Eagles-Boyz and Week 17 Picks

Week 16 was an unqualified success. 10-4-1. Very satisfying. Cumulative stands at a very nice 94-78-3.

The miserable performance the Giants threw in totally messed up my weekly 4 best bets. Oh, and a popular theory says the Giants biggest problem is attitude. I say that's nonsense. Their biggest problem is they play confused. Especially on defense. It's so obvious. The only game the defense held up on was the Skins game. They're pretty stoppable. If I were the new Skins head of operations, I'd seriously consider a new quarterback. Really.

And now Osi says he's on the way out. Why IS that exactly? All I know is that the Giants used to have a defense, have almost always had a good defense, and I can't really get used to this bunch. It's the coverage, stupid, and the pass rush, that just isn't there. Seems Antonio Pierce could have made a big difference. But maybe not.

My comment on the Jets for that selection (over the Colts) was "who knows who'll play for Indi ?".........Manning was pissed, it was great, heh-heh.

I thought the big radio guy went too tough on the Jets for defending their victory. I mean, they won. What would you have said if they had STILL lost? Let's face it, these Jets will say stupid things because....well, they're a long way from diplomatic, and it doesn't take much success to go to their heads. But they're a tough bunch on defense. Would you rather have them talk about execution? (finger down throat)

The Jets are having a party at Giants Stadium at halftime. I have a feeling the Bengals will do all they can to put a damper on proceedings. That doesn't mean the Jets will necessarily fold either. It's just that it might be a very tough game. I may even eschew NFL Redzone to watch the WHOLE thing. After all, fantasy season is over for me. (I did take third though, woohoo!)

The tough thing is watching the Jets offense. It can be a painful thing. And I'd hope they let Sanchez loose a little throughout the game, I think they'll need his arm against the Bengals. The kid throws a nice pass, epecially when he's on the run. Seems like caging a tiger to put these shackles on him. Yeah, I know, he turns it over but still.....he's not friggin' Craig Morton, ya know?

But Week 17 is dominated by the Cowboys-Eagles game. It's got everything...tradition? You bet. Exciting players? Yeah, well, I've shown two of them up top there. Jason Avant isn't even DeSean Jackson or Jeremy Maclin, two even more spectacular receivers. He made a really nice catch at the goal line on what looked like a deflection against the poor Broncos, and then later on Asante Samuel just did what he does best....intercept the ball and get it going the other way.

Anyway, my point is you've got these wacky young guys and Number 5 going against a none-too-brash Tony Romo, that gigantic offensive line and Jersey's own Miles Austin. Then there's Marion Barber and geez, Jerry Jones too. What a friggin' circus it could be!

Anyway, let me extend my current winning pct to the final week.

For your Week 17 consideration:
Favorite Spread Underdog 4 Best My Pick Reason

MIN 9 Nyg * MIN It's all over...even the shoutin'
NYJ 10 Cin Cin Ocho Cinco's playing...why not the others?
BUF 5 Ind Ind Difficult to pick Bills under any circumstances
CAR 5 NO CAR Panthers gone wild. last two
CLE 1 Jac Cle Browns favored again! Keep Mangini?
DAL 3 Phi Phi Eagles are better...for NFC East title and poss 2 seed
Chi 3 DET * Chi Did ya see da Bears-Vikings game?
Hou 8 1/2 NE Hou Another one-hand clapping affair
Pit 3 MIA Pit Both have chances..Steelers have the goods
49ers 7 STL * 49ers First time non-losing since 2002, for big Mike S.
Atl 3 TB Atl Falcons have the QB
ARI 3 Pack ARI this is the first of two meetings
DEN 13 1/2 Chiefs * DEN Broncs hope Bengals beat Jets
Bal 11 OAK OAK At home with nothin' to lose and 13 1/2
SD 4 Was SD Who knows how bad Skins are


The best bets for Week 17:



Vikings – Must get well for playoffs, tough loss to Bears....Favre against that horrible Giants secondary. Peterson against that deflated D.



Bears– Bears showed a lot against the Vikings as for potential, the Lions don't have much to motivate them.



Broncos – after tough Eagles loss, they'll run the Chiefs wild. They have a decent shot at playoffs.



Niners – I really think the Niners players will take advantage of a losing team as tribute to Singletary. A win and they'll have the best Niners record since 2002. Optimism will abound in the city by the bay.


