As often happens in the NFL, Sunday brought a lot of unexpected. Among the most interesting things we saw this week:
New England, New Orleans, Chicago and Green Bay are among teams with high expectations that didn’t look good at all and either lost big or stole defeat from the jaws of victory after getting out to a strong lead. That’s got to be particularly stressing for these teams though because all have high expectations for postseason play and each looks to have a formidable challenge ahead in week two:
o The Patriots have to go on the road to play a Minnesota team that looked far better than expected in dismantling St. Louis
o The Bears have to travel to San Francisco, with the 49ers coming off a game in which they had no trouble holding off Dallas and Chicago continued to look vulnerable to the run.
o The Saints looked brutal on defense and they now head to Cleveland. While they have more talent than the Browns, New Orleans never looks as good on the road, particularly on grass. (more…)
Every week during the 2014 NFL season I’ll post my weekly position rankings to help you set your fantasy lineup. Adjustments will be made throughout the week to account for news, injuries, etc. Post questions in the comments below or on Twitter @Bo_Mitchell.
Tony and I have been pretending we know how to beat pointspreads for several seasons now, both online and in Vegas.
Last year we shook it up a bit. Each of us started the season with a hypothetical, mythical $10,000. We then assigned money values to our bets and calculated our winnings and losings throughout the season. We pick three games against the number – either the over/under or the pointspread. We pick one moneyline upset.
It’s not a perfect representation of how it would look if we were in Vegas, other than we both get more wrong than we do right – though Tony kicked some ass the last third of last year, getting enough of his larger bets right to make better than a 50 percent profit for the season.
Playing in an NFL Survivor Pool? Zoneblitz has you covered. Our four writers are playing a slightly modified version to help you make your weekly decisions, and hopefully we’ll all make it through Week 17 unscathed. However, in our version, we’re giving each writer ONE strike to make things more interesting. Whoever’s left standing at the end will be declared the winner.
So take in our thoughts, ponder them yourself and then vote below on who you think made the best pick. If you don’t like any of them tell us who you’d pick.
Andy: Philadelphia over Jacksonville
Would I rather hang onto the Eagles for later in the season when they are playing some of their below average divisional foes? Sure. But in a one-and-done (or in this case, two-and-done) format, heading into what is usually the most unpredictable of professional sports, having Philadelphia host an improving-but-still-not-very-good Jacksonville team seems like as sure a thing as you can get.
Maggio: NY Jets over Oakland
The Oakland Raiders are trotting out a rookie quarterback on the road against a Rex Ryan defense? Yes, please! I’m no Jets fan, but I’m certainly a fan of (hopefully) saving some of the big-name teams for later in the season. J-E-T-S DON’T-EMBARRASS-ME!
John: NY Jets over Oakland
When in doubt, just pick whoever plays Oakland. The Raiders are my preseason pick for the NFL’s worst roster, and this week they’re starting rookie QB Derek Carr behind a revamped offensive line on the road in the Big Apple. (Plus, a Jets win this week lets you save the heavy hitters for later in the season.)
Tony: Chicago over Buffalo
The Bills are so concerned about EJ Manual that they paid Kyle Orton $5 million to come in and be their insurance policy. And that’s a policy that I would be shocked if they don’t cash in by midseason. They have a potential running game, but unless they’re running the wishbone, three running backs won’t help. Meanwhile, the Bears look to have one of the best passing attacks in the league (again), and a coach that made Josh McCown look good—no telling what he can do in his second year with a talent like Cutler at the helm (as long as he can keep Cutler’s head on straight).
OK, enough of the “assessing our depth” and “it’s not about winning” quotes that come with pre-season. It’s time for real football.
Rosters are nearly set. The pretenders are off into obscurity, looking for real jobs. And kickoff is just three days away.
We’ve been doing these picks for a few years now. Last year we actually did pretty well. There were four of us. Tony and I tied at 166-89-1 records for the season. Anthony Maggio went 157-98-1. Rich picked 154 correctly against 101 misses and the lone tie – we all matched up fairly well with a collection of experts whose picks are observed via NFLPickWatch.com. In 2011 I beat Tony with a 172-84 mark compared to his 169-87. And in 2012, I used a 27-5 run through the last two weeks of the regular season to go 166-89-1 again, compared to his 161-94-1.
This year Anthony, Tony and I are joined by John Vomhof Jr., who chipped in on a few of our fantasy football buy/sell posts. He’ll be ramping up as the season moves forward. Without further ado, here are our long-sought picks for week one: (more…)
Ok, the NFL upheld Josh Gordon’s one-year suspension for violating the substance abuse policy. This isn’t terribly surprising news – and it doesn’t mean you should necessarily give up on his 2014 season just quite yet.
Remember back in 2008 when the league tried to suspend Pat and Kevin Williams for taking a banned diuretic. They took their respective cases to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.
The state court of appeals declined to block the NFL suspensions because the diuretic in question does not fall under the state’s workplace drug-testing laws – but also noted in the decision, according to media reports, was that the NFL is subject to state law when testing for other drugs that are covered.
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