NFL Week 4: Taiwanese Cuisine

Well, another loss last night to the Ravens (9 in a row now), and another loss where we had a chance - maybe not a strong possibility, but at least a chance - to win. Weeden's pick 6 was obviously a key turning point, but the constant drops by Little stymied drive after drive. This team is young and will make mistakes - but these types of losses are a bit gut wrenching and painful.

Kind of like my experience with Taiwan food on our only trip there. I may have blogged about this in the past - ah! Here is the post! We landed Friday afternoon and headed that night to Taipei 101, the largest building in Taiwan and for a while, one of the top 3 tallest buildings in Asia. We got some dinner in the food court in the building. The boys had Subway; I can't remember what Janice got. I saw some noodles being made in one of the stands - mmmmmm! What a smell! I think there was chicken and some soup involved.....

I got my order, and it didn't smell as good. Janice now says that she remarked that it "didn't smell too good", but I was too hungry to put it down. I finished the dish and we had a good tour of Taipei 101.

It was about 2 am when I was in the bathroom with the heaves. I do remember sitting at the hotel breakfast buffet on Jan 2, watching the awful UConn - Oklahoma bowl game (Randy Edsell, anyone?) and sitting at the table thinking, "who can eat anything right now?".

That night, I was forced to roam the streets for ginger ale and found Shasta! So that's my memory of Taiwan food. Shasta. I guess Phil Dawson is the Browns' Shasta.

The post is going up early this week, as we head out of town tomorrow for Hong Kong to meet Don, Mike and the wives, and then off to Bali. I have the Ryder Cup on TiVo so we can all watch on Monday poolside/beachside.

On to the games:

NE 27, Buf 17. I don't get it - the Patriots are off 2 losses; they have to be desperate and I can't see Belicheck letting the Bills hang around.

Det 24, Min 23. I don't think Detroit's D is any good, and this should be close.

Atl 28, Car 16. A one-dimensional team (Car) will not go into Atlanta and stay within 7.

SF 24, NYJ 13. Boy, the Jets are struggling on O.  And I think the Niners will be eager to get back to the winning ways after losing last week.

SD 27, KC 24, OT. I just don't believe in Romeo ("We got the first pickle out of the jar") and the consistency of his offense.

Hou 27, Ten 13. Tennesse threw everything in the playbook at Detroit last week - Houston should easily stop them.

StL 20, Sea 16. Talk about a letdown here for the Seahawks. The Rams are decent at home.

Az 20, Mia 19. The Dolphins D is good - and this will be low scoring.

Den 27, Oak 24. Denver's pass D is not that good - and we saw what Oakland can do against an weak-to-average pass D last week (*Pittsburgh*cough)

Cin 23, Jax 20. OK, so I am starting to be a bit impressed with the Bengals. I have not seen the Jags that much.

GB 41, NO 21. Don't you think the Packers want to come out and score 3 TDs on their first 3 drivers, just to prove a point?

TB 26, Was 20. The classic "Bad O vs Bad D" game. There's also the good O (Was) vs. good D (TB). When in doubt, the go with the home team!

NYG 20, Phi 17. I think this will be a defensive game - Philly has a great D, while the Giants should be able to pressure Vick.

Dal 24, Chi 17. How are the Bears going to score? They haven't shown much on O so far this year.

Best bets: 16 of them. Last week: 8-9. Overall: 26-20-2
NE -4
NE/Buf under 50 1/2
Min +4
Atl -7
SF -3 1/2
SD -1 1/2
SD/KC over 44
StL +2 1/2
Mia +5 1/2
Oak +7
GB -7 1/2
NO/GB over 53
TB -2 1/2
NYG +2
NYG/Phi under 47 1/2
Dal -3 1/2

Supercontest: Last week: 2-2-1; overall: 9-5-1.
Preliminary picks:
NE -4
StL +2 1/2
SF -4
GB -7 1/2
TB -3