Despite the presence of DeMarcus Ware, DeMarco Murray, Dez Bryant, Jason Witten and a litany of other solid players — and a 26-3 halftime lead – the Dallas Cowboys just dropped to 7-7 by losing at home to Green Bay.
They managed to do so despite 134 yards rushing from Murray, who averaged nearly 8 yards per carry.
For the second week in a row, the Cowboys looked as though they could spend all day gashing an opponent on the ground — yet they stubbornly refused to do so.
This team’s play-calling was widely criticized by Troy Aikman on FOX and throughout the Twittersphere. And rightfully so. Dallas’ decision to rely on the pass throughout the second half left time on the clock and gave Green Bay repeated opportunities to complete the comeback — the Packers outscored Dallas 34-10 in the second half.
And the unwillingness to run in the second quarter stalled several drives that ended in field goals instead of touchdowns, giving Green Bay reason to believe it had a chance to get back in the game.
The Cowboys needed this game to earn a tie in the division with Philadelphia. The Eagles gave Dallas a gift by losing to Minnesota earlier.
If it wasn’t obvious before now, Jerry Jones needs to reevaluate pretty much every level of management on this team. There is too much top-end talent for this team to be unable to put teams away. The defense — under Monte Kiffin, who replaced last year’s ineffective coordinator Rob Ryan — is abysmal. The play-calling is a joke. The obvious answer is Jones. But Jones obviously isn’t going to fire Jones.
If he needs to fill his ego by being the guy in front of the camera, fine. He needs to bring someone in behind the scenes who can give run personnel while placating Jones’ ego. And this coaching staff … this is a joke. This entire group has to go.
Otherwise this bunch is going to continue underachieving at a .500 level for years to come. And guys like Witten, Bryant, Ware and several others deserve better.
Getting bets up last second, and there’s been lots up in the air that should impact bets this week–Adrian Peterson and Toby Gerhart in Minnesota, Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay and the Josh McCown/Jay Cutler debate to name a few.
This season has become largely lost since Andy made me start gambling by the rules–I’ve gone from slightly ahead to in a big hole, similar to my life at the blackjack table. The only saving grace is my lead on Andy, despite his being the hotter hand in the sports book.
Week 14
Season
Week +/-
Bankroll
Season +/-
Tony
1-3
24-32
– $1,591
$7,372
– $2,628
Andy
2-1-1
21-32-3
+ $427
$6,833
– $3,167
Andy’s Bets:
Got 2.5 out of four correct last week. Gaining some ground on my brother, who’s been throwing his pretend money around like it’s Monopoly money the last few weeks. Feeling a little lucky right now. What the hell. There aren’t many games I like this time around, but I’m going to find a way to put half my bankroll on the line. Check back next week to see how this one plays out.
$750 – Baltimore (+6, -110) at Detroit – Most of the time this season when I’ve claimed to be confused by a line, I’ve bet my instincts … and gotten the crap kicked out of me. But I’m going to do it again. The Ravens aren’t exactly burning up the league this season, but Detroit has lost three of four and seems to be doing everything in its power to get Jim Schwartz fired by letting Chicago and Green Bay hang in a race they should have been out of weeks ago. I don’t know that Baltimore wins, but I’m guessing Joe Flacco, Torrey Smith and the recently recovered hip dislocatee Dennis Pitta give them a game and keep it within a score.
$1,000 – Philadelphia at Minnesota: (Over 51, -110) – My brother has a rule he generally follows that prevents him from betting for or against our home team, the Vikings. I understand why. We’re both usually wrong. But I’m going against it this week. Why? Because once upon a time, when Minnesota played at the Metrodome, its defense would up its game. Those days are but a memory. Opponents have scored 31, 35, 44, 27 and 20 in five games in Minneapolis. The red-hot Eagles come to town with Xavier Rhodes out and Harrison Smith maybe coming back part-time from an injury. And the Vikes can’t stop the run either. If Philly can get to 35 – and I don’t think that’s a stretch at all – Matt Cassel should be able to take it the rest of the way to the over pretty easily.
$1,000 – Jacksonville (+1, Even) vs Buffalo – Okay, what am I missing here again? Yes, the Jags lost their first eight games. But they’ve won four of their last five, covering the spread in those four wins, as well. Buffalo has lost five of six, failing to cover the spread in each of those five losses. Neither of these teams are any good, but at this late date in the season, I’ll take the one playing like it gives a damn over the one counting down the days until the offseason any day.
$300 – Upset of the Week – Washington (Moneyline +260) at Atlanta – The QB and the coach reportedly haven’t been getting along and the coach decided this week to bench RGIII. Who knows what’s going on in Washington. I had planned to go with a different game here, but this sleepwalking bunch may be awakened by having another voice calling the plays. It’s not like Atlanta’s really much better. This is our Game of the Weak, but Mike Shanahan may have found a way to get a strong performance from his team. Or they’ll continue tanking like dogs. … Much like my bankroll has been doing all season anyway.
