Upsets today:
Chicago Bears 15, LA Rams 6
Cleveland Browns 26, Carolina Panthers 20
Indianapolis Colts 24, Houston Texans 21
Miami Dolphins 34, New England Patriots 33
NY Giants 40, Washington Redskins 16
Oakland Raiders 24, Pittsburgh Steelers 21
SF 49ers 20, Denver Broncos 14
ALMOST upsets:
Dallas Cowboys 29, Philadelphia 23 in OT
KC Chiefs 27, Baltimore Ravens 24 in OT
Grrrr I hate Chicago.
My Vikes can keep it close.
That Baltimore/KC game… so close again!
Next week is going to be intense
So true. Heck, Cincinnati came within spitting distance, as well.
I am starting to really worry about the nfc north.
Chicago? Really?
Unless the Vikes win tomorrow, the division is all but over.
Honestly two weeks ago the Bears are exactly where I expected. Just had the win and loss switched.
I mean losing to the Giants and beating the Rams makes perfect sense, right?
Craig to be quite honest I never expected to Bears to be so good this year. And after last year? I expected my Vikes to be better. Sigh,
The bears beat the rams? Sounds like some crazy mutant zoo,
To be honest, I didn’t either! I figured 7 wins was their absolute ceiling.
And if you’d have asked me week one what the top 5 teams in the league are? I’d have put the Vikes up there.
This week was insane. The Dolphins beat the Patriots with some miraculous college-football-like-lateral-pass-nonsense and then the Steelers almost did the same to the Raiders.
Oakland and Miami spoiled a lot of people this week.
I was probably saved, because I had already picked both.
As we get further towards the playoffs, we will see good teams locked in starting to give up, or wildcard teams outperforming etc.
My strategy so far has been to follow vegas mostly, and never (almost) pick home teams to lose.
Alternatively, pick bird teams to lose.
Yep -
Avoid home losers
Avoid division rivalry games and especially home losers in rivalry games
Watch for teams that have to fly from west to east 2+ timezones
Avoid loser with a top QB
Those are kind of my rules. But I think it is going to get tested this week and next.
Running out of teams to pick at this point.
I have broken every one of those multiple times. To success even.
But the freaking raiders. If there is ever a home loser to pick, that’s the one. And the arguable worst team in the league beat a likely division winner and all around good Steelers team.
Hey man, I followed my rules to a T and got burned by Buffalo waltzing into Minneapolis and mudholing the Vikings.
I followed my rules to a T too! And I’m just shocked, shocked to report that picking in reverse alphabetical order did not, contrary to all expectations, outperform a blind monkey throwing darts.
11-3
one of us!
11-3
one of us!
Curiously enough, most of us avoided the upsets in our picks. Miami claimed 3, Oakland 2. (of 33 picks for the week).
Baltimore could have crushed a lot of people though.
Sigh. I guess that ended badly.
Something people should keep in mind as we’re getting toward the end of the regular season: teams who have already clinched a playoff spot sometimes react differently in games compared to those who are still fighting for a berth.
Edit - oh, and as an aside:
The Cleveland Browns are 3-1 in their last 4 games.
The New York Giants are 4-1 in their last 5 games