Alternative picks: Week 12, 2019

A week after not getting a single one of his predictions right, Tony stormed back and hit all of them. He’s not much for consistency, but he doesn’t give in either.

Standings:

What happens next? Who the hell knows. This is one of the tougher weeks for picks this season. Here we go:

1) Andy: Saints over Panthers – This isn’t what Vegas would recommend I take number one based on money lines, but I trust the Saints more than some of the other favorites this week.
2) Tony: Steelers over Bengals – The Browns are the biggest favorite this week, without their best defender? Even against the Dolphins, I don’t buy that.
3) Tony: Patriots over Cowboys – Dallas isn’t a bad team, I just don’t see them keeping up with the Pats.
4) Andy: Falcons over Bucs – The Cowboys have a shot in that game if they rely on Elliott instead of Prescott … the Bucs have a chance to win this game too, but … I don’t think they will. The Falcons have come out of their bye week smokin’ and there are very few games I like this week. I agree with you on the Browns. That screams Miami on the money line.
5) Tony: Browns over Dolphins – I will take them here, mainly because of Nick Chubb & Kareem Hunt.
6) Andy: Lions over Washington – As I said, there aren’t many I feel good about this week. But Washington is a special level of bad. Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of your “Tank for Tua” contest … oh, wait. “Bad for Burrows?” “Horrible for Herbert?”
7) Tony: Texans over Colts – This may be a bit high for this game, but before this year there seemed to be a trend where the home team typically won on Thursday night–and the Colts will be without their most steady offensive weapon in Marlon Mack.
8) Andy: Ravens over Rams – Baltimore is playing well and might be the best team in the AFC right now. The Rams are not playing well and might miss the playoffs.
9) Tony: Bills over Broncos – Denver had Minnesota just where they needed them…and gave them back the game. A loss like that can be back breaking to a team, and it doesn’t get easier going to Buffalo for their follow up.
10) Andy: Seahawks over Eagles – Russell Wilson is potentially locked in a battle with Lamar Jackson over being league MVP. The Seahawks play pretty well on the road. And they’ve got to keep winning to keep pace for a bye in the NFC. Philadelphia is playing as badly as its fans are neanderthals.
11) Tony: Raiders over Jets – The only thing that scares me about this matchup is the Raiders traveling east…but they are the clearly more talented team–did not think I would say that this season.
12) Andy: Bears over Giants – Chicago should win this, although they should have beaten the Giants last year during their 12-4 playoff run and didn’t. I’ll probably regret this pick. Oh well. Tony went 2-11 last week, so … I have room for a couple picks that make me uncomfortable.
13) Tony: Titans over Jaguars – Don’t look now, but the Titans have won 3 of their last four games, since benching Marcus Mariota. A win this week, combined with a few other games falling the right way, would put them squarely in the wildcard discussion.
14) Andy: Packers over 49ers – We find out this week if San Francisco is for real. They faced their first upper-tier QB in Russell Wilson before their bye and narrowly got beat. Now they get a shot at Aaron Rodgers. They should win at home. But as much as I believe in where they are going, I need to see proof in some of these bigger games. Plus, the Packers will probably win to screw the Vikings.

Andy got all the differently picked games right in week 10. The opposite happened in week 11, allowing Tony to widen the lead that had shrunk to just a game.

Here we go: