Sunday Trends and Indexes 10/14

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Six-pack for Sunday

Week 6 NFL trends..............

-- Patriots covered 15 of last 19 as a road favorite.

-- Chargers are 8-3-1 vs spread in division home games.

-- Arizona is 9-2-1 vs spread in its last dozen games.

-- Tennessee covered eight of last 10 on road vs the NFC.

-- Bears covered one of last six as division home favorite.

-- Packers are 5-11-2 vs spread in game before their bye.

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Sunday's List of 13: Wrapping up college football Saturday

13) The curse of #1 lives; LSU and Cal both went down, and now it looks like Ohio State will emerge as #1 this week. They better not play on Versus this week; USC and Cal both lost at home on the NHL's network the last two Saturdays.

12) Cal's loss isn't that shocking, since their QB didn't play; a wild rally led by backup Riley ended on 9-yard line, when the youngster ran with the ball when Bears had no timeouts left, so an easy game-tying FG was never tried. Oregon State beat USC last year when Trojans were #1.

11) What a meat grinder the SEC is; there are no easy outs in this league, not one. Arkansas has the best running backs in the country, and they're 0-3 in the league. Vanderbilt and the two Mississippi schools are the three worst teams in the SEC, and there's no way any of them is an easy out. Tough league.

10) Coaches in trouble: Callahan's Cornhuskers trailed 38-0 at the half at home..........Doba's Washington State team trailed 40-0 at half in Eugene...........Lubick's Colorado State team has not won a game in over a year........Robinson's Syracuse club led 14-0 at home vs Rutgers, lost 38-14.

9) Temple outscored Akron 21-0 in fourth quarter to pull out a 24-20 win. Moving to the MAC (what part of Mid-America is Philly in?) has been good for the Owls.

8) Houston trailed Rice 34-28 at halftime of its crosstown tilt, but Coogs came from behind, won 56-48, gaining 748 yards, just an awful lot of yards for one game. Not often you commit five turnovers and win, but Houston did.

7) Ole Miss fought their hearts out against Alabama; Adams is a pretty good QB and they have some imagination, but as crunch time arrived, no one stepped up and made a play, the Bama punt returner Arenas made two big plays, and Saban escaped with a 27-24 win, thanks to a replay reversal of long Ole Miss pass that would have led to a tying FG in last 0:10.

6) Minnesota is just 1-6, but they played their third OT game of season, losing 49-48 at Northwestern. Wildcats have won consecutive weeks in OT, scoring 97 points.

5) Dennis Erickson is now 7-0 at Arizona State. They get lot stronger as game goes on, especially at home in the desert heat. Their games with Cal and USC should be something.

4) Virginia won its last six games, with four of its last five Ws by five or less points, as Al Groh has saved his job.

3) Miami was 8-18/56 passing in home loss to Georgia Tech. Hurricanes are the 4th-best team in Florida.

2) South Carolina got outgained 398-284, was just 1-12 on 3rd down, had to survive a pass into end zone on last play, but in the end, Gamecocks won again, 21-15 at North Carolina, in the renewal of an old ACC rivalry.

1) Memo to athletic directors, money-raising weasels that lot of you are: Look at Kentucky, see how they gave Brooks the time needed to build a program. Now, with a senior QB, they are contending for the SEC East title. They might not win it, but they're going to a good bowl, and all because their AD had some onions and didn't fire the coach. Amen.

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