I’ve been embarrassed before. I’ve been beat before. But never has it been this bad.

A humiliating 143 people beat me with their picks last week. No, that’s not a typo, and yes, I should probably resign in shame.

The list of people that beat me is so long that there's not enough room to print it.

Seriously, the people responsible for laying out our Thursday print edition contacted me and said there was no room in the paper. It was literally too large to fit in the high school sports section.

That's embarrassing.

A special congratulations goes to Les Sharon of Dexter who was the only contest participant to go 11-0 and may soon take over my job.

Onto the actual football. Believe it or not, we are more than halfway done with the season. Where does the time go?

This week is the second round of the unofficial Ann Arbor city championship with Huron visiting Skyline in a Southeastern Conference Red Division matchup. The first round was no contest with Pioneer destroying Skyline 50-0 last week in a game that simply was not entertaining to watch in the slightest. Pioneer was that much better.

Looking at the records of these two teams, who have just one win between them (and that win was over 0-5 Dexter) might turn off the casual fan, but to that fan I say come back. This game should be a good one.

These two teams haven’t even been competitive in the games they’ve lost. Skyline has lost by 27, 22, 32, and 50 points for an average margin of defeat of 32.75 points. Huron hasn’t been much better with losses of 24, 21, 27, 28 and 17 for an average margin of defeat of 23.4 points.

While these programs may not be on the cusp of state championships, or even an unofficial city championship with Pioneer head-and-shoulders above the two, what they seemingly are right now is equal, and that’s what makes for a good game.

In sophomore Askaree Crawford, Skyline has a dynamic dual-threat quarterback who is only scratching the surface in terms of his ability. Yes, against Pioneer he lost 94 yards after being tackled behind the line of scrimmage a whopping 19 times, but against a defense like Huron’s he should be able to utilize his weapons on the outside and wow fans with scrambling ability as well.

That’s not a dig on Huron’s defense. The River Rats have given up on average 41.7 points in their first three league contests. Pioneer has yet to allow a touchdown in SEC play. Saying Crawford will thrive more offensively against Huron than he did against Pioneer isn’t an insult to Huron’s defense, it’s simply a reality.

Skyline’s defense has not been a strength either, which should provide Huron’s freshman quarterback, Josh Jackson, a chance to shine after getting beat up in the season’s early goings.

Huron coach Cory Gildersleeve raves about Jackson’s toughness, but there’s no doubt he is getting sick of having to see just how tough Jackson is week-in and week-out as defenses tee off on him.

We know he’s tough, now let’s see that arm.

So while the second round of the three-round bout between Ann Arbor’s biggest schools might be a battle for second place between two far from elite teams, it is also a game between equal teams eager to break out of their respective offensive shells.

Against overmatched opponents these teams aren’t very entertaining to watch, but against each other it’s well worth the price of admission.

The game leads off this week’s picks.

Beat Pete Winners

People who have “Beat Pete” so far: This week: 143; Overall: 216.

Pete’s overall picks record: 43-11 (.796); Last week: 7-4 (.636).