A bounce-back week last week for me (11/14) — though it was all rather hollow, as the Broncos took a tough 50-yard penalty on 4th and 6th, allowing the Jets to steal one in the Mile High city.
This week looks pretty tough, frankly, with a lot of games looking to me like toss-ups.
But we must sally forth. So, here you go:
Cincy over Atlanta (Matt Ryan is 15-1 in his home dome, and Cincy has underperformed all year. But coming off a bye-week, if they don’t fix it here, they’re done. Normally I’d take Atlanta here, but this is one of those gut-check games for both teams, and Cincy claims to be the more physical of the two. Time to put up or shut up).
Chicago over Washington (If anybody knows Jay Cutler, it’s Mike Shanahan. Still, the Bears have a strong enough defense to keep Ryan Torain in check, and their defense — after being so good last year — is bad enough this year to let Cutler and the Bears steal one more at home)
Philly over Tennessee (the short week for Tennessee hurts them here. Otherwise, this is a toss-up. The loss of Desean Jackson really hurts the Eagles, but they have plenty of other weapons on offense)
Kansas City over Jacksonville (Jacksonville coming off a short week and playing with a Bills cast-off at QB. I hope they win, but KC gets the breaks here)
Pittsburgh over Miami (Miami is the sexy pick today. And as much as I want to see Big Ben fall on his arrogant ass, the world isn’t fair, and losers oftentimes win)
New Orleans over Cleveland
Tampa Bay over St Louis (tie goes to the home team)
SF over Carolina (a long trip east for SF, and Carolina is starting Matt Moore, but as with Cincy, if SF doesn’t step up today, they aren’t who they thought they were)
Baltimore at Buffalo (the ultimate trap game. But if the Ravens don’t win this one at home, Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs will kill and eat Joe Flacco and his entire family)
Seattle over Arizona (Seattle comes off an upset of the Bears. Great time for a letdown game. Lucky for them, they play at home, where they’re actually quite good)
New England over SD (SD is another sexy upset pick, playing at home after underachieving all year. This is a big game for them. Yet, every game is a big game for New England, who continues to chase the Jets. Belichick over Norv Turner in this one. Least, I hope)
Denver over Oakland (Oakland has played well on the road; but the Broncos have to have this one)
Minnesota over Green Bay (Farve refuses to lose to the Packers; and the Packers refuse to find a way to win games late): 27-24
Dallas over NYG (gut check time for Dallas, who joins Cincy, SF, and Denver in must-win territory)
Looking at these picks now, I feel comfortable with maybe 2 of them. My second of four mulligans might come in handy this week.
Now it’s your turn. Step up!
I’m put off football for the time being, but I’m probably going to want to watch the World Series. Although my NorCal nostalgia wants to root for the Giants from the Big Fruit Salad, I’ve always had a soft spot for teams playing in their first WS. Even to the point of being a Bad American in 2001 and rooting for Arizona against the Yankees.
The Lions will NOT lose the week.
My picks from my work poll:
Atlanta over Cincy
Washington over Da Bears
Philly over Ten
KC over Jax (time to start winning again, Chiefs)
Pitt over Miami
NO over CLE
TB over STL
Carolina over SF (Niners have been adept at finding ways to lose games)
Baltimore over BUF
Arizona over Seattle (Seattle’s been inconsistent on D, and I think they’re going to have a tough time with Arizona)
NE over SD (Because N is before S in the alphabet)
Denver over Oakland (We’ll see if the Broncos can restart their running game)
GB over MIN (Favre’s had his old team’s number, but I think it’s time that GB eeks out of victory over the Vikes)
NYG over DAL (Dallas needs a win, but the NYG have recently figured out how to win)
Currently I’m picking 57% on the season — 51/90, four behind my pool leader.
Every time the Patriots win, G-d kills a kitten.
No prognosticating for me this week as the guy who runs my pool had the audacity to spend the week with his girlfriend in the hospital because she was having a baby or something. Where are people’s priorities these days?
Excuses excuses. “I can’t play because my wife is having a baby.” Yeah, right.
That kind of BS just makes Harry Reid angry.
One pick this week: the Lions will not lose this week.
;)
I’m 56/90, 6 off the lead. We get to drop our worst four weeks, though. My 5/14 effort two weeks ago — and likely this week’s effort — are sure to go bye-bye in the long term…
Atl
Was
Phi
KC
Pitt
NO
StL
SF
Bal
Ari
SD
Den
Minn
NyG
The Colts travel squad gets an extra week to practice before being called upon to start.
