Quick question: What’s better than skipping church, sitting on the couch in a dark room watching the Red Zone channel for 12 hours avoiding all real world responsibilities, and gambling on grown men who probably have CTE? Doing it for the third straight week. Welcome to NFL Sunday.
"They say a tie is like kissing your sister, I guess that is better than kissing your brother." - Lou Holtz
Football is back? FOOTBALL is back!!! So back that I’ve spent the last 3 weekends doing nothing but watching 14+ hours of football a day and it can’t possibly get any better, until it just did. Cause we are only in week 3 and just getting started.
All kickers suck
Last Sunday was chaotic, among the early games was two of the biggest rivals in the NFL, the Packers and Vikings. Both teams entered the season with high expectations and a W in this game could go a long way in winning the NFC North. I stupidly took the Vikings -1 thinking their defense would be able to slow down Aaron Rodgers (which they did for a play or 2). What should have been a classic OT game was overshadowed by the fact both teams had chances to hit make able game winning FGs and had kickers who missed. A game which should have been a deciding factor in the NFC North battle ended in to tie, a tie?!?! Vikings fans should have woke up feeling great about their team. They finally have a QB who can go drive for drive with Aaron Rodgers in a duel, on top of the best defense in the NFC. Instead they get to listen to their coach try to explain why he is cutting their 5th round draft pick kicker. A tie leaves everyone with a strange empty feeling. You spent almost 4 hours watching a game to end up with no real results. I don’t know how to feel about the Vikings or Packers, since it was a tie, I don’t actually know which team is better. I do know one thing for sure though, a tie is nothing like kissing your sister.
Where the hell did that phrase even come from? Was some guy kissing his sister one day and thought “wow this is gross and should never happen, sort of like a tie in a football game.” I understand the thinking, but whatever guy come up with this idea was not involved in a tie, it was a Loss. Make no mistake about it, anytime you end up kissing your sister, that is no tie. Its a loss. The NFL does not have a sister kissing problem, because that would be weird and wrong, but it does have a problem with it’s OT rules. Any time we have back to back weeks with a tie, something needs to change. Should the NFL put together a huge committee of old white guys to decide how best to avoid this problem? No way I can solve all their problems right now, get rid of kickers.
It really was a tough weekend for kickers. Not only did the Vikings kicker blow it twice but the Browns did another Browns thing and let a kicker with a hurt groin miss 2 potentially game winning kicks. If the NFL would just consider eliminating the position of place kicker the game of football would be saved. Does football really need kickers? Most of them are small skinny guys who have nothing to common with the 300 LB muscled freaks that are real football players. If all kickers just left NFL locker room tomorrow, no one would notice. Finally real football players would get a chance to decide the outcomes of games instead of these nerds. Punters can leave too while we’re at it, go for it every 4th down. Will the NFL consider this? Not a chance, they are too busy worrying about pointless things like “player safety”
Remembering the great career of Vontae Davis
I wanted to take some time in the middle of this blog to write about the wonderful accomplishments in the career of Vontae Davis. What a special player and incredible talent. I even created a list of all the things that made him great. First: best defensive player on a terrible Colts Defense for years. Second: a real hard worker who never gave up no mat…..
The Steelers still haven’t won a game
Every year before the season starts a number of ‘experts’ pick the Steelers to make the Super Bowl. This is because the AFC is trash and they don’t want to pick the Patriots every time. Its not like this is a terrible pick, on paper the Steelers have the best RB and WR in the NFL. And a QB who has already won the franchise 2 Super Bowls. However it was easy to see the drama of the Steelers coming from a mile away. Le’veon Bell made it clear he was not going to play this season with his current contract and everyone knew it besides the Steelers ownership and players. With Bell grabbing all the headlines the first week of the season, Antonio Brown decided he needed some attention and didn’t show up to work Monday after losing in their home opener to the Chiefs. To add insult to injury, AB tweeted at a scout that the Steelers should trade him to prove he would still be good with another team. The Kardashians would say this team is dramatic and dysfunctional. The reality is the Steelers haven’t won a game yet because their defense is not good. The good news is their offense is talented enough to carry them to plenty of wins and a playoff appearance. All this drama has one cure and one cure only, win a game.
NFL Week 3 Picks
All Lines used from Las Vegas Westgate Supercontest
Texans -6
Ravens -5.5
Niners +7 (buy 1/2 point -140)
Texans -6
Week 3 brings up the opportunity to bet on a desperate 0-2 hoping to keep their playoff hopes alive. Problem with this game is, there are 2 of those teams. The Texans are coming off back to back road games to open the season and here’s what we know about the Texans so far. They have a solid defense, an incredible QB and WR combo with Deshaun Watson and Deandre Hopkins. And they have the worst offensive line in the history of football. If Watson has longer than .25 seconds to throw a pass before he gets hit he might actually be a game changing QB. Good news for this week is the Giants offense might be in worse shape than the Texans when it comes to moving the ball. Last Sunday in Dallas the Giants looked more like a HS offense until the 4th quarter when the Cowboys defense went into prevent coverage. The Giants are also without their best pass rusher Olivier Vernon. The Texans are the better team and should win easy in their home opener.
Ravens -5.5
The Ravens are coming off 10 days rest, playing in Cinci last Thursday night, in a game where they looked very mediocre. Before week 2 the Ravens absolutely destroyed the Bills in Baltimore 47-3. I expect that team to show up at home against the Broncos Sunday. The Broncos are 2-0 to start the season with unconvincing wins at home over the Seahawks and Raiders. Denver is about to play their first game of the season away from home, traveling east for an early game. Every advantage their should go to the Ravens. Broncos QB Case Keenum has been solid but careless with the ball throwing 4 INTs in the first 2 games. A John Harbaugh coached defense will always take advantage of QBs who are careless with the ball. The Ravens should take advantage of the rest and home field.
Niners +7 (buy 1/2 -140)
DOES ANYONE KNOW A GOOD TAILOR SO WE CAN FIT FUTURE HALL OF FAMER PAT MAHOMES FOR HIS GOLD JACKET. The Pat Mahomes hype is real after 2 games leading the NFL with 10 TD passes. Its easy to believe Mahomes is the real deal after seeing him go to LA and beat the Chargers week 1 then turn around and beat the Steelers week 2 in Pittsburgh. So why in the world would I bet against this guy going into his home opener? Simple, the Kansas City defense is very bad. The Chiefs defense is giving up the most yards per game in the league at 508 per game, that is FCS college level bad. I still love my guy Jimmy G and Kyle Shanahan even after they were back door covered last week. The Niners should be able to move the ball all day in KC and if Jimmy G can play anywhere close to Mahomes his team will be in the game. I like the Niners to keep this game within a TD and even have a chance to win against the terrible Chiefs Defense.
Double COVERage 