The weekend didn’t turn out too bad, in part thanks to the last minute changes in picks. Houston came pretty close to taking Indianapolis down for the first time this year. The Colts and the Saints remain the only undefeated teams at the end of week 9. I’m so happy the Saints are doing so well. They’ve been the underdog for so long, it’s good to see them dominating.

The surprise for the weekend was the upset by the Chargers beating the. NY Giants. And in New York no less. That was a big surprise. I wondered if it was case of over confidence and the Giants missed the plane to…Giant Stadium.

I really expected the Broncos to play much better than they did last night against the Steelers. I knew it would be a  very tough game, but you can’t win with turn overs. Palomalo was just totally on his game and ran circles around the Broncos. At least the little Prince’s Principal is happy this morning.

With the last minute changes the weekend ends with a win of 9 games and 4 losses. Not bad. Better then the 7 and 6 it could have been.

So here are the final results for the week.

Here’s the picks:

One good bet this week, gulp…, Carolina will cover the spread against New Orleans. I sure hope they have some of what they had in Arizona left.

As I originally predicted, sans the computer, Minnesota is playing better than expected. Now it seems the computer is noticing. Here’s how the playoffs shake out:

E.W.

I would say something witty, but I ran out of wit.

NFL Week 9 – Spring’s Picks

Where to start. Let’s go with the easy picks. New Orleans hosting Carolina, I love SirEvil and his home town team, but no way will the Panthers beat the Saints at home. I feel the same way about Houston and Indianapolis; though there is a slight trepidation there. I still think the Colts at home will beat the Texans handily.

I’m counting on my Tennessee Titans building on their high from winning in week 8 and carrying that emotion into to San Francisco to beat the 49’ers. My Redskins, well they’re just done and I don’t think they have the skill or confidence to take on the Falcons in Atlanta no less. 

The tough games for me are the night games. Dallas at Philadelphia and Pittsburgh at Denver. I think these can go either way no matter which city you’re talking about. But I’m going to give the edge to the home teams. The Eagles really looked good last week against the Giants, so I’m betting on them to take Dallas who has had their struggles this year. I really like the Steelers, but I think they have a lot of off field distractions and their focus is somewhat missing. So I’m giving the edge to the Broncos who have looked good this year.

So here’s my Week 9 picks….crossing fingers.

I’ve changed two of my picks at the last minute. Cincinnati over Baltimore and Arizona over Chicago.

Updated: 12:58pm

Well the weekend ended with just a little better than a 50% average. Sir Evil’s picks have gotten considerably better. I think we’ve switched places in our loving family competition. There were some surprising upsets from the weekend. The games I was worried about seemed to have worked out ok. Dallas and Chicago both won their home games. I couldn’t have been more wrong about the Giants and Eagles. But I’m very glad Philadelphia won, especially since they’re the little Prince’s team.

Good call on the emotion of Farve (The Geriatric Ninja) and the Vikings going into Green Bay. That too was a great game to watch. I’m so glad Brett did well in that game; he deserves it.

Now someone tell me how in the world did Houston beat Buffalo? Did the Panthers really show up in Arizona to play football? Wholly cow they beat the Cardinals..Being they’re the team of SirEvil we were happy about that too. Glad I was wrong about that pick. And where did Tennessee come from to beat Jacksonville? Wow!

Ok so here were the results from week 8.

Here’s the picks:

Thank the Football Gods there are no good bets this week. I’m 0-3 on the season now. I hope Tampa gets shut out in every game for the rest of the season…

Pittsburgh’s reign at the top of the Superbowl hill has ended, New England is back again. It boggles the mind the amount of fear they seem to have instilled in teams that have to play against them, they simply aren’t the greatest team ever and I’m waiting for some underdog to demonstrate it. Here’s how the playoffs look to me:

E.W.

Heard on CNN regarding the health care “reform” bill:

Broadcaster: If it is going to cost $890 billion, how is that not going to raise the deficit?

Analyst; It’s a deficit neutral spending bill.

Me: So… it’s magic?

Ok, I’m almost afraid to make picks this week after my dismal performance last week. But here goes.

There are some games that I’m picking because I think the teams are pretty even, but I’m giving the edge to the home team. Dallas and the Seahawks, Cleveland and Chicago are examples. I think the Giants and Eagles game will be close, but I’m giving the edge to New York; I just think they’re a better team at least this week. I’m predicting New Orleans and Indianapolis will maintain their perfect records. And I think the emotion and energy of the Vikings will carry them over the Packers even though they’re playing in Green Bay.   Crossing fingers come on Farve!

