NFL Picks, 2012 season, Week 11

by | Nov 14, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Picks

Many observers were ready to bury the Baltimore Ravens after they lost Ray Lewis and Lardarius Webb during their Oct. 14 win over Dallas. But the Ravens have won two of three games since the defensive duo went down and, after putting up 55 points against Oakland on Sunday, the Ravens stand at 7-2 heading into next week’s division matchup with Pittsburgh.

Baltimore has remained competitive on defense, but has won by scoring points – 124 in the last four games, specifically. Derek Arnold, senior editor with the Russell Street Report, says that’s no accident.

“Despite their reputation, the Ravens are no longer a team that is carried by the defense,” he says. “They have become one of the NFL’s best red zone offenses and, as a result, are near the top of the league in points scored.”

Consistency is still an issue on offense and he’s not banking on another division title just yet.  But the offense is improving and seems to be understanding that it is going to need to score in the mid-20s many weeks to win.

“While not spectacular, Joe Flacco is an extremely capable quarterback,” Arnold says. “And when the offense runs through Ray Rice and utilizes play-action effectively, Torrey Smith can hit a home run at any time. Anquan Boldin, Dennis Pitta and Ed Dickson can keep the chains moving.”

Arnold joined Zoneblitz as its guest blogger for week 11. After pulling into a three way tie in Week 9, in Week 10 we saw Andy and myself continue in our tying ways, with a 9-4-1 record, while our collective of celebrity bloggers dropped eight games to break the three-way tie.

Week 10 Season
Tony 9-4-1 92-53-1
Andy 9-4-1 92-53-1
Celebrity Bloggers 5-8-1 88-57-1

Week 11 picks, where Andy and I finally don’t feel obligated to pick against the Vikings, sees us agree on all of the Sunday day games, but disagreeing on the night games:

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NFL Best Bets: Week Seven – 2012

by | Oct 18, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Gambling

Just a quick post, as we need to get these up before the game starts tonight–we both continued our brutal seasons last week, each going 1-3, and both hitting our upsets of the week. So as long as we’re betting 5x the amount on our upsets as our regular bets, we’re doing good, right? So Andy is now 7-17 on the year, while I am 11-13.

Here we go again, on our own…

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After Objective Review…the Seahawks/Packers Call Stands

by | Sep 25, 2012 | 2012 season, Business of Football, Zebras Are Human Too

I watched last nights game and followed along on Twitter with much amusement. There’s seriously nothing funnier in the sports community than watching Twitter blow up after a questionable call. Unfortunately, less than twelve hours later, and it feels to me like very few people have really thought this through rationally or objectively, and instead are just insisting that we need to get these refs out of our sacred game, so we can get back to…yelling at the regular refs for blowing calls.

Here are some of my (somewhat disorganized) thoughts on the current situation with the referees:

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NFL Picks, 2012 Season Week 4

by | Sep 25, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Picks

Nobody gave the Vikings a chance to beat San Francisco, not even Dan Zinski (@VikingAgeDan, @TheVikingAge), senior blogger at Viking Age Guy. “Honestly I thought they had no shot,” he says. “I’m not ashamed to say that. I figured they’d scrap through and maybe make it interesting before San Fran took control. I wasn’t ready for them just out-muscling the 49ers.”

But Zinski and the rest of the world were wrong. Minnesota beat San Francisco at its own game for what I believe is the upset of the season so far. I think the Vikings are still a year or two away from being a real contender, but Christian Ponder is giving the team’s fans reason for optimism. Zinski originally believed the Vikings were a four win team at best, but he’s revised his outlook, now giving the team a shot at 8-8.

“They should be in most games,” he says. “I’m still concerned about their defense and the lack of a deep passing game. But I’m becoming a Ponder believer and he has some legit weapons in Percy Harvin and Kyle Rudolph.”

Zinski joined Zoneblitz as the site’s celebrity game pick blogger for week four.

Week three was pretty brutal across the board, with my picks (Tony) edging Andy’s by one game (9-7 vs 8-8), while our guest blogger @moleandmeares finished 6-10 for the week. For the season, I’ve taken the lead, but we’re all separated by only two games:

Week Three Season Total
Tony 9-7 27-21
Celebrity bloggers 6-10 26-22
Andy 8-8 25-23

Week four picks:

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Bears-Packers Reaction

by | Sep 14, 2012 | 2012 season

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to watch the whole game last night, but I did have a few thoughts based on what I did see and hear on the radio:

1)      I don’t think the Packers actually won the game—the Bears just beat themselves. Right Jarrett Bush & Clay Matthews?

2)      While the OL deserves some heat, I am not sure they are the top ones to blame:

a.       Mike Tice – Way to not appear to adjust the game plan when it was clear the OL was struggling. Not leaving in a TE to help, continuing to take deep drops in the pocket…not wise for someone who presumably wants another shot at a head coach role.

b.      Brandon Marshall – If he catches that touchdown pass to make it 10-7 (or 13-7), it’s a whole different ballgame

c.       Jay Cutler – Yes, he was under duress. But he looked terrible under duress.

3)      Yes, Packer fans have to be happy with the win this morning (as well as hung over, undoubtedly). But 23 points, 7 of which came from a desperation fake field goal?  The Pack put up 35 points on 5 ARodg TD passes against the Bears last December 25 in a game not nearly as close as the score, and 27 in Week 3 of last year in another ARodg 3 TD performance. To manage only one offensive TD—on a short field after an INT in the fourth quarter—has to be a little demoralizing. The Packers offense, at least early in 2012, certainly doesn’t seem to be dictating games like it did in 2011.

And, since their defense is suspect—I mean, again, clearly it was not the Packers defense playing well that stopped the Bears, the Bears stopped themselves—how could you not be at least a little on edge in Green Bay?

Also important to note—with Minnesota playing a still rebuilding Colts, and the Lions taking on possibly the best team in the NFC, if not NFL—there is a reasonable chance that the Minnesota Vikings could enter week 3 sitting alone on top of the NFC North…Super Bowl, Baby!