Alternative Picks: Week 10, 2021

by Tony | Nov 11, 2021 | 2021 season, NFL Picks

One week after possibly the most lopsided loss in this segment (a 12-3 shellacking by Andy), and we’re right back to … tying. Not a typical tie where we both nailed all our picks, of course — no, an ugly tie that featured misses on the top three picks. Ugly indeed.

1) Tony – Steelers over Lions – Despite Big Ben looking to be 103 years old, the Steelers have quietly remained relevant in a muddled AFC, currently sitting in the 2nd wildcard spot. The Lions are coming off a bye week that had many NFL Meme sites posting that they unfortunately lost to the bye week, 27-24.

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Alternative Picks: Week 9, 2021

by Tony & Andy | Nov 3, 2021 | 2021 season, NFL Picks

And then there was an actual competition. Tony had an off week and Andy capitalized, making up nine games in the standings. Tony still leads, but it’s an actual contest now.

Was it a blip? Or is this really going to turn into something?

1) Andy – Bills over Jaguars – In the last three games, Jacksonville got killed by Seattle, narrowly beat Miami and gave the Titans the life support necessary for them to get back on track. The schedule has been brutal but this team is also just bad. (more…)

Alternative Picks: Week Eight, 2021

by Andy | Oct 27, 2021 | 2021 season, NFL Picks

Tony’s run of dominance continues (Let’s all remember that last year Andy was the one in the lead all season). He doubled Andy up in week seven, significantly extending his lead.

1) Andy – Rams over Texans – Everybody thought heading into the season that Houston would be bad. After a couple plucky games early, it’s turned out everyone was right. (more…)

Alternative Picks: Week six, 2021

by Tony & Andy | Oct 13, 2021 | 2021 season, NFL Picks

Well, he’s still eight games behind, but Andy hasn’t lost any ground in two weeks. Buffalo’s road win against Kansas City pulled Tony into a tie for the week and enabled him to maintain the gap.

Andy got to select when he picked and he saw a juicy game, so he decided to lead off. The Alternative Picks are below:

1 Andy – Rams over Giants – I could go into the Rams having Matt Stafford, Aaron Donald, two All-Pro caliber WR and so much more. All I really need to say here is two words: Mike Glennon. New York has nearly no chance in this game playing at full strength, but after Sunday’s debacle against Dallas, you can already mark this one in the win column in Los Angeles.

2 Tony – Buccaneers over Eagles – I was shocked to realize last week that Jalen Hurts is playing pretty well, at least from a fantasy football perspective. Not at all shocked to learn that the Eagles are sub-.500, or that Tom Brady is playing really, really well from a fantasy perspective … and a real perspective. After a one-week blip, had his second 400-yard games of the season, and second 5 TD effort of the season. Not unconveyable that he could do it in back-to-back weeks.

3 Tony – Packers over Bears – Much like every Yankees/Red Sox game, the stadium could spontaneously combust and I wouldn’t lose a minute’s worth of sleep. Short of that, not sure that Justin Fields and his 51.4 percent completion percentage, 1:2 TD:INT ratio, and 91.6 average yards per game is going to cut it against Aaron Rodgers. I realize the average yardage is taking into account all those moronic plays that Matt Nagy had him running before he claimed the starting job through injury…but you could combine his last two games and still not have enough for ARodg.

4 Andy – Chiefs over Football Team – Kansas City is still one of the top five or six teams in the NFL. They just happen to have played a couple of the other ones early on in the AFC. Dallas is the only team in the NFC East I’m willing to call even somewhat decent. Washington is a fraud and the team without a name will be further exposed this week.

5 Tony – Bills over Titans – The Bills dismantled the Chiefs on Sunday night and get another prime time chance to do the same to the Titans, who will have to hope for another Music City Miracle. The only thing I don’t care for about the Bills at this point is just how quickly their fan base has become insufferable on social media.

6 Andy – Colts over Texans – Vegas hates the Texans. And maybe rightfully so, it’s a bad team. But Indianapolis hasn’t exactly been unbeatable. Yet, this contest has the second widest spread of the week (Colts -10). As odd as I find this, Las Vegas usually knows better than I do — and at this point in our picks segment, I’ll take those odds.

7 Tony – Bengals over Lions – If a real-life Tiger took on a real-life Lion, I think I’d go with the Lion. In the NFL, even on the road, stick with the picking against the Lions.

8 Andy – Cowboys over Patriots – It’s been a while since I would have picked this match-up for Dallas, but the Cowboys look to actually be pretty solid this season and New England is clearly a notch short.

9 Tony – Broncos over Raiders – What a change a couple of weeks makes…start the season with a big win over Baltimore, what seems like a big win over Pittsburgh, and make it 0-3 against the Dolphins…only to lose a division matchup against the Chargers, drop an ugly one to the Bears, and lose your head coach when you find out apparently he’s a racist, homophobic, misogynistic jackass. (To be clear, it’s only the racist, homophobic and misogynistic parts were a revelation). Something tells me a team made up of a high percentage of African American players and has the first openly gay player to actually play in a regular season NFL game–not to mention a franchise that had the first female chief executive back in the day–isn’t going to be inspired to win one for their old coach…and might be a little bit distracted by the drone of media asking about it.

10 Andy – Panthers over Vikings – I’m not sure Carolina has more talent than Minnesota, I’m not sure they have better QB play, I’m not sure the defense is better. I just have less and less faith in the Vikings not completely hitting the skids soon. This team plays up or down depending on the level of talent the opponent has and that will cost them a lot.

11 Tony – Steelers over Seahawks – Kind of surprised this one is still on the board…the Steelers have a cooked Big Ben behind an atrocious offensive line, one of their top WR is out for the year, and their defense is mostly meh. But the Seahawks have Geno Smith. Advantage: Steelers.

12 Andy – Browns over Cardinals – I’ve dissed Arizona a couple times this season. I intend to do so again here I do think the Cardinals are among the top couple teams in the NFC. As the league’s last undefeated team, they deserve some kudos. But I also think the best four or five teams in the league this year are all in the AFC. The Browns are one. They rebound from a disappointing come-from-ahead loss to the Chargers to give Arizona its first blemish.

13 Tony – Jaguars over Dolphins – I don’t think the Jaguars are bad enough to go winless, and Urban Meyer (and the whole team) are probably grateful that the sports media can hound a different, bigger jackass of a (now ex) coach this weekend. Plus, I really didn’t want to touch the last game of the week…

14 Andy – Chargers over Ravens – I don’t know who is going to win this game. But it should be fun to watch.

Tony keeps inching further ahead in the straight-up picks, gaining another spot with his 11-5 win in week five.

Has this been a weird season? More upsets? More confusing games to pick? Or is it about the same? Will it continue? Will he ever stop asking me questions? Here goes:

Alternative Picks: Week five, 2021

by Andy | Oct 7, 2021 | 2021 season, NFL Picks

Well, it wasn’t a blowout, but Andy got a narrow win that helped keep Tony from running away with the contest.

Does it seem like this season’s games have been harder than those in a typical season? Anyway, here are this week’s alternative picks:

1) Andy – Buccaneers over Dolphins – Not that I was expecting a Super Bowl or even a playoff appearance from Miami this year, but the Dolphins have been among the league’s most disappointing teams so far, in my eyes. Tampa just keeps plugging along, not necessarily looking great yet, but getting enough done to make sure they end up in the postseason where the games really matter. Easy win.

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