Just Enough!
9-6-1
It was a crazy week in the football world, but as interesting and exciting as ever. My 9-6-1 week 17 pushed me up and over the .500 mark for the regular season. It was up and down, as good as it gets, and down right awful at times. But all in all I came up on top of the regular season charts. Let the gloating begin!
PUSH ME

New Orleans At Tampa Bay (-14) – Tampa Bay didn’t run over the Saints as I had imagined, leaving me to question if they can truly win a playoff game. We’ll see. I was down late, but a Saint turnover turned into just enough points for me to get my money back on this one.

LOSERS

Baltimore (-3) At Cleveland – ‘The Ravens have played like a real live NFL Football team the last two weeks. It’s really quite amazing. Kyle Boller has tempted Baltimore fans into cheering for him, while playing well enough to get Brian Billick another year coaching the Ravens. Will it continue? I have to believe it will.’ (Me) As you can see I was down right tricked by the Ravens. It started out just as I had hoped, the Ravens high stepping to a 13-0 lead. But Charlie Brown wouldn’t quit, and seeing as it was the holidays, he kept the Browns in it with two second quarter drives that ended in field goals. It was 13-6 at the half. As good as Kyle Boller was the last few weeks, he was at least that bad on Sunday. He was 15-36 with 151 yards and 2 interceptions. Horrible. Dennis Northcut’s 3rd quarter punt return for a touchdown sent the Brownies up by 4 to stay. Tricked!

Chicago (+4.5) At Minnesota – As I didn’t predict, the Bears didn’t start Rex Grossman. I thought they would start him because he’d only played 6 quarters this year, but I guess they didn’t start him because he’s always getting hurt and because of that he’s only played 6 quarters this year. Humph. Kyle Orton looked blah, as did the resting Bears. I hope it works out for them.

Buffalo (-1) At NY Jets – Kelly Holcomb had a Ryan Leaf-like 4 interceptions as the Bills just barely lost on the road to the Jets. A late kick return by rookie corner back Justin Miller pushed the Jets to 4 wins on the season, and right smack out of the Reggie Bush sweepstakes. But hey, at least they won, right?

Miami At New England (-6) – ‘The Patriots aren’t a team that sits their starters.’ (Me) As it turns out the Patriots are a team that does anything they want on a week to week basis and try as hard as can be to be unpredictable. Son of a bitch. The Dolphins won, ending a pretty good season where they finished 9-7. Nick Saban has these water mammals on the right track for next year.

Detroit At Pittsburgh (-14.5) – The lions actually played pretty close in this one, but are you kidding me, a half point, I guess you have to lose some by that small impossible point total. Joey Harrington ended his short career in Detroit with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions. Big Ben went for 0 TD’s and 2 picks. Willie Parker rushed for 135 yards while Jerome Bettis banged home 3 touchdowns in possibly his last home game.

Seattle (+4) At Green Bay – Seattle stopped playing their starters after Shaun Alexander scored his record breaking 28th touchdown of the year and rushed for 73 yards to capture the rushing title. Green Bay capitalized by getting Brett Favre a win in what could very well be his last game.

WINNERS

Denver (+11) At San Diego – This game was boring. The Chargers looked bad and the Broncos looked like a 2 seed skipping their way into the playoffs. Denver’s D came to play, and Mike Shanahan kept his starters in for most of the day. Thanks Mike!

NY Giants (-7.5) At Oakland – Jay Feeley, a kicker who has missed his fair share of big kicks this year, made a huge one for me a the start of the 4th quarter. The kick pushed me up and over a 7.5 point spread, getting me a much needed victory. Tiki Barber was awesome, rushing for 203 yards on 26 carries. Randy Moss had his biggest game of the year. Don’t matter, the Raiders lose and I win!

Arizona (+7) At Indianapolis – ‘The Cardinals have a ‘wing it deep’ motto with Josh McCowen at the helm. With Indianapolis in need of nothing, the Cardinals will take advantage with Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald. Tony Dungy might be back on the field for this one, but the Colts don’t seem to win games that mean nothing.’ (Me) Well, Joshy Woshy had 297 yards while Larry Fitz and Anquan combined for 161 yards and a score. The score was just enough to cover me. I was confused about the importance of the win to the Colts. Every guy wanted to win one for Tony. That’s important.

Carolina (-4) At Atlanta – ‘The Panthers need to win this game to assure themselves a spot in the post season. Expect Deshaun Foster to annihilate the piss poor Falcon run defense on way to a Panther victory. Steve Smith will be extra motivated to produce after he had 18 yards while getting kicked out of the game last week. Steve’s the kind of guy to get some payback.’ (Me) Sometimes I really knock them out of the park. Deshaun Foster ran 18 times for 165 yards and a touchdown while Steve Smith had 9 catches for 131 yards and a score. Mike Vick was bad. Matt Schaub looked good in back-up duty. Hmmm… Quarterback controversy? Anyone buying that?

Cincinnati At Kansas City (-7) – ‘If I’ve learned anything the past two weeks, it’s been that the team with the most on the line almost always plays with more passion. Passion equals victory.’ (Me) This couldn’t have been more true. The Larry Johnson’s had a hell of a day. Larry finished the season with his 9th straight 100+ yard rushing game, and three big scores on way to a Chief route in Dick Vermeils last game. I’ll miss him… (Tears, lots of tears).

Houston At San Francisco (+2) – Well, Dom Capers found a way to lose. David Carr went down with the Texans up 17. After that it was all signs point to Reggie for the Texans. Capers carefully played out his game of Chess and ended overtime in checkmate. Unfortunately for him, that didn’t mean he got his job back. How rude is that? A coach does just enough to get Reggie Bush and he doesn’t even get to coach him. Frack!

Tennessee At Jacksonville (-3.5) – Garrard looked okay, but it was the Jaguar back-ups that came to mash the Titans. LaBrandon Toefield, Alvin Pearman, and Derrick Wimbush each rushed for touchdowns while Quinn Gray passed for two in the Jaguar route. Now they have to go into New England and upset the Patriots. No problem!

Washington (-7) At Philadelphia – With 2:16 left in the 4th, I had all but lost this game. The Eagles weren’t going anywhere, but the Redskins had the game in the bag up 4. Then my main man Sean Taylor picked up a stray fumbled football and carried him all the way to the end zone for an 11 point Redskin win. I win again!

St. Louis (+12.5) At Dallas – ‘By the time this game is played, the Cowboys will already be removed from playoff contention. Drew Bledsoe is slow and un athletic.’ Hey, I was right on all accounts. This game meant nothing to the Cowboys. That’s a good thing for them, because the Rams came in without their starting running back or quarterback and beat some Cowboy ass. It’s always nice to see a Cowboy loss, even if it did improve their draft pick. Drew threw 2 interceptions, didn’t complete half of his passes and was sacked like a little bitch 5 times by the Rams. He was hit countless other times, too. Here’s to another Cowboyless playoff situation! Cheers!
Good Luck with your NFL Football Betting!
Lucky Lester – Free Football Picks