Last Place Update

Welcome to this week's Last Place Update. For the fourth week in a row, there is a new King of the Cellar. With a close loss to the Indianapolis Colts, the 1-6 Cleveland Browns retake their place on this week's throne, beating out the 1-5 teams, such as the Kansas City Chiefs, Carolina Panthers, and Jacksonville Jaguars. To their credit, the Browns have lost only two games by more than ten points. The Panthers lost only one game by more than eight points. The same can't be said for Jacksonville, who lost three games by at least 17 points.

   This week's honorable mention goes to the 4-3 Arizona Cardinals, who started off the season 4-0. What happened? The injury to Kevin Kolb made their quarterback controversy even more mediocre. However, the offense has risen to the occasion in terms of yardage. The Cardinals' offense has outgained the opposing offenses in all three losses at an average of 323 to 252 yards. However, the Cards, like their baseball counterparts, didn't win the battle of scores, which is what matters most, thus earning them this week's mention.

Next loss...

   Cleveland hosts the recent honorable mention San Diego Chargers. This is my Upset Special. Maybe the bye will help the Chargers this week and their last win was at Kansas City. However, Cleveland's lone win came at home and San Diego has not been able to shut down good quarterbacks. Cleveland has beaten San Diego only twice since 1987. If rookie Brandon Weeden can get on track, then Cleveland will beat the Chargers for the first time since 2001.

   Carolina goes to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Bears. Carolina trails in the series 2-4 and have not beaten the Bears since 2008. Also, the Panthers have not won on the road this season. To complicate matters, their defense has allowed at least 300 yards per games in all but the first game. Carolina also have to face former Panther defensive great Julius Peppers, who will be highly motivated for this game. The Panthers have also not played well against teams outside of the NFC South, losing at an average score of  24-11. Facing the combination of Jay Cutler, Brandon Marshall, Matt Forte, and Peppers, the Panthers will skate to 1-6.

   After a week off, the Kansas City hosts the Oakland Raiders. This is one of those games where the win/loss records mean little. The Chiefs are 3-6 against the Raiders since 2007, with two overtime losses. So far, Brady Quinn has proven nothing as the Chief's starting quarterback and a near loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars could be the wake-up call Oakland needs. Jamaal Charles must have the same kind of game against the Raiders as he did against the New Orleans Saints or this will be yet another Kansas City loss.

   Speaking of that OT game in Oakland, the Jacksonville Jaguars will invade the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field to take on the Green Bay Packers. This will be only the fifth time these two teams have ever played each other and the Jags are 1-0 at Lambeau and haven't lost to the Packers since 2001. However, that was a different time and these are different teams going in different directions. This will be an easy Jacksonville loss.

Here are some historical scores for teams playing each other this week on October 23:

1960  Washington 27 - Pittsburgh 27
1988  Minnesota 49 - Tampa Bay 20
1988  New York Jets 44 - Miami 30
2000  New York Jets 40 - Miami 37 OT
2006  New York Giants 36 - Dallas 22
2011  Kansas City 28 - Oakland 0