Author Archives: gee4213

Thursday Night Football

15 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in Picks Competition, Thursday Night Football

≈ Leave a comment

Rams @ Seahawks (-14.5)

I’m finding this one really hard to pick, as it’s hard to predict that any team is going to win by fifteen points, yet alone a team that just lost by twenty-eight points the previous week, but that’s what I want to do. I understand that a team who fire their coach often get a bump in performance, but there is so much wrong with the Rams’ offence, and their defence has been giving up a lot of points in recent weeks, plus the Seahawks will have revenge on their mind from their loss to the Rams earlier in the year as well as playing at home, and so possibly very stupidly I am going to back the Seahawks to cover this enormous line.

Gee’s Pick:          Seahawks
Dan’s Pick:          Rams

The Wrong Football Podcast – Episode 35

15 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in Podcasts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

We’re back – did you miss us? We’ll pretend we didn’t hear that! As the regular season starts to near it’s home straight, Gee and Dan take a look back at all of the goings on of Week 14 in the NFL, as well as making their all important picks for Week 15. They also discuss the Heisman Trophy and it’s storied history of winners, the grind felt by anyone involved with the NFL at the minute (including us!!) and just what on earth is happening in LA?! All that and more this week, on The Wrong Football Podcast!

Source: The Wrong Football Podcast – The Wrong Football Podcast – Episode 35

The Season Grinds On

11 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

We’re into the final quarter of the season now. The grind that everyone talks about must have kicked in, and you can see why the routines of players can become so important, or at least as someone who writes about the league I can.

One of the podcasts I follow announced that they were stopping this week, and whilst their pick competition continues, all the work that goes into prepping, recording, editing, and finally publishing can stop.

We at the Wrong Football had our own bye week for the podcast caused by work, and it is coming to that time of year where the holidays interrupt our routines. There’s been a birth in my family, and things going on that disrupt my routine, and once more I have failed to find the time to watch coaching tape. It’s one of those things for those of us who cover a sport alongside our day job.

I don’t think you would find many of those who work in the NFL, whose life is focused the other way round, who would complain about it but it must be hard. They have been working solidly with very little time off for a long time now, and whilst they are heading into the final stretch of the season, they will be having very different feelings.

Those teams way out of the playoff hunt will be playing for pride and to keep their careers. Everyone on the Browns will be straining to get a win, desperate not to be the second team ever to lose every game, but I am beginning to wonder if they can get that precious win.

The teams in the playoff hunt will be trying to convince themselves they still stand a chance, but if you need to win the rest of your games to make it, then it is doubtful that you will. It’s not impossible, but whilst as a fan I recognise the train of thought, it will be an unlikely thing to pull off.

However, for these teams, and the rest, I’m sure the coaches will be stressing one game at a time. This reflects the way I feel you have to approach large tasks. In my other writing world, I write novels. Of differing lengths, but they are all long term endeavours that require a degree of planning, but the thing I want to focus on is the grind.

You don’t write a novel in a day. In my experience you don’t write one in the short bursts of intensive activity as sometimes portrayed in films. In fact, I stay well clear of the November novel writing month as I don’t have the time to write that many words a day. I have daily word targets, achievable ones that I focus on and keep doing until suddenly I have a book. And then I have to start editing and fixing, using the same quantities of time to go through multiple drafts and edits, polishing until I am happy the book is as good as I can make it.

I mention this as it reminds me of when coaches talk about focusing on one game at a time. You can’t focus on the big picture too much as you are not present for what you are doing right now. And when the margins between winning and losing are so close, you need the players to be focused in the moment. There are still plenty of teams that will be talking about winning the Super Bowl, even if some have more realistic chances than others, but they are steps you have to take along the way. Win this week. Get into the playoffs. Keep winning. Only one team gets to do that, and whilst we have already ruled some teams, we are not very far away from having the final twelve teams to make the playoffs. That’s only 37.5% of the league. Only a little above a third of the league.

