Archive for November, 2009

Can You Feel That? Vince Young Makes Jeff Fisher a Winner

Chris C

– November 30, 2009Posted in: NFL

Just over a month ago, Tennessee Titans Head Coach Jeff Fisher made headlines by wearing a Colts jersey to a charity event. As he revealed Peyton Manning’s familiar #18 across his chest, Fisher declared to the receptive crowd, “I just wanted to feel like a winner.”

At the time the Titans were 0-6 and unquestionably the biggest disappointment in the League. The following week, at the urging of team owner Bud Adams, Fisher made a switch to his starting lineup, reinstating former-quarterback-of-the-future Vince Young behind center. It was a move many interpreted as a waving-of-the-white-flag by Fisher, forfeiting hope on a season that began with Super Bowl aspirations.

Since the switch, the Titans have won five straight.

Of the five wins, none has been more impressive than Sundays against the Cardinals. Laugh as you may at the Cardinals history of ineptitude or the less-than-intimidating looking bird on their helmets, they are still the defending NFC Champs, boast a 7-4 record, and are the safe bet to win their division for the second consecutive season. Never mind that that division is the woeful NFC North… the Cards are, for all intents and purposes, a contender.

So when Cardinals LaRod Stephens-Howling downed a punt at the 1 yard line with 2:37 remaining and the Titans in a four-point deficit, Jeff Fisher probably wasn’t feeling too good. It seemed a safe assumption Coach Fisher would go home that night, throw his Peyton Manning jersey on his back, stand in front of his bedroom mirror and pretend to be a winner, because there was no way the Titans were leaving that game victorious.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: jeff fisher peyton maning jersey, vince young, vince young bud adams, vince young jeff fisher, vince young tennessee titans

NFL Week 12 Recap

Chris C

– November 30, 2009Posted in: Monday Morning Hangover

Another week of football in the books. Well almost, we still have the Saints-Pats tonight, which should be a dandy.

Were inching closer to the playoffs as were starting to see who are the contenders and pretenders.

Now onto my recap of Week 12 in the NFL:

Concussions Taking a Toll

Concussions have always been a cause for concern in the NFL. It has been one of, if not the most, controversial and debated injuries. They have cut short many player’s careers such as Troy Aikman, Steve Young, and many, many more and recent studies have shown it has caused major damage for players in their post-playing careers. But it isn’t until recently that were seeing a change in the way they’re handled.

A few weeks ago news broke that there would be independent neurologists on the sidelines and they, not the team, will decide if the player can go back into a game. Also Jay Glazer reported yesterday that Roger Goodell is on the verge of reworking the stipulations of if a dinged up player can return to a game making them much stricter.

Yesterday we saw the first real ramifications from all this talk. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger didn’t play on Sunday Night despite practicing all week. He was only suffering from concussion like symptoms yet he was held out of the game. Remind you that the Steelers were playing the division rival Ravens and were on a two game losing streak. Their loss sent them to third place in the division and on the outside looking in on the playoffs. Is there any chance Roehtlisberger would have sat out this game even last year? I doubt it. A similar situation took place in Arizona with Kurt Warner. Warner was cautiously not brought back into the game last week and was fully expected to suit up this week, but after waking up with a sore neck on Sunday, they held him out.

In addition to Roethlisberger and Warner, Clinton Portis and Brian Westbrook are also dealing with concussions right now with their teams handling them differently. The Eagles let Westbrook come back early from one a few weeks ago only to suffer another concussion and now may be out the remainder of the season, possibly his career. Portis suffered a concussion earlier this month and hasn’t played in the past three games and won’t play this week, and maybe even the remainder of the season.

While some fans and fantasy owners may not like this new caution when dealing with concussions it is long overdue. We tend to forget these are humans beings just like us and they have families and a life after football. When you look at what has happened to players such as Ted Johnson, Harry Carson, and Wayne Chrebet, football seems unimportant.

Comebacks a Plenty

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: nfl week 12, nfl week 12 monday morning quarterback, nfl week 12 recap, nfl week 12 review

NFL Week 12 Suicide Pick

Chris C

– November 27, 2009Posted in: Bet of the Week, Suicide Pick

NFL: San Diego Chargers at Denver Broncos

Since it’s a holiday week I’m doing on combined this week giving you my suicide pick and weekly picks all in one post.

Fist my Week 12 Suicide Pick:

It was a stress free week last week as the Vikings easily took care of business against the Seahawks.

It was a big week of upsets last week as the Steelers and Bengals went down, so to those of who resisted picking them congrats.