That's it. HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

P.S. Okay, Mets fans, we have Jason Bay at long last. Let's see ...that lineup....1.Reyes, 2.Castillo?, 3.Beltran, 4.Bay, 5.Wright,6.Delgado7.Francoeur 8.B. Molina?9. Pitcher

Then....starters the same for now....Santana, Maine, Pelfrey, Perez, Niese, Parnel...........,then Kelvim Escobar and Ryota Igarashi added to relief corps....hmm.

Prices will be coming down, folks...

J -E -T - S...........

Week 16 Picks

Well, week 15 was my worst ever. Two wins and two ties. All the rest were bad. An amazingly bad week. Still cum is 84-74-3.

Here’s the picks for all the games, with spreads again from The Star-Ledger

Favorite Spread Underdog 4 Best My Pick Reason

GIANTS 7 ½ Panthers * GIANTS GIANTS need the win
COLTS 5 ½ Jets Jets Who knows who’ll play for Indi
GB 14 Sea GB You are what your record sez, no?
BROWNS 3 Oak Oak Raiduhs have a defense
CIN 13 ½ Kc Kc Too many points
ATL 9 Buf Buf Circle the wagons
MIA 1 ½ Tex Tex Tex better all around
NO 14 Bucs NO Make up for last week
PATS 9 Jags PATS Jags awful in last week
PIT 3 Bal * Bal Ravens just better
PHI 7 Den Den Game will be closer
ARI 14 ½ Rams ARI Warner to all?
SF 13 Det * SF Back to Singletary
Dal 7 SKINS * Dal What’s to recommend Skins?
MIN 7 CHI MIN Vikes embarrassed in last


The best bets for Week 16:

Cowboys – Cowboys back to Cowboys football. The Skins have regressed if that’s even possible.

Niners – Mike S has his Niners rounding into form while the Lions are improving but are overmatched in this one.

Ravens – Ravens have a defense, at least, and I’m not sure anymore WHAT the Steelers have, except for a very lucky quarterback.

Giants – This is partly just hoping that last week wasn’t an anomaly-nice word, that

Colts-Saints by any Measure

It’s amazing that after all these weeks, we still don’t really know which teams are the best. The quality of teams is entirely dependent upon injuries and current form, so the “best” becomes a moving target. Some teams come on at the end, as the Giants did in 2007. The Cowboys, if they can keep it up for another couple of weeks, may be that team this year, as unlikely as that may seem.

But, in the NFC, there’s slim pickin’s. The Saints proved their vulnerability to the Cowboys. The Vikings were shellacked by the now 6-8 Panthers. The Eagles beat a pretty good Niners team and the Giants pasted the Skins. But it would be hard to rate any of the NFC teams with the AFC Colts or Chargers. The closest candidate might be the Eagles.

Week 15 was a horror for some of those NFC teams, and myself for that matter. Nothing figured. If a monkey made my weekly picks, he would’ve killed me.
Minnesota was vastly disappointing. I know this because my best early-year fantasy pickup was Sidney Rice. His QB, Favre, had no time at all. Period. And the great Adrian Peterson did nothing against the now 6-8 Panthers, who proved their inconsistency once again, in a good way.

The Saints looked awful but that might have been the Cowboys doing. Drew Brees had no time to throw. DeMarcus Ware was everywhere. Brees, my fantasy QB, had his first truly bad performance. But if anybody ever had an excuse, it was Mr. Brees. The Cowboys were gangbusters.

The Eagles played a nice game vs. Mike Singletary’s 49ers, and in so doing, to my mind climbed up a few notches. Much as baseball pitchers can have quality starts, teams can have quality wins…good offense, defense and special teams. And it was their 5th win in a row.

The Packers have a great aerial attack and they showed that once again against the Steelers. But their defense leaves a whole lot to be desired, so they lost to Big Ben and the Steelers in the final seconds….just a horrible loss.

While I’m happy the Giants did play better, can they do it two weeks in a row against those same Panthers that kicked butt against Minnesota? While the Skins win proves they can perform with their backs against the wall against a team in turmoil (bye bye Coach Zorn), can they show up again this Sunday?

Personally, I don’t think so. They’ll have to show me.

The Cards kept the lowly Lions in the game till the very end. The Cards will drive you crazy…totally schizo for two years running, but they did do just enough to hold on. And you get the feeling that they’re always a little better than your eyes are telling you.

So, if I had to rate the NFC right now, it’d be Saints, Eagles, Cards, Cowboys, Vikings and Packers. Sorry Giants, you just missed my cut, and you’ll probably miss the actual playoffs cut too. It’s interesting to note that the QB’s involved are Brees, McNabb, Warner, Romo, Favre and Aaron Rodgers, quite the respectable group.