We will soon have a clearer idea of who those teams will be, in the next few weeks the maths will ensure more teams fall out of the playoffs definitively, fan attention turning to the off-season already. However, there’s not that much football played during the year, so I’ll be focused on the best games I can find and the playoffs. Even though the Bengals have fallen short this year, and I’ll be wondering about coaching changes and off-season moves. I’ll have to focus on one week at a time. Something I’m not unused to, and whilst there is a word of physical and other talent differences between myself and any NFL player, it’s never a bad idea to remember they are fellow human beings. There are parallels between them and the fan. It makes what they do all the more remarkable.

Week Fourteen Picks

11 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by in Picks Competition

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

And once more Dan and I are tied up in our competition to see who will be the least worst at picking games this season.

Gee:      Week 13   5-10                   Overall   87-105
Dan:      Week 13   4-11                   Overall   87-105

Steelers @ Bills (-1.5)

The Bills are having a funny season, and having built a 24-9 lead in the third quarter, their defence gave up an unanswered twenty-nine point to lose the game 38-24. At 6-6 they have had similar ups and downs in their wins and losses. This week they welcome a Steelers team who are on a three game winning streak as they fight the Baltimore Ravens for the AFC North. Things seem to be coming right for the Steelers at the right time, and I see them winning this one off the back of their better offence and a defence that is doing just about enough.

Gee’s Pick:          Steelers
Dan’s Pick:          Steelers

Bears @ Lions (-8.5)

The Lions are having an impressive season and didn’t even need to come from behind last week as they controlled the Saints in a relatively straight forward win. This week they welcome a Bears team that beat them in Chicago and who are coming off a straight forward win against the 49ers. However, whilst there have been some improvements in a Bears team that are beset by injuries, they are 3-9 for a reason and so I expect the Lions to win. However, the nine clear points required the Lions to cover does give me pause, and in the end I back the Bears to cover this, albeit likely in a losing effort.

Gee’s Pick:          Bears
Dan’s Pick:          Lions

Bengals @ Browns (+6.5)

The Bengals sat troubled second year tackle Cedric Ogbuehi last week, and the line seemed to play better as the Bengals ran out easy winners against the Eagles. There were still too many field goals at the end of drives, and yet another missed extra point for Mike Nugent, but the team handled the Eagles easily enough, which I was not expecting. This week they face off against the Browns in the battle for Ohio part two. The Browns have been struggling, and worryingly this looks like the easiest game they have left to get a win this season. Dan is going for the Browns this week, but I saw something in that last game of the Bengals, and whilst I see this being a hard fought game, having beaten an Eagles team with a better record last week I am strangely confident going into this one.

Gee’s Pick:          Bengals
Dan’s Pick:          Browns

Broncos @ Titans (+0.5)

I continue to find the Titans difficult to pick as I can’t quite pin down how good this team is, they are undoubtedly improved from last season, and are one of three teams with a 6-6 record in the AFC South, but they have not played consistently. This week they welcome a Broncos team who are still in the hunt for a playoff berth with an 8-4 record despite being third in the very competitive AFC West. The Broncos won despite the play of rookie quarterback Paxton Lynch last week, and hope to get Trevor Siemian back from his foot sprain that saw him miss that game. In what is basically a pick ’em game, I think the Broncos will have enough to win thanks to their defence, but I can easily see the Titans proving me wrong yet again this season.

Gee’s Pick:          Broncos
Dan’s Pick:          Broncos

Texans @ Colts (-6.5)

The Colts absolutely dominated a woeful Jets team on Monday Night Football, which was a good way to welcome back Andrew Luck from concussion. However, this week they face a Texans team that whilst struggling on offence, have a solid defence. There is a big difference in DVOA percentages between these two AFC South teams that have identical records, which explains the three and a half point swing to the Colts. In the end though, I’m not that confident that the Colts will win by a clear touchdown so I’m nervously backing the Texans cover.