Now onto this week’s pick:

Teams already used:

Week 1: Seattle Seahawks: Win

Week 2: Green Bay Packers: Loss

Week 3: Baltimore Ravens: Win

Week 4: New York Giants Win

Week 5: Dallas Cowboys Win

Week 6: Pittsburgh Steelers Win

Week 7: Carolina Panthers Loss

Week 8: Chicago Bears Win

Week 9: Atlanta Falcons Win

Week 10: Miami Dolphins Win

Week 11: Minnesota Vikings Win

The pick for Week 12 is the

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: nfl suicide pick, nfl suicide pool, nfl survivor pool, nfl week 12 against the spread picks, nfl week 12 bets, nfl week 12 picks, nfl week 12 suicide pick, nfl week 12 survivor pick, nfl week 12 upset specials

Not Thankful for Turkey Day Football

Chris C

– November 27, 2009Posted in: NFL

This Thanksgiving, the NFL proved itself to be an organization with high family values. They did there part to make sure Americans across the nation spent this holiday paying attention to their loved ones and not distracted by competitive football on their televisions.

They were able to accomplish this feat by, once again, making sure Thanksgiving was filled with awful football.

In what has become a yawn-building trend, the “prime-time” match-ups selected by the NFL to take place on Thanksgiving were incredibly atrocious. What makes this trend even more upsetting is that at no point did any of these match-ups appear to have any chance of being competitive.

The first game of the afternoon pitted the Detroit Lions against divisional foe Green Bay. The NFL proved this year that they will never, despite the pleas of football watchers everywhere, remove the Detroit Lions from the Thanksgiving Day games. If the only team in the history of the NFL to go winless does not get themselves banned from all prime-time games the following season, then it is safe to assume no future Lions team will be woeful enough to merit such a change.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: nfl bad thanksgiving day games, nfl change thanksgiving schedule, nfl thanksgiving day, nfl turkey day football

NFL Week 12 Power Rankings

Chris C

– November 24, 2009Posted in: Power Rankings

Week 11 is now officially in the books and it’s time to take a look at those Week 12 Power Rankings.

First things first we have some shake up at the top. We have two new members in the top 5, the Patriots and Chargers, replacing the Bengals and Steelers.

The big winner this week is the Tennessee Titans, who jumped six spots and now sit at number 15 in the rankings. They have won four in a row and are surprisingly back in the playoff hunt. The other winners were the Dolphins and Jaguars, who each moved up five spots.

The big loser this week is of course the Denver Broncos. The wheels have completely fallen off and they are now on the outside looking in for the playoffs after starting off 6-0. Their eight slot dive is the largest single week plunge of the season and the second belongs to the Ravens who this week fell seven spots.

1. New Orleans Saints (10-0) –

2. Indianapolis Colts (10-0) –

3. Minnesota Vikings (9-1) –

4. New England Patriots (7-3) +2

5. San Diego Chargers (7-3) +2

6. Cincinnati Bengals (7-3) -2

7. Arizona Cardinals (7-3) +1

8. Dallas Cowboys (7-3) +2

9. Pittsburgh Steelers (6-4) -4

10. Philadelphia Eagles (6-4) +3

11. New York Giants (6-4) +3

12. Green Bay Packers (6-4) +3

13. Jacksonville Jaguars (6-4) +5

14. Miami Dolphins (5-5) +5

15. Tennessee Titans (4-6) +6

16. Houston Texans (5-5) -4

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: nfl power rankings, nfl power rankings week 12, nfl week 12, nfl week 12 power rankings, week 12 nfl power rankings

Devin Hester Moon

Chris C

– November 23, 2009Posted in: NFL

One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.

I can’t believe Michaels or Collinsworth didn’t make a witty remark.

How about em”bear”assed?

Tags: devin hester, devin hester chicago bears, devin hester moon, devin hester pants pulled down, devin hester vs eagles

NFL Week 11 Picks

Chris C

– November 20, 2009Posted in: Bet of the Week

I had a decent week going 2-2 with picks. I would have been 3-1 if the refs didn’t blow the spot on Kevin Faulk’s reception.

Let’s see if I can get back on the winning side with my Week 11 Picks:

Against the Spread

1. Indianapolis Colts (-1) over the Baltimore Ravens

This line seems almost too good to be true. How Peyton Manning and the undefeated Colts are getting only one point is mind-boggling to me. The Ravens looked terrible on MNF against the Browns and would have lost to any decent team on that night.

