Football Picks Against the Spread

It was a winning week this past week.  We took down some plays on the Packers, Chargers, Eagles, Texans, and Vikings, and had losses with the Saints and Cardinals.  No big deal, I’ll take a 5-2 week anytime.  Now we’re getting into the thick of the NFL season when things get really exciting.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS -3 @ JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS

As soon as I saw this spread, I loved it.  I said, hold on, did the Colts already clinch home field advantage? And it turns out that they did.  I quick news search on Google stated that Peyton Manning and all healthy starts will play this Sunday.  I would love taking the Colts if home field was on the line, but with no motivation to really win this one and not knowing how long Peyton will play: a quarter, a half, who knows, I think you stay away from this one.  On the other hand, I’m sure the Colts, like the Saints, want to go undefeated.  Can you imagine 18-0 Colts vs. 18-0 Saints in the SuperBowl?

Prediction: Colts 24 – Jaguars 20

Free Pick: Colts -3 (Confidence: 2/5)

DALLAS COWBOYS @ NEW ORLEANS SAINTS -7

I am loving this as an Eagles fan.  Not only did the Eagles win over the Giants give the Eagles sole possession of the NFC East with 2-straight home games against the 49ers and Broncos, but the Cowboys lost to the Chargers after losing to the Giants and now have to go on the road to face the Saints.  Saints are still playing for home field so I think you see them win this one.  The Cowboys December woes continue.  Get the “Is Wade Phillips getting fired?” talks going.  I’m loving this!

Prediction: Saints 27 …

Yes, this was the Game of the Year. What a football game. DeSean Jackson, I love you.

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You guys know how much I love Brandon Marshall.  Not only did I steal him in my draft, but he single-handedly helped me win the big playoff game yesterday thanks to a 21 reception, 200 yard, 2 TD performance. Also, much thanks to DeSean Jackson’s ridiculous performance last night.  Here is a video of all 21 receptions by Brandon Marshall.

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Question: I’m in a survivor pool and I’ve made it to week 14. I need some help picking a game this week.

Here is a list of teams that I have already taken and cannot use anymore:

Colts
Cowboys
Steelers
Eagles
Saints
Seahawks
Ravens
Bears
Patriots
Bengals
Chargers
Vikings
Falcons

Answer:

You’ve already picked most of the best teams already, so let’s see which games you can pick with teams that aren’t the elite teams in the league. Two matchups that I like are the Buffalo Bills @ Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Redskins @ Oakland Raiders. The Chiefs at 3-10 have been pretty sorry this year. While the Bills aren’t much better at 5-8, I think you stand a good chance by taking the Bills this week even though they are playing on the road. The running tandem of Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson should do well against the Chiefs poor run defense.

What do you think? Answer below!…

So after a ridiculous Thanksgiving weekend run, the NFL went back to being totally unpredictable and downright silly again, led by the Raiders beating the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

My Eagles won and gave us a big hit, but my other top 3 picks failed me as the Pats lost the Dolphins, the Vikings lost to the Cardinals, and the Cowboys lost to the Giants.

There’s no way I thought the Patriots would lose after their disappointing Monday Night loss to the Saints.  The Cardinals lose at home to the Panthers and 49ers at home and beat the Vikings? No one can make sense of whats going on with the Cardinals on a week-to-week basis.  I played the Cowboys since I thought Eli Manning is DONE due to his foot injury. Well, it turns out that he still has some gas left in the tank.

A quick glance at the spreads and I hate this week’s card.  But let’s see if we can find anything good.  I’m going to make this one short and sweet since I am running short on time.

PITTSBURGH STEELERS -10 @ CLEVELAND BROWNS

The Steelers have lost 4 straight including losses to the Chiefs and the Raiders. They also lost Hines Ward and Polamalu is still out. One of our readers suggested teasing Steelers -3 and taking the over 26.  That may be the way to go, but I like the under here. Don’t count on much scoring from the Browns. I had a pick of Browns +21, over 32.5 when the Browns faced the Bengals and the final score in that one was 16-7. The Browns are playing better D lately and this one will possibly be in the snow.  I like the Steelers -3 …

Overall Profit 4.7 units

Where has this college football season gone? We have had our share of winners and losers and our share of hot streaks and cold streaks. Last week I put you on two huge winners with Auburn and Connecticut and several other smaller wins to run our profit up to 4.7 units. This college weekend is huge and for many it will determine who is playing in big bowl games and who will be disappointed about playing in some other bowl game. As a note, for all us bettors this weekend is huge. I usually don’t do this, but I am going to give you some great insight. I guarantee there will be several games this weekend where the game comes down to the final play or final series and whoever wins goes on to a big bowl game and the other goes on to some bowl they don’t want to be in. That is key, remember Alabama last year? After losing to Florida they had to play in a bowl game verse Utah that they didn’t want to be in and it cost them. That situation will happen again this year: close game, loser ends up in a meaningless bowl, the loser is favored, and then loses outright. We will need to find those plays on be on the right side.
Thursday Night:

Oregon State at Oregon (-10) for 1 unit. I agree with everything VM said, plus I love the home field advantage in this contest. Oregon is a different team at home and that will be clearly evident tonight as they win by 3 touchdowns over OSU.

LOCK OF THE YEAR #5: Texas (-14) vs Nebraska for 2 units: My Lock of the Year …

Here is where my head is at concerning the Saturday college football games. Nothing big here, just some small bets.

1.) Pac 10 Teaser — USC over Arizona, Cal over WASHINGTON — USC and Cal are 7-point favorites, I’ll pair those together and take them at pick ’em games.

2.) Cincinnati -2 over PITTSBURGH — I’ll take advantage of the low spread here. Although Pittsburgh has a quality defense and a running game that will move the ball on Cincy, Cincinnati has one of the best offenses in football and should just outscore Pittsburgh in this one.

3.) Florida -5.5 over ALABAMA — Should be a great game. I say Florida wins by 7-10. Better offense, better defense. Alabama just hasn’t done enough to impress me like Florida has. Plus, Tim Tebow loves Jesus too much for him to lose. Will be really close with the spread, but I’ll take the Gators.…