Week Ten Picks
Sometimes you’re up. Sometimes you’re down. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
I’m calling my twin 8-6 finishes straight up and against the spread in week nine down. Because I’ve fared better this season, both overall and in the previous week. But a week from now, 8 wins may well look great to me.
So far on the season, I’m 92-42-1 (.685) straight up and 73-61-1 (.544). Let’s see what kind of damage I can do to those respectable records over this week’s abbreviated schedule of (13) games.
Here’s what not to expect.
LA Chargers (-1.5) at Oakland
There will actually be a complete football team on the field for this game. It’ll be split between the two squads. But still. I see little reason to expect anything other than a home-home split in the season series between these two uneven division rivals. Raiders by three.
Kansas City (-5.5) at Tennessee
I suspect the Titans defense will be able to keep them in this game. But Tennessee just doesn’t have enough offense to take advantage of Kansas City’s weak D. Chiefs by four.
Buffalo (+3) at Cleveland
So we’re all just gonna go on pretending the Browns are a good football team? Is that the plan, everybody? I’ll take the (way) better squad getting points in any building on any day. Bills by a touchdown.
Arizona (+4.5) at Tampa Bay
Set the over/under on punts in this game at three and figure that barring a one or more disastrous turnovers, the last team to possess the ball comes out on top. Let’s figure that’s the home team. Bucs by a field goal.
NY Giants (-2.5) at NY Jets
Maybe they’ll get the cat to come back. That at least would be kind of entertaining. Giants by three field goals.
Atlanta (+13) at New Orleans
Thirteen? That’s it? For real? Saints by twice that.
Baltimore (-10) at Cincinnati
One of these teams has the NFL’s most productive rushing offense. The other one has the NFL’s worst rush defense. This is not a promising combination for the second team. Ravens by 21.
Detroit (+2.5) at Chicago
I’m going to figure the not particularly good home team edges the not particularly good visiting team. But maybe by just a point.
Miami (+10.5) at Indianapolis
I don’t know. Colts by some large number of points. Probably at least 12.
Carolina (+5.5) at Green Bay
The Green Bay (at least somewhat) Back-On-Trackers. By a field goal.
LA Rams (-3.5) at Pittsburgh
The Steelers can win this game. The Steelers probably should win this game. Are the Steelers going to win this game? I don’t know. But I kinda think so. Pittsburgh by three.
Minnesota (+3) at Dallas
This is the home team’s game to lose. And the way they can lose it is by committing costly turnovers. Barring that (and since I don’t have any way to account for it), Cowboys by four.
Seattle (+6) at San Francisco
Nice way to end a week. Bravo, schedule makers. This could very well turn out to be the first of three meetings between these teams between now and late January. And the Seahawks may well win at least one of those — if they can grow a defense. Right now, though, you have to like the home team to remain undefeated for another week. Niners by three.
