With the season half over, do you think Colts or the Pats will go all the way for a perfect season of 16-0 or do the Rams - Dolphins stand a better chance of going 0-16.

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

The odds favor 0-16 (since those 2 teams don't play each other), but I will pick the Pats to go undefeated.

I hope the Rams fire Leinehan and soon.

Is it really his fault that his starting QB, one of the top 3 RB in the league, and pretty much his offensive line all were injured for the majority of the year? I mean c'mon, I don't think the guy is that bad a coach.... sure there are better ones out there, but he cannot help the fact that his entire offense (save for his receivers) are all injured. I don't know if Belichik or Parcells or Dungy or anyone similar could do that much better... maybe, at best, a .500 team- but that is really pushing it IMHO.

The top coaches probably could have St. Louis with two wins this year. I cannot see how a 2-6 record is sooooooo much better than 0-8, outside of the obvious that the latter is zero wins. St. Louis is going to win a game or two, probably end up with a 2-14 or 3-13 record at the end. If they had Dungy or Belichik or Gibbs or someone, you are looking at what.... maybe 6-10 at best? 5-11? Still a crappy season. I don't know if Linehan is the problem, unless he is the one in complete control of their conditioning and they just came to camp completely out of shape, which led to all their injuries.

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If New England didn't play Indy, I'd say 16-0...but the fact that they'll have in essence a two game lead should they beat the Colts, they will have absolutely no good reason to play starters week 17. Coupled with the fact that their week 17 opponent, the Giants, will likely have a very good reason to want/need to win the game for playoff seeding.

That said, there's no 'good' reason, but at this point I would not be suprised if Belichek played that last game to win.

I'm going with Fins for 0-16 for two reasons. First, it's easier for a good team to play poorly than for a poor team to play well, and second, because it would be fitting for Miami to hold both extremes of the records.

Also, there is a good chance late in the season the Pats or Colts will want to rest some players if a game has no impact on playoff positioning.

Various Wonks on ESPN will say that it is harder to go 0-16 than 16-0. I tended to believe that until this week.

All "Fan Boy" aside, both Indy and New England faced their toughest opponent. Yeah . . . yeah . . . either team can fuck it up later, but I would not be surprised, now, if the Patriots go 16-0. The same considerations apply, particularly given the Giants at the end. However, even Belichick will tell you that there is no benefit to going into the playoffs with a loss. I doubt he will "play to lose" unless the Giants jump on them, and he concludes that it is not worth risking his players to win. Then, again, he may consider it a character lesson. . . .

That having been written, Buffalo can play them tough, and my Pitts friends are declaring doom and gloom when they come into Foxboro.

Miami? It is a disaster. Seriously. While I can see that Pats--and Indy--beating each of their next opponents, I do not see the opponents of Miami losing. Perhaps they can beat the Jets? It may be the height of irony that there will be a 16-0 and 0-16 team in the same division, but life is like that.

And . . . of course, who cares about 16-0 if you lose in the playoffs?

--J.D.

I don't see The Evil Empire being challenged until weeks 13 and 14. They are off this coming week, travel to Buffalo and will slaughter them (gotta get those bye week cobwebs out), host a miserable Philly team (look for Stallworth to be the star). Week 13, the unlucky week in many a perfect season talk have the Pats hosting Baltimore - very tough and fast defense but I don't think they have enough offense to score 28 points. Baltimore will not beat the EE but will beat on them for a while. Then they travel to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh may be the only other team that would have a chance against Darth Brady and the boys. Pittsburgh has an offense that controls the clock (coming into this week the Steelers were averaging 34:21 in TOP), number four in the AFC in points scored, number one in total rushing yards, respectable passing attack, and number one in the NFL in points allowed (91 total points allowed). After the Steelers, the Pats play a bad Jets team and an even worse team before closing out at the Giants. Should NE get past Pittsburgh the only team that can beat them is the one in the home locker room in Gillette Stadium.

IMO the key to beating New England is to control the clock and to not have any turnovers. NE was tied with Indy at +11 in turn over differential and changed the game when Manning turned the ball over late in the game.

One final thought: If the Pats and Colts meet again it will be in Foxborogh (sp?). Since the EE is now the team with the high powered passing attack and Indy has the strong runnning game would the elements benefit Addai more than it would hamper Manning?

If they meet again, it will be in the playoffs and most likely will be in New England (unless they happen to lose 2 games to Indy's one loss).