Gee’s Pick:          Texans
Dan’s Pick:          Colts

Cardinals @ Dolphins (-1.5)

The Dolphins didn’t just have their six game win streak broken last week, they got pummelled by a Ravens team who for the first time put together an offensive performance that was up to the level of their defence. The Dolphins’ offensive line is beat up, and whilst Ryan Tannehill had improved through the season as Adam Gase has come to understand what the quarterback does and doesn’t do well, he is still not a player you would rest your offence upon. This week they welcome a curiously broken Cardinals team. I have a lot of faith in Bruce Arians and his staff, but the Cardinals have really struggled this season and quarterback Carson Palmer has not looked himself until last week. I was surprised to see them beat Washington last week, but I do wonder if they can get the win this week. I’m finding this a hard game to pick, but I just have a feeling that maybe the Cardinals found something last week against a Washington team I like. The Dolphins will be looking to spring back from a bad loss, but my gut says the Cardinals win this one. Of course my gut has been wrong a lot this season!

Gee’s Pick:          Cardinals
Dan’s Pick:          Dolphins

Vikings @ Jaguars (+3.5)

The Vikings may have lost last week against the Cowboys, but they put up a very credible performance with their defence looking back to its early season form and the offence managing to be a little better. The Jaguars continue to struggle this year and I don’t see them winning, nor being worth a selection even getting these points and playing at home.

Gee’s Pick:          Vikings
Dan’s Pick:          Vikings

Washington @ Eagles (+0.5)

The Eagles struggled badly against the Bengals last week, and a lot is being made of Carson Wentz’s performance. The Eagles are basically putting their trust in Wentz, a rookie quarterback that has a struggling receiver group, a reworked offensive line, and an unreliable running game, so it is hardly a surprise that he is having a rookie wobble. More worrying will be the trouble the Eagles are having on defence, and whilst the secondary has been a problem all season, particularly at corner, the lack of rush is troubling and was not something I was expecting last week. As many questions as there are about Washington’s defence, their offence can hang with most in the league and I expect Washington to have far too much for the Eagles, even if they are on the road.

Gee’s Pick:          Washington
Dan’s Pick:          Washington

Chargers @ Panthers (-1.5)

The Panthers got off to a horrible start with Can Newton benched for the opening play/drive due to team discipline. We can’t know for sure what the plan was because the opening pass was juggled by the Panther’s running back and the Panthers immediately turned the ball over. The Panthers got rolled over by the Seahawks on the road, and return to face the Chargers. The Panthers have had a bad season, and will be able to use an early draft pick to rebound next year, but they have little to play for other than pride this season. This is often over stated as players will always want to put good plays on tape, it is too easy to fall out of the league if you don’t, but they face a definite challenge this week. The Chargers may have lost to the Buccaneers last week, but I still think their record would be better if they were not in this year’s ultra-competitive AFC West, and I fancy them in this week’s game to beat the Panthers on the road. This could be a mistake, but I fancy the 5-7 team to beat the 4-8 one and so that’s what I’m picking.

Gee’s Pick:          Chargers
Dan’s Pick:          Panthers

Jets @ 49ers (-2.5)

This is a hard game for me to call as the 49ers just travelled to Chicago and lost soundly to the Bears, whilst the Jets got drummed on Monday night football. That said, the 49ers won their opening game and haven’t looked like winning another one all season, whilst the Jets have at least won three games. However, the Jets are set to start Bryce Petty at quarterback and that brings up its own host of problems. In the end I’m backing the Jets to cover purely on getting points and not believing that the 49ers have much of a home field advantage, but if I could stay away from this game I would.

Gee’s Pick:          Jets
Dan’s Pick:          Jets

Falcons @ Rams (+6.5)

The Rams have finally had enough information leaked to confirm that Jeff Fisher is remaining their coach having signed an extension in the summer. However, their offence has never got out of first gear whilst their defence has recently given up some big games. This week they welcome a Falcons team who will want to get the taste of last week’s close out of their mouths, and whose offence one more looks like the one ranked number one by DVOA again.

Gee’s Pick:          Falcons
Dan’s Pick:          Falcons

Seahawks @ Packers (+2.5)

This is an interesting game as the Packers have played better in the last couple of weeks, and welcome a Seahawks team that just lost their star safety Earl Thomas. This is a big loss for the Seahawks as Thomas has the rare ability to patrol from side-line to side-line as part of the Seahawks famed cover three coverage. However, I still think they have enough to take care of the Packers as the offensive line looked better after the shock of the injuries in the previous week. I could see Aaron Rodgers winning this game as he has also looked better in recent weeks, but in the end I have more faith in the Seahawks coaching staff and what they have put together this season.

