John Clayton hearts the Raiders

Each Thursday ESPN.com publishes John Clayton's "First...and 10" column, which previews 11 of the weekend's NFL games. In any given week there are at least 13 games with 26 teams playing, meaning that each week not every team that is playing is included in the column. Last year I found it funny that Clayton continued to leave the Bears out of his column, even though they were on their way to a first-round bye. So this year I've kept track.

As weeks 3-9 of the NFL season include byes, only four or six teams per week were excluded from the column for those weeks. In the second half of the season, five games and ten teams per week will be excluded from Clayton's column, but at least things can't get much worse for the Texans than they already are. From the column's standpoint, at least.

Through the first nine weeks (eight games) of the season, here is how often each team was included in the column, and how often each team was chosen for the first/headlining game:

Team		Included		First
DAL		8		2
SEA		8		1
CIN		8		0
OAK		8		0
PIT		8		0
TB		8		0
NYG		7		2
PHI		7		2
ATL		7		1
BAL		7		1
CAR		7		1
DEN		7		1
JAX		7		1
NE		7		1
DET		7		0
MIN		7		0
NYJ		7		0
IND		6		3
SD		6		1
STL		6		1
ARI		6		0
BUF		6		0
CHI		6		0
KC		6		0
NO		6		0
WAS		6		0
CLE		5		0
GB		4		0
MIA		4		0
SF		3		0
TEN		2		0
HOU		1		0

Some of this has to do with a team's opponent as well as the team itself; the Bears made the column for their first six games but were left off for their last two, home dates against the 49ers and the Dolphins.

The usual suspects appear toward the bottom: Texans, Titans, 49ers, Dolphins, Packers, Browns. The Colts lead in headliners, followed by the Terrell Owens Experience in the NFC East. Perfect teams include the Steelers and Seahawks (last year's Super Bowl participants), the Cowboys (all T.O., all the time), the Bengals and Buccaneers (last year's two division winners for which, in PFP 2006, Football Outsiders predicted a significant drop), and...

The Oakland Raiders?!? This can't be entirely opponent-based, because here were the Raiders' first four games:

• vs. SD (no byes this week)
  
• at BAL (no byes)
  
• vs. CLE
• at SF

It's gotta be the Shell. Art Shell has some kind of power over long-serving NFL columnists, and I think I know what it is. Judge for yourself.

As for the second half of the season, I predict the Bears will finally make the headliner game at least once in November, and probably twice: at the Giants in week 10 and at the Patriots in week 12.

Also, this would be quite possibly the lamest excuse for a suicide pool, but next week I very well may start picking a game I think will be excluded from the column that week.