Free Football Picks Review: NFL Week 14 2009

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!

Papas Picks: NFL Week 14 Underdog Predictions

Alright, I’ve gone 4-1 twice in the last 3 weeks – but the week I didn’t run into 4-1 was a tough one to stomach. I guess that’s the way with underdogs, when the ball doesn’t bounce your way, you look like a dope. I looked pretty solid last week as two of my unpopular dogs won outright, the Dolphins and Raiders. I was pretty stunned the Steelers fell at home to the Raiders, but I was pretty happy looking at 15.5 points against a team that hadn’t won big all year. It’s too bad I never write this article quick enough for Thursday games, because I would have loved getting another underdog win over the Steelers… This week, I have a couple more Dogs that look like pedigree models with all there glorious points – here are this week’s picks.

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Washigton Redskins @ Oakland Raiders (+1): The Redskins find ways to lose, really, they are very good at it. The Raiders have turned it around a bit, and now that they can complete a simple pass to a wide open receiver, they aren’t nearly as bad as before. I like them to win their 3rd in 4 games – crazy.

San Diego Chargers (+3) @ Dallas Cowboys: The Chargers are better than the Cowboys, and Dallas always hits a wall and loses important games late. If they lose here, they have are guaranteed to be 2nd place in the NFC East – that means it’s a big game – that means trouble for Big D.

Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears (+3.5): The Bears are 4-2 at home this year – so that’s what I have going for me here. They’ve played much worse than they are, and the Packers have been on a streak of really impressive games – I think those things are bound to turn around in one cold afternoon in Chicago.

Detroit Lions (+14) @ Baltimore Ravens: Oh the Ravens and their impotent offense, I mean un-potent, well, what ever it is, it’s not producing many hits lately. With Daunte starting (for a guy with really small hands, I still think he’s pretty good, but I might be living in his fantasy dominating past) I think the Lions have a good chance to put up a few touchdowns through the air, the kid has always thrown the deep ball well. That will be enough to cover.

Seattle Seahawks (+7) @ Houston Texans: I know the Hawks suck on the road, but this team is finally getting healthy, and there’s nothing like a team finally getting healthy when all the other teams are finally starting to lose some players. Houston has struggled lately, definitely misses having one of their most dynamic players in the backfield, and is just 2-4 on the road this season. Oh yeah, and there’s rumbling that their coach might get the axe – that’s never good. One more thing, they’ve lost 4 straight.