For centuries the Doldrums played games with sailing ships, keeping them from getting anywhere for weeks at a time. And that's where my man Joe, your friendly neighborhood bookmaker, finds himself this football season, as he waits for a financial windfall to re-fill his sails.
For the umpteenth time this fall Joe had a good Saturday last weekend, only to suffer a dismal Sunday. North Carolina's win at Boston College, Arizona's cover vs. Oregon and especially Cal's win over Stanford helped Joe win a cushion on Saturday.
But Sunday became “another pain in the ass,” Joe said over a Bacardi and Diet Coke Wednesday night, thanks mainly to the Chiefs' upset of the Steelers, the 49ers' back-door cover vs. the Packers and especially the Vikings' romp over the Seahawks.
So while Saturday graded out decently as a C-plus on Joe's scale of financial success, Sunday earned another D.
Proving the adage that the betting public loves favorites, Joe said his action was split toward the chalk by a 2-to-1 ratio Saturday, and nearly 3-to-1 on Sunday. And while NFL favorites only went 6-9 against Joe's pointspreads last week, popular picks like the Vikings, Eagles and Patriots cost him.
“If I hadn't had those two good weeks right away this season,” Joe said, “this would be a bad year for me.”
For this week, Joe is again adding a few points to some of the favorites on his sheet in an attempt to even-out those favorite-underdog imbalances on his ledger. As of Friday morning, Joe had bumped Alabama to -11 for Friday's Iron Bowl over Auburn, North Carolina to -7 over NC State, Ole Miss to -9 for the Egg Bowl at Mississippi State and USC to -15 over UCLA.
As for Sunday, Joe's got the Colts at -5 over Houston (“Hey, they're 10-0”) and the Chargers at -15 over the Chiefs and he's listing the total on Monday night's New England-New Orleans bout at 58.
Your humble correspondent ended up on the wrong side of good last week. Iowa and Texas Tech came through on Saturday but Northern Illinois and Miami's Hurricanes didn't. And while the Bengals choked one away for me Sunday, the under on the Dallas-Washington game was a winner, as were the Titans Monday night. So the grease and a couple of losing parlays combined to get me in the end.
For this week, I'm leaning toward Kansas getting three and a hook at home vs. Mizzou, Utah getting seven and a hook at BYU, the Skins getting nine at Philly, the road-warrior Cardinals getting three points at resurgent Tennessee and the under on the Steelers-Ravens battle.
Happy handicapping.