by 20 points. For the season, San Francisco has fallen short of expectations — defined as the point spread in the game — by an average of 17.5 points a game (only the Giants, at 18.3 points, have been more disappointing). How have teams with similar expectations and results fared over the course of the rest of the season?

From 1990 to 2012, 14 teams have met three criteria: won at least 10 games in the previous year; on average, were favored to win the first three games of the next season; and failed to cover the spread by, on average, at least 10 points. On average, those teams won 12.5 games the previous season but just eight in the season in question, an indication that the slow startPENNS GROVE — The man who was named interim principal of Penns Grove Middle School has been removed by the district, officials confirmed, declining to say whether the removal relates to an email in which he allegedly referred to students at the school as "savage."

“The board is aware of concerns in the community regarding the former interim principal at Penns Grove Middle School in connection with an email message,” Interim Superintendent Zenaida Cobian said recently in a statement. “The district administration immediately addressed those issues, and the individual is no longer working with the district.”

Cobian would not comment further on whether the email was the main factor in last week's release of Joseph Sottosanti from the school district. The board solicitor for the Penns Grove-Carneys Point Regional School