NFL Picks, 2012 season, Week 10

by | Nov 5, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Picks

They’ve been criticized for playing a soft schedule, which so far has included only one opponent with a winning record at the time of their game. Their quarterback was demonized for shoving an offensive lineman during a nationally televised loss to Green Bay.

But since that week two loss, the Bears are 6-0 and they looked like the real deal Sunday in putting a 50-spot up against the Tennessee Titans. Like Jay Cutler or not, believe in that supposedly aging defense or not, it’s a team that, at this point, looks loaded.

“The 2012 Chicago Bears have what it takes to make a trip back to the Super Bowl,” says Jake Perper, owner of Bearsbacker.com. “The Bears’ defense is elite, the Bears’ special teams is rock solid and the Bears’ offense is coming together, especially the running game with Matt Forte. If they can continue to stay healthy and can continue to create turnovers at will on defense, they will be hard to stop.”

Perper notes that the offense has to limit its mistakes and the team cannot afford many scares such as the one posed by a plucky Carolina squad a week ago. The tough part of the schedule, including back-to-back contests with Houston and San Francisco and four remaining division games, will determine where this team goes. But Perper is a believer.

“I think when it is all said and done, this year we will be calling them contenders.”

Hard to argue based on what we’ve seen so far.

Perper joined us for the week 10 pick segment. He follows Steve Isbitts from JoeBucsFan.com. Isbitts struggled to an 8-6 finish while Tony dominated at 11-3 and Andy was close behind at 10-4. That leaves the collective blogger community tied with the brothers heading into week 10. Ahh, the drama.

Week Nine Season
Celebrity Bloggers 8-6 83-49
Andy 10-4 83-49
Tony 11-3 83-49

(more…)

NFL Picks, 2012 season, Week 9

by | Oct 31, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Picks

Josh Freeman has looked great for the better part of a month. Doug Martin seems to be getting it. And Tampa Bay’s run defense is right there with the best in the NFL. When the Bucs destroyed Minnesota last week, it put Tampa in a position to end the first half of the season at 4-4 and spend the second half chasing a playoff spot.

Fans talking playoffs may be jumping the gun a bit, but this team is on the right track, says Steve Isbitts, co-founder of JoeBucsFan.com.

“Sober, reasoned Bucs fans are largely happy this season is playing out as expected with encouraging, inconsistent football,” he says. “Look for the Bucs to continue to be very physical and explosive with mixed results. This is a .500 team on the right track. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

Isbitts joined Zoneblitz as our celebrity guest blogger for the week. He follows Barrett Walton from the Texans Bull Blog, who scored a 9-5 record in week eight. That tied with Tony. Both were two games behind my 11-3 record – which was good enough to overtake Tony and jump into second place for the season. I’m comin’!!!

Week Eight Season
Celebrity Bloggers 9-5 75-43
Andy 11-3 73-45
Tony 9-5 72-46

So here are the picks for week nine.

(more…)

ZB Notebook 10-16-12

by | Oct 16, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Random Thoughts

I think the wear and tear and stress and strain may be getting to Eagles coach Andy Reid. He was getting ready to follow up a hugely disappointing season when the tragedy of his son’s death struck during training camp. And ownership made no bones about the fact that a repeat of 2011 in 2012 would not be acceptable.

Reid looked incredibly tired and worn down by Sunday’s comeback loss to Detroit, barking more aggressively at officials than I recall him doing in the past. Now word has emerged that his embattled defensive coordinator Juan Castillo has been fired and there are even rumors that quarterback Mike Vick may be on the brink of losing his job.

I think the hotseat is getting hotter in Philly – and probably deservedly so, even in spite of the conference championship games and Super Bowl Reid has led the Eagles to since arriving in 1999. I ranked him the sixth most-likely coach to get fired in a preseason list. I’d say he could be as high as number three now – and owner Jeff Lurie may do him a favor.

Reid, frankly, looks tired and worn out. He is a great coach, but it might actually do him some good to take a page from the book of Jeff Fisher by taking a year off to catch his breath and get some sleep.

London Jaguars?: (more…)

NFL Best Bets: Week 1 – 2012

by | Sep 4, 2012 | 2012 season, NFL Gambling

Neither of us put any fear into the “betting experts” last year when we started doing our “Best Bets.” But we had a good time doing them. So we’re bringing them back for another year.

There’s not a whole lot of science that goes into our picks. We look things over, ponder what we know and have read, and try to find a couple pointspreads that look off. As I learn every time I try to bet against the spreads, those are hard to find. Vegas generally does an amazing job figuring out how these games are going to go.

Nonetheless, here are our thoughts on the best bets for the opening week of the 2012 NFL football season. Take these for what they’re worth – virtually nothing. (more…)

Suck-for-Luck candidates start to separate

by | Oct 10, 2011 | NFL Draft, NFL Random Thoughts

The Seattle Seahawks and particularly the San Francisco 49ers have proven to be more competitive than I expected they would, already virtually eliminating themselves from competing for the number one pick in the April 2012 NFL Draft, from which Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck is the biggest prize and by a wide margin.

Kansas City is bad enough to warrant earning the Luck pick but they’ve foolishly gone and found balance on offense the last two weeks, which has allowed them to at least temporarily remove themselves from the discussions.

But several teams are starting to separate from the pack, some sucking well worse than expected. Here are my latest thoughts on who the top contenders are for the Luck pick: (more…)