Silver and blacked out

There's nothing quite like a great game of smash-mouth professional football during the middle of November, and getting to see it live from the stands is an experience every fan should have at least once. The Gehlke Bros. are still waiting for that experience after spending a windy Sunday taking in the latest Raiders debacle at the Oakland Coliseum. The silver and black looked downright anemic in their 17-6 loss to the Carolina Panthers. The game was blacked out on the tube because the stadium was half empty, much like the Raiders' dismal 2-7 season. But the three of us had a grand time analyzing all the inept plays and dodging the hordes of seagulls that invaded the stadium during the second half...

Turning now to what really happened in Week 10, we bid a not-so-tearful goodbye to the ever unpopular "bye weeks" at the same time we welcomed in Thursday night games and Ben saw his first non-winning week since Week 4. Not that 9-5 is bad, but it couldn't top the strong performance of his elders, who went 11-3 and each took a pair of split games.

Glenn started out in the hole with Cleveland's 34-30 loss to Denver on Thursday night, and then narrowly lost a 28-27 contest in which Green Bay fell at Minnesota. But Sean failed to capitalize because Atlanta defeated New Orleans 34-20, and the Giants found a way to get by the Eagles 36-31 on Sunday night.

The Senior Bro still holds a 4-game lead over the Junior Bro in the battle for second place, but they each pick up 2 games on Ben. The Chaos Kid can afford to spread the wealth, as he still holds a 6-game advantage. In addition to the Raiders getting shelled, we also all correctly predicted the victories by Tennessee, Jacksonville, the N.Y. Jets, San Diego and Arizona. We were too busy checking out the disappointed Coliseum crowds to notice or care that we all missed the upset of the Steelers at the hands of the Colts.