Alternative Picks: Week 4, 2020

Tony popped onto the scene in week three, taking both the alternative picks and the straight-up picks and remaining relevant for the season.

As we head to week four, COVID-19 has, inevitably, reared its ugly head for the first time. I don’t suspect it will be the last. These picks were made before the NFL announced the Pittsburgh/Tennessee contest would be rescheduled.

And here are the alternative picks for this alternative week…

1) Andy: Ravens over Football Team – Baltimore is Super Bowl quality. The Football Team is playing a bit better, but not nearly on that level.
2) Tony: Packers over Falcons – The Falcons have blown double digit 2nd half leads in each of the last two games. On the plus side, they likely won’t make it three.
3) Tony: Rams over Giants – Not sure I buy the Rams as 12.5 point favorites…but they’re definitely the favorites.
4) Andy: Seahawks over Dolphins – Seattle’s defense isn’t what it used to be, but it’s good enough to limit the Dolphins. Russell Wilson will do the rest.
5) Tony: 49ers over Eagles – Just how bad have the Eagles been? The 49ers remain likely to not have about half of their starting team, and they’re still 6.5 point favorites.
6) Andy: Texans over Vikings – Bill O’Brien and the Texans aren’t as good as they should be, but Minnesota sucks.
7) Tony: Saints over Lions – The Saints are 1-2, but are averaging just under 30 points a game. The Lions are also 1-2, but they aren’t averaging just under 30 points a game. What better way for the Lions to Lion than follow up a big road victory over the Cardinals with a soul crushing defeat at home?
8) Andy: Chiefs over Patriots – I underestimated Mahomes’ ability to just turn it on when he needs to. He destroyed Baltimore Monday night and he’ll do the same to the Patroits.
9) Tony: Steelers over Titans – Both teams are 3-0…but the Steelers don’t have 3 players that just tested positive for COVID. Hopefully this game actually happens …
10) Andy: Bucs over Chargers – L.A. is flying across the country likely starting a rookie QB against a superior Tampa squad. Too much to overcome.
11) Tony: Cowboys over Browns – The Browns have come back from their disgusting season opening loss to score 69 points in their back-to-back wins. But the Cowboys are at home, and while they didn’t get two wins, they put up 71 points the last two weeks. Gotta trust Dak over Baker in this one.
12) Andy: Broncos over Jets – Not sure I agree on that one. I think Dallas looks like they did last year – largely uninterested, constantly playing from behind. One team I think we can both agree on is the Jets. If the rumors are true and they can be done with Adam Gase with a bad loss, they may not even want to win this week.
13) Tony: Cardinals over Panthers – Wouldn’t have expected this one to slide this far down, but I guess that’s what a surprise win over the Chargers for the Panthers and surprise loss to the Lions for the Cardinals will do.
14) Andy: Bills over Raiders – I keep expecting Buffalo to shit the bed. They almost did last weekend, but they managed to keep their record clean. It feels a little bit like a trap game, but they’ve been too good so far to bet against.
15) Tony: Bears over Colts – I’m not sure I get the logic in the Colts being road favorites here…the Bears managed to come back for the win over the Falcons, benched Mitch Trubisky, and while you never cheer for injuries, Tarik Cohen being out might force Matt Nagy to actually use his best players more.
16) Andy: Bengals over Jaguars – Because … someone has to win. Well, most likely someone has to win. But, in reality, who cares.

Straight-up picks were actually pretty good last week. Tony scored his first pick-up in contested picks. This contest has been fairly tight all season

As we embark on a week in which the pandemic is destined to ascend even higher among the primary storylines of the seasons, here is who we think are going to win the non-canceled games.