In week five things got interesting, and week six will change the landscape. College football showed why it is a beautiful thing this last week. Heavily favored teams went out and were beat by teams with lower quality personnel. Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama were all upset. Washington and California were games that said a lot as well. I was on the hook to write a preview of the games this week for this blog and thank goodness I never got it done, I would have missed badly coming out of the gates.

A quick run down:

To me the biggest game was Auburn beating Florida. The Gators made early mistakes and it hurt them. I did see them drive the ball the way they can in the third quarter, but they have got a big piece of work to do if they are going to try and make a run at a repeat- more on their game next week soon.

Oklahoma losing to Colorado shoots some holes in the sails of the Sooner’s BCS hopes. The Sooners will need to reload their high scoring guns to get back in the hunt.

Texas was the game mentioned so far that was not close. The wildcats made Texas look very bad. The Longhorns did not play like the team we have seen go out and dominate other teams.

You may wonder why I mention the Alabama game. Sure they are ranked, but only 22nd and they were beat by a talented Florida State team. As many others have, I have been following the story of Nick Saban at Alabama. I have watched him coach for some time and have been interested to see him enter the SEC again, especially the way he did. After losing to Georgia last week and to Florida State this week I am eager to see the response of the Tide. Have the players “bought in” to Saban’s philosophy? Will they stick to the program and message after a rough couple weeks? I think their role turns to spoiler and could be very interesting. They play Houston next week then they head to Mississippi and then host the Tennessee Volunteers. Those last two game will have a big impact in the SEC and will say a lot about the Tide. Then watch out for the LSU Tigers on November 3rd as Saban meets his old team at Bear Bryant Stadium for what could be a huge game on the national stage.

A quick word about the other two game I mentioned above.

California over Oregon. These are good football teams playing at a very high level. I am a SEC man myself, but the Pac Ten can hang. The Bears and the Ducks can play some ball, just ask Tennessee or Michigan.

Washington flirting with an upset of the USC Trojans was a big statement to me. Tyrone Willingham is the future of Huskie football. Jake Locker is letting Huskie fans down. It is great to see him scrambling and gaining yards with his legs, but his passing is killing the Dawgs and any advantage the mobility gives evaporates when you can’t hit open receivers. I look forward to the program tightening up and turn some hot dog high schoolers onto U-Dub.

The times they are a changing- and so will the rankings. Come back soon for a preview of next week’s SEC match-ups.

The Cubs put away the Brewers to claim the NL Central title. It’s been a long time coming. The sweep in Florida had me worried but with the win tonight against the Reds combined with the Brewers loss clinches it for the Cubs. By the way, Kahlil Greene is my favorite blonde-haired, beach bum shortstop. He gave the Padres 3 RBIs to help them put away the Brewers.

It certainly didn’t look like the Cubs would be here as the season started, but the Cubs own the best record in the Major Leagues since June 3. Congratulations to Lou Piniella, Jim Hendry and all of the Cubs.

Brian Griese has a great opportunity to look like a great quarterback this weekend. The Lions have given up 8.6 yards a padding attempt this season. Last week the Eagles shredded the Lions defense. Brian Griese is not Donovan McNabb, and Cedric Benson certainly isn’t Brian Westbrook, but the Bears do have some talent on offense. Hopefully this week they’ll be able to rally behind their new quarterback.

The Lions on offense have been a little banged up as well. Calvin Johnson, the Lions first round pick, has a bruised back and is not sure if he’ll be playing on Sunday. The Lions have been electric on offense. They’ve averaged 6 yards a play this season. They may get Kevin Jones back this week too.

The Lions offense will go up against a Bears defense that is really banged up. Tommie Harris (knee), Adam Archuleta (hand), Lance Briggs (hamstring), Alex Brown (ankle), Tommie Harris (knee), Adewale Ogunleye (hip), Charles Tillman (ankle), Brian Urlacher (back), Nathan Vasher (groin), and Darwin Walker (knee) are all listed on the injury report this week. That’s 10 people. That is pretty much the Bears entire defense. Obviously all of these players won’t miss the game on Sunday, but they all will have some effect of their injuries. The Bears have relied on their defense to win games for them this season. They will now have to rely on their offense to help out their dinged up defense.

