Well, it was not the best way to get back into the swing of things, finishing 2-3.  My pick three wasn’t too good this week for the same reason my fantasy team has struggled: Eli Manning and the Giants.  Touted as a superbowl contender, I’d love to see them try to come through Soldier Field to get to the Big Dance.  I typically stay away from the NFC East, but for some reason it drew me in this week.  Who knows how the Dallas/Philly game would’ve ended if Vick didn’t get hurt, but you never know.  New Orleans helped the Bears who didn’t help themselves in the home field race.  We’ll see where Atlanta goes from here.  Lastly, my 12 helped in the Rams/49ers tie game.  Watching what happened around the NFC should help make Bears fans feel a little better about their second loss of the season.

 Buffalo -1 vs Miami – and the ball gets spun around the roulette table where she stops, no one knows.  Miami starts looking good and then wham, they get blown out by an upset Titans team.  Buffalo has been pretty terribly inconsistent, and then give New England a run for their money last week.  If I wasn’t writing for this blog, I wouldn’t touch this one with a 10 foot pole.  But for all you people who just need to gamble……Buffalo.  Take the home team in an even division match and play the odds.

WEEK 10 Pick 3: 1-2     Upset Special 1-0     Beloved 0-1

SEASON: Pick  3:   11-15-1     Upset Special:  6-2-1      Beloved:  4-4-1   Thursday Night 2-2-1  =  23-23-4

Well, friends, I’m back. I apologize for my absence.  As Boomer alluded to, we were in Nashville for the Bears game last weekend drinking the town dry and singing “Bear Down” like 19 times during the game.  Even with my return to Chicago, I haven’t quite gotten back into the groove.  But with a pretty unfilled weekend, I’m able to get back to my love of picking the games.  You know my rule, if it wasn’t written prior to the game, your pick doesn’t count.  I am a little upset with myself because if I was able to find time to do my picks the last two Thursdays and last weekend, I know my record wouldn’t be hovering around 500.  In my “betting points pool” last weekend, I took Detroit, the Bears, and Denver and they all won and covered for me.  But, I didn’t look much beyond that, so who knows, I could’ve just been 3-2.  Oh well, on to Week 10 where I’m not especially that excited:

PICK 3: WEEK OF THE DOG COVER

Philadelphia +1 vs Dallas – you have two 3-5 teams, same division, last chance to stay afloat for a Wildcard spot.  Who would’ve thought last year in their pre-season annointment as Superbowl champs that a year later the Eagles would be 1 point home underdogs against the erratic Dallas Cowboys.  You got to go with the home underdog in this one.

New Orleans +1 vs Atlanta -close to the same rationale, except you have a Saints team that won’t make the playoffs, but will ruin a lot of teams in the process.  The Superdome is not an easy place to play (unless you are the Superbears of course).  I’m still not sold on Atlanta and it’s not easy to run the table in your division.  This will be the one that trips up the Falcons.

New York -3.5 @ Cincinnati – this could be the game I totally see yelling at the Giants about.  However, after that tough loss to Pittsburgh last week, this will be the game that the Giants get back on track and look like world-beaters again.  It’s just always tough to figure out when they are going to do it.  If someone has seen a discernible pattern with them – please let me know.  In the meantime, I’ll get on their bandwagon this week – and ELI – you better play this week!

UPSET SPECIAL OF THE WEEK

St. Louis +12.5 vs. 49ers – just a little too many points for me.  I see the 49ers beating them soundly, but the Rams hanging on long enough to score a dumb touchdown or field goal in the 4th quarter to make it like a 10 or 11 point win for the 49ers.  I’m going to guess 24-13 just for giggles.

The BELOVED

Bears -1 vs Houston – what could be a Superbowl preview, I’m going to once again take the home team.  Soldier Field is going to be rocking Sunday Night after the Bears dominant performance last week.  Houston is a very good football team and I really like them. However, they haven’t seen a Defense like the Bears.  The Bears continue to get turnovers in a close 4 point win.  BEARS!

