Top NFL Picks Against the Apread: Handicapping Week 8: Weekend
By Bart
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:
PICK 3
New England -7 “@” St. Louis – Enjoy your home game, Rams! The spread is hard to set because you don’t know how teams are going to respond with the time change, travel etc. However, the last time New England was out there, they trounced Tamp Bay 35-7 in 2009. New England’s Defense is certainly suspect, but they’re not having to cover double digits. Belichick doesn’t like it being close and doesn’t get conservative when the Pats are only up from 1-10 pts, so I trust that even if it is close throughout, the Pats will keep coming and will win by 10.
Kansas City – 1 vs Oakland – I wouldn’t even watch it if it were on tv. On a coin flip, I’ll take the home team – especially at Arrowhead. Forget the records, doesn’t matter – these teams know each other so well and it will be a “good” game. The Chiefs get out of the 1 win column.
Philadelphia -3 vs Atlanta – Yes I know that Atlanta is undefeated and yes I know Vick likes to lay the ball on the turf quite a bit. I also do know that Andy Reid is a phenomenal 13-0 after the bye. The Bears get another favor as the Eagles win a big one at home to slow the mob with the pitchforks and torches approaching the Eagles headquarters. Atlanta is good, but Atlanta is not “we’re going to go undefeated” good.
UPSET OF THE WEEK
Colts-3.5 vs. Tennessee – Sometimes there are patterns in games – like a team wins a big emotional game and then they have a letdown the following week. So, in some sort of bizarre way, I hope that this doesn’t happen. You see, I’m going with Boomer, Decon, and a group of about 20 to Tennessee next week to see the game. I don’t want to see the Colts win this game and then have Tennessee have some sort of sick, twisted, “We need this game against the Bears” mentality that makes them come out and play like world-beaters. But, who are we kidding, its really about talent, play-calling, execution, etc., not about some bizarre cosmic NFL patterning. So, the Colts come into Tennessee and get a win, if not a cover. This has no impact on the Titans next week and they get smacked in the face by the Beloved too, sorry Nashville.
The Beloved
Bears -9 vs. Carolina – I expect a better performance by our Offense and a similar performance by our Defense. If Cam thinks that he can single-handedly put the Carolina offense on his back against the Bears defense – good luck. The Bears get three turnovers in this one and it becomes a laugher, despite the shorter week of prep.
Thursday Pick: 1-0
SEASON: Pick 3: 9-11-1 Upset Special: 4-2-1 Beloved: 4-2-1 Thursday Night 2-2-1 = 19-17-4