Atlanta over Cincy (Falcons play above their head in “The ATL”)
Washington over Chicago (Don’t write off the Redskin’s running game so easily, not their defense)
Tennessee over Igglez (Yeah, igglez stink, and Jeff Fisher knows defense)
K.C. over Jax (Chiefs aren’t there yet, but are better than Jax)
Miami over Pittsburg (Jets D is MUCH better than Pittsburg’s, and they could barely stop Miami)
Saints over Browns (no comment necessary)
Bucs over Rams (Both stink, so TB gets home field advantage)
Niners over Panthers (S.F. has lost by very slim margins to some good teams. I predict ownage)
Ravens over Bills (no comment necessary)
Cards over SeaWimps (Both stink, just Seattle moreso)
Pats over Norv’s losers (Norv Turner is a loser, and has head cases playing, and not-paying, on his team)
Broncos over Raiders (Unless the Raiders are allowed to bring guns to the game)
Vikings over Packers (Pack has no credible running game, look for Jared Allen to be in Rogers face a lot)
Geyentz over Cowgirls (Although it’s crunch time, Tony Romeo is not they’re waiting for in Dallas.)
Some tough calls though, for sure.
Atlanta takes Cincinnati
Chicago takes Washington
Tennessee takes Philly
KC over JAX
Miami over Pittsburg
New Orleans over Cleveland
Tampa Bay over St Louis
SF over Carolina
Baltimore beats Buffalo
Seattle over Arizona
New England over SD
Oakland beats Denver
Minnesota over Green Bay
(Painful to say) NYG beats Dallas
ATL
WAS
TEN
KC
PIT
NO
STL
SF
BAL
SEA
NE
DEN
GB
DAL
Tiebreaker: Current Chicago Bear Puppetmaster Mike McCaskey’s comment regarding criticism of the “new” Soldier Field, “[You pedestrians] don’t appreciate asymmetry.”
Your tiebreakers are hilarious, guins.
sdferr emailed his picks to me just as I left for church this morning as he will be busy today. They are,
atl, wsh, phi, kc, pit, no, tb, sf, bal, sea, den, ne, gb, nyg
The Colts will likely lose 3 guys to IR watching the games today.
My home-made stats program (currently 56 for 74) needs tweeking. It’s picked all home teams this week except Miami.
Pitt vs Miami is shaping up to be a heckuva game.
Cleveland is ahead of St. Louis 10-0.
The world is coming to an end, and I don’t have any whiskey.
I have no confidence in my picks this week.
Just in case some of you are placing bets on my say so.
For instance, Chicago is the worst 4-2 team ever. Cincy just ain’t that good. Cleveland is better than people think. Tampa has no healthy running backs. SF has trouble finishing. The Cowboys are the Cowboys. And on and on.
Tough time to pick games.
To emphasize Jeff’s point, the Bears are the worst 4-2 team in the history of football, going back to the time when they wore a patch of leather on their domes and called it a helmet.
Parity sucks.
pit 17 mia 9 2q
Goofiest score you will see. It in no way reflects the game.
pit 17 mia 16 2q
When Buffalo is beating Baltimore by two TDs — Lewis and Suggs will cook and eat the Flacco family, looks like — and Cleveland is beating NO in NO, you know the world has gone mad.
The world is spinning the wrong direction today.
Suggs has world class talent, and is a world class punk.
Browns ran one of the best fake punts I have ever seen.
Wow. You’re right JD, the world must be spinning in the wrong direction, or something. Or maybe today the cliched “any given Sunday”.
I know Shannon Sharpe is biased, but he showed some clips that appeared to demonstrate a few of the Ravens players blowing some plays big time in order to not get in trouble with the rule changes the league announced last week.
I’ll have to look for that in the film later, because, here in the effin’ NYC area, cablevision is squabbling with Newscorp over the latters desire to raise the cost of their programming by 150 million dollars a year; resulting in no Fox broadcast. No NLCS, no football.
It’s downright un-American!