Gee’s Pick:          Seahawks
Dan’s Pick:          Seahawks

Saints @ Buccaneers (-2.5)

The Saints are coming of a bad loss at home to the Detroit Lions, and are now on the road visiting the Buccaneers. This loss probably put paid to their hopes of making the playoffs, whilst the Buccaneers continue their push, and with the Buccaneers at home, I think they will cover this one despite some likely heroics from Drew Brees because that’s what Brees does.

Gee’s Pick:          Buccaneers
Dan’s Pick:          Buccaneers

Cowboys @ Giants (+2.5)

The Giants had their own six game win streak broken last week playing the Steelers, who were able to take advantage of the Giants erratic play. You can only beat the teams put in front of you and no game is a gimme so I don’t want to take lightly the Giants’ run of wins, but the Cowboys have the league’s best record for a reason. The Cowboys might have had some tight wins in recent weeks, but with a long week to prepare and an offence that continues to do its thing, I am confident they have enough to win by three of more on the road in New York, divisional game or not.

Gee’s Pick:          Cowboys
Dan’s Pick:          Cowboys

Ravens @ Patriots (-8.5)

I’m not sure if I trust the Ravens to be able to maintain the offensive performance they found last week, but I trust their defence, which has been good all year. It feels like I have picked against the Patriots covering large spreads and been wrong multiple times, but with the loss of Rob Gronkowski and a defence that on occasions looks suspect, I’m once more backing a team to cover against the Patriots.

Gee’s Pick:          Ravens
Dan’s Pick:          Patriots

Thursday Night Pick

08 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in Picks Competition, Thursday Night Football

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

So we head into week fourteen with one of the best Thursday night match-ups we’ve had all season.

Raiders @ Chiefs -3.5

This should be a cracking game. The Chiefs won probably the game of last week thanks to a combination of their defence, a special teams fake punt, and Eric Berry pulling off a pick six and a pick two. Their offence might not be firing on all cylinders, but they are finding a way to win. And all of this following a full extra quarter played the week before in Denver.

The Raiders are doing similarly well off the back of Derek Carr stepping up yet again this season, and reassuring fans that there will be life after the current quarterbacks greats like Brady, and Brees follow Peyton Manning into retirement. The Raiders defence has picked up in recent weeks, but I don’t think there will be much to separate these teams.

I am not sure the Raiders can keep winning on the road like they have, and Arrowhead stadium is a famously difficult place to play, but equally the Chiefs can’t keep squeezing out results like this. I am stronly tempted by the Chiefs, but that extra half point is just a little to rich for my blood, so I’m nervously back the Raiders in a game where something has to give.

Gee’s Pick:    Raiders
Dan’s Pick:    Raiders

Sunday Thoughts

04 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

It has been a frustrating season as a Bengals fan, but there comes a point where you have to accept that the playoffs really are out of reach, and whilst that happened to me a couple of weeks ago, the optimist in me still tries to hang on to hope for a couple of weeks. I am dreading what Fletcher Cox could do against the Bengals this week, but mainly I’ll be curious about what is going on with the rest of the league.

The Cowboy ran out eventual winners in an intriguing Thursday night game, but even though the Vikings defence is back to where it was earlier in the season, they couldn’t stop the first team to record double digit wins from getting their eleventh. There are two teams that could join them this week, but whilst the Raiders and Patriots stand a good chance of getting their tenth wins, injuries to Derek Carr and Rob Gronkowski could be causing differing degrees of anxiety to fans. Derek Carr came back in the game to play with his nastily injured finger, it is amazing what adrenaline will do for you, but it is possible it might affect his play. More worrying for the Patriots though will be the loss of Gronkowski for the rest of the season after having back surgery this week. You would back the Patriots staff to be able to adjust to this loss, but it is a big loss as Gronkowski is a real difference maker and is a favourite target of Brady as well as being the best tight end in the league.

