Worst NFL Game Of The Week – No contest here. There are a few games that aren’t particularly interesting, but only one that is virtually assured to truly and epically suck. Detroit is terrible. The Texans have some bright points, but they aren’t ready for prime time yet. It’s a clear sign of just how bad this game could be that Houston is favored by nine. A 1-4 team should not be favored by more than a touchdown against anyone.
Best NFL Game Of The Week – Given the sudden resurgence of the Browns and the fall from grace of the Redskins maybe it is their game because we have no way of knowing what is coming. It could have been New Orleans and Carolina, but it lost some of its’ charm with the blowout loss by Carolina this weekend. That leaves us with San Diego at Buffalo. If the Chargers can look half as good as they did against New England ths weekend then this will be a very good way to get a sense of whether the Bills are contenders.
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1. Convinced that the Big 12 is the best conference this year yet? The conference is so loaded and tough that they absolutely cannibalized each other this weekend. Oklahoma State was the lesser Missouri before this weekend, but for now at least that has been reversed. Texas spent a lot of their game looking like they were determined to lose, but finished on a vengeance and, strangely, claimed the top spot in the poll. For now the power structure of the conference is clear, but you get the real feeling that that could all change several times over this year, starting next week when Texas and Missouri meet.
There is always all sorts of news about injuries in the sports news, but there is a particularly large amount today that directly affects betting decisions through the weekend:
Charlie Manuel: This isn’t directly an injury, but the Phillies’ manager lost his 87 year old mother today. He is staying to manage the game against the Dodgers. Manuel is very well liked by hos players, so I expect this to be a boost to the team. They will be playing for him. It’s also not that likely that he will be too distracted to be at his best – his mother had had a heart attack earlier in the week and wasn’t doing well, but he still managed a heck of a game in game one. I don’t know which team you like in this one, but I think that this is a check mark to put in Philadelphia’s column.
Continue reading “In and Out: Injuries and Other Happenings For The Betting Weekend”
Worst NFL Game of the Week – There are a couple that could fit the bill here. There’s an NFC North showdown between Detroit and Minnesota that doesn’t have a lot to offer. I know Minnesota is coming off a big Monday night win, but I am still stunned how a team can be outplayed that badly and still come out ahead. Detroit is just plain terrible. There’s another game, though, that I think has the potential to be even worse – the Holmgren Bowl. Green Bay is a struggling team – they lost to Atlanta, after all. Seattle’s just a mess. They won’t be at their worst because this isn’t in the eastern time zone, but they still aren’t very pretty. Two flawed teams in a funk meeting up – sounds like a recipe for a late afternoon nap.
1. Alabama isn’t as good as we thought. I don’t like Kentucky much at all. This should be a rebuilding year for them. That makes it more than a bit concerning to me that they played the Tide as close as they did. Any team can have a bad day – just ask USC or Ohio State. My concern with Alabama, though, is that Kentucky was able to set the tone on both sides of the ball at times, and they were able to completely neutralize the passing game. That doesn’t bode well for a team that still has two or three tough games ahead. I know that they beat up on Georgia, but I don’t like them, either. My comfortable prediction – Alabama won’t finish the year in the top five.
Worst NFL Game of the Week – This is harder to spot than most weeks – the matchups mostly have at least a little interest. That means that, more than any week so far, there really isn’t a truly bad game here. That means we have to pick the worst of a decent bunch. In my mind that’s going to be Cincinnati at Dallas. The Bengals are truly, absolutely awful, and they may not have Carson Palmer in action. Even if they do he won’t be healthy. The Cowboys had an off game, and I expect them to come back hungry and angry. This one should be a dull, lopsided mess.
Best NFL Game of the Week – As I said before, there are a lot of good games this week, but none that are true and obvious classics, so this is a tight competition. There are a couple or runner-ups. Tennessee at Baltimore is a battle of two teams that are better than they were probably expected to be, and it should be a classic defensive battle. Buffalo at Arizona is a good test of a team that has been an upstart and wants to prove that they are for real. For my winner, though, I have to go to the most consistently excellent division in the league so far this year – the NFC East. Washington and Philly are both promising teams that don’t quite have their acts completely together, but they both have obvious promise. It should be good.
Game With Teams With the Most to Prove – Indianapolis and Houston. Coming into the season the Colts were favored to win their division, and a lot of people had Houston picked as a wild card team. They have combined to go 1-5 so far. They both have a world of problems, but both present just enough points of optimism to keep fans interested. A loss here will be a huge blow to either team.
Ridiculously Over-hyped – Terrell Owens has assured that we are going to hear about the Cowboys way, way more than we need to. Thanks, buddy.
1. The polls are essentially meaningless at this point in the season. Ranked teams that played unranked teams were 6-9 ATS this week. Five of those ranked teams lost their games despite being double digit favorites. The lower ranked team won both games played between ranked teams.
Once more with a look forward to the weekend:
Worst NFL game of the week – This is getting pretty easy. You just look at the games involving Kansas City and St. Louis and decide which one is more painful. That has worked so far, but I am actually going to do something different this time around. Kansas City hosts Denver. That won’t be exciting, and the Chiefs won’t win, but the Broncos have an explosive offense and should be able to burn up the scoreboard. Scoring is fun to watch. Buffalo visits St. Louis. That one will be interesting for a couple of reasons – we can see what Trent Edwards can do in a glorified practice, and we can see if Trent Green still has any game. That leaves me with my choice – Cleveland at Cincinnati. Two broken teams with enormous problems. The potential for true terribleness.
If you guessed that today we would be looking at the 0-2 teams then give yourself a pat on the back. There are ten winless squads, and those range from the absolutely inevitable to the absolutely shocking. We’ll go alphabetically agan:
Based on the title of this article a detective could probably figure out what we are going to look at tomorrow. Before then, though, let’s assess which of the 2-0 teams seem like they are for real, and which ones are lucky to be where they are. There are ten teams that have yet to lose. We’ll take a quick look at each of them, and we’ll do it alphabetically to avoid any claims of bias:
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