In the AFC, the Colts beat the Jags but sure gave up a lot of points in doing so. The Pats just did what was absolutely necessary against the Bills. Then there are the Bengals and the Chargers, but not in that order.

The Bengals had a lot to play for but the Chargers didn’t let the Bengals take it away from them sheerly on intensity. That’s really saying a lot. Phillip Rivers did his weekly thing with Vincent Jackson and Antonio Gates and their defense did just enough.

There are really only four legitimate AFC playoff teams. The rest are pretenders, the strongest being the Ravens, but all are moderately to seriously flawed. But, with feet held to the fire (I’d feel sorry for the fire), the best AFC teams are the Colts (big surprise), Chargers, Patriots and Bengals; then there are a host of “coulda-beens” headed by Baltimore, and then the Broncos, but Pittsburgh and five other teams are 7-7, and still eligible.

Even the Jets are still in the hunt.

Incidentally, the four best AFC teams are qb’d by Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, Tom Brady and Carson Palmer. The Ravens, led by Jersey Joe Flacco and the Broncos, led by Kyle Orton, would seem to be a step behind but the Steelers, should they make the dance are lead be Big Ben Roethlisberger.

The others don’t deserve mentioning, though some might make a case for the Texans’ Matt Schaub. I wouldn’t.

I like using the differential between points scored and points against as a measuring stick . In the AFC, the Colts have the best differential at 146. Second best is, a surprise, the Ravens, at 125, then the Pats at 121. Every other differential is ridiculously small by comparison.

In the NFC, the Saints differential is 185! The Vikings have a 127. Pack 100 and the Eagles a very nice 113. The Cards, on the other hand, have only a 55. If you’re curious, the Giants have a 44, the Cowboys 70. I won’t bore you with the rest.

They say defenses win championships. In the AFC, the Ravens, of course, have a great defense, which contributes mightily to their point differential. They have fewer points (225) scored against them than any other team except the Jets, who lead at 221. But they’ve scored only 282.

In the NFC, the best pure PA stat belongs to the Cowboys, at 250. The next best defense as measured by PA belongs to the 49ers, a non-contender. The other NFC teams really aren’t that great defensively, including the Saints at 298. The Giants have a horrible 342, hardly the stuff of contenders.

Then there’s that axiom “You are what your record says you are”. The Colts are 14-0. The Saints are 13-1. It would seem pretty clear by that measure.

Week 15 NFL and Aspetta! to Mets Fans

Well, Week 14 worked very nicely, thank you. The weekly record was 10-5, making the cumulative a nice comfy 82-63-1. Oh, and did I mention going 4 for 4 on best bets, thus pocketing another ten big ones?

The first best bet was the Eagles to cover vs. the Giants. I said there was no way the G-Men should be favored and unfortunately for the Giants, Coughlin and especially Sheridan, I was only too right.

Miami beat the Jags who were favored in Jacksonville, and my thought was that there might be more Miami fans in the stands than one might think at any other stadium, and that the Fish would prevail, or swim faster or sumthin’. That worked out too.

I felt really strongly about the Skins running ALL over the Raiduhs and lo and behold, Quinton Ganther went nuts and the Silver and Black turned black and blue, 34-13.

Another line I thought was all messed up was the Boyz being favored over the Chargers. Even a 3-point spread was ridiculous. The Chargers proved me right by holding on for a 20-17 outright win.

On top of all that, my fantasy team, dem Crabs, won in the first round of the playoffs, romping behind Brees and Colston, Grant and Ganther, a late pickup.

So life is good, and there are some real nice matchups scheduled for Week 15. I’ve continued my practice of ignoring Thursday games so I’ll just say that the Jags defense really isn’t so super. The Colts couldn’t be stopped or even slowed down very much.