No team is unaffected by injury at this time of year, but it is a question of whether you have picked up a critical injury and how strong you are at that position in the first place. The Seattle Seahawks offensive line has not been good all season, but in recent weeks they had improved enough when combined with Russel Wilson getting healthy to make the Seahawks look frightening again. However, they picked up more injuries last week and the Seahawks could only register five points against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They are still very much in control of the AFC West, which is very much going through a down season this year, but they will have their eyes on bigger prizes and I will be curious to see how well their offence goes this week against a Panthers team who have been more competitive in recent weeks, even if the results don’t necessarily reflect it.

It felt like a strange week of games to predict, there are a lot of teams whose performance is varying week to week, and when there are questions surrounding even the best of teams, it is beginning to feel that the Cowboys might be putting themselves on a level of their own as they keep grinding out wins.

I think the question of overtime could rear its head again this week with another game that did give us a winner last Sunday, but still went to the end of overtime. One of my picks is resting on whether this extra pick is enough to let the Jaguars cover, but given the previous results of teams coming off a full overtime period it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the Jaguars could pick up a win. I know that Americans are culturally obsessed with there not being draws, but if a full period of overtime is that much of a disadvantage to the participating teams the following week, I’m still not sure that in an era of concern over player well-being, that we are not better off just accepting that draws happen.

Let’s see what happens with the Chiefs and Broncos when they play today.

AAF: AJ Klein

04 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by in Amateur Adventures in Film, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

So this week’s amateur adventures in film is based on a comment from Ross Tucker on his podcast this week that AJ Klein was one of the best backup linebackers in the NFL, that he doesn’t start because they have Thomas Davis, Luke Kuechly, and Shaq Thompson, but that he looks a lot like Kuechly when he’s out there and made a bunch of plays. I thought I would take a look for myself.

Now his stat are pretty good with five tackles, and a play that doesn’t seem to have been credited as a sack where he stopped a scrambling Derek Carr as he tried to make a first down by stopping him behind the line and forcing a fumble. This was a very nice play as Klein started the play by showing blitz, then dropped back into coverage before chasing Carr to the side line. However, as the game moved on there were a couple of big plays that Klein was involved with.

Very few linebackers are as good as Luke Kuechly when he is in full flight, but Klein certainly looked good for large parts of this game, dropping into coverage smoothly or attacking gaps against the run. However, whilst he was capable of running with the slot receivers or tight ends, he gave up several plays in this spot including a touchdown to Clive Walford in the fourth quarter. In fact the fourth quarter was a difficult period for Klein. He did not get his head around and so was only able to wave an arm as the ball from Carr went to Walford in the back of the end zone for aforementioned touchdown. However, Klein also gave up a fifteen yard facemask penalty when trying to disengage from a block by Michael Crabtree against a run play, and gave up a thirty-two yard pass play to Crabtree as he followed him down the field. Not only did the pass get completed, but Klein gave away a declined pass interference penalty that ensured the pass was effective regardless of whether the catch was made. A matchup of a linebacker against a receiver down field is always going to be advantageous to the receiver, so I am not going to be too critical of this play, but it was a bad moment.

It does however highlight one problem when you are going through film, which is you can’t know the call. You would frequently see the linebackers swapping round as the Raiders shifted, and you could see Klein follow his player out when he had plays, sometimes slowing down or breaking up a play with his closing speed such as when he reached running back Latavius Murray as he received the pass to break up the completion or again later in the game when he tackled Murray for a loss. He was also unafraid to attack the hole or take on blockers, but the Raiders line is a very large group of men and I wouldn’t exactly say he won his battles with Gabe Jackson. That said, when a team only gives up fifty-six yards on thirty-one attempts, then your run defence is doing something right and whilst he wasn’t slipping off blockers easily, nor was he getting pancaked and when you’re taking on three hundred pound plus linemen that is not to be sneezed at.

As ever, I feel a little under qualified for grand pronouncements on players, but it was really interesting watching AJ Klein play and he certainly seemed to move in space well when dropping into zone, which he did a lot. It may not look to me that he diagnosed plays as fast as the man he was replacing, but that’s an unfair comparison for many a linebacker in the league and I did think he looked good for parts of this game, even if did give up some key plays. However, he kept on coming and I’ll be interested to see how the Panthers get on against the Seahawks in tonight’s game.

