Bet the Mortgage: Week 3, 2013 NFL Best Bets

by | Sep 19, 2013 | 2013 season, NFL Gambling

Last week Tony waited until just before kickoff to make his bets. Not sure if he figured it would help his accuracy or not, but it seems like it just gave him more time to over think.weekly-bets

He again hit just one of four bets, dropping him to 2-6 for the season. He’s down to $9,334 from our $10,000 starting point.

I’m not doing real well – another 2-2 mark put me at 4-4 for the season. But I’m at least hitting the bigger ones. I’ve added $687 to my $10,000 start.

Tony is heading off to a bachelor party. He promises to get his picks added in here at some point. But I wanted to get this posted, because I’ve got a betting interest in the Thursday night game. So, here goes week three.

UPDATE: It’s not so much improving my accuracy, it’s that after two weeks, I clearly would make more money if I didn’t make bets. (more…)

NFL Picks 2013: Week 3

by | Sep 17, 2013 | 2013 season, NFL Picks

The second week schedule looked like a tough one, but the Zoneblitz contributors handled it well. The four of us combined to go 45-19 for the weekend. I led the pack with a 13-3 mark while Rich rebounded from a rough first week as he and Anthony both hit 11 each. Tony got 10 correct.

weekly-picksSo heading into week three, the standings look like this:

Week two Season total
Andy 13-3 23-9
Anthony 11-5 22-10
Tony 10-6 21-11
Rich 11-5 18-14

 

The schedule doesn’t look a whole lot easier this week with many competitive games on the slate. Hopefully we’ll continue looking like we’ve got at least a bit of a clue. Here goes:

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ZB Notebook 9-16-2013

by | Sep 16, 2013 | 2013 season, NFL Random Thoughts

I’d been waiting for the game for several months but in the end it was kind of anti-climatic. Seattle put the wood to San Francisco Sunday night in a game I expected the Seahawks to win, but not quite that handily.

It’s the second consecutive time that Seattle has easily handled the 49ers at home.  Despite the lopsided loss, I still think the 49ers and Seahawks are virtual equals in the NFC and also believe that the winner of the NFC West ultimately becomes the team to beat in the conference.

The folks at NinersNation.com aren’t panicking. They also recognize that Seattle is a pretty good team that put itself in the driver’s seat. The pressure is on the 49ers, they acknowledge, to get back on track this week and to win the later-season matchup in San Francisco.

But Seahawks writers, fans and observers also are rightfully excited about the showing on Sunday night. Everyone knew how good San Francisco was. I don’t know that people were giving Seattle the credit they deserved. But as this Bleacher Report story notes, the Seahawks put the NFC on notice.

Cowboys blow an opportunity

Dallas was bailed out by its division mates as the NFC East went 0-4 in week two. But the Cowboys had an opportunity to not only gain a game on its division foes, but also to show everyone that this season was going to be different from the last two when the team finished 8-8 and outside of the playoffs.

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Modern-era list of 126 Hall of Fame candidates announced

by | Sep 12, 2013 | Hall of Fame

The Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NFL Network teamed up Wednesday night to unveil the complete list of modern-era PFHOF Logo-mcandidates for the Hall’s class of 2014.

The list consists of 126 candidates, including 16 who are in their first year of eligibility. Players must have been out of the game for five years before they are eligible, so this year’s group played their last games in 2008.

The Hall of Fame Selection Committee will trim this list to 25 candidates who will be named semifinalists. They will be announced in November. The semifinalist list will be reduced to 15 finalists via mail ballot. That will be announced in January.

The finalists and two senior candidates, Ray Guy and Claude Humphrey, will be considered by the committee during Super Bowl week in New York City.

We made our predictions on who will be inducted here.

Can Fitz or Megatron challenge Rice’s records?

by | Sep 10, 2013 | Hall of Fame, NFL Random Thoughts

One of the things I wrote I would be watching last weekend was the level to which playing with Carson Palmer can get the career of Larry Fitzgerald back on track. No, no, I’m not saying Fitz has been terrible, by any stretch. But through largely no fault of his own, he hasn’t had anyone throwing him the ball who could help him achieve what he had been early in his career. If game one is any indication, expect the Cardinals’ number one wideout’s numbers to fall back in line with what they looked like during the first six years of his career.

Fitz caught eight passes for 80 yards and two touchdowns, including a perfectly placed over-the-shoulder job heading into halftime. Fitzgerald gave way in the second half a bit, as Palmer spread the ball around to Michael Floyd and Andre Roberts, but it was an encouraging sight for those who took a flyer on #11 during fantasy football drafts.

My curiosity with Fitzgerald was piqued when I compared the stats he put up during his first half-dozen years to those put up by Calvin Johnson during that same period of his career – which culminated with Megatron’s record-setting season in 2012.

Last year when Johnson was chasing down Jerry Rice’s single-season yardage record, we took a look at how the young Lions receiver was trending compared with Rice’s career marks, since the Hall of Famer holds almost all of them. (more…)