Week 15 resumes Saturday night, of course, with the big Cowboys-Saints matchup in N’Awlins and the Saints are favored by 7, a pretty big spread for a Boyz team backed up against the wall. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Here’s the picks for all the games, with spreads again from The Star-Ledger

Favorite Spread Underdog 4 Best My Pick Reason

SAINTS 7 Cowboys * Cowboys Boyz need the win
JETS 4 Falcons Falcons Falcons too good to end so badly
PITT 1 Pack Pack You are what your record sez, no?
TITANS 3 Mia TITANS Very strong run D and home cookin’..
Pats 7 ½ BILLS Pats Pats away not so hot but still….
Cards 12 LIONS Cards Schizo Cards come back big
EAGLES 8 ½ Niners Niners A real defense shows up
RAVENS 11 Bears Bears 11’s too much if Bears show up
CHIEFS 2 Browns CHIEFS Browns improving but road wins hard
Texans 10 RAMS * Texans Still a lot to prove for Texans
SD 7 Bengals SD Hard to weigh Henry loss
DEN 14 Raiders * DEN New QB in hostile digs
SEA 8 Bucs * SEA Hawks tough at home
Vikes 9 CAR Vikes What’s to recommend Car?
Giants 3 SKINS SKINS Giants just run around stupid


The best bets for Week 15:

Cowboys – It’s been almost painful seeing the Cowboys get roughed up. They may play better away from home and Saints defense can be had. Brees and Colston, Meachem, Shockey, all these weapons may have to score a LOT. Boyz may be able to control the ball for long stretches.

Texans – Texans HOT and Rams are NOT. Texans may be finally growing up and won’t have to do too much to pull away from a struggling Rams squad.

Broncos – Gigantic spread but the Raiders go with a veteran QB they pulled off the street. Seems like a punishment for Russell. Can’t imagine a team responding to that kind of thing. Broncs happy and they do have a running back or two to pound the ball.

Seahawks –All that noise in Seattle should rattle the young Bucs and 8 points doesn’t seem to even things up that much. This could be another blowout.

I’d just like to bid a fond farewell to Johnny Damon. It looks as if his Yanks career is over. He’ll wind up somewhere else at more years and money and wish he and his agent weren’t so greedy. Damon was as responsible as anyone for the Yanks resurgence to the top and they really don’t have anyone as clutch as he was, unless it was Matsui who’ll be hanging his hat in La-la Land.

Matsui will probably wind up being another great pickup for the Angels, much as was their one-year Bobby Abreu deal of last year. But his knees are very shaky and the Mets couldn’t realistically look to him for any long-term solutions.

I wish folks could show a little more patience with the Mets. I applaud their move back towards Holliday. Bay is over-rated and Mets shouldn’t tie up their long-term future with anyone, never mind a Jason Bay.

As for pitching, we’ll see how their Igarashi signing works out. He should be an adequate setup man for K-Rod. The Mets could see a resurgence from any one of their young arms, especially given the return of Reyes and Beltran to the lineup.

Free agency isn’t the only route towards acquiring a hitter and it seems to me that a trade may make more sense in the long run. I think they could offer any of several of their young pitchers as bait for a guy with power. They just aren’t all that rare.

So….as my Dad would often say….aspetta!

The Worst and Best of 2009

I think I’m going to be sick. Tiger Woods has been named Athlete of the Decade by AP. What timing, huh?

I don’t even care whether he is or not but it seems the AP is trying to get in the good graces of Tiger, amidst all the well-deserved media (and universal) criticism. If not for his good graces, the award was given to make sure he’d return to the game so that AP writers would have something to write about, as if there’re no other good candidates for a little more press.

I’m not a moralist but Tiger has lived a despicable existence for a married man, not because he fooled around but because he fooled around and took almost no pains to disguise the fact. It was okay with Woods to embarrass his wife and his kid…..over and over again.

So spare me if I spit on your award, AP. I’m happy not to be a part of it.

Speaking of despicable human beings, Bret Favre was hailed in a recent Newark Star-Ledger article that boosted him for MVP, as if there were no other candidates, as if there were nobody performing better, not Peyton Manning, not Drew Brees or Philip Rivers, to name just a few.

The writer in question also seemed to think all the criticism was unfounded, a theory that just doesn’t wash.

Let me say it one more time. Favre ruined the Jets season last year by playing hurt. He hid his arm injury to keep his consecutive games record alive. He didn’t care what he did to the Jets season. That he had a perfectly willing Jets management to assist him in that regard isn’t really the point. The man needed an arm operation LAST YEAR, not in the off-season so that he could come back totally healthy with his rocket arm working perfectly well for his old team’s biggest rival.

Favre certainly has been great this year. And he was pretty great for a lot of years. And maybe he would be a viable candidate for NFL MVP this year. But he cheated the Jets and the Jets fans. He took a playoffs season away from them. That’s my problem with Favre. The fact that he never met a camera or microphone he didn’t like has nothing to do with it.

Let’s see….who else can I pick on? Oh, I know, how about Serena Williams, the latest quasi-star to get a break from the U.S. press and the powers that be in tennis.