Week Thirteen Picks

04 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by in Picks Competition

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

Another okay week for both of us, but we are still well behind a winning record, and Dan maintains his single win lead.

Gee:      Week 12   9-7                     Overall   82-95
Dan:      Week 12   9-7                     Overall   83-94

Chiefs @ Falcons (-3.5)

The Chiefs are coming off a win, but had to play an entire extra quarter to get it and so with them on the road against a strong Falcons team I am backing the Falcons to cover this line, even if it does make me a little nervous as the addition of Justin Houston really added a spark to the Chief’s defence last week.

Gee’s Pick:          Falcons
Dan’s Pick:          Falcons

49ers @ Bears (-2.5)

There is very little to separate these teams, with the Bears suffering so many injuries, but getting an okay performance from Matt Barkley whilst the 49ers have struggled since their week one win, but Colin Kaepernick was looking better at quarterback last week. In the end I am going to back the home team in this one, with the 49ers travelling across the country but I do not feel confident about it.

Gee’s Pick:          Bears
Dan’s Pick:          49ers

Eagles @ Bengals (+1.5)

The Bengals keep things close but lose this season, but I have been dreading the sight of Fletcher Cox going up against an offensive line that has not protected well this season. I would love to be proven wrong, but with all that has happened with the Bengals this season, I can’t pick them in this one.

Gee’s Pick:          Eagles
Dan’s Pick:          Eagles

Broncos @ Jaguars (+5.5)

This pits a team that played and entire extra quarter against a Jaguars team who have been truly horrible. The last two times I have seen this happen in recent years both teams who played the fifth quarter have lost. I don’t want to back the Jaguars in this one, but the situation is telling me to and as they only have to keep within six I am very nervously going to back them to cover.

Gee’s Pick:          Jaguars
Dan’s Pick:          Broncos

Lions @ Saints (-5.5)

This is a lot of points for the Saints to be giving up, and whilst I trust Drew Brees and their offence to get points, the Lions have been finding a way all season and I think they keep this one closer than six. I don’t like any of my picks this week it seems…

Gee’s Pick:          Lions
Dan’s Pick:          Lions

Texans @ Packers (-5.5)

This is another horrible game for me to call as the Texans have been struggling on offence, but have a very competent defence. This week they visit a Packers team who got a very solid win last week with Aaron Rodgers looking more like himself, but this team is still flawed. The Texans have the options on offence to hurt a weekend Packers’ secondary, but Brock Osweiler has not been good this season. I don’t want to pick the Packers to beat anyone by six, but given that the Texans record is a product of their division I’ll pick lightening to strike twice in Green Bay.

Gee’s Pick:          Packers
Dan’s Pick:          Packers

Rams @ Patriots (-13.5)

After giving up forty-nine points to a Saints team with an axe to grind last week, I might have been tempted to pick the Patriots to cover this line earlier in the week, but with Rob Gronkowski done for the season with a back injury, I think the Rams can keep this game closer than two touchdowns. I’m certainly not going to say they can win as they come across the country to play Brady in New England, but a sneaky cover I think is on the cards.

Gee’s Pick:          Rams
Dan’s Pick:          Rams

Dolphins @ Ravens (-3.5)

It looks as if the Dolphins will have two of their starting offensive line back in left tackle Branden Albert and left guard Laremy Tunsil, but they will be going up against one of the better defences in the league in the Ravens. The Baltimore team’s offence has been struggling though, and giving up that extra half point at home I am going to back the Dolphins in what will likely be a close game.

Gee’s Pick:          Dolphins
Dan’s Pick:          Dolphins

Bills @ Raiders (-3.5)

The Bills have had a very up and down season, but are coming off a win against the Jaguars, yet they face a very different prospect traveling to Oakland to play the Raiders. The Raiders have a very exciting offence and a defence that is doing enough for them to win and seems to have improved in the last few weeks. The Bills may have got back to a winning record, but beating a faltering Bengals team and the Jaguars does not indicate to me that a team has enough to live with Raiders.

