Picks!
Feeling sick today so no analysis, just the picks. Because clearly that is why you are reading this…
Giants (-2.5) “@” Rams (in London)
Vikings (+3) @ Eagles
Chiefs (-6) vs Saints
Washington (+1) @ Lions
Browns (+10.5) @ Bengals
Dolphins (+2.5) vs Bills
Raiders (+2.5) @ Jaguars
Colts (+3.5) @ Titans
Ravens (+2) @ Jets
Chargers (+6) @ Falcons
49ers (-1) vs Bucs
Pats (-7) @ Steelers
Seahawks (+1) @ Cardinals
Broncos (-8) vs Texans
Maybe being unable to talk, breath, sleep, or function will help me out?
I hope you feel better. The older I get (ouch, that hurts to admit), the worse it is to be sick.Report
I heard last week that only one game in the entire NFL so far this season has made it to halftime with only six points scored.
Who would have figured that Seahawks @ Cardinals would make it to full time with only six points scored?Report
Russel Wilson has proposed a FG contest to break ties. He fails to realize that A) they *did* have a FG contest and B) it was brutally depressing to watch.Report
It’s kind of ironic that there’s almost an inverse correlation between “willingness to accept a regular-season tie” and “schedule length” when you’d expect just the opposite.
That might be an artifact of “schedule length” also correlating positively with “amount of physical violence allowed”. In baseball, when you get to the 18th inning, you just have goofy fun with the outfielder who pinch-hit in the 12th being stuck playing third base and some dude who pitched in college going the only four innings of his professional career. While in the NFL, in the 8th quarter, Russell Okung isn’t even bothering to pretend to block Clay Matthews anymore, and on each snap just makes a grab in his general direction – and when he misses, Matthews dislocates a body part of the emergency quarterback, since Siemian went out in the 6th and Lynch in the 7th…Report
Denver is paying Trevor Siemian $625K. Yooston’s on the Osweiler hook for $18M. Elway looks like a genius.Report
It’s an open question as to how much of John Schneider’s reputation devolves entirely from Russell Wilson being a mutant. A star QB starting out of the gate and locked down on a rookie salary is a once-a-decade thing (almost literally – Brady (sorta), Wilson, … – Warner and Favre I think were cheap but not locked down when they became stars). But a solid QB locked down on a rookie contract is still worth his weight in myrrh, even if he’s in his second year.Report
HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU LOSE TO THE RAIDERSReport
They’re 7-2, so people manage that. (Though they’re only +22 in points, so probably not quite as good as their record.)Report
I only watched parts of the game, but… (a) These are not the Raiders we’ve all grown used to. (b) You call that an offensive line?Report
Recently, on the local Wacky Dave And The Morning Zoo! radio show (not the real name, but I’m sure you get the gist), they had the local Exotic Pet Store on for their weekly deal and had the white rat be the Broncos and the black rat be the Raiders and had them run a race.
The Raiders won then too.
We should have listened.Report
I have been derelict in my Picks! duty, largely owing to an ongoing illness that manifests at its worst on Saturday and Sunday (good for work, bad for life).
But I will say that the Raiders opened as slight favorites and the line bounced between +1 and -1. So, this was either the expected result or a very tiny upset.. at least as far as Vegas was concerned.Report
Monday Night Football in Seattle in November and it’s not raining. What’s up with that?Report
It’s ironic.Report
On that note, anyone who looked at the Bills defense and Seahawks defense and put actual money on “Over … by halftime”, please please let me know your election bet while there’s still time…Report