She deserved a suspension for her ugly emotional display (and arguably, assault upon the lineswoman) at the U.S. Open. She got a fine instead. She now has the green light to ruin everybody’s good time at another major tennis event. Along the way, we can listen to her whine that the whole ugly matter should be put to rest.

She not only ruined the Open, she also robbed the winner, Kim Clijsters of Belgium, of her victory on the court, a hard-fought and decisive victory, one for which Williams had no ready excuse. She hadn’t launched her crippled act. She hadn’t tapped into the trainers-session delays she had used in several important past matches to demoralize opponents who had finer tennis skills but couldn’t match her for gamesmanship and rules-twisting.

There is still some good in the world though. As this is the Christmas season, let me now focus on some positively good people, some people who aren’t just talented but who always seem to personify hard work and class.

How about Mark Teixeira? Teixeira did nothing but good things for the Yankees in 2009, earning every bit of his money and hustling all along the way. I’ll always remember his scoring from first base with the winning run against the Mets on a fly ball that 99.5 % of the time gets caught. But since it was Luis Castillo, the ball wasn’t caught. Teixeira stole one for his Yankees, not with his considerable talent but with his remarkable hustle.

How about Eli Manning? All Eli does is try to win. He can’t quite manage the fine sense of humor his brother has always had. And he doesn’t have his brother’s accuracy to be perfectly honest.

Eli just had exactly the confident but humble demeanor his team needed in 2007, one that he still brought to the table this year and last, no matter that he was robbed first of his wide-outs and then of his defense. You never hear a word of complaint from Eli, although I suspect his receivers hear about their route-running from time to time.

How about Drew Brees? Here’s a true man of stature who lacks only height, a guy who has been “dissed” throughout his lifetime by football experts, a guy who kept Philip Rivers on the bench in San Diego, where he started his pro career, for two full years, a guy who should have won the Heisman in 2000 but lost to the taller Chris Weinke from Florida State (but did finish ahead of LaDainian Tomlinson and a fella named Michael Vick).

When Brees was eligible for free agency in 2006, the Chargers elected to let him go with nary an unkind word from Mr. Brees, to the Saints, who Brees lead to their first NFC Championship Game in his first year.

Ever since his acquisition, Brees has been top notch offensively, starting every game for the Saints and gaining over 4400 yards in his first two years before topping the 5000 yard mark in 2008. This year, Brees is once again among the NFC leaders in yardage and touchdowns, this despite the fact that the Saints are running more than ever in their quest for that elusive Super Bowl victory.

Unlike Peyton and Brady, though, Brees throws to everyone ,usually making sure every wide-out gets his touchdown each game, making household names of Marques Colston, Robert Meachem and Devery Henderson.

He’s the best of 2009 and King of Bacchus too!

Giants Embarassment

I’ve about had it with the Giants. That Sunday night display of clueless defense was just too much for an old cornerback. I mean…where was the coverage? I could understand a breakdown in coverage on a single play. On a bad night I could understand even a couple of mistakes. After all, these are supposed to be pros.

What a sad joke they are! What a poor excuse for a football team! Except for the offense, which, to their credit performed admirably all night long (except for Manningham), this team stinks out loud. Last night was not an isolated incident. This team’s defense has been horrible ever since Spagnuolo went to St Louis to coach the Rams.

We could have expected a period of transition, similar to the beginning of the Giants Super Bowl season of 2007, when the defense turned it around after three weeks of horrible coverage and awful losses. After all, a professional defense is a complicated thing. You’d expect that a few weeks would be needed to digest it.

But what you wouldn’t expect was what happened last night. Let’s review:

FIRST HALF
First Philly possession – 7 plays to a Brent Celek TD, big 32 yard completion to DeSean Jackson, Philly needed no third downs in the drive.

Second Philly score – starts with Jacobs fumble after Giants were moving the ball. Fumble scooped up and returned 60 yards for a TD.

Second actual offensive possession - Philly actually had to punt.

Third Philly possession – 12-plays, Philly settles for a field goal.

Fourth Philly “possession” – 72-yard punt return for TD.

Fifth Philly possession – 8 plays, 2 third downs, one went for 23 yards down the middle to Celek, one to DeSean Jackson for 44 yards. Vick scored the TD.

Second HALF

First Philly possession – The new guy in the defense (Jonathan Goff) gets an interception! Manning fumbled shortly thereafter.