The Bears offense is not exempt from injuries. Adrian Peterson and Olin Kruetz both are on the injury report as well. We all know that Olin will play. He’s one of the toughest players in the NFL.

What can we expect from Brian Greise and the Bears offense?

• A limit on their mistakes. Griese should be able to protect the ball better than Rex did.
• This week the Bears running game gets healthy. Cedric Benson needs to run for at least 80 yards and score a touchdown.
• Mushin Muhammed has one more healthy week. He needs to start playing like the number 1 receiver on this team.
• Greg Olsen got into the gameplan last week against the Cowboys. Expect Griese to find Olsen over the middle of the porous Lions defense

Final score: Bears 17 - Lions 13

The Wolverines can’t possibly lose this game. Can they? Northwestern lost to Duke. A couple of things that I know. Michigan has consistently had trouble with Northwestern. For some reason the Wildcats play Michigan tough. Northwestern runs a version of the spread offense that gave Michigan fits against Appalachian State and Oregon. Thankfully Northwestern’s version of the spread doesn’t feature Dennis Dixon. C.J. Bacher is less of a threat to run the ball than Dixon. The best player on the Northwestern team, Tyrell Sutton, has been sidelined off and on all season with an ankle injury. If he does play, it may be limited action.

It seems like the real story this weekend will be who lines up under center for Michigan. Chad Henne has been cleared to play by team doctors, but Lloyd Carr has not announced who will be the starting quarterback on Saturday. True freshman Ryan Mallett has shown flashes of brilliance in his 2 starts. He has definitely shown that he is a freshman, but he has also shown that he has a rocket arm, and can really command the huddle. Both of those things are qualities that have made the decision difficult for Lloyd Carr and offensive coordinator Mike DeBord. It seems like Mallett will start so as to not rush Henne back into action. The Wolverines should be able to win this game without their senior quarterback.

If all else fails, give the ball to Mike Hart. Hart needs 138 yards to become the all-time leading rusher at Michigan. I would imagine that he’ll eclipse that number this weekend and then Travis Minor will come in and mop up.

On the defensive side of the ball there is only one person that scares me. Number 6, freshman, Donovan Warren. I know he’s young, but he also has not showed that he can tackle or cover someone consistently. Apparently they don’t have much depth at corner so Warren will continue to play. Hopefully he won’t cost Michigan many big plays.

Look for Michigan to win big this weekend behind a 150 yard performance from Mike Hart and the Wolverine defense should shut down the inept Northwestern offense.

Final score: Michigan 31 Northwestern 6

This week I promise I’ll listen to the result of this poll. And if I don’t I’m sure that whoever I don’t pick will have a career day just like Kevin Curtis did last week.

This week it’s a running back question. I have Jamal Lewis and Brandon Jackson. Lewis is going up against the Ravens defense. One plus for him would be that he wants to prove himself against his old mates. However, he still plays for the Browns.

For Brandon Jackson, he’s on the Packers who are having a great year. They’re going up against the Vikings defense. I’m not sure who to pick. Please help. Also, it would be great if you would post in the comments about why you picked who you picked. Thanks.

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Finally we don’t have to hear the words from Lovie’s mouth, “Rex is our starting quarterback.” I couldn’t be more pleased. Make no mistake, I don’t think Griese will do well (except against the Lions this week), but I do think he’s better than Rex. Who will the media beat up on if the Bears lose to the Lions?

The Cubs will face the Marlins and the Reds to close out the 2007 regular season. Neither of those teams will sniff 80 wins this year. The Cubs have to like their chances of winning the NL Central. I know… it’s a terrible division. Possibly the worst in MLB. But someone has to win it right? And last year, the team that won it, went on to win the World Series. I’m not saying that that will happen again (I hope it does though).

