A Look at NFL Spreads: Week 2

Here's Week 2's spreads that I'm working with before we start Week 2 in the NFL (again, home team is in caps):

FAVORITE	PTS	UNDERDOG
JETS	PK	Patriots
COLTS	5 1/2	Giants
BROWNS	3	Chiefs
PACKERS	13 1/2	Bills
BENGALS	PK	Ravens
TITANS	5 1/2	Steelers
Eagles	3 1/2	LIONS
COWBOYS	9	Bears
PANTHERS	6	Bucs
FALCONS	7	Cardinals
VIKINGS	5 1/2	Dolphins
RAIDERS	4	Rams
BRONCOS	3 1/2	Seahawks
Texans	3	REDSKINS
CHARGERS	8 1/2	Jaguars
Saints	4 1/2	49ERS

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A Look at NFL Spreads: Week 1

It's that time of year again: football is here. With it comes fantasy football and survivor pools (also known as suicide pools). The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article yesterday about why not to pick against Oakland in your suicide pool and ESPN's Chad Millman Blog had a good article about how to make your survivor league harder.

But while I do both fantasy and survivor/suicide, I am also in a spread league which is my favorite (and most agonizing) time of football season (besides the Giants, of course--which is also my favorite and most agonizing time of football season). Each week we pick every game against the spread, with two games counting double as "best bets". The person with the most points at the end of the week, wins the week and there are prizes for overall picking at the end of the year.

So as I started to do last year, I'm going to put those spreads up on the blog. Let us know in the comments which two would be your "Best Bets" and other games you feel pretty comfortable about. While I play for money in my pick'em league, we'll find out who is truly the guru of the spread league here at NYaT (team in CAPS is the home team).

FAVORITE	PTS	UNDERDOG
GIANTS	7	Panthers
Dolphins	3	BILLS
Falcons	2 1/2	STEELERS
BEARS	6	Lions
PATRIOTS	4 1/2	Bengals
BUCS	3	Browns
JAGUARS	2 1/2	Broncos
Colts	2	TEXANS
TITANS	6	Raiders
Packers	3	EAGLES
49ers	3	SEAHAWKS
Cardinals	4	RAMS
Cowboys	3 1/2	REDSKINS
JETS	2 1/2	Ravens
Chargers	5	CHIEFS

A Look at the NFL Spreads: Week 5

Here are my picks. As I've said before, don't rely on me for betting. I bet against my Giants because I feel like if they get a 16-point lead, Eli Manning will be out of the game. The stars indicate my best bets. I like the Vikings a lot against the Rams this week. There are a few teams that I can't just bet and the Rams have become one of them. I love the Vikings in this one. I also have bought into the 49ers hype. I like their game plan a lot (it looks a lot like the Giants). I still have not yet fully bought into the Pats or given up on the Redskins. This week would change all that for either team. Here are my picks:

FAVORITE	PTS	UNDERDOG	ANDREW
GIANTS	16	Raiders	RAIDERS
Vikings	8	RAMS	VIKINGS*
Cowboys	8 1/2	CHIEFS	COWBOYS
PANTHERS	3 1/2	Redskins	REDSKINS
EAGLES	14	Bucs	EAGLES
BILLS	6	Browns	BILLS
RAVENS	8 1/2	Bengals	RAVENS
Steelers	10 1/2	LIONS	STEELERS
49ERS	2 1/2	Falcons	49ERS*
Patriots	3 1/2	BRONCOS	BRONCOS
CARDS	5 1/2	Texans	TEXANS
SEAHAWKS	PK	Jaguars	JAGUARS
Colts	3 1/2	TITANS	COLTS
Jets	1	DOLPHINS	JETS
		Mon Nite Points	36
		LAST WEEK	5 (0)
		SUICIDE PICK	EAGLES

A Look At The NFL Spreads: Week 4

Just took a tour of ESPN--too cool. Met some of the guys from Sunday NFL Countdown and I remembered I should post my picks (Home team in CAPS, my pick in bold, best bets in bold and italics):

FAVORITE	PTS	UNDERDOG
Giants	9	CHIEFS
SAINTS	6 1/2	Jets
TEXANS	9 1/2	Raiders
Titans	3	JAGUARS
PATRIOTS	2	Ravens
Bengals	5 1/2	BROWNS
BEARS	10 1/2	Lions
REDSKINS	7	Bucs
COLTS	11	Seahawks
Bills	1 1/2	DOLPHINS
49ERS	10	Rams
Cowboys	3	BRONCOS
STEELERS	6 1/2	Chargers
VIKINGS	3 1/2	Packers

What do you think? I have the Bears as my suicide pick this week so I'm hedging my bets with the Lions dog pick. I think the Titans and Bengals are not getting enough respect considering they're playing the awful Jaguars and the even more dreadful Browns and they're favored by 3 and 5.5, respectively.