Second Philly possession – Philly had to punt AGAIN (holy cow)

Third Philly possession – 60-yard TD to Jackson on first play after Giants score

Fourth Philly possession – another punt – WooHoo!

Fifth Philly possession – 12 plays, 91 yards, TD, McNabb passes to just about anybody wearing green, they were all open.

Sixth Philly possession – Philly just burning time – punt, meaningless possession

Every time Philly needed a score, they got one. Philly could score at will. The Giants were helpless. McNabb had all day to throw. Almost literally. The secondary couldn’t cover anybody. Again.

I’ve been saying all year long that this new defensive coordinator was not working out. Now I’m saying Coughlin isn’t working out. The man did nothing, through all the blown coverages, through all the losses, through all the embarassments, he’s done NOTHING, except to protect his horrible defensive coordinator.

I said several weeks ago the Giants wouldn’t make the playoffs with that defense. (It doesn’t take a rocket scientist after all). The only reason they have a chance at making the playoffs at all is that Dallas is faltering and has a tough remaining schedule.

But they were actually favored against the Eagles, a remarkable fact that indicates how over-rated the Giants really are. They are no match for the Eagles.

The Eagles have a coach who actually knows how to coach. When there’s a problem, he fixes it. He responds to changes in his environment. Reid may pass too often and forget about his running game but he realizes his mistakes and reacts. Coughlin just stands there looking confused and making excuses.

Maybe I’m being too hard on Coughlin. I wonder if this clueless DC was his choice. I wonder if keeping him is within his realm of empowerment…perhaps not, and, if not, I apologize.

But somebody has to take the hit for these year-long failures.
The G.M. has certainly done nothing, either to adequately replace the safety that went down or to replace the middle linebacker when he went down. Let’s give him some of the blame too.

But maybe he can’t spend any money. After all, the Giants haven’t sold nearly all the PSL’s they’ve needed.

So maybe it’s the fan’s fault. Ownership is punishing its fans for not buying up the seat licenses, for moving from mezzanine sections to the upper deck, for not drinking the tres cher Kool-Aid.

In any event, I’m through even rooting for this team. It’s tough to keep pulling for those who don’t even try to help themselves. The Giants are as bad now as they were in the sad years before George Young was hired, when the Mara brothers were fighting each other and neither one knew what he was doing.

And it’s not just the defense. The special teams have been almost as bad. At least two of the wide receivers look as if they’ve never played football before, Manningham and Moss.

About 90% of high school receivers know how to drag a leg after making a catch near the sideline. Manningham is uncoachable, apparently. Either that or the coach(es) don’t know how to teach. Sinorice Moss just never picked up route-running or anything else.

Okay, I’ve said enough about that sorry organization.

In lighter matters, the Jets looked really solid yesterday. I know the Bucs aren’t very good but the Jets beat them slowly and inexorably to the end. Their second-string QB didn’t take any chances and the running game under Thomas Jones wore those Bucs down. Their defense was unbelievable. In fact, statistically, they have the best defense in the league.

They get Atlanta next at home and the Falcons haven’t shown much; they’re all banged up. Then they get two ridiculously tough opponents, the Colts and the Bengals, but both those teams may be coasting by the time the Jets come to town.

But, even then, they could easily miss the playoffs as there are so many other teams in the hunt.

But, playoffs or not, I like the Ryan-led Jets. Ryan has made mistakes but he’s admitted them and then taken action to change things for the better.

The Giants simply have not.

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??

On A Wacky NFL Week 13

What an NFL Sunday! The Giants inexplicably (or is it?) beat the hated Cowboys (ask Tuck), the world-champion Steelers lose once again, the Saints flash the luck of the Irish coming back to beat the tough but sorry Skins and my Niners and Singletary lose in Herm Edwards style in Seattle.

Then the Pats and Tom Brady not only lose but look bad doing so as they practically give the game away to the Dolphins in Miami. And did anybody else think the Arizona Cards would shock the powerful Vikings? I know I didn’t.

And it’s not over yet. The craziness continues tonight as the Ravens take on the Packers in Green Bay, a big game for each team that will go a long way towards determining their respective playoff chances.

The G-Men-Boyz game was classic. They looked beaten during the week. I thought they’d crumble. I thought that big lug Jacobs would give us more of the same, that their defense would even be worse than usual after having demoted Osi, and that Barber and Jones and Choice would run over them. I thought they’d be soft and fold.
Wow! It didn’t work out that way.