Gee’s Pick:          Raiders
Dan’s Pick:          Raiders

Giants @ Steelers (-5.5)

This is the first of two games where the line doesn’t make much sense to me. The Steelers are coming off a solid win against a struggling Colts team who were without Andrew Luck. They have three really good players on offence, but the Giants are eight and three for a reason, and whilst they have not always looked good in getting there, the defence has played well enough for this to be a closer game than six points. I can easily see the Steelers winning this one, but I would be surprised if they cover this.

Gee’s Pick:          Giants
Dan’s Pick:          Giants

Washington @ Cardinals (-2.5)

The Cardinals have an excellent defence, but between the fall off in play of Carson Palmer and their struggles on the offensive line the Cards are struggling. Meanwhile Washington have one of the more explosive offences in the league and I think they should have enough to beat the Cardinals on the road, which they will need to do to stay in the playoff hunt.

Gee’s Pick:          Washington
Dan’s Pick:          Washington

Buccaneers @ Chargers (-3.5)

This should be a cracking game as the Buccaneers have shown real progress in recent weeks, and the Chargers have got over their early season finding new ways to lose streak that undermined a team that has been competitive in all of their games. The line does make me pause, but I think that the Chargers will take this one and I am backing them to cover, although this could be a close game.

Gee’s Pick:          Chargers
Dan’s Pick:          Chargers

Panthers @ Seahawks (-6.5)

The Panthers’ struggles have been well documented this season, and a trip to Seattle is never easy, but with the injuries the Seahawks have at the moment I think this line is a little generous. The Panthers were able to hang with the Saints last week, and whilst the Seahawks defence is a lot better even with their current injuries, the Seattle offensive line is not good and they only put up five points last week. I expect a reaction from Seattle, but I’m just not sure if they are going to win by a clear touchdown.

Gee’s Pick:          Panthers
Dan’s Pick:          Panthers

Colts @ Jets (+2.5)

With Andrew Luck having been cleared to play after his concussion and looking to start this should at least be a competitive game between two teams that have not set the league alight this season. The Jets defence has been surprisingly lowly whilst the offence has been cursed by poor quarterback play and injury. The Colts have struggled all season, but I think they have been the more consistent team, which is why they are giving away two and a half points on the road. The Jets haven’t won since they played Cleveland, but Ryan Fitzpatrick did play better against the Patriots last week. I am tempted to back the home team getting points, but in the end I find myself picking the Colts. I don’t feel confident about this at all.

Gee’s Pick:          Colts
Dan’s Pick:          Jets

The Wrong Football Podcast – Episode 34

04 Sunday Dec 2016

Posted by in Podcasts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

This week’s games included Thanksgiving, so aren’t you thankful that there’s a couple of bloody good blokes who can tell you all about it! We take a look at the state of the Panthers and the Browns as well as looking back at the best of Week 12’s action. We also make our picks of week 13, and there’s only one way (well, two if you include the Blog!) to find out what Gee’s thankful to the NFL for – all here on The Wrong Football Podcast!

Source: The Wrong Football Podcast – The Wrong Football Podcast – Episode 34

Thursday Night Pick

01 Thursday Dec 2016

Posted by in Picks Competition, Thursday Night Football

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

And yet again I’m fiddling with the blog schedule for reasons to do with having a book out and possibly more on the way, but rest assured I’ll be writing something general about the NFL on Sunday ahead of the rest of the week thirteen games and the misery of another Bengals loss.

Anyway, on to tonight’s Thursday Night Football matchup!

Cowboys @ Vikings (+3.5)

The Vikings kept the game close against the Detroit Lions last week, with an improved defensive performance, but there are still struggling on offence and this week welcome the team with the best record in the league. I am really looking forward to this game, which features two teams with a full week’s rest having both played on Thanksgiving, but this is not enough points for me to do anything other than pick the Cowboys. This is the kind of good team reason I needed not to back the home team as the Cowboys will be able to keep plugging away on offence and I think will run out fairly easy winners.

Gee’s Pick:          Cowboys
Dan’s Pick:          Cowboys