NFL Picks, 2012 season, Week 17

by | Dec 26, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Picks

With a convincing win over Detroit on Saturday night, the Atlanta Falcons took another step toward a championship by locking up home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.

So why isn’t anyone buying Atlanta? The 13-2 Falcons have been dominant against teams they should beat this season, but have not played the most difficult of schedules. That’s not their fault – you can only play the teams they tell you to play. But there’s still the lingering feeling stemming from blowout losses in playoff games the last two seasons.

Greg Huseth, senior editor and staff writer for Blogging Dirty, says those two games have this team better prepared for what it takes to have success in the playoffs.

“The Falcons have been embarrassed the last two seasons in the playoffs and I think that has made them more mentally tough,” he says. “They also overlooked a bad Carolina Panthers team in Week 14 and got obliterated. Those playoff losses, and the more recent loss to Carolina, have taught them not to overlook any aspect of the game and that if they don’t execute, it won’t matter that they’re the number one seed in the NFC.”

The Falcons are going to have a challenging road in the postseason, even if they are playing at home. San Francisco and Seattle look to be peaking and Green Bay also is playing well. But it did look to me like Atlanta did take its game up a notch against Detroit, so maybe they are poised for a better showing.

Huseth joined us as our guest blogger for the regular season’s final week. Last week’s guest celebrity blogger was Keith Myers from 12th Man Rising. He went 12-4, which was good for second place last week. He beat Tony, who went 9-7. Andy hit on a bunch of upsets, which led to a 14-2 week that sprung him to a two-game lead for the season.

  Week 16 Season
Andy 14-2 153-86-1
Tony 9-7 151-88-1
Celebrity bloggers 12-4 148-91-1

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NFL Picks, 2012 Season, Week 16

by | Dec 20, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Picks

The NFL Rookie of the Year discussions to this point have primarily centered on RGIII and Andrew Luck. Those two certainly have shown that they’ll be forces opposing defenses will have to reckon with for years to come. In a traditional season, however, the work Russell Wilson has done in bringing the Seattle Seahawks to prominence this season would be in the mix as well.

Wilson, Marshawn Lynch and a hard-hitting defense have combined to put Seattle squarely in the playoff mix. With a pair of 50-point showings the last two weeks, the team is peaking at the right time, too.

Keith Myers, editor and lead writer for 12th Man Rising, acknowledges that injuries and suspensions make this week’s divisional tilt with the 49ers a challenge.

“The Seahawks likely go into this week’s game against San Francisco with their fifth and sixth string cornerbacks again playing very large rolls for the defense,” he says. “That’s not a recipe for success once the playoffs begin. Throw in significant injuries to two starting defensive linemen and there’s some concern when the opponents are better than the Cardinals and Bills.”

Still, he adds that this team is better than most people think and that it is going to be a tough out once the playoffs begin.

“The way the Seahawks’ offense is clicking right now, if they can get healthy on defense before the playoffs start, then there’s no team they can’t beat,” Myers says. “They may not win three straight road games to get to the Super bowl, but they’ll go into every game with a real chance of winning.”

This team has shown improvements throughout the last two seasons. With the steady play at quarterback both teams are getting from their youngsters, I think the 49ers and Seahawks are primed to create a rivalry for supremacy in the NFC West, not just this year, but for years to come.

Myers joined us as this week’s guest game picker. Last week’s guest blogger, Kim Constantinesco, not only has the best name of anyone who has ever participated in this segment. The senior editor for Predominantly Orange stuck with my brother pick for pick in week 15. Despite some close games decided in the last seconds, Constantinesco and Tony finished the week 9-7.

This allowed Andy to pick up a game in the standings, as the blind squirrel I’ve had doing my picks the last couple weeks found the nut 10 times. Tony’s got a three game lead over me and, due to a couple rough weeks in the middle of the season, the celebrity guest game picking bloggers are currently six back of the leader with two weeks to play. (more…)

NFL Best Bets: Week 16 – 2012

by | Dec 20, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Gambling

I’m not sure if my brother feels this way, but for me,  most seasons, there usually is a point where I feel like I’ve started to feel like I’m at least getting a hint for which teams are good, which are bad, which know how to go for the jugular and which are prone to bad upsets.

Not this year. I don’t have a flippin’ clue. It played out again last week in a 1-3 mark that dropped my best bets to 26-33-1 for the season. That sounds bad – and it is terrible. But it’s still actually ahead of my brother, who went 0-4 and hasn’t made a correct bet in this segment since week 14.

We are committed to playing this out for the season, but if we were really playing this out in Vegas, we’d either have been committed or we’d have been left lying in an alley with our legs broken multiple times.

On that upbeat note, happy holidays and here are our bets. (more…)

NFL Best Bets: Week 15 – 2012

by | Dec 12, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Gambling

After the dreadful start we had to our betting season, I didn’t think our picks could get much uglier. We seemed to be on a bit of a roll heading into week 14, but last week everything went wrong.

Andy went 1-3, dropping his season record to 25-30-1. Tony did even worse, not connecting once, even picking Arizona to upset Seattle in a game the Cardinals ultimately lost 58-0.

It may be merciful that there are only three weeks left in the season. But we’re going to go down with a fight. On what is supposed to be the lucky day of 12/12/12, here goes for week 15.

Tony (more…)

NFL Best Bets: Week 13 – 2012

by | Nov 29, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Gambling

We’re getting into the latter stages of the regular season and, with that, come rivalry games and divisional contests that are notoriously difficult to pick. And yes, that is a blatant excuse for why last week – which I predicted upfront would be a tough one – didn’t go so well.

Tony managed a split. His 2-2 mark brought him to 22-26 for the season. I hit my upset – Washington over Dallas on Thanksgiving – but after two straight 3-1 weeks, I managed only a push and two losses in my other bets during week 12. So I’m at 20-27-1 on the year.

Week 13 is tough again, but hopefully it can’t be any worse than last week. Here goes: (more…)