Jacobs actually ran hard into the middle of the Cowboys line, the offensive line gave Eli some time to throw and charged straight ahead on the runs, and then ,when it looked as if the G-Men, after playing so well all afternoon, would blow it by settling for that late field goal, Domenick Hixon finally showed some creativity, not to mention speed, by returning the ensuing punt about 80 yards to put the game out of reach.

The defense squashed the run so effectively that the Boyz just stopped trying. And Romo picked them apart but it didn’t prove fatal. The defense held. The demotions worked. The Giants coaching staff looks brilliant. And Osi came through with a big fumble recovery and runback. New blood came through as Clint Sintin, the high draft choice linebacker, came through in some big spots and Hakeem Nicks caught another touchdown pass.

The game even had a fight (what more could we ask). That nasty Flozell Adams, the same guy who hurt Tuck on a dirty play earlier in the year, seemed to think it’d be cute to push Tuck to the ground from behind. Tuck didn’t think so.

The Steelers without Polamalu aren’t the same team. After Big Ben put them ahead with time running down, they let a rookie quarterback take the Raiders right down the field…no trouble at all, thank you very much, and I guess it doesn’t matter what Mike Tomlin says. It does show how delicate the sanctity of a defense can be, even if it’s just one long-haired freak (a really good one though) who’s missing.

The Saints were just great. So were the Skins for that matter but they have a choking kicker and a safety of their own who really contributed nothing to safety yesterday. Double moves by two different Saints wideouts sucked him in totally, two mistakes that were good for 14 Saints points.

You have to wonder whether the Saints can keep winning this way though. Their secondary, that was great against Brady and New England, got torched for about 400 yards by Jason Campbell. Luckily for them, they had Brees and Colston and especially Meacham, who literally stole 7 points and scored 7 more on his double-move.

As disappointed as Skins fans may have been (after all, it’s been like this all year for them), they couldn’t have been more crestfallen than Niners fans, who could only watch as Mike Singletary mistook Alex Smith for Peyton Manning or Dan Marino, at any rate a much better quarterback (and team) than the one he had out there.

With 51 seconds left in a tie game, from deep in their own end, the Niners came out throwing. It didn’t work very well…surprise! They had to punt, and since they had left time on the clock and had given the Seahawks great field position, all it took was one nicely placed Hasselbeck pass to put the Hawks in field position for the game-winning field goal. Sickening….and season-killing.

A team has to know who they are. The Niners are, or should be, a conservative team that wins games with its strong defense, much like the Broncos, who absolutely slaughtered the Chiefs yesterday as their quarterback amassed all of 187 yards. The Niners seem to think that, since they finally signed Crabtree and since they have an All-Star tight end, they can be the Cardiac Cards from yesteryear. They aren’t. And, for the rest of this year at least, they’ll be something else…irrelevant.

When I picked the Pats to beat the Dolphins last week, I was aware that the Pats always had big trouble winning at Miami. But I told myself it had nothing to do with this game. Surely the Pats would come back strong against the Fish, after the thrashing they had taken on national TV last week against the Saints.

Once again, a team has to know who they are. The Pats seem to think they’re Tom Brady. They were ahead by 14 but twice failed to put the game away from inside the Fish 10-yard line. Last time I looked, they had a pretty fair running game. They didn’t really use it yesterday. After the game, Brady had what seemed like gall to me as he blasted his team for not fighting hard enough at the end of games. To me, it seemed as if they were trying to pad some individual stats on the way to a win they thought they had.

Last night’s game seemed to say a lot about who the final NFC Super-Bowl representative would be. I thought it would be the Vikings or Saints. The Vikes have Brett Favre and Peterson.. The Saints have all kinds of weapons. But the Cards have defense. Hmm.

Tonight we’ll see what the Pack can do.

Week 13 Picks and Go Saints

Week 12 was once again a winner for me as my weekly record was 8-4-1, bringing my cumulative record against the spread to a very healthy 71-50-1. While I can’t expect this good luck to continue, I can be hopeful that this streak goes one more week.

Actually, my best bets weren’t that great (2-1-1) so I didn’t win the ten bucks as I did last week. You wouldn’t think picking 4 absolute locks would be that difficult but, in this very fluky NFL, it’s proven to be a real poser.

My Week 12 best bets were Washington over Philadelphia getting a whopping 9 points, Cleveland over the Bengals getting 14, Arizona getting 3 vs the Titans (the tie), and Miami over the Bills by 3 (the loser). Terrell Owens made a monkey of me and the Fish in that one. The Bills sure didn’t repeat their fine performance Thursday night against our Jets.

