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Free Football Picks Review: NFL Week 14 2009

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Well, a couple underdog picks made me look really bad with my free football picks for week 14 NFL, but isn’t that always the case when underdog picks go awry? Work with me here… When you take a big favorite to cover the spread, say the Saints by 10.5 in Atlanta against a Falcons team without their starting QB and RB, and New Orleans barely covers, a field goal win, then everyone gets together and says, “Oh, tough luck, bad beat, I see where you were coming from, it’s too bad, you can’t win them all.” and so on and so forth – but when you take a team like Detroit to cover against the Ravens and they end up losing 48-3, everyone says, “what a dope, what the hell were you thinking?” – well, I was thinking lots of stuff, and in the end it didn’t work out. But dogs win, as you can very well see. Dogs didn’t always do me well this week, but I finished 9-7 for yet another winner. Not a huge week, but I’m starting to think my end of the year tally is going to look pretty nice. Not many losing weeks in that heap! Here’s how Week 14 went down…

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Pittsburgh Steelers (-10) @Cleveland Browns (Loss) Here’s a favorite that just ended up kicking me in the shins. I’m not sure what to think about the Steelers, but looking at next week’s game, where they might be an underdog, I might just have to come back to the well. Can they play this terrible again?

New Orleans Saints @ Atlanta Falcons (+10.5) (WINNER) This is one of my dandy picks of the week, Redman was much better, and the Falcons always come to play at home, just like they did against New Orleans. A field goal win for the Saints wasn’t enough to keep me out of the winner’s circle.

Detroit Lions (+13.5) @ Baltimore Ravens (Loss) The Lions failed me. I thought Daunte Culpepper was going to come out and do work, but the Ravens finally did work offensively, getting a huge game from Ray Rice, and beating up on the kitty cats.

Green Bay Packers (-3) @ Chicago Bears (WINNER) The Packers dominated the Bears on the ground, getting a great game from Ryan Grant, and beat the Bears by a touchdown. It wasn’t as easy as the masses expected, but the touchdown win did the job.

Seattle Seahawks (+6.5) @ Houston Texans (Loss) Oh Seattle, as you well know, you should be fading me on Hawks picks by now. I once again blew it in trying to predict how this team would play, and put way too much thought into the fact that they were getting healthy – Seattle didn’t care about this game one little bit. Nice work Jim Mora… Or can I just call you Richard for long?

Denver Broncos (+7.5) @ Indianapolis Colts (Loss)The Broncos fought back, but they couldn’t get that late score I needed to turn a 12 point gap into a winner – Peyton and crew do it again. Amazing.

Miami Dolphins (+3) @ Jacksonville Jaguars (WINNER) The Dolphins were the better team, winning outright in Jacksonville. What can I say, this game just felt like one of those Jacksonville was supposed to lose. A win would have really helped their playoff resume, I guess that’s why, it just meant too much.

Buffalo Bills (+1) @ Kansas City Chiefs (WINNER) Buffalo couldn’t contain Jamal Charles and the Chiefs rushing attack, but that’s okay, because they found 4 interceptions and just enough offense to garner a couple points – with less than 100 yards passing, the Bills won by 6. Gross. 

Cincinnati Bengals (+7) @ Minnesota Vikings (Loss) The Bengals got handled pretty well. I liked them to make a game of this, surprise people once again, but I guess that will have to wait until next week. With a loss here, they should have a nice spread next time out. I’ll get my win one way or another!

Carolina Panthers (+14) @ New England Patriots (WINNER) The Panthers weren’t good, really, but they can run on anyone. Leave it up to John Fox and company to be within a score almost all game long and still end up with more pass attempts than rushes. It hurts my brain to even think about how that is possible, especially with DeAngelo averaging 6.5 yards per rush, and the entire team averaging over 5. Ouch, my brain… But they covered anyway, thank goodness.

New York Jets (-3.5) @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (WINNER) The Jets stomped the Buccaneers and their defense had a whole lot to do with it. Weird, who would have thought?

St. Louis Rams (+13.5) @ Tennessee Titans (Loss) Here’s another road dog I wish I had back – what can a guy do? The Rams defense didn’t come out with much of a plan to stop Chris Johnson – maybe it’s impossible? I wish I would have seen the light before my wallet saw the toilet in this game.

Washington Redskins (pk) @ Oakland Raiders (WINNER) The redskins beat up on the Raiders because Washington is actually a very talented team and playing pretty damn well. Look at their last 5 games and you will see, they’ve had some tough luck and they very well could be 5-0 in those games.

San Diego Chargers (+3) @ Dallas Cowboys (WINNER) How about them Cowboys? Actually, neither team played very well in this one, and I’m surprised the Cowboys didn’t pull it out. Still, the Chargers secondary is much improved, and they got the best of the Boys here.

Philadelphia Eagles (+1) @ New York Giants (WINNER) What a game, just about as exciting as they get if you like touchdowns, big plays, and elite athleticism. DeSean Jackson’s speed is magic, I’ll tell you that. Philadelphia looked in control throughout, despite fending off a good fight from New York.

