Last Place Update

Welcome to this week's Last Place Update. We have a three-way tie for last place, but the nod goes to yet another new King of the Cellar, the 1-6 Carolina Panthers, who lost their last five games. The also 1-6 Kansas City Chiefs and Jacksonville Jaguars came close, but they only lost their last four games. Both the Panthers and Chiefs got their lone win against the same team, the New Orleans Saints. More on them in a bit. The only win the Jaguars have is against the defending Kings of the Cellar champion Indianapolis Colts, who are now 4-3. At this point, the Colts are playing too well to vie for a repeat of their title.

   This week's honorable mention goes to two teams. The 4-4 Arizona Cardinals get their second mention in a row by losing with ease to the San Francisco 49ers. They began the season at 4-0 and have been winless since. Their offense hasn't scored more than 16 points in any game during this losing streak, putting more pressure on their defense, who have allowed the seventh fewest points in the league.

   The other mention goes to the New  Orleans Saints, whose defense allowed more yards in seven games than any other team in NFL history, including their allowing 530 yards against the Denver Broncos' offense. This defense is worse than the 1980 Saints, who were 1-15. The 2012 defense has allowed over 200 yards rushing in three of those games and at least 300 yards passing in all but two games this season. On the offense, the rushing game is anemic, which puts more pressure on Drew Brees. Although the 2012 rushing offense has 101 more yards than the 1980 offense, if they put up another weak rushing performance, they will fall behind the 1980 rushing offense. That team had 220 rushing yards in Week 8 and the 2012 offense needs 120 rushing yards to stay ahead of that infamous team.

Next Loss...

   Carolina goes to Washington DC to take on the Redskins. This is a battle of running quarterbacks and RGIII has the advantage right now. This game will depend on whose defense shows up. Carolina won the last time they visited the Redskins in 2006 and have won three of the last four games in the series. However, this will end up being a hard fought loss for the Panthers.

   Jacksonville will host the Detroit Lions. This will be their fifth ever meeting, and believe it or not, the Jags lead the series 3-1, only losing their first ever meeting in 1995. Will Jacksonville continue this trend and have an upset special? Uh...no. The Lions will dominate them and make this an easy loss for the Jaguars.

   In a Thursday night game, the Chiefs will invade San Diego and take on the previous honorable mention Chargers. Gotta love the AFC West, where the records can be thrown out when these teams play each other. Could this be an upset special? Let's see. The Chargers are 9-4 against the Chiefs since 2006 and won eight out of the last ten games in the series. They already faced each other this season in Kansas City and San Diego won easily. However, this is a night game and the Chiefs have won the past two of those games against the Chargers. Back to the question: Will this be an upset special? Matt Cassel is the starting quarterback for the Chiefs once again, which will help Jamaal Charles. Therefore, the answer is yes. This will be my Upset Special.

   Here are a couple of historical scores for teams playing each other this week on October 30:

1967  Green Bay 31 - St. Louis Cardinals 23
2005  San Diego 28 - Kansas City 20