Bob – saw the same thing. Sharpe is an idiot. Head to head was against the rules last week, they just changed the punishment. He assumed that someone would have gone dirty on both of those plays. There is nothing wrong with blowing a guy up to separate from the ball, and it is legal.
pit 20 mia 16 3q
Sharpe likes the sound of his own voice…
But, aside from his commentary, it is unfortunate the way the game is becoming “soft”. I mean, I understand that the owners want to protect their investment when it comes to quarterbacks, and to a lesser extent, wider recievers, and that the league wants the games to be “exciting” and moseratedly “high scoring”-the football analogue to “chicks dig the long ball” stuff in baseball; but if they get any more “cautious” it’ll effectively become the NFFL.
The National Flag Football League.
That said, some defensive players, especially DBs, need to learn how tackle better; instead of going for the showboat “blow-up” and strip everytime, how about wrapping your arms around a guy and burying him…
Less chance of helmet-to-helmet stuff if you’re trying to wrap your arms around their waist and getting the take-down.
pit 20 mia 19 3q
pit 20 mia 22 4q
Looks like I’ll be wrong on about 97% of the early games — though they were all close.
Fumble by Big Douche at the goal line; Cutler leading his predictable parade of red zone turnovers; late charge by Tennessee; Cincy showing heart coming back, then losing anyway…
Ugh.
Looks like the Steelers are dodging a bullet on the fumble, at least in the sense that they get 4th and goal intead of a change in possession via a fumble recovery.
It looked like a Dolphins recovery to me, but that and a couple of bucks will get you a coffee.
so was big douche down before the fumble?
The only one I wanted to get wrong — KC — I got right. Everything else? Not so much.
Oh. And I keep picking Chicago so that Cutler is guaranteed to throw 4 picks. Most overrated QB ever.
Looked like a fumble to me.
i thought it was a fumble too. i couldn’t understand the fg thing unless he was down before the fumble.
The Browns beat St. Louis. It’s the apocalypse.
The football season is now over for me.
I hate pro basketball. So… er….
I got nothing.
I walk in and it’s 21 zip Oakland halfway through the 1st! WTF?!
21-0 Oakland over Denver 8 minutes into the 1st. What the hell?
Hockey is fun to watch.
Did they start the game without Denver?
Is it time to go to the dark side of sports?
The Chargers are making me sick.
I will probably see one of their games here in Mpls, and they can’t seem to avoid turning it over in the most stupid of ways.
Soiled Sockpuppet is slow and flabby.
31-0 Raiders and the second half just started? WTF?
What’s the line on Raiders breaking 100?
@nd quarter cranky.
Don’t be all trying to give me false hope…
Stupid shift key.
I bet every player on the Denver roster got laid last night. It’s the only explanation.
Oh. And I keep picking Chicago
Blast. I was betting “antibiotic reaction.”
Suburban Tire Postgame Show
Well, they’re certainly getting screwed today.
Suburban Tire Postgame Show
I meant second quarter. I don’t know what’s wrong with my brain.
Denver’s rope-a-dope beginning to pay dividends.
You laugh, but they get the ball to start the second half. If they march down for a field goal, they’ll be within a cozy 4 touchdowns.
Right where we want them.
Off topic: Via Kate McMillan, the most offensively non-PC material on the Internet, or (if not) at least in the 95th percentile.
Regards,
Ric
A come-from-behind Denver win would be awesome.
In Ft Lauderdale. I was explaining to some really rich dude and his monstrously bosomy wife (pretty tiny waist and plainum hair too, frankly I love her) how the officials ended up with their call. He doesn’t like it, but he’s banging her and I ain’t. So you know.
You guys don’t understand.
There’s a shitload of Oakland fans around here. This is humiliating.
I checked out that solargeneral site the document you linked to originally came from Ric. Unusual to say the least…
Sure it’s not some kind of FBI sting front?
Gut check games today:
Cincy, loss.
SF, loss.
Denver, loss.
Dallas…?
Minnesota…?
San Diego, super-chokers…The joss of Norv.
Don’t feel bad Jeff, I picked 5 games wrong myself. Some unusual upsets this week though, the “any given Sunday” cliche was surely in effect.
Jeff,
A favor, please. Pick against the Bears from now on. Bad juju.
denver hit by a wave
You’re in prison, Lee? I had no idea.
“You’re in prison, Lee? I had no idea.”
No, more like I may be hoisted on my own petard, but I don’t want to talk about that right now.
denver’s lose/O!’s big acceptance speech – omens w/raider columns
You’re in prison, Lee? I had no idea.