And thankfully, my Skins have a bye week this Sunday. Zorn is being put on the front line as a scape goat, but hopefully Sunday’s poor performance of the team shows it’s not Zorn who’s losing the game with his play calls. It’s the team who 1) Aren’t playing as a team, 2) aren’t playing up to their individual hype and 3) are just dayum sloppy.

So with that, here’s the Week 8 Picks….crossing fingers. 

Oh man what a terrible week! Reminds me of week 2 when I was 7 for 16 in my picks.

Now to be honest I did make some bad picks, but there were some WTF? games played on Sunday as well. And a few surprises, I think the Vikings are better than how they played against the Steelers. I’m going to call that one on home field advantage. Atlanta and Dallas was a tough pick to begin with, but I think I was hoping the Falcons would take the Cowboys at home. Wishful thinking gone bad. I don’t see how Kansas City lost to San Diego. Maybe I missed something, but I thought the Chiefs were better than that.

So the results are sad, but here they are:

Here’s the picks:

This week, there’s one good bet: Tampa will cover the spread. I know, I bet on Tampa before… but at least it probably won’t snow in Tampa.

Speaking of snow, cold weather, and rain (For you idiots who built domed stadiums, this is how God intended football to be played…) if your team comes from some place like Texas or Florida, or worse, some place indoors and you know you’re going on the road to some place like, say, Green Bay or Foxboro, here’s a tip on practice:

Find your nearest local meat packing plant. Make a deal with the owner to borrow their blast freezer for 3 hours a day. Put your whole team in there for the workout, and I mean everybody, put the fricken water boy in there. After a week of that, your team will be so glad to get into the nice warm snowy rain, playing football will be a breeze.

For extra points, set your kicker’s practice rig right in front of the freezer duct, if he can kick against that 50 MPH, -80° F wind, nothing Mother Nature does to him will bother him. “OH MY GOD! HE JUST GOT HIT BY LIGHTNING!… AND THE KICK IS GOOD!”

Here’s my take on the upcoming playoffs:

Somehow I expect Minnesota to do better than predicted, geriatric Favre is doing a good job of whooping up on those snot nosed kids on the other team. And he still sleeps good on the sidelines, just wake him up and tell him who won when it’s time to go to the lockers. Someone should send him a purple snuggie, for those sideline naps.

Today the kid wanted to make his picks, here they are:

E.W.

Six-year-old wisdom:

Queen: Ok, dinner’s ready, turn off the TV and come on.

Prince: Mom! It’s TV dinners, you’re supposed to have the TV on!

It’s getting a little harder to pick now. At least for me. Eventually one of the 4 undefeated teams is going to loose. But which one and which game?

This week I want to pick my Skins to win over the Eagles, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think the Eagles are embarrassed by the loss in Oakland that they’re going to feel as if they have something to prove. Sorry Coach Zorn, this isn’t the week you’re going to turn things around.

I’m taking all the undefeated teams this week, though I think Minnesota has there work cut out for them. My upset pick is Tampa Bay over New England. I have no idea why; just a gut feeling. Another one of those is Carolina, I have no idea why I think they’ll win this week except they’re playing at home and have a little confidence from last week.

So we’ll see. Here’s the Week 7 picks.

Well it was an interesting weekend. Watching football in the snow is always fun, but not when the home team is totally killing the visitor. Sunday’s New England v Tennessee game was just painful to watch. Thank the football Gods CBS decided to change the coverage to a better game. What a total embarrassment for my Titans. Evidently they need to practice a lot more, and add some snow in the mix for good measure too.

Carolina was a surprise. Who knew they’d take Tampa Bay on the road. Wow. Maybe they realized they weren’t dreaming and the NFL season really had started. Nice they showed up to play. But how in the world did Oakland beat Philadelphia? Holy guacamole. I also lost the pick on the Jets and Buffalo. I knew that one was going to be tough to pick, oh well. I’m not the only one who picked the Jets to win; so did a few of the guys on Fox.

My favorite game of the weekend was Minnesota v Baltimore. I was disappointed that the Viking defense didn’t step up to the plate and match the great performance of Farve and the offense. They allowed the Ravens to come back in the second half and turn a solid win into a hair raising potential loss in the last 2 seconds. That last field goal attempt by Baltimore had me on the edge of my seat, but it cracked me up to see that Brett didn’t even watch it. He had to get off the bench and ask a fellow player if they lost or not. His expression and excitement at hearing the Vikings won was beyond wonderful! What a great game.

And what about Denver. I was worried about them in the first half, but they played up to their potential in the 2nd half just bombarding the Chargers front line. That leaves 4 teams undefeated so far, Denver, Minnisota, New Orleans and Indianapolis.

So here’s the results for Week 6.