Arizona Cardinals (-3) @ San Francisco 49ers (Loss) The Cardinals let a stinker, stepped in poop with bare feet, swallowed a pack of gum, whatever you want to call it, and the 49ers fed the ball to Frank Gore for a huge victory. I wish the NFC West didn’t exist, I’d have a much better record!

College Football Picks Week 3 Review 2005

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THIS WEEKS RECORD 3-6-2
OVERALL RECORD 3-6-2

In my first week of College Pick ‘Em, I got schooled by big time college performances. Check out who taught me the biggest lesson in my college review.

Virginia went in to Maryland and pimp-slapped Ralph Friedgen and his Terrapins. The West Virginia rushing attack pounded Maryland’s defense to the tune of 6 players gaining more than 30 yards. The Mountaineers were led by Owen Schmitt’s 80 yards on 6 carries. Maryland had 13 4th quarter points, but was outscored by a touchdown in the final period, as they tumbled 31-19. In a domino effect, I took my first college loss.

Toledo toppled the Temple Owls with ease. I thought my money was in place with the Owls down 42-10 with mere minutes left on the clock. Then lightning struck when Collin Clancy chucked a 20 yard touchdown pass to Brian Allbrooks against the Toledo Rocket second teamers. My second loss came true with the Toledo beating the Owls 42-17.

Washington made me look like an idiot, absolutely dominating the Vandals throughout the entire game. The Vandals could only produce 2 field goals against the Huskies, who gave up 56 points to California in the Husky home opener. Louis Rankin rushed for 115 yards and Isaiah Stanback threw for 145 yards and a touchdown. For the first time in more than a year, the Huskies lost me money. It was bound to happen with Idaho in town. Washington in a laugher, 34-6.

Miami snapped the Clemson hopes with a triple overtime thriller on the Tigers home field. Tyrone Moss led the Hurricane attack with 140 yards on the ground, and three big time touchdowns. After the Tigers and Hurricanes traded touchdowns and field goals during the first two overtimes sessions, the Hurricanes halted the Tiger attack and scored, taking the win, but only by 6; 36-30. This marked my first win of the young college season.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets allowed 13 first quarter points. Not another Connecticut Husky point was put on the board in the next three quarters. The Jacket’s sensational starting quarterback, Reggie Ball, was out with illness late in the week. He didn’t play. Still, the rest of the Yellow Jackets did their best to make me a winner. They fell one point short, but a push with a back up quarterback isn’t bad. The Jackets took the Huskies 28-13.

Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns did everything I thought they’d do to the Rice Owls. At the end of the half, Texas was up 42-0 and my 41-point spread looked to be in good shape. Who knew the starting Longhorns wouldn’t play another down, and they’d be outscored 10-9 in the second half, and win by on mere 41. The Longhorns gave me my second push, pushing the Owls out the door with a 51-10 stomping.

Wisconsin made me proud. They didn’t give up a single touchdown to the Tar Heels and managed 14 points. Still, they were only up 4 in the fourth quarter and I was worried. But leave it to the Badgers to pull you through when in need. The win took Wisconsin to 3-0 on the season. Brian Calhoun continued his big rushing totals, piling up 171 yards carrying the rock 38 powerful times while leading his team to victory. “Sconsin took the Heels out of their game, and took the win, 14-5.

Boston College couldn’t score from their own one yard line. They had first and goal and failed to succeed. This was the biggest series in the game and FSU won. State played a pretty good game against a tough BC squad. The Eagles were up 17-14 after the first half, but couldn’t pull it together as the game wound down. They didn’t score in the second half and gave up 14 points in the 4th quarter. You can’t do these things and win against the 6th ranked team in the country. Florida State dealt the Boston College Eagles their first loss of the season, 28-17. They dealt me my 4th loss of the week.

The Florida Gators were a better football team than the Tennessee Volunteers. The Gators were up by 6 in the 3rd quarter, making them winners but me a loser. Luckily for me the Gators kicked a field goal late in the 4th to put them up 9, making us both winners. Chris Leak looked all right, but so did the Vol defense. It was Urban Meyer trickery, an option reverse, that made the difference in the game. Florida took the Vols in the Swamp, 16-7.

Purdue couldn’t escape Arizona by more than a touchdown. That’s where that half point comes in I guess. The Wildcats played the Boilermakers tough, answering early scoring drives with touchdowns of their own. But I was still taking home cash until the 4th quarter came around and gobbled up my spread. A touchdown late by Arizona didn’t keep Purdue from taking the game, but kept me from my 4th win. Purdue won by a touchdown, 31-24.

Oklahoma kept up the good work, losing their 2nd game of the season, this time to UCLA. But all they had to do was keep it under 7 points, and I’d still come out on top. Thanks to a defensive implosion, and one sickening offensive performance by the Sooners, the Bruins scored 21 points in the 4th quarter, demolishing my hopes for a decent week, and making me hate Oklahoma even more than I did right after they took Auburn’s place in the National Title game. Karma! The Sooners took me to a putrid 3-6-2 in my college debut by losing to the Bruins of UCLA 24-41.

It was a tough week for un-Lucky Lester, with close pushes and closer losses bringing me down. Next week has to be better. Stay tuned for my second go at College Pick’em.