Eli went down as Brandon looked on ..........................................              But Kerry Rhodes did help on at least one tackle   Photo by AP                                                                                                       Photo by Jim Rogash -  Getty  Images

 

Week 11 was very very good to me as the best bets were all good for the first time in six weeks, putting me up $4 as I picked up the ten-spot.  The weekly cumulative record was 9-6 to put my season cumulative at 63-46, not too shabby.

 

My favorite Week 11 best bet was the Niners, who appeared to be getting blown out before coming back to once again cover the 6 ½ point spread.  The Eagles were another narrow winner as they edged the Bears by 4 against a spread of 3.  The other two picks looked easy as the Falcons covered against the lowly G-Men and the Skins nearly beat the Boyz outright.

 

Once again, I keep thinking I’m due for a bad week, so bet with your head……and remember who’ll be on the bench or worse this week.  Injuries are mounting all around the league.

 

Anyway, here’s the picks:

 

Favorite	Spread	Underdog	4 Best	My Pick	Reason
Ind	3 ½	HOU		Ind	Texans have failed easier tests
CIN	14	Cle	*	Cle	Browns found out they can play
MIN	11	Chi		MIN	Vikes cover a lot
PHI	9	Was	*	Was	Skins looking good-they’ll cover
Mia	3	BUF	*	Mia	Rick-eeeeee
TEN	3	Ari	*	Ari	Warner’s okay,  so line is nuts
Sea	3	STL		Sea	Bulger to Boller for Rams
ATL	12 ½	Bucs		Bucs	Bucs will find ATL easier than last
NYJ	3	Car		Car	This is the Pick Bowl
SF	3	Jac		SF	Niners are my friend
SD	13 ½	Kcy		Kcy	Chargers nothing after Steelers
BAL	1 ½	Pit		BAL	Big Ben a target and no Polamalu
NO	2	Pats		NO	Saints have real desire

 

 

The best bets for Week 12:

 

Cleveland – The Bengals are hurting all over.  The Brownies came so very close against the Lions last week and found out they can have an offense too, much like a non-Mangini team.  No Cedric Benson figures hugely.

 

Skins – well, they DO have a Defense. They’re perfectly capable of slowing down those Eagle big-play threats and hey!  They have Rock Cartwright too.

 

Fish – Buffalo’s wagons shot thru with arrows.  Circling them will accomplish nothing versus Rickee and all those crazy wildcat options.  Also no Marshawn for Bills, jus ol’ Fred.

 

Arizona – Let’s see, the Cards went to the Super Bowl, the Titans lost their first six and are currently riding a horse named Vince Young, who’ll discover the Cards don’t kid around.  Warner will once again be emcee.

 

Biggest game of the week for me will be the Monday Night  showdown between the undefeated Saints and the tough-luck Pats, who managed to lose to the Jets early and then went for a first down on 4^th and 2 from their own 28.  If they’re not yet tired of Belichick’s nonsense, they soon will be.

 

I do think the Saints will be more motivated than the Pats, even knowing that the arrogance of the Pats will force them into playing hard.  But they’ll be playing for the wrong reasons, i.e. to punish another team for the audacity of playing to a perfect record.  The Saints motivation will be more pure, just to win a big Monday Night game to remain unbeaten.

 

It says here that the Saints have the better team.  It won’t be so much Brees vs. Brady as it will be the overall balance of the Saints compared to the Pats.  They have a better running game and they have more receivers to go to, not just the same tired Brady to Welker, Brady to Moss combinations.  Stop those two guys and stop the Pats.

 

Meanwhile, I’m almost sorry I picked on Brandon Jacobs as he looked even worse than I thought he would vs. the Broncos.  The Giants pass defense was about par for them, which is to say they were lousy, bad, clueless, Sheridan-ian even.  Oh well, at least they have Danny Ware, um, I mean DJ. 

 

Seriously, there’s Cory Webster back there and…..well, that’s it.  Pick your Johnson, they can’t cover, and then there was the specter of C.C. Brown again.  And there’s nobody better at tackling after watching a receiver catch the ball than Boley.  It’s hard to imagine he had been the Defensive Player of the Week….ever.

 

I keep asking myself what’s different about this defense until I really think about it.  Pierce’s absence alone could account for a TD or two and they never replaced the likes of Phillips at safety.  Then Aaron Ross is still listed as the third corner.  What you see is what you get, the likes of Johnson and Johnson and Rouse.  God help us.

 

Although I didn’t pick our Jets to cover the 3-point spread against the Panthers, I am looking forward to the game itself, which will either break a record for interceptions in a single game or go totally the other way as both the crazy rookie and the crazy veteran have been made quite aware of their shakiness.  If caution takes over, there could be a lot of punts.  If both QB’s just let it fly, it could be a shootout, in an obverse sort of way. 

 

New York’s favorite coach’s latest big brain fart of sitting that rich safety Kerry Rhodes seems to signal that the Jets are looking to the future officially.  But what better QB to sit your safety against than the scatological Jake Delhomme?  I have to admit though that I’d feel better if two other secondary men weren’t out at the same time.  The whole thing makes as much sense as the war in Afghanistan.

 

But Rex will be funny after the game.  Of that we can be sure.  Proud and funny and humble all at the same time.  I sure hope he knows something the rest of us don’t.  Otherwise, maybe the next move will be Tannenbaum’s.

 

Here’s hoping the rest of Week 12 will be better than the first three games.  The Lions and Raiders just mailed it in.  The Giants…..?

 

 

 

 

 

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