The Colts 45 point outburst on Monday night was one of two 40+ point performances in the NFL last weekend. The Seahawks hung 42 on Seattle. But looking inside the box scores, Seattle’s performance was significantly more impressive. Of Seattle’s 6 TD drives, 5 of them were for 69 yards or more. In contrast, the Colts had 5 TD drives of 38 yards or less. The Seahawks did a lot of work for their scores, while the Colts had things handed to them by the Rams and benefited tremendously as a result of field position. Now this isn’t an indictment of the Colts, nor is it a reason for Seahawks fans to expect a Super Bowl appearance, but the more you look into the box scores the more you’ll find meaningful information and meaningful patterns that isolate hidden strengths and weaknesses.

The Arizona Cardinals are the least efficient team in the league overall. The offense doesn't turn their production into points while the defense doesn't make teams work very hard to score. Usually in the NFL it requires about 15 yards of offense to score a point. The Cards make opponents go only 11.3 yards to score a point (30th in the league) while on offense they have to go 20.1 yards to score a point (27th in the league). Both numbers are influenced by the turnovers they've suffered, but the offense has to work too hard to score and the defense doesn't make teams work hard enough. Although they both carried a start time of 3:30PM EDT, the last play of the third quarter in the Penn State/ Michigan game took place before the first play of the third quarter took place in the USC/ Notre Dame game. Those games in South Bend on NBC simply take forever.

Syracuse athletic director Daryl Gross threw his football players under the bus in defense of Coach Greg Robinson, who is 1-5 in his debut season. "I think it's clear we didn't come in here having the best talent in the country," he told the Syracuse Post-Standard. "... Greg has the right scheme, but we need a little more character. We're recruiting like mad, obviously. We're going to change the culture of this team."

Baylor coach Guy Morriss is much more adept at showing some finesse when he criticizes his team’s talent level. After losing to Nebraska, Morriss said, “Personally, I think Nebraska just has a few more horses up front than we do, on both sides of the ball. We just got manhandled.” I have a feeling that the players and parents appreciate the gentler version displayed at Baylor.

In a rare midseason personnel move Miami Hurricanes defensive line coach Greg Mark was fired by Larry Coker. Mark was an All-American defensive lineman at Miami in 1989 and had been coaching at his alma mater for nearly a decade. He developed six NFL first round draft choices. Miami has the #1 ranked defense in college football and it will be interesting to see what the story is behind this uncommon situation. The mismanaged bureaucracy New York Racing Association is under the gun to raise funds. As a result they are auctioning off 15 paintings that had been donated to them so the public can enjoy them. Here’s hoping that the donors reclaim the paintings and redirect their generosity elsewhere.

You would think that the coaches would have drummed it into them on the sideline following Ryan’s first drive, reminding them of the scouting report on Ryan, how he does things differently, and how the BC offense changes with him in the lineup. Apparently not. Baseball is awash in money for the players. Not so for the coaches. Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone appears to be on the verge of heading to New York to fill the same role with the Yankees. Mazzone, considered to be at the top of his profession for over a decade, makes $250,000. Now $250K ain’t chump change in the real world, but this isn’t the real world. Minor league callups make more than the most accomplished pitching coach in the sport. Call 770-618-8700 for free weekend football previews on a recorded 24-hour voice broadcast. And visit www.Vegas5.com, where the combined efforts of ASA, Nelly’s Sportsline, Tom Stryker, Al McMordie, and yours truly have been red hot.

The University of Cincinnati is very, very young, especially on defense. They are well coached defensively (former Ohio State defensive coordinator Mark D’Antonio is head coach). Their only 1-A win was against a shorthanded Connecticut team whose second string QB was injured during the game. UConn’s third stringer still allowed the Huskies to outgain the Bearcats, but a 4-1 turnover edge led to a Cincinnati victory. The ‘ville blew a 17-point lead to lose at West Virginia in triple OT. Don’t mistake Cincy for the tough environment in Morgantown. Louisville has far superior talent and off a loss they have the motivation to exercise that talent. Additional motivation for Bobby Petrino and his staff, as these regional rivals recruit the same areas. Louisville is certainly known for keeping their foot on the gas pedal, as they’ve scored 60+ against Oregon State, Florida International, and North Carolina. There may be some emotion for Cincy in this matchup as a result of the 70-7 rampage by Louisville last season, but it proves that the Cards were far superior even when Cincinnati was a veteran ballclub. Look for the Cards to lay one on the overmatched Bearcats.

Tough to see many points being scored in the Ravens/Bears tilt in Chicago. Baltimore gave up only 186 yards of offense beating Cleveland last week. In the 16-3 home win, the Ravens didn’t do much offensively, notching only a single scoring drive more than 20 yards. Meanwhile, don’t assume that the 28 points that the Bears scored on Saturday was at all impressive, as Chicago gained only 192 yards of offense on 58 plays, for a miniscule 3.3 yards per offensive play in their easy 28-3 win over the Vikings. With both defenses in good form and a misleading offensive performance from the Bears on Sunday, it looks to be a struggle for both sides to score against stout defensive opposition. This total reflects the expected low score, but we still like the under in Chicago.

Have a great weekend. Good luck and be careful.