NFL Picks 2009: Week 10 Results
Thursday
Miami Dolphins +3 at Carolina Panthers: Well, this should involve a lot of runningbacks. Here’s the thing though… Michael Turner managed 111 yards in ONE HALF. What are Rickey Williams and Ronnie Brown going to do? The answer is probably “run a lot” and, don’t look now, but Chad Henne doesn’t suck. He’s probably completely ruined and will never be able to play in a traditional offense but, as for now, get some. Dolphins outright
Results
W/W – 49ers -3 over Bears, 10-6, Niners cover: This was one of the most unwatchable football games I’ve ever seen. Who could have guessed it would be one-upped twice before the weekend was over. By the by, Jay Cutler is a terrible quarterback. His interception on the last play of the game, with 10 free, unobstructed yards between him and the end zone with a timeout in his pocket was unforgivable. Unless he’s a member of the Rex Ryan “free tacos for leftover timeouts” club… in which case… Mmmm, Tacos.
L/W – Jags +6.5 over Jets, 24-22, Jaguars +6.5: Tom Jackson’s take on Maurice Jones-Drew’s 1 yardline knee was silly. “I don’t believe in not taking points when you have them. Anything can happen… a fumbled snap, a missed field goal… it’s too risky.” If a coach is basing his play-calling on 0.0000089% chances, you’re either an idiot or Eric Mangini. Of course, this is the NFL, where even play calls that make sense get second guessed. More on that later.
L/L – Redskins +4.5 over Broncos 27-17, Broncos cover: Curious which game lost more suicide pools in Week 10 — this or Carolina. In other news, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the Redskins team name. It’s never going away, people. Just stop.
W/W – Bengals +6.5 over Steelers, 18-12, Bengals outright: Sadly, this will end my streak of being able to take the Bengals in good spots with points. Of course, it won’t prevent people from giving the Steelers more points than they deserve, so there’s still that.
W/W – Titans -6.5 over Bills, 41-17: That Vince Young bandwagon’s going to start getting crowded… even though he’s not doing much. BTW: is an 86-year-old man flipping people off the funniest sports-related story you’ve seen in the last five years? I have to say yes.
W/L – Vikings -15.5 over Lions, 27-10, Lions +15.5: I was right about Favre not playing all the second half. I was right about Tavaris not scoring. I just wasn’t right about the Lions managing to score in that spot. That said — this is the first time I’ve seen Stafford. He’s not bad. If they weren’t the Lions, I could foresee them being the 2010 or 2011 surprise team. I’d also like to thank the Albany Fox affiliate for sticking with this game right through the bitter end, even after Favre was out of the game, instead of switching over to any bonus coverage or going to the kickoff of the Pack/Cowboys game.
W/L – Saints -14 over Rams, 28-23, Saints cover: The Saints’ cracks are starting to show a little. There’s not a better guy to exploit cracks than Spagnuolo. It wasn’t quite enough to get the win, but it’s one of those blueprints that people are going to get a look at.
L/L – Panthers +1.5 over Falcons, 28-19, Falcons cover: I blame Michael Turner’s high ankle.
W/L – Dolphins -9.5 over Bucs, 25-23, Dolphins cover: The most exciting part of this season is turning out to be a tie between the Battery Park Plainsmen’s first place run in PLR’s work fantasy football league and my over/under 7 wins for the Dolphins with my friend Hulse. As of now, The Fish are at 4 wins and we’re both equally terrified.
W/W – Chiefs +1.5 over Raiders, 16-10, Chiefs outright: Sure, why not.
W/W – Cardinals -9 over Seahawks, 31-20, Cardinals cover: It appears the Cardinals knew the spread in this game and decided to spot it to the Seahawks to be cute.
L/L – Chargers -2.5 over Eagles, 31-23, Eagles outright: Either the Chargers are better than I thought or the Eagles are much worse. The moral of this story is only that they’re both better than the Giants.
L/L – Packers -1 over Cowboys, 17-7, Cowboys outright: I guess I just kinda discounted that this was a must-win for the Packers. I also discounted the Cowboy defense’s ability to just decide to not show up some weeks. Sadly, this is the Giants best week in the last four and they didn’t even play. They picked up a half game against both the Eagles and the Cowboys sitting home. This was also, quite possibly, one of the worst football games I’ve ever seen. It somehow beat the Thursday game. Between penalties, bad play, and everything else — the second half was nigh unwatchable.
W/L – Colts -3 over Patriots, 35-34, Colts cover: I came down firmly on the side of “Belicheck made a good call.” Here’s why: 1) I don’t buy the “you insulted your defense” argument because the defense had just surrendered a 31-14 lead in less than 12 minutes. 2) Bill Belicheck knows his team better than I do and even I could see his defense was done. With six Ns. Donnnnnne. 3) A coach’s job is to put his team in the best chance to win a game. Belicheck was saying “it doesn’t matter if I give the ball to Peyton on my 30 or his 30… he’s going to score. 4) I’d like someone to ask Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison if they’d be so self-righteous if they were on a squad that had just given Manning 200 yards in 8 minutes. 5) In two other fourth quarter drives, Manning started on his own 20 and went down the field in two minutes for touchdowns. 6) If the defense was insulted, they really didn’t do a great job of proving their point by giving the Colts 30 yards in 2 plays. Peyton Manning could have scored twice from the 30 if they let him. Besides… four-and-out is four-and-out. If the Pats’ defense is so great, stop them at the 30. 7) If you’d told the Colts at the beginning of the game “We’re going to forgo this entire game, but we’re going to give you the ball, down six with two minutes left on the clock and one time out at the 30 of the opponent’s choice” they would have giggled and asked where to sign. The Patriots only chance at winning that game was to use their best player to keep the Colts best player off the field. It didn’t work out.
W/W – Ravens -10.5 over Browns, , Ravens cover: The Browns, and Mangini’s, season can be defined on one play. Ray Rice runs in for a touchdown and the Browns only have 10 defenders on the field. Yup.
1) Falcons -1.5 over PANTHERS – L
2) DOLPHINS -10 over Bucs – L
3) Bengals +7 over STEELERS – W
Standings
Straight Up: 10-5 (95-49)
Against The Spread: 7-8 (71-73)
Spreadery: 1-2, 1 pt (13-16, 22)… I should really get points for somehow managing to pick seven to nine spreads correctly every week, but always being really confident in bad picks.
– Joe (31)
– Aaron (27)
– Tom (21)
Related posts:
Saw this post earlier, but intentionally waited until now to point out that Ronnie Brown’s out for the year.
If he played on an east coast team, I’m sure you’d have known that. *cough*
Aaron C.
19 Nov 09 at 9:24 pm
Yeah I wrote it on Monday night and forgot about it. It wasn’t going to change the pick anyway. And here’s to Rickey Williams’s 30 point night.
Tom
20 Nov 09 at 12:23 am