What a debacle

And no, I'm not talking about Britney and Kevin's Christmas vacation custody arrangements or the BCS -- I'm talking about my fantasy football week. I'm not sure which is worse: scoring a full 19 points with my Fantasy Football team, or getting a whopping 4 picks correct to fall one win behind Hyman, James and Norm in the overall standings. At least there was no lock of the week pick to go badly awry.

There is no explanation, as the picks were made before Thursday Turkey comas or focus turned to College Football and how, every year we seem to come up with a new scenario that demonstrates the need for a playoff. Instead we're left with two suspect one loss teams playing for the mythical 'National Championship' or, if Missouri loses to Oklahoma (the number one team in the country is a 3.5 underdog to Oklahoma) and West Virginia loses to Pitt (Mountaineers are favored but -- insert "throw the records out when these two teams meet" cliche here) then you have Ohio State and a whole bunch of two loss teams trying to make a case. Let's settle it on the field.

Back to last week -- Norm and PJ tied for weekly high score, but we will give the edge to Norm who got his eight wins without submitting his picks for the Thursday games.

There was considerable consensus last week as we all surmised, correctly, that the unstoppable force known as the Green Bay Packers would not be fazed by the Lions Thanksgiving Day homefield advantage. Overall, however, the group think was more wrong then right as Devin Hester made all of us look bad for picking the Broncos at home, Oakland won their first division game on the road in years and New England escaped with 'only' a three point win at home.

Only James correctly saw that the Vikings secondary would outscore the Giants.

Part of the problem may have been that our favorite trends did not hold as strongly as they have been with double digit dogs going just 3-2 and home dogs were an uncharacteristic 1-4.


Some random questions as December approaches-- when (and how) did the Browns get to be good and now who was the better assistant, Charlie 3-9 Weis or Romeo Crennel?

Would you trade your team's starting quarterback for Eli Manning? Hyman, your answer does not count because the Panthers do not have a starting quarterback.

Which two teams will win the NFC Wild Cards?

Just to give you some perspective on the Eagles and Philly fans, AJ Feely threw three interceptions, one returned for a touchdown and the other with the Eagles driving for the winning touchdown, yet this week he is being canonized by the Philly fans, most of whom are ready to meet at Donovan McNabb's house and help him pack.

The same holds true for the Giants. Eli gave up one more interception last Sunday and is now considered a bust, despite three playoff appearances and a 27-23 record. The fascination with the 'shiny new toy' at quarterback is a common refrain from fans.

Lock of the Week will take Tennessee to right the ship at home against the Texans.

Don't forget that even though tonight's game is on NFL Network you still have to make a pick.

Make it a good week
Jono

How Bookies get paid...

It's weeks like last week that keep the bookmakers in business and those Vegas Hotels booming. The normally reliable home-dogs went 1-3, teams that had been left for dead, like the Eagles and Rams got off the mat to defeat their favored opponents on the road. For the Entire Pick'em Universe the average number of correct picks was 6.1. Only two themes remained immutable:

The Packers inexorable run to the Super Bowl continued with their 34-0 thrashing of the Vikings (bad to the point that Fox sent those viewers over to watch the Redskins second 4th quarter collapse against a divisional opponent on the season). And strange things continue to happen in the desert as the Cardinals squashed the, admittedly overrated, Lions.

For the week, Norm, Hyman James and Jeff finished in a four-way tie for first with seven correct picks. The extra win narrowed my lead in the overall standings to Two games.

This week offers another exhibit in the NFLs mediocrity as their is, yet again, few games worth watching. The Cowboys-Redskins matchup in Texas is essentially Must-Win for Joe Gibbs racing, and the Jags-Chargers has potential. But when Giants-Lions and Pats-Bills are the only three games featuring both teams with a winning record and when there are 4 games with double-digit spreads and two more with 9.5 spreads, well it might not be such a bad week to get the garage cleaned up or the house winterized. Or bank some quality time with family so you can watch the important games later on.

Lock of the Week will try to get back on track with the Seahwaks over the Bears.

Make it a good week.

Game of the Decade...

PJ parlayed his hatred of the Redskins into a one win week 9 victory, as he was the only one to take the 3.5 points and the at home Jets. This, of course, follows one of our favorite trends -- homedogs, who were 3-1 against the spread last week as the Vikings ran over (literally) the Chargers at the dome, the Jets beat the spread and the Colts lost the game but sent the Pats to their first defeat against the spread for the year. Only the Eagles failed against the spread, but then we are talking about the Eagles -- their failure has to make Walt feel even worse then he already does, so we won't pile on -- at least until after this week's game at Washington.

Now that the Pats have not covered will their spreads go down? Will they go 16-0?

My overall lead stretched to a still precarious three games over Hyman as the Jags, Cardinals and his beloved (if beleaguered) Panthers all lost their games and their battles against the spread.

November trends: The Lions are 6-2, despite having the 28th worst defense in the league.
New Orleans has recovered from its 0-4 start to win 4 straight and get to 500. They will look to tie TB for the division lead against the winless Rams.

And speaking of 500, your Buffalo Bills will look to get over 500 this weekend on the road against winless Miami. When was the last time the Bills were a road favorite? This of course before the Bills will face the Pats IN PRIME TIME on Sunday November 18 with the NFL and NBC making the game the week's featured matchup.

LotW (and all of you) rode the Packers inexorable run to the Super Bowl to victory in KC last week. Feeling emboldened and wanting to make Hyman feel better, we will take the Panthers giving 4.5 to the Falcons for this week.

Make it a good week.

Running up the Score

Sorry to have missed last week -- I hope the World Series and the incessant presidential debates kept you entertained without me around.

Somehow, while I wasn't looking, I managed to take the overall lead at the season's midpoint. It is, no doubt a precarious one, with all of the teams who have submitted picks each week are within three picks of first -- except for Walt who had better keep working on the book so that he gets tenure. Even his beloved Eagles have been doing better then him and that is not a compliment.
Last week saw Norm and I tie for weekly honors with ten out of thirteen correct picks. That's pretty darn good.

The Dolphins covering across the pond proved to be the pick missed by most.

At the season's midpoint, a few teams seem to have revived their season. First and foremost is the Chargers who spent the weak discussing forest fires before abusing the Texans to go over 500. Their playoff odds currently are at 66% -- pretty good for a team that looked awful a month ago.

There are also some really bad teams. The Dolphins and the Rams remain winless while the Jets and the Falcons may actually be worse teams despite having won a game each. A Patriots win this week should eliminate the Dolphins from the AFC East title chase on the day the clocks get turned back. And the Falcons are favored this week as they host San Fran. That's right -- you have to either pick the Falcons or the Niners this week.

Meanwhile the Packers continue their inexorable run to the Super Bowl and shame on anyone who would bet against Brett Favre on Monday Night Football.

The game of the century is this Sunday of course as the 8-0 Pats are 4.5 favorites over the 8-0 Colts in Indy. The Colts may be without Marvin Harrison. We like Peyton, we like the Colts, but have vowed not to bet against the Pats, regardless of the spread, until they fail to cover it.

LotW has been unable to get more then a game over 500, as the Bucs failed us against the Lions (who are no longer a laughingstock, apparently).

This week we'll take the Pack and 2.5 points at Kansas City.

Make it a good week.