Hat trick !!!
I got nothing.
I believe you’ve an AHL franchise out there in the mountains.
I might possibly have talked smack that I now regret.
HOW ABOUT THEM GIANTS!
For instance, Chicago is the worst 4-2 team ever.
fundamentally flawed offensive line
with no help in the pipeline.
they can’t block anybody.
not even the washington redskin d’s
thirty-first ranked anybodys.
…
Bye Week !!!
Yowza, gonna’ go dogwater line poetry now!
we suck
even still
Comment by bh on 10/24 @ 10:27 am
why, thank you, bh.
you hardly blow, yourself.
and all of the referenced quotes are unfabricated,
for those of you keeping score at home.
So, the Vikings sucked their way through yet another game. Yippee.
confidential mike martz – jay cutler
intercepted helmet headset communications
10-24-10: ears only
It’s official. The NFC North is the worst division in the league.
Next week, the Vikings play New England. I wonder who’s going to win that game.
Oh, wait, I already know.
Brett Favre defeats MN Vikings
(It’s a perennial)
How many picks did Favre throw again? Too many, I know…
Out another notch in the “bad picks” column. It’s a good thing I don’t do play any sports books.
Three or four. The pick-six was the game winner.
I did not see it, but was the call on the Harvin not-touchdown good?
Second one w/ 40 some ticks on the clock was a good call. The first one: the only person who saw the ball move was the Umpire. Oh, and bh too, I suppose.
Minnesota failed the gut check game, too.
I’d hate to be Dallas right now…
Yeah he was out of bounds, JD.
Yes it was JD.
I watched the game, just lost track of the picks. It’s kind of pathetic to watch Farve on the way down…
He’d never last an expanded 18 game season.
The refs fucked fucked fucked anal rectal ramrod with no lube the Dolphins today.
Don’t you mean Siancoe on the first one Ernst; when they said he never had posession of the ball he clearly caught with two hands?
Someone needed to call the cops, ‘cuz he was clearly robbed there…
I don’t know if I can even rouse myself to blind Packer partisanship lately, Ernst. I hate Favre with the intensity of a million suns but the Packers aren’t a playoff team anymore. Maybe they weren’t from the start.
Refs royally effed the Dolphins with the whole, “we couldn’t see clearly who recovered it”.
When 3 Dolphins clearly fell on it.
And now, in addition to claiming he never fumbled, that asshat Rothelisberger says he recovered it…
Recovered a fumble he never made. He’s so stupid he can’t even lie properly; unless, you know, it’s about breaking the law.
I try not to be a conspiracy nut, but some weeks it sure as hell feels like the league scripts out the season in advance and then leaves it to the officials to “stage-manage” the production. That’s probably the scotch talking.
He’d never last an expanded 18 game season.
Given that he’s probably wondering why he didn’t just stay the hell in Louisiana, you have to wonder if he’ll last this season.
Favre didn’t want to come back and Childress didn’t want him to retire. Worst of both worlds.
Bob – Claiming that he recovered it is about as credible as him claiming he did nothing wrong with that college gal in the bathroom. The Dolphins took it up the ass like John Holmes hitting a chocolate starfish on Viagra.
I probably do mean Vis-ahnteh Bob. My mistake.
I wish they could fix replay so as the end result was not influenced by the call on the field. Their standard should be to get the fucking call right, period.
Yeah JD,
I couldn’t repeat his post-game
statementlie verbatim, but that’s the drift of his inane rambling.He’s a major douchebag, to be sure.
Minnesota failed the gut check game, too.
Childress failed the gutcheck when he chartered that airplane back in August.
Someone needed to call the cops, ‘cuz he was clearly robbed there…
Well, now I know why bh hangs out at the gay bars. Tell us, was it blackmail or bribery on your part? (I keed, I keed)
That’s probably where it’s ultimately headed JD, but kind of like in baseball, they’re trying not to cut the zebras out or severely reduce their authority; tradition and all.
But I agree, if you’re gonna review it anyway, the heck with the original call. I mean isn’t replay, by default, implying that the original call may be incorrect anyway?
Blackmail. I told Favre I’d forward the pictures of his junk he sent my friend Ricardo unless he threw his standard number of picks.
I seem to be missing something in this exchange, which is a shame, because my sense is that “it” is pretty funny.