WEEK 8 Pick 3: 1-2     Upset Special 1-0   Beloved 0-1

SEASON: Pick  3:   10-13-1     Upset Special:  5-2-1      Beloved:  4-3-1   Thursday Night 2-2-1  =  21-20-4

Summary of Thursday Night:  Hell yeah!  Time to start coming back to earth, Viqueens.  Giving 6.5 points, whatever!  I will give them more credit than I did in the beginning of the season.  Jared Allen, Percy Harvin, and Adrian Peterson are all studs and when you have playmakers like that, you can win some ball games.  However, they are still not destined to be a playoff team, well at least in my book.  But the NFL is so wacky, that you never know what is going on.  Doug Martin ran (and caught and ran) all over the Vikings Defense.  It was joyous to watch – especially since I picked the Bucs in my confidence pool and everyone else had 10-14 points on the Vikings.  For my picks, for the Bears, for Beargoggles, Thursday Night was a good game.  Now onto the weekend games: (more…)

Summary of the Weekend: Things went generally well this weekend.  I won my confidence pool for the 2nd week in a row, I snuck out a fantasy win, but more importantly, was over 500 again here on Beargoggles.  I suppose it was a little crazy to even touch the Buffalo/Titans game, but I thought the Titans would fall flat after a big win against Pittsburgh.  I forgot that they were playing the Buffalo Defense though.  The Saints look like the Saints of old with Brees putting up a few this weekend.  That was an easy point to give up.  Despite Pittsburgh not being as dominant as they once have been, they haven’t fallen to the point of losing two games in a row to below average teams.  They responded with a nice 7 point win.  For the first, I had 2 pushes in a week – the Bears and Cardinals.  I think I was lucky with the Cardinals and not so much with the Bears – so overall, I’ll take it.  Many people will be disappointed that the Bears gave up a late touchdown and I’ll just refer them to the 2 they may have given up if they didn’t get the turnovers.  Don’t worry about point spreads with the Bears – we’ll just take the Ws for now.  On to the Week 8 Thursday Night Contest:  (more…)

SUMMARY OF THURSDAY NIGHT: Well, I’m kind of rushed today, so I’m going to be brief.  I’m sure there were tons of gamblers that were either relieved or extremely ticked off by Jim Harbaugh’s decision to decline a penalty that would’ve given the 49ers 2 more points, thus covering the spread in the last minute of the game.  Most of the week, the 49ers were 7 point favorites, so alot of people likely just pushed (as I did).  However, there were some people who wagered on the 49ers at -7.5 or 8 who were not happy.  I hate to break it to the bettors, but coaches don’t care if they cover the spread.  (It does seem like Belichick does at times though, doesn’t it?).  Smart call by Harbaugh, even though I wasn’t happy, but why risk having to cover an on-side and geting another player hurt? I don’t think Seattle could’ve come back, but the injury factor alone was enough to decline the penalty.  Onto the weekend games:

Bills -3.5 vs Titans -Tennessee had their day in the sun vs. Pittsburgh.  This team goes on the road and doesn’t fair as well against the Bills.  Fitzpatrick and Spiller have good games and the Bills win by at least 7.

Saints -1 vs Tampa -I’ve always said that the Saints are a different team on the road and they’ve proved it over the years.  However, this Saints team cannot be complacent due to the early hole they’ve dug themselves.  They have both had time to prepare for this one and Brees will outduel Freeman.

Steelers -1 vs Bengals -Both teams are coming off of painful losses to terrible teams.  They both cannot lose two in a row, or lose to a division rival.  Despite being on the road and being winless on the road, the Steelers pull out this must-win for them.

UPSET SPECIAL

Arizona +7 @ Minnesota -obviously, this is on the wish list as a Bears fan and I’m not entirely convinced that Arizona is going to win. Arizona is starting to come back to earth lately, but they can put up points.  I’m looking at about a 24-20 Minnesota win, but I’ll take a Cardinal win for sure.

THE BELOVED

Bears-6 vs Detroit -the Bears should have a great game-plan coming into this game given the amount of time they’ve had to prepare.  If they continue to follow the same format of changing it up, getting the ball out early, mixing in a couple deep passes, and running well (as the formula should be all the time), they will be just fine.  The Bears Defense will continue to be solid and the Bears take this one by 10.

