Commissioner Roger Goodell has taken a lot of criticism, and well-deserved in most cases, for making the NFL a wing of the justice department, to abolishing contact, to eliminating kickoff returns, to tampering with overtimes but this Sunday will be one case where he got it right. We'll enjoy SNF even though World Series Game 4 is scheduled that night. It is not the first time that happened, fans had both games sometimes when the Series stretched to 7 games, but this is only the 2nd year that Goodell has chosen to go head-to-head with a series game they know will be played. And why not? Ratings-wise, the NFL has outdrawn the World Series, regardless of what game it was, over the last several tries. Going head-to-head with baseball is an idea that was long overdue, but as we learned from waiting five decades now for an NCAA playoff system, just because it's overdue doesn't mean it's going to happen. In baseball parlance, this is definitely a case where Goodell 'knocked it out of the park.'

We were going to pass on this game when the Fat Man upped the Total another FG, but out of deference to the commissioner we'll honor his decision and leave this one to the Footall Gods. As we usually do when we're stuck on a PrimeTime game, we try to make one bad bet into two good ones. We have to hit both, but we get to add 6 points to each line. So we subtract 6 from the 13 1/2 point spread, and we add 6 to the Total of 49. A repeat of Super Bowl XLIV would be nice. No way do we bet more than one chip on this Teaser.

This game slipped by us at first glance, then we remembered that it was being played in London. We had to rerun it with no HFA, then things opened up a bit. Of course, they didn't open up enough to tell us what it would be like with that weird weather in that crazy, partially open stadium. That'll keep us from putting up more than one chip on this game.

We can say that the key stat in this one appears to be the points scored per yard. While both teams have similar defenses, the offenses are quite different. It seems that given the same yardage and the same FDs and turnovers, that Chicago will score more points. In other words, the Bears will get more out of their offense. Just one Bear TD while TB has to settle for a FG should do it.

We would probably go the other way if left just to our human devices. Fact is, it's pretty hard to determine why the system is pointing to the Jets at all. The Jets don't do too much right but they do a pretty good job of hanging on to the ball and they do a real good job defending the pass. The passing game is something the Chargers count on, so that Pass D may keep the Jets in the game. We'll still need turnovers or a return to get by these guys but the Jets have shown they can do that and they are at home. The system calls this a Best Bet but sometimes we wonder (and we wrote the damn thing). Call it a minimum play on the home doggie.

This should be a very, very close game that may just go into overtime like the GRIDLINE forecast says. The Texans should move the ball with a mix of runs and short passes, and the Tits should have longer strikes through the air. There's no real separation between these two teams other than the 3 points the oddsmakers are giving, which are good to have if it does make it to O.T. Tenessee does have the slightly better D and they are playing at home, but Houston should win the possession time battle. Tough to call a winner on this one but those points should be insurance against a loss. Let's make this one a lite play on the Texans even though it's not quite a Best Bet

We haven't seen a whole lot of the Lions this year but we do know they have a tough defense. That defense should be enough to shut down the Falcons passing game to where they gain less than 10 yards per completion. That's not enough in today's game. Conversely, the Lions are forecast to gain the most passing yards of any other team playing at noon. The Falcon running game is a worry and the Birds beat us last week, and we have to buy it down from 3 1/2 so we'll temper our enthusiasm. Call it a minimum play on the home team minus 3 points.

The GRIDLINE computer doesn't know about Oakland's QB situation. It does know they're playing Kansas City. For Oakland, it's got to be hard to choose between ineffective and unprepared. Still, whether it's Boller or Palmer we expect to see the Raiders have success handing the ball off. The real test will come when the Chiefs move their defense up to the line. We really need to see the Raiders make them pay, a couple of long pass plays should do it. These two teams hate each other and there are questions at the worst position possible, and again we'll have to buy down to 3, but we'll risk a chip.

As we said last week, we like to see the system cover large spreads. St. Louis has proven themselves to be one of the three worst teams in the league. Playing on the road against Dallas isn't going to make things easier. This isn't a Best Bet by any means with only a half-point spread differential but what can we say, at least it's not 14. This is one of the few afternoon games we have so we'll go with two chips on this one.