Hunter tracks down another winning week in the NFL

Entering into the fifth week of the 2004-05 season of the National Football League, William Hunter, John Blanco, Richard Brooks, Jennifer Lee, and Jimmy “Big Tuna” Sablan are back to try their hands at another round of pigskin prognostication.

Like some of the teams that are quickly staking their claim to the ranks of the upper echelon, a couple of our local pickers have begun to separate themselves from the pack.

And while some of the squads have began their descent into the depths of the cellar, so too has a local begun to dig a hole from which he may not be able to escape until the start of next season.

There have been a few surprises over the last four weeks, and as our local prognosticators can probably relate, aside from a few “gimmies” so far, plenty of the games have baffled even the most fervent of fans.

Take the Green Bay Packers for example. Aside from Hunter, nobody really thought that the N.Y. Giants would be able to march into Lambeau Field and take a game from Brett Favre and the cheese heads—but he was right.

When Blanco picked Houston over Oakland last week, he was looking as bad as Rich Brooks when he picked the Buccaneer’s over those same Raiders—but he was also right.

And not a soul picked the Miami Dolphins to pull out a victory at home against the N.Y. Jets except “Big Daddy” Brooks—but he was wrong—as usual.

There still a lot of questions hovering over the league and its players as Week 5 near, such as: Will the Patriots beat the Dolphins to break the consecutive wins record? If Brett Favre can come back into a game and throw a touchdown pass after sustaining a concussion, is there anything he can’t do? Will his impending legal battles distract Jamal Lewis from this weeks match up with the Redskins? And can Blanco explain what led him to pick the Texans again this week?

While the answers my not be clear to everyone, the fab five of football have once again submitted their list of probables, complete with one definite. As the season wages on, so does the battle for the top between our top quality prog’s.

Last week, Will was the man again as he muscled out a 10-4 to improve his overall record to a front-running 31-13. He moved one win ahead of Jennifer, who suffered her worst outing so far at 8-6. Jennifer is now all alone in second place at 30-14 overall, but waiting in the wings are John Blanco and the Big Tuna, tied at 28-16 overall. The dynamic duo each managed to go 9-5 last week, and have picked all but three of the games identically. Keeping the fire stoked in the boiler room is “Big Daddy” Rich at 19-25 overall. While Brooks has been riding the wave of Atlanta’s success, his 6-8 record from last week can be attributed to (aside from the horrible Miami pick) some bad luck.