Sunday, November 29, 2009

2009 NFL Picks - Week 12

I will attempt again this year to pick every NFL game with a point spread. There are no more byes this year in the NFL schedule, so there are 16 games to pick. 3 games on Thanksgiving Day. These point spreads are taken from Danny Sheridan’s Odds posted November 29 in USA Today. I usually try to post my picks for the week on Thursday night or Friday morning. For Thursday games, I will either make the pick or post my pick to Twitter feed on the right hand column. Enjoy.

Favorites are listed on the left, underdogs on the right.
*Home team is in capital letters.

Indianapolis 3 HOUSTON - Houston
CINCINNATI 13 Cleveland - Cincinnati
MINNESOTA 10.5 Chicago - Minnesota
PHILADELPHIA 9.5 Washington - Washington
Miami 3 BUFFALO - Buffalo
TENNESSEE 2.5 Arizona - Tennessee
Seattle 4 ST. LOUIS - Seattle
ATLANTA 12 Tampa Bay - Atlanta
NY JETS 3.5 Carolina - Carolina
SAN FRANCISCO 3 Jacksonville - San Francisco
SAN DIEGO 13.5 Kansas City - Kansas City
BALTIMORE 8 Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh
NEW ORLEANS 1.5 New England - New Orleans

From Thanksgiving Day:

Green Bay 10.5 DETROIT - Green Bay
DALLAS 13.5 Oakland - Oakland
NY Giants 7 DENVER - NY Giants

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Fantasy Wrap-up - NFL Week 11

The Steelers are my team and they got upset this weekend by Kansas City. That game pretty much shows how my weekend went. I was 8-8 picking games. This week is another week this year where I lost almost all of the early games against the spread, but the late games I came storming back just to reach .500 for the week.

Fantasy Football can be so frustrating. I picked up Ladell Betts last week, but did not play him. Clearly, my fault. Then, I thought about picking up Jason Snelling from the Atlanta Falcons on waivers, but I figured I would play Betts and be fine. Betts ended up getting hurt earlier in the Redskins and Cowboys game. He did not score a Fantasy point. Meanwhile, Snelling had a monster game.

In my Dallas league, I am in a four way tie for 4th place. Someone in this group with a very solid team is not going to make the play-offs this year. My team scored well last week, but lost. I think I had the 3rd most points for the week, but I was playing one of the best teams in the Kellen Winslow Friendship League.

I have a tough schedule, but if I can make the play-offs I have a dangerous team led by Peyton Manning and Randy Moss. I need Brandon Jacobs to come up big Thanksgiving night versus the Denver Broncos. It looks like Ahmad Bradshaw might not be able to play, so that should boost Jacob's value a little bit.

If anyone is interested, I will pick the games for tomorrow on my twitter feed on the right hand side of the page.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

2009 NFL Picks - Week 11

I will attempt again this year to pick every NFL game with a point spread. There are no more byes this year in the NFL schedule, so there are 16 games to pick. These point spreads are taken from Danny Sheridan’s Odds posted November 21 in USA Today. I usually try to post my picks for the week on Thursday night or Friday morning. For Thursday games, I will either make the pick or post my pick to Twitter feed on the right hand column. Enjoy.

Favorites are listed on the left, underdogs on the right.
*Home team is in capital letters.

CAROLINA 3 Miami - Carolina
DETROIT 3.5 Cleveland - Detroit
JACKSONVILLE 9 Buffalo - Buffalo
Pittsburgh 10 KANSAS CITY - Pittsburgh
Indianapolis 1.5 BALTIMORE - Baltimore
NY GIANTS 6.5 Atlanta - NY Giants
GREEN BAY 6.5 San Franscisco - Green Bay
MINNESOTA 10.5 Seattle - Minnesota
DALLAS 11 Washington - Washington
New Orleans 11 TAMPA BAY - Tampa Bay
Arizona 9 ST. LOUIS - Arizona
NEW ENGLAND 10.5 NY Jets - New England
Cincinnati 9.5 OAKLAND - Oakland
San Diego 3 DENVER - San Diego
Philadelphia 3 CHICAGO - Philadelphia
HOUSTON 4.5 Tennessee - Tennessee

2009 NFL Picks Record: 79-64-1

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Fantasy Wrap-up - NFL Week 10

Wow, what a Sunday and Monday this week. I went 12-3 in my NFL picks (that makes me 79-64-1 on the year) and 2-0 in Fantasy Football. I finally won another game in my Atlanta league. I was worried that I was going to finish the season with 1 measly win. I still did not make the right call on my only crucial line-up decision.

I picked up Ladell Betts on waivers last week with plans to start him, but he barely practiced last week and was listed as questionable by the Redskins. I hate running backs that have ankle or knee injuries, so Sunday morning I started thinking about starting Chester Taylor of the Vikings.

I figured the Vikings would kill the Detroit Lions and Taylor would get a bunch of garbage yards and maybe a 4th quarter touchdown. Needless to say, I started Taylor and Betts had a monster game for the 'Skins. I would really like to finish out this Atlanta league schedule with a couple of more wins.

The Sunday night game was a great game to watch especially when you have Peyton Manning and Randy Moss on the same Fantasy team. I started the game behind by 53 points to another playoff contender and the commissioner of the Kellen Winslow Friendship League. Plus, I was robbed of a win by a commissioner decision earlier in this season. It is always nice to beat the Commish and I really wanted to win this one.

Moss and Manning put on show and scored 51 points. I still had the Baltimore Ravens' defense to play on MNF and they scored huge. In this Dallas league, I am right in the middle of the playoff race. I really feel for Cleveland Browns' fans--it was almost impossible to watch the game last night.

