Bet the Mortgage: Week 8, 2015 – Best Bets

A garbage time touchdown here, a blocked punt TD there, an uninspired performance by Atlanta and … here we go again. Week seven was another gross week for betting here at Zoneblitz. Tony missed hitting all four games by 1.5 points, but lost $1,182 due to his big bet on Atlanta. I had less money on the line, but once again missed three games, sinking further into my hole. As always, this is for entertainment purposes only–if you’re following our advice…well, by this point, shame on you.

A couple more weeks of this, and I’ll have wiped out my whole bankroll for the first time since we’ve been doing this bit–and possibly before week 10, even more impressive.

Tony

Disappointing week last week–kind of reminds me of Andy and my first trip to Vegas more than 15 years ago, when Andy bemoaned for days that we lost our first every parlay bet by less than 7 points. Never mind that we missed 3 of the games on the ticket–it was less than 7 points! So, now it’s time to put Andy in my rear view mirror–or beat him to the bottom.

$2,500 – San Diego Chargers (+3, +105) at Baltimore Ravens – The only thing about this game that scares me is that it’s a west coast team traveling east–which never seems to bode well. At the same time, the Ravens are 1-6 this season–yes, they’ve been losing close, but they’ve been losing. And in this case, they could win, and I could still win the bet.

$2,000 – New York Jets (-3, Even) at Oakland Raiders – The Jets are still one of the biggest surprises to me of the season–and I know that some will say that traveling west will hurt them. But I think Beast East will has a chance for a big day, and the Jets shockingly have too many weapons to let this one slip away.

$1,500 – Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots: Over 50.5 (-110) – The Dolphins have had a resurgence since getting rid of Joe Philbin, scoring 82 points in two weeks. The Patriots are less concerned with giving up points, as long as they continue to put up 30+ per week. I’d be tempted to take the over on this one at 60.

$300 – Dallas Cowboys (+220 moneyline) over Seattle Seahawks – The Cowboys are at home, and clearly have struggled since Tony Romo went down. But their defense is still playing fairly well–or at least angry–and the Seahawks have shown no reason to believe that they can effectively score points against anyone this season–to the point that the guy who was trotting out Russell Wilson each week in my dynasty football league just gave up a first round pick to acquire Andy Dalton. That’s desperation.

Andy

$600 – Minnesota Vikings (-1, -110) at Chicago Bears – The Vikings rarely win in Chicago, which I imagine drives this point spread. But this season Minnesota appears to be on an upward trajectory while the Bears were, at least a few weeks ago, in sale mode. This won’t be a blowout, but a Vikings loss in this game would be a huge disappointment for them.

$600 – Atlanta Falcons (-7.5, even) vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers – The Falcons have leveled off a bit the last couple weeks after coming out of the gates on fire. But they’re still far superior to Tampa. It’s my guess that they’ll gash the Bucs a bit with Ryan-to-Julio Jones early and then spend the remainder of the game pounding Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman, coming away with a 10 to 12 point win.

$500 – Cincinnati Bengals (pick em, +105) at Pittsburgh Steelers – If Ben Roethlisberger comes back this will be a close game. But unlike what I thought would happen going into the season, the Bengals look like they are for real this year. Tony and I just traded QB Andy Dalton in a Dynasty League. I expect he spends Sunday making us look like fools.

$300 – Miami Dolphins (+355 money line) at New England Patriots – The Dolphins have looked like a new team since replacing Joe Philbin with Dan Campbell. The offense, in particular, appears to have found new life. While this might be an unlikely upset, the +355 makes it a gamble worth taking.