A near miss last week as Baltimore took an extra half to shake off the doldrums from its Monday night egg laying in week 7. Still, I made out better than anyone foolish enough to pick New Orleans (on the road) or the Panthers (showing why they are a losing team). We'll stick with last week's process of identifying who the bad teams are playing and rolling from their.

Teams used: Arizona, Detroit, Tennessee, Tampa Bay, NY Giants, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Baltimore

The zero win teams are Miami and the Colts. Miami is on the road against Kansas City. KC is playing an inferior non-divisional opponent at home. It looks like a good pick. But I am concerned about letdown potential after an emotional Monday night win against division rival San Diego.

The Colts are at home, hosting Atlanta off their bye week. I have Atlanta available, but we saw what happened to New Orleans, a road favorite last week. On the other hand, Atlanta is coming off an extra week and shouldn't be caught looking ahead here. Let's put a pin in this one too.

The one win teams are Arizona and St. Louis. And they are playing each other! So much for that.

The two win teams are Minnesota, Seattle, Denver, Carolina, and Jacksonville. Three of them (MIN, CAR, and JAX) are on their byes this week. That leaves Seattle (on the road against Dallas) and Denver (at Oakland). Oakland is playing a division rival, as well as still breaking in "new" quarterback Carson Palmer, so they are out. Seattle is playing Dallas, who stinks. Plus, they already burned me once.

Which takes us back to Kansas City or Atlanta. The question: do I violate one of my guidelines (don't take a team on the road) or do I take the home team that might be in a letdown game?

Screw it. If I'm going out, I'm going out on my own terms.

The pick: Kansas City