Thursday Night Pick – 0-0-1 PUSH

SEASON: Pick “3 “  – 7-10-1       Upset Special:  4-2      Beloved:  4-2  Thursday Night 1-2-1

Summary of the Weekend:

Well another crazy weekend, so I’ll be happy walking away 500.  I was disappointed in myself for not taking the Giants, I thought the spread against the 49ers was too high, but I didn’t expect them to blow the 49ers out.  My mistakes were Houston and New England last week.  I’m not quite sure what happened to New England, but saw what Green Bay did to Houston.  I wished that Houston would’ve shown up to at least make that game exciting, I looked forward to watching it.  Not to mention the fact it would’ve been great for the Bears to have Green Bay lose again.  My Cleveland pick to win helped me win a confidence pool this week.  You figure they have to win at least a couple and a familiar division foe like Cinci was going to be the one.  Lastly, the Denver win was exciting to watch.  Yes, I was nervous at halftime, but after Manning’s first drive 4 minutes in, I thought, well, they can still come back; and come back they did.  So in another crazy NFL week, surviving at 2-2 isn’t so bad.  I’m at 500 for the season.  Now, on to Thursday Night:

San Fran -7 vs Seattle -  I had this going the other way for a couple of minutes….just a couple of minutes.  I first thought about it being a division game, and division rivals know each other, therefore it’ll be closer.  However, Seattle is coming off an emotional win and they’re going to be feeling like they can do anything.  San Fran is coming off an embarrassing loss and are going to want to right the ship.  This will be a hard fought game and will be relatively close.  The over/under is 38.  I feel a 24-14 San Fran win coming.

Weekly Picks:  Pick “3″  1-2     Upset Special 1-0

SEASON: Pick “3 “  – 7-10-1       Upset Special:  4-2      Beloved:  4-2  Thursday Night 1-2

Summary of Last Week

There was a lot of great things that happened last week, unfortunately, the great things weren’t necessarily associated with my picks of the week.  I also struggled getting my post in for the Thursday Night game due to work obligations, but I’m looking to get back on track this weekend.  Let’s start with the Packers loss.  I always say the Packers suck even when they’re great, it’s just part of being a Bears fan.  However, I think it is fair to say that they are in a little bit of trouble.  They are struggling defensively and teams are starting to slow their “juggernaut” offense.  Without a competent run game, teams are able to focus on shutting down the pass and they’ve been doing a pretty good job at that.  I’ll have to admit that I was shocked that the Packers lost, even though it was on the road.  I would’ve been alright if we just used the halftime score, but as they always say, “That’s why they play 60 minutes!”  Baltimore admittedly drives me nuts. I think that’s why I am attracted to them – they’re like the Bears.  How do you only put up 9 points against KC?  I’m still convinced that the Ravens don’t use Ray Rice appropriately.  I learned that when I had Rice on my fantasy team last year.  All they need to do is look at their stats when he has 20 carries (or 25, I don’t remember which is the best one).  Run Ray right, run Ray left, short pass to Ray right, short pass to Ray left and then hit Bolden.  Repeat, then hit Smith.  Houston not covering wasn’t as much of a shock, especially on the road.  But with the way they’ve been playing, I would just keep gambling on them and you’ll be in the plus at the end.  The Broncos had their chance to cover, but dug themselves a little bit too much of hole.  I pictured that being more of a, “I score, you score” game and Manning’s stats (31-44, 337yds, 3 TDs) would reflect that, but Denver’s D didn’t hold up as much as I thought they would.  Oh well, the most important game was my most confident pick – The Beloved, The Bears.  I was a little nervous at halftime, especially after watching the Packers blow it, but it was nice to see some adjustments and that 2nd half throttling.  A 1-4 week that wasn’t disappointing due to the Bears Win, Packers Loss, and plenty of fantasy team wins.  Time to refocus, onto Week 6 where a bunch of 3.5 and 4 point games exist: (more…)

I’m not surprised, upset, or confused by my Thursday Night loss.  Could you imagine a year or so ago saying, “Can you believe the Rams beat the Cardinals?”  Your response would’ve been, “And?”  or “Who cares?” or “Colorado State beat Louisville?”  Let’s face it, in the NFL, anything can happen on any given Sunday.  Therefore, the Rams beating the undefeated Cardinals can happen.  Did you really see the Cardinals as an undefeated team anyway?  Well, it’s good to know, because if “logic” was used, we could say the Bears beat the Rams which theoretically means that they can beat the Cardinals, which theoretically means the Bears can beat New England, Miami, Seattle, and Philadelphia too.  The Beloved are in good shape for now.  Enough silliness, let’s get to this week’s games: (more…)