Best games of the week? Vikings-Packers, Steelers-Chargers, Saints-Jets, and--my pick for the best game of the week-- Patriots-Ravens.



Let's hope the Giants don't have another slip-up this week like they had against the Browns last year. Will update later. Go G-men!

A Look at the NFL Spreads: Week 2

As I promised, here are my NFL picks for week two (home team=CAPS, my pick=bold, best bet=italics, suicide pick=large font):

FAVORITE	PTS	UNDERDOG
Patriots	7	JETS
COWBOYS	3	Giants
CHIEFS	4	Raiders
TITANS	7	Texans
PACKERS	9	Bengals
Vikings	10	LIONS
EAGLES	PK	Saints
FALCONS	6 1/2	Panthers
REDSKINS	10	Rams
JAGUARS	3 1/2	Cards
49ERS	1 1/2	Seahawks
BILLS	5	Bucs
BRONCOS	3	Browns
CHARGERS	5	Ravens
Steelers	3	BEARS
Colts	3	DOLPHINS

A few explanations:

• The Jets and Ravens were my best bets this week. Why? Because even if they lose, I still think they'll cover the spread. The Patriots are a banged up team on defense. The Chargers are the best in the AFC West...but what does that truly say about them? Meanwhile, you have a very confident Jets team with an excellent defense and a Ravens team with not only a great defense, but now a great offensive combination with Joe Flacco and Ray Rice.

• Then I called my dad before sending the picks and he said "definitely San Diego". So while I didn't change it, I did change my best bet. I like the Colts against a so-so Miami team. I think the Dolphins will be good again this year, just not sure if they are quite on par with last year's team. I just couldn't pick the Ravens as a best bet when my dad sounded so sure the other way. He's been more destructive to my pick confidence than Michael Scott was to Andy Bernard's sexuality confidence on last night's The Office...but when dad says "definitely", I can't not listen.

• The Bears, Texans and Panthers all threw stink bombs in their first games...what makes me think they'll do better this time? Nothing.

• Saints/Eagles is a classic pick'em. And I'll usually take the home team. But with all the Eagles injuries and my hatred for the Eagles, I'm going with the Saints.
  

• Bucs/Bills is an awful game. I just pick the 5-point underdog when awful teams play each other.

• I think the Redskins will no-doubt beat a really bad Rams team...I'm just not sure they can score 11 more points. Do you? With that offense? With all their mistakes in Week 1, the Rams look like the team from The Replacements (right up to the point I'm waiting for an offensive lineman to puke sushi). But I think this one will be about a 6-7 point win. Unless they score on a few more fake field goals this week (still angry about that one)
  

• I never win picking for/against the Jags so I figured normally I'd pick the Jags playing at home against the Cards, who are West Coast team playing at 1 PM. But that's why I'm going against the Jags (trust me on this...it's all about karma).

• My suicide pick for the week was the Vikings. It could have been the Redskins or Packers...but do you really see Adrian Peterson losing to the Lions? Not even Brett Favre could make that happen.
  

• Lastly, I'll take my G-men on the road against the Cowboys. There were a ton of questions about Tony Romo, Wade Phillips, and the entire organization coming into Week 1. Did that win really help clear that all up? Really? The Giants have one of the best defenses in the NFL and wreak havoc on Tony Romo and his love life. I look for the Giants to go for 2-0 in the Big D.

We'll recap and see how I did after the weekend...

A Look at NFL Spreads: Week 1

Not a good start for me picking the games. In the following weeks, I'll post my picks with the spreads, but this week was a bit hectic with the Thursday game.

And my picks wouldn't have helped you much anyways. I am 5-8 so far this week, thanks to some last second points in the Ravens and Giants games that tipped the scales.

My one surprise of the week: the Arizona Cardinals who did not look good in their NFC title defense. It probably shouldn't have been a surprise, but after I got killed picking against them last year, I couldn't pick against the Cards in Week 1 this year.

My suicide pick was the Ravens and the Chiefs made it a bit more interesting than it needed to be...but prevailed in the end.

FAVORITE	PTS	UNDERDOG
TEXANS	4 1/2	Jets
GIANTS	6 1/2	Redskins
FALCONS	4	Dolphins
RAVENS	13	Chiefs
Eagles	1	PANTHERS
BENGALS	4 1/2	Broncos
Vikings	4	BROWNS
COLTS	7	Jaguars
SAINTS	13	Lions
Cowboys	6	BUCS
CARDS	6 1/2	49ers
SEAHAWKS	8 1/2	Rams
PACKERS	3 1/2	Bears
PATRIOTS	10 1/2	Bills
Chargers	9 1/2	RAIDERS

How did you do in week 1? Stay tuned for Week 2's lines and my picks.