single day in between. From my point of view, I'm not arguing. But if that were to happen, productivity in America, will plummet (more so). It's more than enough that most of the United States shuts down every Sunday in the Fall and some of the winter. Lord knows what would happen if there was NFL football everyday. But I digress.

Because I didn't post my picks for the two previous games on "The Network", I am not going to pick this Sunday's games. Instead, I am going to give my thoughts on the rest of this weeks games (in bullet point).

• Let me preface these bullet points by saying that I am in the Championship game for one of my fantasy leagues. I was the four seed in the first round and soundly defeated my best friend because of some nifty roster adjustments prior to kickoff. That being said, these following players better all have the games of their lives: Matt Schaub, Larry Fitzgerald, Bernard Berrian, Vincent Jackson, Thomas Jones, Pierre Thomas, Owen Daniels, Jason Elam, and the Minnesota defense. I need this win. I've got nothing else to care about sports wise. The Jets are going to blow it (maybe). The Knicks are struggling. And baseball is four months away. I need it.
• With the Ravens win last night against the Cowboys, the Patriots can actually win the next two games, finish the season 11-5 and still miss the playoffs. And as much as I hate the Patriots, that would truly be the biggest travesty in the history of the NFL playoffs. I say this because the Chargers and Broncos over in the AFC West are constantly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on a weekly basis. That division could potentially produce an 8-8 winner, AND HOST A PLAYOFF GAME. While the Pats, who lost the best player in the NFL, and clawed their way to an 11-5 record, could miss the playoffs. If that were to happen, it would be time to restructure the playoff system.
• Bengals at Browns: The Battle for Draft Position.
• Drew Brees needs to throw well over 300 yards for the next two games to match Dan Marino as the only quarterbacks to throw for 5,000 yards in a season. Going to be tough to do unless their playing the Lions. What a coincedence! They are. That's why I have Pierre Thomas starting for my fantasy team. He just might score four touchdowns in this game. He might have more touchdowns than Detroit has first downs. But actually, the Saints are horrendous defensively, and can actually make this a close one. If they weren't to defeat the Saints today, their last chance to avoid going befeated* in against the Packers at Lambeau. If the Packers were to lose to an 0-15 Lions team at home in the last game of the season, Green Bay could turn into a smoldering tire fire.
• I chose "befeated" as the antonym to undefeated because the prefix 'be' means "thoroughly", therefore if Detroit were to go 0-16, they would be thoroughly defeated. Satisfied?
• There are two games today that could easily double as the potential conference championship games later in January. Pittsburgh-Tennessee should be fun, even if Haynesworth and Vandenbosch are out for the Titans. Both have stellar (I hate that word) defenses. But one being better than the other. If seems as if the Steelers don't give up offensive touchdowns unless its a mistake. The other is the Panthers-Giants game at the Meadownlands. Currently, as I look out my window, it is snowing. I doubt it will last until 8:00ET tonight. We can only hope. Snow makes football better. Kind of like syrup on ice cream. Gambling on sports. Or syrup on women.
• The rest of the games have some intrigue, but I'm too lazy to write about them. I'll be back.