Dallas @ Chicago +3.5 actually meant to list chicago as a possible quitter as well. if you can't get up for detroit on thanksgiving day, and you now know the playoffs are out of the question, and you hate your Qb, seems like a possible quitting candidate. dallas, on the other hand, is devolving into the team nay thought they'd be this season. lost two straight, didn't play well in two wins to Jax and the giants and then mailed it in last weekend. if i was to bet a thursday game, this wouldn't be one of them, although i like the dallas offense v. chicago defense matchup. i'd guess dallas wins by 7 or more. but,
as we said last week on friday, one big reason why we don't bet thursday is teams just don't show up way too often. too risky for us.
Blt @ Mia -2.5 speaking of teams not showing up, miami didn't have a clue as to how to stop the jets' running game on monday. how do you almost lose to a team that puts up 65 passing yards and basically runs a high school offense? we've said all year miami is a middle of the road team. worse if they are going to play that kind of run defense against a one dimensional team. they don't even really have one dimensional teams in the NFL.
anyway, we obviously don't like miami any more than we have all season. Blt had a tough loss but SD can put up big points on anyone and that wasn't a bad loss at all. i'm guesing harbaugh saw the jets hammer miami on the ground and will put together a solid gameplan with their 5th ranked rushing offense. looks like the wrong team is favored to me. shrimps
or nothing for us.
Pitt @ Cincy -3 Pitt sucks. we say it every week. they should be at least +4 here. they do not have the kind of defense that would make me feel comfortable taking them on the road on a short spread. they've only played one good team on the road and lost badly. the second best team they've played on the road was cleveland and lost that one badly too. wo why are they just +3 here? i haven't understood these pitt values all season. this is no exception.
Cincy did everything they could to lose last week but TB just wouldn't let them. on any given week you can get bad dalton or a shitty gameplan from the coaches and if you do, cincy can lose to anyone, like TB, or score a total of 3 points against cleveland and indy, two bad defenses. and after three straight wins, they are about due for one of those. however, i'm sticking to my position that pitt sucks and cincy is a pretty good team. if that holds 3 is a bargain here. possible play on them.
Houston @ Jax +5 nice win for Jax but it was pretty ugly. two fumbles for Td's and a missed FG got them the one, although one fumble for TD was due to a nice defensive play. Jax has been better on defense even if their offense hasn't improved much under bortles.
and houston dismantled our titans last week with fitzpatrick allegedly throwing 6 TD's, althoguh i still don't think that's true. maybe someone wering his jersey did it. could have been dan pastorini.
anyway, the temptation is to bet houston as the much better team. i like their offense with foster running the ball and fitzpatrick not doing much. but, two strong factors on the other side: 1. houston as a 5 point road favorite is a recipe for disaster and 2. how do we not fade fittzpatrick after the game of his life. if that was really him.
getty will have to weigh in along with everyone else but those two factors have us leaning slightly to the home dog.