Week 14 Picks and Hot Stove Stuff

Finally, it happened. Week 13 wasn’t very good for me. Not that 6 and 8 is so horrible but after consecutive weeks of 9 and 5, 9 and 6, and 8-4 and 1, it just feels lousy. Just looking things over, the Steelers continued their downward spiral, something I didn’t expect, and Texas is apparently worse than I thought.

My best bets were just 2 and 2. So, after winning this 4-pick bet last week for a pickup of ten bucks, I lost my imaginary dollar again. The Eagles beat up the Falcons as I thought, and the scared-for-their-jobs Panthers covered against the Bucs. My next two were less prescient, I fear.

Our G-Men actually covered against the Cowboys, but they played out of their minds….for them anyway. And how often does friggin’ Domenik Hixon run one back? Then the Pats, who I thought would come out like screamin’ banshees after bowing to the Saints the previous week, let Miami and Chad Henne make monkies out of ‘em.

Week 14 begins tonight, of course, and I’m not picking Thursday games but, if I were, I’d still try to pass the game entirely. Both teams are beaten down but, relatively speaking, I’d think the Browns had less pressure this week and could be primed for a nice upset.

As for the other games, with spreads from The Star-Ledger, here’s the picks:

Favorite Spread Underdog 4 Best My Pick Reason

GIANTS 1 Eagles * Eagles No way Giants s/b favored in this
Jets 3 BUCS Jets But it won’t be easy…..
COLTS 7 Broncos Broncos Wishful thinkin’ maybe but DEE…..
VIKINGS 6 ½ Ten Ten Titans on a roll, will cover
CHIEFS Pk Bills Bills This will be a great game
Pack 3 BEARS Pack Pack’s roll keeps rolling
Saints 10 ½ Falcons Saints Saints could score at will
RAVENS 13 ½ Lions RAVENS If they’re not mad, they should be
JAGS 3 Miami * Miami JAGS don’t send me…Fish win
PATS 13 ½ Panthers Panthers They’re home but geez, 13 ½
TEXANS 6 Seahawks Seahawks Lucky if they win at all
TITANS 13 Rams Rams Here’s a real barn burner
Skins 1 RAIDERS * Skins Skins will run the ball
BOYZ 3 Chargers * Chargers Recent form sez no
Cards 3 ½ NINERS Cards I’m mad at Singletary


The best bets for Week 14:

Eagles – That the G-Men are favored at all is anathema to me. Didn’t the Giants play them once before this season? Didn’t they stink it up? Are they that much better now, especially after coming off a big win against Dallas? The Eagles will fly, Eagles, fly on the road to vic-to-reeee…..

Dolphins – let’s see, Jags stop the run, Miami runs, but now they pass too. Then they can run again off the pass. Let’s see, a short trip up the coast, no fans in the stands for the Jags, and maybe some Miami faithful show up in the stands…hmmm

Redskins – The Skins have really bad luck all the time but they always seem to work hard and that’s just the type of thing to take them to victory over the Raiders. They’ll run it and win the battles of the trenches. And all they gotta do is stop Gradkowski.

Chargers –San Diego is just loaded right now and the Cowboys just keep looking bad. Then they compound things by sending out Bum’s little son to face the ravenous Dallas media. Boyz have to show character to take this one and, my guess is, they come up on empty.

But that’s enough football. The Mets put a bid in for Jason Bay. While I should be doing handsprings, I’m sure, I have to be sad the Mets are afraid of Scott Boras, Matt Holliday’s agent. Holliday’s the better player and a way more consistent player. The Mets need a big bat, sure, and they got one, but I think we’ll be seeing some extended slumps. But hey! Be happy…he’s not Endy Chavez.

Then they’ll be getting the older Molina, Bengie, and he’s always hit a ton and been pretty consistent over his career, but why’s the little man in my head saying that’s why he’ll get injured this year, just in time for the Mets. But, once again, he’s a real live catcher, a major-league catcher…which is to say, he’s not the guy they traded for LoDuca, our last real major-league catcher.

Everybody’s saying the Yanks just improved themselves with the pickup of Granderson in that 3-way trade. Hard to argue with, but if they lose both Damon and Matsui, I say they won’t be stronger at all. Of course, the Yanks, I’m sure, have a contingency for this eventuality and they have all that money…..so…

My guess would be the Mets decided not to go for one of the big-time pitchers. But maybe they’re just biding their time, seeing what develops with the contract demands and the various offers.

And, they’re still looking to trade Luis Castillo, of course, not that he’s been any kind of a problem really. Unless you count dropping Arod’s easy fly ball to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, Teixeira racing from first with the winning run and, oh God, let’s not make me re-live that horror….

Are the Nets or Knicks worth mentioning? If they were, it’d be noteworthy that the Nets finally looked tough in Chicago against the Bulls. And you could notice that the Knicks went off on a very limited run.

I think, though, the Nets are playing harder for Kiki and they’re actually running now, something that they haven’t done since some expert said the only way to win in the playoffs was to play half-court basketball. What they didn’t realize was that the NBA and the refs were going to give the trophy to Shaq, no matter what happened out on the court.

The NBA…..I watched the Bulls point guard palm the ball all night without a call. This is basketball? I ask you??