Once again, this winning streak can’t continue so consider that as you bet. There are once again some big injuries and uncertainties. Kurt Warner’s status last week wasn’t solidified until Sunday morning.

Anyway, here’s the Week 13 picks:

Favorite Spread Underdog 4 Best My Pick Reason

Den 4 ½ KCY Den Teams going opposite ways
PIT 14 ½ Oak PIT Raiders give up easy
JAC PK Tex Tex Just can’t pick Jags
IND 6 ½ Ten Ten Titans on a roll, will cover
Phi 5 ½ ATL * Phi This could get ugly
CIN 13 ½ Det Det Bengals won’t win big
Saints 9 ½ WAS WAS Brees will handoff a lot
CAR 6 ½ Bucs * CAR They’re all on notice in Carolina
CHI 9 Stl CHI Bears will take advantage
Chargers 13 ½ CLE CLE Browns cover on SD defense
SEA Pk 49ers 49ers Always on the Niners
Vikes 3 ARI Vikes Who’s better? The Vikes
Boyz 2 ½ NYG * Boyz G-Men just seem beaten already
Pats 4 MIA * Pats Pats embarrassed, win big



The best bets for Week 13:

Eagles – Really unimpressed by Falcons defense combined with Eagles recent narrow victories make me believe McNabb will just score early, late and quite often, DeSean or no DeSean, Westbrook or not.

Panthers – Delhomme’s benching will energize Carolina. Peppers will make himself a problem for Tampa Bay’s linemen. Biggest factor is that everybody from the coach to the special teams knows they’re expendable.

Cowboys – I really hate picking the Boyz but this is a game I truly feel the Giants have already conceded. Everybody’s hurt and now Osi is benched? Doesn’t look good for the G-Men. CC Brown may even play, omigosh, that’s really scary.

Patriots –Just as surely as the Saints kicked their butts last week, you know the Pats will come back loaded for bear, or fish. Dolphins just need other weapons besides Ricky, who will get some yards but not so many scores.

On other fronts, let me just put my two cents in for the “powers that be” in women’s tennis. Their heavy fine ($82,500) of Serena Williams was more than I would have expected but less than what she deserved. I’m really tired of hearing both sisters talk about “moving on”. I’m not ready to move on yet. I may never be.

On Tiger’s situation, I just want to voice my surprise that, amid all this speculation about how many girlfriends he’s had, nobody has speculated about what club Elin used to break the windows in the caddy! C’mon people, this is GOLF. When you watch a match, all you hear is what club they’re selecting. (My guess is a low iron, probably a 3).

I’m a little concerned about my Mets. What the heck are they doing? Blanco? With so many needs all over the place, I wouldn’t have expected the first move to be a totally nebulous one….cryptic even. Let’s see…the Braves pick up Billy Wagner and Takashi Saito and we get friggin’ Blanco, who hits way less than Omir Santos, the incumbent.

Yeah, it’s great that Johan Santana recommended him, he’s supposed to be good with pitchers, blah blah blah, but who’s running this team anyway? Oh, and we let Placido Polanco go on to the Phils. I guess we’ll be hoping Luis Castillo still has one more good year. Good luck. Good grief!

Meanwhile, I actually heard a Mets fan call in to complain about Matt Holliday’s lack of range in left field. Gimme a break. Yeah, let’s go all out for Endy Chavez, he’s got LOTS of range.

On the basketball front, which I’ve been studiously ignoring so far, I see Allen Iverson has landed with the Sixers. Good for Allen, good for the Sixers and good for the league. It’s hard to keep LeBron out of the news, not to mention Kobe, but I hope they won’t make him practice. PRACTICE?

Meanwhile, the glow is only now fading from the Saints’ pulverizing of the Pats on Monday Night Football, for all the world to see. I foresaw something like it in last Friday’s column, speculating that the Saints had the pure motivation on their side. Drew Brees and company, Colston, Meachem, Moore, Shockey, et al really gave it to them.

But it was the defense that really came up big, and to see McAllister and Mike McKenzie play the way they did, after just having had joined the team, was fantastic. Kudos to all the Saints, Pierre Thomas too. This is a team you have to root for to go all the way.

Back to the Giants, as they are playing this weekend, I wish I had something nice to say. I’ve been picking on defensive coordinator Sheridan all year and I still suspect he is the biggest problem of a whole slew of them.

Let me end this by wishing all you fantasy players good luck in Week 13 that in most leagues is the final week of the regular season. I need a win and another Brees and Saints week.