(Don’t) Bet the Mortgage: Week 17, 2020

Hey, whaddya know. Andy got three games right. That took long enough. Doesn’t get him back to positive, but it puts him in striking distance. Tony joined him in the negatives this week. Good time for the season to end, I guess.

Andy: To say I’ve got momentum is severely far-fetched, but I’ll take a good week. Hoping to end on a good note.

$500 – Dallas (-2, -105) at NY Giants – Inexplicably, the line opened with New York favored. Dallas is playing significantly better over the last month and they’ll close out the season with a decisive win here.

$500 – Baltimore at Cincinnati: Over 44.5, -105 – I’m a little surprised about this total. Neither offense is great, but the Bengals, especially, give up a lot of points. The Ravens seem to have found themselves a bit.

$500 – Las Vegas (-3, -106) at Denver – This game started with Denver favored. The Raiders, despite the poor finish, are simply the better team right now. The Broncos can’t say with any certainty that they have a QB. The same is not true of the Raiders.

$500 – Pittsburgh (+385 money line) at Cleveland – Ben Roethlisberger isn’t playing? Who cares. The Browns just lost the Jets. Sure, the team was down four wide receivers. And this isn’t the “same old Browns.” But it’d be just their way to miss the playoffs losing to a backup QB in week 17.

Tony: Go big, or go home. I will get at least damn close to back to even…or go down in a huge ball of flames.  If I could, I would also put another $10k on ball of flames, just to hedge my bets.

$2,500 – Tennessee (-7.5, -110) at Houston – Yes, they’re on the road. But I don’t think JJ Watt’s passionate speech is going to do that much for the Texans, who just want to get home and find out who their next coach is going to be.

$2,500 – Tampa Bay (-7.5, +110) vs Atlanta – The only thing that scares me about this one is whether or not the Bucs have any desire to keep their pedal to the metal if they get a lead…but I’m not sure they’ve played well enough this year to not try to take every chance they have to figure out what they can do in the playoffs.

$2,500 – Baltimore at Cincinnati: Over 44 (-105) – I got a little better total than Andy here, meaning the line is moving down (or he doesn’t shop around enough).  The Bengals aren’t that good, but they’ve been moving the ball well enough the last few weeks to score at least 17, even against the Ravens.  And the Ravens are more than capable of putting up 27+ on the Bengals.

$1,000 – Pittsburgh (+385) at Cleveland – I picked this without seeing what Andy had picked…but pretty much the same logic.  Also have a feeling the Steelers will be amped up for taking it to the Browns & Myles Garrett…