Week 14 -- Holiday Wishes

It was a good week for road teams, as many of the games with outrageously large spreads, especially San Diego (who lost outright), the new darlings of the NFL Cincinnati and the Broncos against the offensively-inept Ravens were not even close-spread wise.

Meanwhile some home dogs (Buffalo, Jacksonville especially) also struggled.

The result was a good week for those that do not pick their own games. It also provided a vast spread in our win totals.

James and Jeff came away with nine wins each. Clearly spending too much time on Pigskin Pick'em and not enough on the Fantasy Football teams. Meanwhile Hyman and Chris failed to take advantage of PJs 5 win week, with on 6 and 5 wins respectively themselves. Thus, PJ still controls the overall leaderboard with a single game lead over Hyman and two ahead of Chris and James. With three weeks left, and new dilemmas like how much with the Colts and Seahawks starters play, which teams have already packed up their lockers and winter weather it is still very wide open.

Jeff meanwhile stretched his lead in my effort to get out of the cellar.

Looking for ways to avoid loved one over the holidays, join us for ESPN College Bowl Mania

games.espn.go.com/bowlmania/frontpage

Our group is: Who Shall Rule at home? and the password is Spiders. Feel free to invite others looking for ways to make College Bowl season 'even' more exciting.

It will not surprise anyone that I adopted the "War on Christmas" model and have asked for the PC holiday wishes, so as not to antagonize on non-Christian friends. Afterall, hasn't Jeff suffered enough?

A few holiday wishes:

Pats -- more bad weather
Giants -- Eli to play a complete game
Jets -- San Fran to start winning so they can get the #2 pick
Colts -- playoffs to begin and stay healthy
Bills -- a clean slate; at least I had the good sense to stay home last week. This week, the first Bills home night game in many a year, however, I will be in attendance. Wearing a lot of clothes and hopefully filed with a fair bit of alcohol as well. Though I do have to get up for 9:30 mass on Sunday am.
Texans -- to keep losing, though with the Jets winnng their victory in the Reggie Bush sweepstakes got a little bit more secure.
Manchester United (out of Europe after a 2-1 defeat last week) -- some defense
For me (with regard to fantasy football) -- a crystal ball so I can know in advance which of my players will have the big week -- and which will suck. I would also like to announce that I am now severing ties with the Bills defense.

In the (real) playoffs, the Steelers win and losses by the Chiefs and Chargers has them back in the running for a playoff spot. And the Pats, getting healthier each week, must not be taken lightly in the playoffs.

Big games this week include Steelers v. Vikings, Washington v. Dallas, and Atlanta at Chicago
And it is another terrible MNF game, Green Bay at Baltimore (we don't even get "Frozen Tundra") references. So use that night to complete your holiday shopping.

English Football update -- watch as Liverpool goes for the FIFA Club World championship this weekend

Discussion question:
Which should we care more about, NHL or USA soccer?
US got a tough draw (maybe second hardest group overall) but if they can get over the mystique and beat the once-vaunted Italian side they'll have a good chance to advance.


LotW was never officially posted, though it was going to be the Dolphins getting 13.5. I didn't think they'd win, but I thought their defense was good enough to not get blown out.

This week we will take Brett Favre and Green Bay on Monday night getting 3.5.

Make it a good week.