Joe Flacco has not looked the same in the recent weeks and may be in the midst of a sophomore slump. The Ravens secondary has not been good this season and I expect Peyton Manning to pick apart the secondary all game long.

2. New York Giants (-6.5) over the Atlanta Falcons

A must win game for both teams. Both are contending for the NFC Wild Cards slots and a head to head win would be huge for either team for a potential tiebreaker. The Falcons have lost three of their past four while the Giants have dropped four in a row.

The Giants were on the bye last week and I think it did them some good. They needed to get away for a while and get healthy. Now they should get Aaron Ross back and Michael Boley and Chris Canty should be at 100%. The Falcons will be without Michael Turner and Matt Ryan has been in a slump recently.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: nfl picks week 11, nfl week 11 against the spread picks, nfl week 11 bets, nfl week 11 moneyline bets, nfl week 11 parlay, nfl week 11 picks, nfl week 11 upset special

SEC Championship Preview

Chris C

– November 19, 2009Posted in: NCAA Football

The NCAA football schedule hits Week 12 and already attention is focused on the SEC Championship game, to be played a couple of weeks from now. It will, barring a complete disaster, be a matchup between the #1 Florida Gators and the #2 Alabama Crimson Tide. This online sportsbook currently has the Gators as the odds-on favorite to win the SEC at 5/9, with Alabama sporting odds of 7/5.

The BCS’ Top 5 teams remain unchanged from the week previous with the Gators at the top, the Tide No. 2 and the Texas Longhorns, TCU Horned Frogs and Cincinnati Bearcats rounding out the Top 5 in that order.

Florida hasn’t deviated from top spot since the BCS rankings first came out a little over a month ago and with two more easy games before the conference championship, there is no reason why the Gators shouldn’t remain at the top of the BCS rankings heading into the big game.

This week, Florida has a tilt against the Florida International Golden Panthers…this should be a blowout. It is one of the biggest pointspread margins of the season, with sportsbook listing the Gators as 43-point favorites.

Florida is currently riding an 11-game straight up winning streak. They have recorded a mark of 9-5-1 ATS the last 15 times they’ve been listed as a favorite of 8 points or more, but they’re only 2-5-1 ATS in the last eight in that spread range. Although 43 points is a wild spread to ask a team to cover.

Sports bettors are still enamored with the #1 team in the nation, as 74% of all the betting volume on this is laying the 43 points.

A quick note on the Total in this one: the last eight times the Gators have been favored by eight points or more, they have a mark of 1 Over, 6 Unders and 1 Push.

The Gators should be able to get by FSU the week after when the cross-state rivals meet.

Since 1995, Florida is 5-2 ATS in seven home games against the Seminoles.

All signs point to the Gators being undefeated going into the early-December SEC title match against Alabama.

With the exception of a blip in early-November, Alabama has been a constant in the BCS’ two-spot this season.

The Tide also have a powder-puff game this coming week against Chattanooga, but looking ahead, there could have trouble vs. the Auburn Tigers during Thanksgiving weekend.

‘Bama has struggled in its last eight games against Auburn, going 2-6 SU (these two have recorded 2 Overs and 6 Unders in those games).

In the Tide’s last seven road games against the Tigers however, they may be 2-5 SU but are 5-2 ATS.

Alabama has been a great road team in its last nine overall away games, going 8-1 SU and an impressive 8-1 ATS.

This much-anticipated SEC Championship matchup in a couple of weeks will be the biggest game of the year so far in college football.

Good luck this weekend.

Tags: alabama odds win sec, florida alabama sec championship, florida odds win sec, sec championship game, sec championship game spread, sec championship odds

NFL Week 11 Suicide Pick

Chris C

– November 19, 2009Posted in: Suicide Pick

It was a nerve racking week last Sunday as I went with the Miami Dolphins, who barely escaped with a victory over the Bucs. After Henne threw a interception with under two minutes left i though it was over, but the Dolphins found a way to come out with a win.

The big upset last week was the Redskins topping the Broncos. I’m sure at least a few people took the Broncos, so congrats on resisting the tempation and surviving another week.

This week is not short on favorable options and you should have a bevy of options.

Now onto this week’s suicide pick:

Teams already used:

Week 1: Seattle Seahawks: Win

Week 2: Green Bay Packers: Loss

Week 3: Baltimore Ravens: Win

Week 4: New York Giants Win

Week 5: Dallas Cowboys Win

Week 6: Pittsburgh Steelers Win

Week 7: Carolina Panthers Loss

Week 8: Chicago Bears Win

Week 9: Atlanta Falcons Win