But sometimes I’m sharp as a bowling ball.
They cannot get there soon enough, Bob. I loathe seeing a crap call on the field screw up the process, where there is not indisputable evidence that the call was wrong. Miami took it in the cornhole, like Perez Hilton in a San Fran bath house.
bh meets Fav-ruh at Club Berlin on Tuesday nights for Euro Techno-pop and Cosmo Night.
You haven’t heard about this, Bob?
I may have called her, but you cannot prove that was my junk, unless you want to inspect my crank and compare it to the picture.
I think it more likely that Bob hasn’t heard about your moonlight cabaret at Club Berlin.
That’s a lie, JD. Tuesdays are Wranglers and Dong Photo Night.
Been there, done that Brett. I feel your pain.
I’m sure I mentioned this before but when I lived just a bit east of Wrigley I was only a couple blocks from… the Manhole. That was the actual name of the bar.
That’s where you should be teasing me about.
Wranglers and Dong Photo Night?! Classic. Assless chaps get you in half-price at the Manhole, no?
Gotta love gay bar names. There used to be a lesbo club in NYC called Meow Mix.
Somehow I missed the club Berlin cuttin’ up; my loss, I’m sure. But I did hear about the junk photos.
Chauffeur duty in the morning. Carry on all. Enjoy your tie for third from the bottom, bh. Thank God Detroit’s in the Division.
Saw one called the CockTale.
Heh, Detroit is the best team in the division. Interceptions this week:
Bears – 4
Vikes – 3
Pack – 2
Lions – 0
heh
I’m pretty sure Favre throws at least one pick during the bye week.
He had a career year last year, 7 picks the whole season. This year, not so much.
Eh, well, watching football is a waste of time anyway.
Well, I think there is only one remedy left – a dispersal draft involving the entire NFC North.
Hey, somebody’s gotta compete with the NFC West for weakest division in the NFL.
Ernst – if they has a nice round robin between the two, it would be the moveable objects meeting the resistable forces…
I’m predicting that the Oakland Raiders absolutely blow out the Denver Broncos.
It’s like Dana is a psychic or something.
I predict Bret Fav-ruh will throw a bad interception.
I think you’ll be getting some pay back later this season. Though the game will likely be blacked out, if you live in Oakland.
Hind-sightedness~!
It’s interesting to read the reaction at PFT re: the Bronco’s meltdown.
McDaniels didn’t win any points with me when he whined after stealing one here in Nashville. If he gets fired, Jeff Fisher might hire him as OC. Perhaps swap roles with Mike Heimerdinger, if he wants to go back to Denver. Fish does that when coaches hit rock bottom, as a favor.
Cranky-d wrote:
What, you weren’t impressed by my bold prediction? I was certainly impressed by my bold prediction!
Offensive linemen. Nothing less. Otherwise, bad things. Very bad things.
So not to befoul the other thread with my misery: hither –
I quit watching at the shoulder separation (tivoing though) so’ve no idea what’s what since, but I read FG and punt return. If the G’s weren’t so intent on compliance at turning the ball over, I’m confident the ‘Girls would have lost 40 – 0.
Giants figured things out.
OK, so Jon Kitna is QB’ins the ‘Boys and they’re beating the Giants? It seems I need to catch up. Wherefore art thou, Romo?
“Wherefore art thou, Romo?”
Upper left humerus knuckle driven out of joint Pablo, a painful deal as I know from experience.
Jennifer Lothrop in a kilt is a vision of beauty, a sight to behold, a vision to hang on to.
Oh, worse: “fractured left clavicle”.
Is that a season-ender?
heh, what season?
It sadly seems a fitting conclusion to a shitty season, as it were.
Okay, this is getting ugly.
Had to quit watching (even while the ‘Girls had a lead) for scaring my sister with my incessant bellowing at the follies before my eyes. Ruined the fun of it for me, they have, cause at least once upon a time not so many years ago there was an intimation of care in their work. Today, not so much.
Outside of Demarcus Ware, there is very little pride being evidenced tonight.
I’m not watching, but it sounds like the ‘Boys squandered a big lead?
That means my gut check teams went 0-5 this week.
Last time I pick based on gut checks.
I’ll go ahead and boldly predict that the Giants will defeat the Cowboys.
There is something just plain satisfying about knowing that Jerry Jones won’t get his home game Super Bowl. :)