Tony’s Bets:
I’ve largely checked out…I need a couple of big hits to get me back into it, or by week 16 I might bet the whole bankroll on one 6-way parlay just to see what might happen.
$1,000 – Kansas City (-5, -108) at Oakland – I shouldn’t be so excited about the Chiefs on the road, but for the most part they’ve been solid all season.
$1,500 – Philadelphia (-6.5, -105) at Minnesota – I really should have hit my upset pick of the Vikings last week, but this week they don’t have either of their top two running backs. With my luck, they’ll come out and dominate–but, at least my team would have played well then. Worst case scenario? Vikings lose, but Eagles don’t cover. If you could bet on that scenario, THAT’s a bet the mortgage scenario.
$750 – Saints/Rams – Over 47.5 (-110) – I’m counting on Drew Brees continuing from his performance last week, when he knocked one of my fantasy teams out of the playoffs.
$500 – Redskins (+220) at Atlanta – I’m not really sure why I get worse odds than Andy on this one–if anything, the Redskins have become an even bigger joke as the week has gone on. But, I suspect that Kirk Cousins will add to the confusion for that team as they look to move forward…
For this being the 15th week of the season there are very few games on the schedule where both teams have playoff aspirations.
That’s not the case Monday night in Detroit, however. The Lions will host the Baltimore Ravens with the home team trying to hold off two NFC North foes for the division title and the visitor attempting to earn a chance to defend the Lombardi Trophy it won in February.
The Ravens and the Lions might not be the sexiest match-up of the season’s last month, but it’s a huge game with postseason implications galore. Tony Lombardi, founder of Russell Street Report, and Zac Snyder, editor of SideLion Report, stopped by to share their thoughts on what will go down on Monday Night Football. (more…)
In week 14 of the NFL season, just 15 months after replacement officials made the call that many Packers fans will undoubtedly claim is the biggest injustice in the history of the league, several NFL games had questionable calls by the full-time referees — questionable enough that even Peter King called several to attention in his weekly Monday Morning Quarterback column.
I wasn’t able to watch the entire Vikings/Ravens game on Sunday, but there were two more calls in that game that I saw (and apparently one more that I didn’t) that King could have added to the list — an extremely questionable pass interference call on Chad Greenway late in the game, a chop block call against Joe Berger and the non-reversal of a Toby Gerhart “fumble” that was no more a fumble than I am a Chippendale model.
The Ravens scored a touchdown after the fumble, and scored the game-winning touchdown after the pass interference call.
He and Maggio tied at 13-3 in week 14, giving my brother a 25-7 mark the last 32 games – and pulling him within a single game of my season-long lead.
Rich has matched Tony’s 25-7 for the last two weeks, but slid to 11-5 in week 14. Overall, I’d say, we suck at betting but when the picks are straight up, we’re holding our own fairly well.
Here are the standings after week 14:
Week 14
Season
Andy
11-5
137-70-1
Tony
13-3
136-71-1
Maggio
13-3
129-78-1
Rich
11-5
123-84-1
The season is winding down and while there are few great match-ups this week, very little is wrapped up and there are a number of teams that must win to improve their playoff chances.
In addition to the fantasy football content we’ve been posting this year, we also decided to take our addictive personalities and take a shot at something that potentially fills our needs for gambling big money AND staying focused on even more football games than our 8 fantasy football teams require–FanDuel.com. We actually got an account established when we signed up for another fantasy football site subscription, and after a couple of slow weeks at the beginning of the year, we were hooked.
Based on some feedback some a friend of ours that has been playing for a couple years, we quickly started to focus on the 50/50 leagues, where you only have to finish in the top half of the league to get paid. Of course, our luck at FanDuel has been somewhere between our regular Fantasy Football (I personally made the playoffs in all three leagues for the first time that I remember, and have two byes this weekend) and our regular football betting column.
So we decided this week to go ahead and post the lineup we chose this week for our biggest FanDuel league–a $60k salary cap 50/50 league:
QB – Joe Flacco – $6,900RB – Jamaal Charles – $9,600
RB – CJ Spiller – $6,500
WR – Torrey Smith – $6,600
WR – Calvin Johnson – $10,000
WR – Jacoby Jones – $5,000
TE – Charles Clay – $5,000
K – Blair Walsh – $5,400
Def – Baltimore Ravens – $5,000
What do you think? If you play FanDuel, post your team here for comparison.
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First let’s start with how the cutdown might go Cut from 15 to 10 Eric Allen Eli Manning Steve Smith…
yea hence my cautious note about potential first ballot eligible for class of 2030 as we really don't know about…
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From a source and I don’t know the exact date (suspect Hall and voters prefer not to disclose) - might…
Paul where did you find this out and what’s the date