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.