In their final games the Cubs are scheduled to face Dontrelle Willis, Daniel Barone, and Scott Olsen of the Marlins and Bronson Arroyo, Aaron Harang, and Homer Bailey of the Reds. That’s not the easiest lineup of pitchers to face, but their magic number is 4. Even if they split their last six, the Brewers would have to not lose again. And with the way they’ve been playing that will be difficult.

The Cubs need to win 1 more game to reach my prediction of having to win 11 out of their last 19 games. It’s starting to seem like it might take a bit more than that… but again, the Brewers are doing their best to help the Cubs out.

I apologize. There were 3 people who responded to my poll about who I should start last week at wide receiver. One of them was me. In a total bonehead move, I didn’t check this site when I was setting my lineup, and unfortunately I went with Bernard Berrian. Ooops.

So please forgive me.

Berrian didn’t have a terrible night (10pts), except for his slew of dropped passes. But Curtis went off. He scored 45.5 points. I throw myself at your mercy and I promise I’ll heed your guidance this week.

I will post the poll on Wednesday and would love to hear not only who I should play by responding to the poll, but also why in the comments. I can obviously stand to learn some from you folks.

What can be said for the Bears? They were terrible. Sunday night’s loss to the Cowboys couldn’t have gone much worse.

• Brian Urlacher missed a ton of tackles.
• Lance Briggs hurt his groin.
• Cedric Benson still can’t run the ball consistently.
• Devin Hester probably could have made some nice plays if he was able to hold onto the ball.
• Bernard Berrian dropped some big catches.
• The defense didn’t look good, and it didn’t help that they were on the field way too long.
• Tony Romo and the Cowboys offense put up 460 yards on the Bears tough defense.
• Rex Grossman. Period.

What can we look forward to as Bears fans? When the quarterback change is made we’ll at least know what we’re getting. A mediocre quarterback. There are no illusions of grandeur with Brian Griese. He’s serviceable. He won’t win you anything, but he probably won’t throw three easy picks a game.

We can also look forward to more of a totally inept running game. The offensive line was overpowered and Cedric Benson is not the answer at running back. I long for the days of Thomas Jones. At least his teammates liked him.

And what about the defense? I think they are a bit overrated. This isn’t the same defense they had last year. The injury of injury-prone Mike Brown will continue to hurt this defense. Depending on how bad Lance Briggs’ injury is, this defense will have to rely on smoke and mirrors. They’re lucky that they won’t be going up against the Cowboys again. The only problem is that the Bears travel to Detroit this week. Their offense is a little dinged up, but they still have firepower. We’ll talk about how the Bears might want to play that this Friday in the Bears preview. Until then, we just get to wait to see if Rex gets benched this week.

This Sunday’s matchup between the Bears and the Cowboys pits one of the best offenses (Dallas) in the league against one of the best defenses (Chicago).

The Bears have proven to be able to keep running games in check. They have held LaDanian Tomlinson and Larry Johnson to low rushing totals in their 2 games this season. What the Bears need to be careful of is the passing attack of Tony Romo. Romo has gotten quite comfortable in the Cowboys offense. His main targets will be Terrell Owens, and TE Jason Witten. If the Bears can continue to keep the rushing attack of the Cowboys in check they should be able to also hold the key receivers in check.

On the other side of the ball the Bears are a mess. Rex Grossman has been terrible this year. He’s thrown 3 interceptions to only 1 touchdown. That has to improve. One way that it will improve is if the running game of Cedric Benson can get on track. He rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown last week against the Chiefs. The only problem with that is the Cowboys have yet to allow a rushing touchdown this season. They’ve given up an average of 92.5 yards on the ground. Not a good sign for a Bears team in desperate need of a rushing attack.

Key players

• Cedric Benson - He has to gain 90 yards and score a touchdown in the Bears expect to have a chance.
• Adam Archuleta - Archuleta or whoever will be covering Jason Witten. Witten will continue to be a focus of Romo. He needs to be shut down. 3 catches for 25 yards put the Bears in a good spot.
• Tommie Harris - Harris will be involved in stopping the run as well as putting pressure on Romo. Both are keys the Bears slowing down this offense.