Back from celebrating Christmas with Lori's family in Dallas ... couple of things to mention:

- Titans eek-ed out a victory against the Jets on Sunday, setting the stage for a Sunday Night Football showdown in Indianapolis against the Colts. The Titans win, and they're into the playoffs. If they lose, they're out, regardless of what Cleveland does. On the other hand, Indy has absolutely nothing to play for, so they'll be resting starters at different points in the game.

This game is for all the marbles. Titans really need to get VY and the other young guys on the team some true playoff experience, even if it means facing a resurgent Chargers team (which we should've beaten a week or two ago in the first place). Titans are equipped, roster-wise, to beat either San Diego or Pittsburgh, so let's hope they get in and get to face one of those teams.

It's also the end of the line for my predictions. I predicted 10-6, and a playoff berth, so this game means everything for whether my predictions end up correct.

Both the Tennessean sportswriters as well as the Titans blogosphere (primarily MusicCityMiracles.com) are aware of my predictions as well as my statistical methods backing them up. In fact, the Tennessean ran an interesting article this morning on FootballOutsiders.com, a site that uses Monte Carlo simulations and an interesting theoretical framework to evaluate the true strengths and weaknesses of teams and individual players, very similar to how I constructed my predictions prior to meeting with Fisher.

In the end, all I really care about is the Titans making the playoffs. I have done a new analysis of the game and predict the Titans will need 28 points to win the ballgame, with Peyton and his 1st-team scoring 17 and Jim Sorgi and 2nd-team scoring another 10. The Titans offense can generate this many points, but let's hope I'm wrong and they don't have to.


- I'm taking time off of work and from the iTest for the rest of the year. I'm initiating a new project or two, getting my New Year's resolutions in order, figuring some things out with the iTest, and basically lounging around for a while. This break comes at a good time.

- This marks the first Christmas and New Year's for me and Lori in our new house. Lori, despite her work hours, managed to decorate our house very, very well for Christmas and it was great to enjoy that.

- I'm closing in on 200 blog posts. That's a lot of rambling!

That's it for now until I return one more time to post a year-end blog with New Year's Resolutions. See you then...