Some weeks it's barely worth making the rounds. So said my friend Joe, my local “go-to” guy down at the corner tavern, as we commiserated about our respective football fortunes of last week over a couple of cold ones Thursday night.
Last Saturday went fine for Joe, thanks mainly to Rutgers' win over favored UConn and Minnesota's win over Michigan State. Wisconsin, Texas Tech and Washington State hurt Joe a bit, but not enough to keep him from grading Saturday as a B.
Sunday brought Joe a small profit. He took a hit when the Bears beat the hapless Browns, but was helped by the Eagles' killing of the Giants and even the Rams' victory over the Lions.
“Although why these guys even played that worthless game is beyond me,” Joe said of that epic Detroit-St. Louis battle. “But they did, and I'm glad.”
And Monday night Joe got a small gift when the Falcons kicked a late field to cover as 11-point dogs at New Orleans.
Joe said the Vikings' win over the Packers Sunday was his largest handle game of the week, with about a 60/40 split going toward Minnesota. That was better than the 80/20 split Joe got stuck with the first time the Vikes beat the Pack, a month ago at the Metrodome.
For the football weekend as a whole, Joe graded it out at a C+.
Nothing much to speak of, but he didn't have to reach into his own pocket. And for the pigskin season, Joe said he's doing well enough to keep up the payments on the credit card debt he racked up during a vacation to points East – New York and Montreal – last spring.
Lucky him, eh?
On a side note, Joe said the baseball playoffs amounted to a non-event for him. The games themselves balanced out on his books, and he had priced the Yankees just high enough on his World Series sheet to scare off some of the square action.
Joe also said he's gotten very little action on the NBA so far. Most of his hoops junkies are waiting for college ball to start. Typically, Joe said, his basketball action leans toward college by about a 3-to-1 ratio over the pros.
This week Joe, expecting local action, has juiced Wisconsin to -13 for its game Saturday at Indiana. The Badgers are listed at right around -10.5 at most “legitimate” sportsbooks. He's also boosting West Virginia to -19 over Louisville, Oklahoma State to -9 at Iowa State, Alabama to -9 over LSU and Southern Cal to -11.5 at Arizona State, while fading Clemson to -8 over Florida State and Penn State to -4 vs. Ohio State.
For Sunday, Joe is boosting Baltimore to -4 at Cincinnati, Indy to -10 over Houston and Green Bay to -11 at Tampa.
Last week, if you'd bet against Joe's seven biggest shades, you'd have gone 4-3.
As for your humble correspondent, he took it on the chin last week, losing about five “units” with great picks like Oklahoma State, USC, the Broncos and the Giants.
For this week, I'm leaning toward Connecticut getting 17 points at Cincinnati, BYU giving 13 points at Wyoming, the Bengals as 3-point home dogs vs. the Ravens, the no-longer-winless Titans getting four points at San Francisco, and the over 48 on the Colts-Texans game.