The Browns are the worst team I have seen all year. Can Brady Quinn throw anything besides a pass near the line of scrimmage? Awful. Terrible. It might be time for Roger Goodell to step in and do something for the sake of the fans and the city of Cleveland.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

2009 NFL Picks - Week 10

I will attempt again this year to pick every NFL game with a point spread. There are only 2 teams with a bye this week in the NFL schedule, so there are 15 games to pick. These point spreads are taken from Danny Sheridan’s Odds posted November 14 in USA Today. I usually try to post my picks for the week on Thursday night or Friday morning. For Thursday games, I will either make the pick or post my pick to Twitter feed on the right hand column. Enjoy.

Favorites are listed on the left, underdogs on the right.
*Home team is in capital letters.

SAN FRANCISCO 3 Bears - Bears
NY JETS 7 Jacksonville - Jacksonville
Denver 3.5 WASHINGTON - Washington
PITTSBURGH 7 Cincinnati - Pittsburgh
TENNESSEE 7 Buffalo - Tennessee
MINNESOTA 16.5 Detroit - Minnesota
New Orleans 13.5 ST. LOUIS - New Orleans
Atlanta 1.5 CAROLINA - Carolina
MIAMI 10 Tampa Bay - Tampa Bay
OAKLAND 2 Kansas City - Kansas City
ARIZONA 8.5 Seattle - Arizona
SAN DIEGO 1 Philadelphia - San Diego
Dallas 3 GREEN BAY - Green Bay
INDIANAPOLIS 3 New England - New England
Baltimore 10.5 CLEVELAND - Baltimore

2009 NFL Picks Record: 67-61-1

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Fantasy Wrap-up - NFL Week 9

Steadily, I am making some headway on my NFL picks. 10 out of 13 NFL underdogs this week covered the point spread. The only favorites to win and cover were Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Seattle. I went 8-5 this week.

Monday night was another close call for me in Fantasy. In my Dallas league, I was up by 12 points going into the game. I had the Steelers Hines Ward and my opponent had the Denver Broncos defense. He cut the game to 4 points when the Broncos returned a Big Ben fumble for a touchdown.

At that point, the Broncos defense still had not allowed a touchdown and Ward was struggling big time. The Steelers took that kick-off and drove down for a touchdown scored by Ward. After that score, I breathed a little easier. Ward capped off a great night with a late touchdown. The win moved my to 5-4 on the season, but in this league, there is a very tight race for playoff spots. 10 teams basically have a shot to make the playoffs in this league.

I was able to pick up Ryan Moats in my Atlanta league and he scored 10 points for my team, but now Moats is on a bye. My running back situation is a total mess. The Colts' Donald Brown is not playing, Moats is on a bye, Larry Johnson just got cut by the Chiefs and Matt Forte is at the top of the 2009 list of Fantasy team killers.

2009 NFL Picks Record: 67-61-1

Saturday, November 7, 2009

2009 NFL Picks - Week 9

I will attempt again this year to pick every NFL game with a point spread. There are 6 teams with a bye this week in the NFL schedule, so there are only 13 games to pick. These point spreads are taken from Danny Sheridan’s Odds posted November 7 in USA Today. I usually try to post my picks for the week on Thursday night or Friday morning. For Thursday games, I will either make the pick or post my pick to Twitter feed on the right hand column. Enjoy.

Favorites are listed on the left, underdogs on the right.
*Home team is in capital letters.

JACKSONVILLE 6.5 Kansas City - Jacksonville
Baltimore 3 CINCINNATI - Baltimore
INDIANAPOLIS 9 Houston - Houston
ATLANTA 9 Washington - Atlanta
Green Bay 9.5 TAMPA - Green Bay
CHICAGO 3 Arizona - Arizona
NEW ENGLAND 10.5 Miami - New England
NEW ORLEANS 13 Carolina - Carolina
SEATTLE 10 Detroit - Seattle
SAN FRANCISCO 4.5 Tennessee - Tennessee
NY GIANTS 4.5 San Diego - NY Giants
PHILADELPHIA 3 Dallas - Dallas
Pittsburgh 3 DENVER - Pittsburgh

2009 NFL Picks Record: 59-56-1

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Fantasy Wrap-Up - NFL Week 8

Another mediocre week of picking games left me at 6-7 for the weekend. I did pick the Vikings, Miami, and St. Louis to cover, but lost out on the big favorites San Diego, New Orleans, and Arizona. That still leaves me slightly above .500 for the year.

I am not an Atlanta Falcons fan or a New Orleans Saints fan, but I watched almost every play of the 4th quarter with trepidation. In one of my leagues this week, I had a slim lead going into MNF. I had Tony Gonzales, but my opponent was playing Reggie Bush and Jeremy Shockey.

Late in the game, Shockey caught about a 15 yard pass to tie up our Fantasy match up. The Saints eventually scored and the Falcons got the ball back. When Matt Ryan found Gonzales with a couple of catches in the last minutes, I was celebrating like I had won the Kellen Winslow Friendship League title. I am now 4-4 in my Dallas League and I am in playoff contention.

In my Atlanta league, I am just getting torched. I am 1-7, but there was some light at the end of the tunnel this week. My team put up over 90 points with a garbage number two running back. But, the guy I was playing had Stephen Jackson and Maurice Jones-Drew. Unlucky. Another loss.

I am going to try and pick up Ryan Moats this week, so I am not giving up on playing the spoiler role in the final weeks of the season. To make matters worse, TE Owen Daniels is out for the year on this roster.