NFL Week 12 Picks

Last week, on some last minute picks, I went a terrible 9-7 (bringing me to 27-15). But, I am proud of a few of the points I made: the Bengals being inexperienced (Carson Palmer's interception late), the Saints covering the spread against the Pats, and the Pittsburgh over Baltimore pick biting my butt (hey, I was right: Baltimore didn't do well... they just did better than Pittsburgh). And I'm still standing by some other thoughts that still need more time to pan out: Atlanta being better than they've been playing (although this weeks game helps), the Bears doing well because of their schedule (and I'm picking them this week), and not trusting Jake Plummer. Finally, in all fairness, here are the points that now sound bad: picking the Eagles against the 7 pt. spread (they lost by 10), and calling St. Louis a not so good team (they suck!).

So then earlier this week (probably still stinging from my 9-7 score) I went against my better judgement and posted a 0-2 record on Thanksgiving. I practically explained why you should go with Atlanta and Denver and then picked Detroit and Dallas... pretty stupid, I know. Anyways, no more being clever... I'm just making picks from now on.

My grandfather used to pick horses. He studied as much as he could and would pick his 1-3 or 1-4. Something that stood out to me was that he often would draw a figure over a horses stats (it looked like a nose and pair of glasses) which he called "ojos." Literally "eyes", but to him it meant that this was a horse you should keep an eye on. So much so that sometimes these rather ordinary horses, would make it into his pick. And usually, but not always, they would place or show. So in light of the "biting me in the butt" comment, I am starting my "bite me in the butt" pick. It will be a sort of "ojos" pick. A pick that I am worried about enough to make it stick out. We'll see how well I do.

The Picks:

Carolina OVER at Buffalo - Carolina went out and laid an egg (in the form of a single field goal) against the Bears. They'll do better against the Bills

at Cincinnati OVER Baltimore - Folks up in B-more should be excited about the win last week... because they aren't beating the Bengals

Jacksonville OVER at Arizona - Have I told you that I like the Jaguars?

at Kansas City OVER New England - New England finally won two games in a row, I don't see them going 3 weeks, even though its against this schizo Chiefs team. Maybe i feel this because it's in Arrowhead...

at Minnesota OVER Cleveland - I hate to keep going with the favorites, but even though Minnesota is now among the schizos, Cleveland only wins at home.

New Orleans OVER at NY Jets - New Orleans keeps losing and is no longer a schizo team, and is just a bad team, it's just that the Jets are worse.

at Oakland OVER Miami - Another really bad team against a not as bad team.

Green Bay OVER at Philadelphia - Philly is a 4 1/2 pt favorite... huh?

San Diego OVER at Washington - Even with Marty, I still like San Diego. So it sucks that Marty the Schott will come back and beat his old team. Wait a sec, a former Redskins head coach comes back and beats his old team? hmmm sounds familiar.

at Seattle OVER NY Giants - This is the first in a line of games in which Eli Manning better do well to prove me wrong. I'll say this much, if NY wins it'll be because of their defense.

St. Louis OVER at Houston - Houston was a 13 pt underdog against Indy a few weeks ago, and they couldn't even beat that. (This is "my bite me in the butt" pick of the week)

Chicago OVER at Tampa Bay - I'll call this the battle of the worst 7 win teams. I don't like the Bears because they have NO offense. Plus, the Bears defense is being excessively praised even though they haven't played a single good offense since their loss to the Bengals back in September. No matter though because Tampa Bay is just... not good.

at Tennessee OVER San Francisco - There are two teams who need no thinking about Houston and San Fran... Even though Tennessee sucks they aren't in that list quite yet. We'll see after this week.

at Indianapolis OVER Pittsburgh - Indy is an 8 1/2 pt favorite... wow! But considering what I think about Pittsburgh, if I were picking against the spread I might still take Indy.