Quote from AAAintheBeltway:
Interesting games yesterday. Must be a great day to be a Browns' fan. They have put humiliating defeats on their two hated rivals, the Bengals and the Ravens. I'll admit I totally misjudged this club, although my comments on this game last week warned bettors to avoid it. The Ravens' offense is so pathetic it makes them a dicey bet against any team with the potential to put it in the end zone.
While the sun shines on Cleveland, things are not so nice in several NFL cities. Take San Diego for instance. Hint: If you wake up one morning and you are the GM of a team that just went 14-2, it's probably not a great idea to fire the coach and replace him with a guy who failed in previous head coaching stints at two storied franchises. SD blew a lead yesterday to KC at home, then heard it from the fans. Mar-tee, Mar-tee, Mar-tee. Look on the bright side. There are 12 games left and the Bolts could win all of them. Color me skeptical.
At least Chargers fans were somewhat prepared for disaster. They lost at home in the playoffs last year. The Bears by contrast made the Super Bowl, a feat they will be hard-pressed to repeat this year. At this rate, making the playoffs will be a challenge. I warned last week to stay away from what looked like an inviting spread against the Lions because the Bears defense had injury problems and the Lions had a quick-strike attack. The Bears certainly can attest to that, as they watched in horror as the Lions put up an NFL record 34 points on them in a wild fourth quarter that saw each team run a kickoff back for a TD. I guess if you give a team enough high first round picks, a mad genius offensive coordinator and a half-way decent veteran QB, they can embarrass any defense. Looks like the Lions are not a joke any more.
The Steelers came back to earth against a much improved Arizona Cardinals squad. In fairness, the Cardinals staff of embittered ex-Steelers coaches probably knows the Steelers better than their rookie coach. There was clearly a pay-back element to this game. Maybe a one game aberration for the Steelers, maybe they're not quite as good as advertised.
Other games went pretty much to form, with Dallas, Indy and GB getting solid wins and covering the spread, as recommended. Houston fell flat against Atlanta, giving me my only loss in recommended games. Last night, the NY Giants thoroughly demolished the erratic Eagles and not only covered but won the game getting one point. Call it 4-1 for last week's rec's, going into tonight.
The Cincy-NE Monday night game raises an obvious question: should you allow the children to watch? Under coach Marvin Harrison, who formerly oversaw Ray Lewis and crew at Baltimore, the Bengals have led the league in arrests and obnoxious behavior. NE went from being the league's most admired franchise with a string of Super Bowl wins, the consensus best coach and too perfect QB Tom Brady to an embarrassing team with a Barry Bond-sized question mark over its accomplishments. Coach Bellichek went from being charmingly eccentric to downright weird, Brady looked like a jerk in abandoning his pregnant actress GF in favor of a new super model of the month and there are mutters around the league that the team got off too easy for the cheating scandal and that it was merely the tip of the iceberg. Whatever. Cincy RB Rudi Johnson is out and I look for the Pats to cover.