NFL Picks 2008 - Week 1 Results
I’m very glad I didn’t decide to enter a knockout pool this year. This week was one of the worst ever. One of two things would have happened — I either won have won in the first week by picking the Giants, or I would have gone the “safer” route and picked the Colts.
I hate yearly pools because the first week is entirely a crap shoot. My hope every year is to go .500 in week one and don’t dig myself a 10 game hole against Lois from the office who picks the pretty logos. I managed to do that this year in the straight up pool and actually managed to go 1-game over in spread pool — where of course someone managed to pick 13/16 correct even though this week featured six upsets.
W/W - Giants -3.5 over Redskins 16-7, Giants cover: This game went pretty much exactly according to plan. The Giants rode the banner raising ceremony out to an early lead and the defense held it. I’m selling myself that I’m OK with the Giants moving back to classic Giants, super-boring football. I look forward to being hated as much as the Spurs.
L/L - Ravens +1 over Bengals, 17-10, Bengals outright: I stick by my never pick a new coach and quarterback in week one theory, but I might have to re-examine it if they’re home.
L/L - Jets -3 over Dolphins, 20-14, Dolphins outright. Favre threw up two of his interception-ready balls but the Dolphins defense couldn’t come up with them. The Jets are going to be horrifically over-rated going in to next week (edit: the Jets went from 10 point dogs to 2 point faves against the Patriots at Giants Stadium this week. One point for me) and if they beat the Patriots there is amazingly going to be a Jets’ tax on spreads for a few weeks.
W/L - Patriots -16.5 over Chiefs, 17-10, Patriots cover: I’m one of the very few people in the world who don’t hate the Patriots. My old roommate was a Pats fan and I watched him suffer for years in the 1990s with a terrible team, so I couldn’t get angry at the Pats for finally getting good because he was happy about it. As such, I’m probably one of the few non-Patriot fans unhappy to see the balance of power in the AFC shift a bit. In fact, I don’t even understand the Patriots hate… they’re pushovers. As such, this is a wrath of God loss. There’s no bit of pre-game logic that could have predicted the end so whatever.
W/W - Steelers -6.5 over Texans, 38-17, Steelers cover: I didn’t see a second of this game, but no surprise.
L/L - Titans +3 over Jaguars, 17-10, Jags cover: The Titans scare and confuse me. There is no reason for them to be winning games and apparently their quarterback is clinically depressed and moderately insane.
L/L - Falcons +3 over Lions, 34-21, Lions cover. I’d probably pick with this same logic if you gave me this game 1,000 times.
W/W - Bills +1 over Seahawks, 34-10, Bills outright. The Seahawks have 4 injured receivers, a starting QB with a bulging disc, a fixed Super Bowl loss, a basketball team heading to Oklahoma City, and a historically underperforming baseball team. They’re getting ready to take over Philly as most depressed sports town.
W/W - Saints -3.5 over Bucs, 24-20, Saints cover. I’m probably not going to write a preview for every division, but my theory for the Reggie Bush thing is thus: he’s not as bad as he was last year and one of the underrated aspects of Jeremy Shockey’s game is run-blocking. They media focused so much on Shockey complaining about his touches that they ignored the reason WHY he doesn’t get touches. He’s a huge animal that opens up running lanes and knocks down defenders. The first week of my predicted Reggie Bush resurgence saved Team Ms. L from the Tom Brady injury.
L/L - Eagles -7 over Rams, 38-3, Rams +7. I blame myself for forgetting the Rams are terrible.
W/W - Cowboys -4 over Browns, 28-10, Cowboys cover: I’m not going to rush to any judgments on Cleveland’s season because they lost to one of the best teams in the NFC.
L/W - Panthers +9 over Chargers, 26-24, Panthers +9: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Nothing makes me happier than my fourth favorite team in the league getting upset at home. I expect LDT to be out with a classy injury by week 3.
W/W - Cards -3 over Niners, 23-13, Cards cover: Not reading too much in to this one either… the Niners are still terrible.
L/W - Bears +9 over Colts, 29-13, Bears +9: Did the Colts defense go and get old when I wasn’t paying attention or did the league just finally figure out that they play prevent for the entire game?
L/L - Packers -3 over Vikings, 24-19, Vikings outright: I guess the Packers organization knew something we didn’t?
W/W - Broncos -3 over Raiders, 41-14, Broncos cover: Surprisingly, the Raiders “let them tire themselves out” defensive scheme didn’t work out.
W - 5 point game: Giants -3.5 over Redskins
L - 4 point game: Vikings +3 over Packers
W - 3 point game: Cowboys -4 over Browns
W - 2 point game: Bills +1 over Seahawks
L - 1 point game: Bengals -1 over Ravens
Straight Up: 8-8
Against The Spread: 9-7
Weird Point Pool: 10/15.