Tanking teams put to the test this week....

Question

The stakes couldn&#x27;t be higher for the Niners, Raiders, and Cardinals. And I expect 2 of the 3 teams to lose, and try to lose, this week. If anyone saw the Niners/Seahawks game a couple of weeks ago, they&#x27;ll know exactly why this line is where it is at. That was a nasty, hard hitting affair, with lots of pushing and shoving after the whistle. Niners were trying to win that game, but they kept getting screwed by the officials. There were at least 3-4 very questionable calls that went against the Niners, which finally resulted in the Niners coaches cussing the officials out and getting penalized. That&#x27;s why I don&#x27;t expect the Niners to lay down here, even though it would be the prudent thing to do if they want a shot at the #1 pick in the draft. Still, I can&#x27;t bet against Wilson either. So this game is a no play.Despite what Carr says he wants to do, i.e., mess up the Raider&#x27;s chances of getting the top pick, he is a company man and will do what is in the best interest of the team. And just in case he doesn&#x27;t, I&#x27;m sure the Raiders have a back up plan. With the O-line for the Raiders banged up, they&#x27;ll use it as an excuse to put a bunch of scarecrows in front of Carr this week, to insure the loss. The tanking stakes are higher for the Raiders than any of the other teams because they got rid of a lot of talent in order to "rebuild." They just fired their GM, so the pressure will be on Gruden  to hit a home run in the draft. If they don&#x27;t get that top pick, The play here is Bungles -3   Other games I like this week are the Vikings against the Dolphins. After that miraculous, once in a lifetime, comeback win against their bitter rivals, this is a Huge let down spot for the Dolphins (imo). Meanwhile, the Vikings are looking to take out their frustrations from Monday&#x27;s game (where they got jobbed by the officials, with the NFL even admitting it) and season gone awry, on a team that is still drunk with euphoria from last week&#x27;s win. The Play: Vikings -7

begginerboy · Answer

The stakes couldn&#x27;t be higher for the Niners, Raiders, and Cardinals. And I expect 2 of the 3 teams to lose, and try to lose, this week. If anyone saw the Niners/Seahawks game a couple of weeks ago, they&#x27;ll know exactly why this line is where it is at. That was a nasty, hard hitting affair, with lots of pushing and shoving after the whistle. Niners were trying to win that game, but they kept getting screwed by the officials. There were at least 3-4 very questionable calls that went against the Niners, which finally resulted in the Niners coaches cussing the officials out and getting penalized. That&#x27;s why I don&#x27;t expect the Niners to lay down here, even though it would be the prudent thing to do if they want a shot at the #1 pick in the draft. Still, I can&#x27;t bet against Wilson either. So this game is a no play.Despite what Carr says he wants to do, i.e., mess up the Raider&#x27;s chances of getting the top pick, he is a company man and will do what is in the best interest of the team. And just in case he doesn&#x27;t, I&#x27;m sure the Raiders have a back up plan. With the O-line for the Raiders banged up, they&#x27;ll use it as an excuse to put a bunch of scarecrows in front of Carr this week, to insure the loss. The tanking stakes are higher for the Raiders than any of the other teams because they got rid of a lot of talent in order to "rebuild." They just fired their GM, so the pressure will be on Gruden  to hit a home run in the draft. If they don&#x27;t get that top pick, The play here is Bungles -3   Other games I like this week are the Vikings against the Dolphins. After that miraculous, once in a lifetime, comeback win against their bitter rivals, this is a Huge let down spot for the Dolphins (imo). Meanwhile, the Vikings are looking to take out their frustrations from Monday&#x27;s game (where they got jobbed by the officials, with the NFL even admitting it) and season gone awry, on a team that is still drunk with euphoria from last week&#x27;s win. The Play: Vikings -7

NinjaNight · Answer

Lmao.I don&#x27;t mean to imply that you&#x27;re wrong, it&#x27;s funny

lancer89074 · Answer

BB I enjoyed your post...very entertaining as always and informative. All the best...

Macwestie1 · Answer

Whew glad I only took the Niners to at least keep it close to Cover, we&#x2019;ll seeGL Begginnerboy

begginerboy · Answer

From NBC Sports:ALAMEDA &#x2013; The Raiders offensive line has a huge problem heading into Sunday&#x2019;s game at Cincinnati. Both offensive guard spots have been decimated by injury.Kelechi Osemele and Gabe Jackson missed Wednesday&#x2019;s practice with injury, and it&#x2019;s possible both missed the Bengals game. Chief backup at both guard spots and center Jon Feliciano is now on injured reserve.That doesn&#x2019;t leave much flanking center Rodney Hudson, which is why Denver Kirkland and Cameron Hunt were signed. Hunt was brought in to be the backup center.Kirkland will join Denzelle Good and Chaz Green in the mix to play guard if their frontline starters remain out.&#x201C;I know that both (Osemele and Jackson) are as tough as they come and if there&#x2019;s a will, there&#x2019;s a way,&#x201D; head coach Jon Gruden said. &#x201C;They have the will, I know that. We&#x2019;ll just hope for the best. Like we&#x2019;ve done at other positions on offense, we&#x2019;ll have to rally around the next guy up.&#x201D;Gruden also lauded Jackson&#x2019;s and Feliciano&#x2019;s toughness, for finishing the game-winning drive against Pittsburgh despite significant injuries. Feliciano could barely walk down the stretch, and Jackson refused to burn a timeout late to give him time to recover from tremendous elbow pain.The interior line, by far the line&#x2019;s strength, is in bad shape and the Raiders must find ways to handle that setback against a tough Bengals front.&#x201C;It will be very challenging, especially against a good defense,&#x201D; Carr said. &#x201C;Their front, obviously we know they got good players. It just is what it is this year. Guys are hurt, guys are leaving the building and we are getting new guys in. It&#x2019;s next man up, but just the mentality that coach Gruden and I have together is, however it unfolds we are going to give Cincinnati our best shot.&#x201D;

sunster19 · Answer

but but, the raiders beat the steelers where they could have tanked and played hell of a game against kc.

and the jets beat the bills where they could have tanked,

and the 49ers beat the broncos where they didn't have the same issues you brought up against the seahawks,

and bengals played chargers tough,

and cardinals beat packers two weeks ago in green bay.

This tanking thing is so overrated. Athletes play hard, they want to keep playing for their jobs. You think they care about a high draft pick when they aren't in the league.

You think coaches want to lose. You think somebody like shanahan wants wins in his record or a couple picks higher pick.

You think bowles wants to save his job as long with his assistant coaches or they care if they get the number one pick.

there is no gm telling these coaches to lose. Teams want to win

begginerboy · Answer

No point in arguing. I agree with you to a certain extent, that is why you must tread carefully and do your homework. I can say a lot about that Raider game, but basically Tomlin botched it by taking Big Ben out of the game for a quarter. And Carr made a couple of miraculous throws, and still the Steelers had a chance to tie and eventually win that game. Anyway, for those of you who will go to your graves thinking teams don&#x27;t tank, here is inconvertible truth from the NBA:The 2013-2014 Brooklyn Nets, coached by Jason Kidd, intentionally lost the last two games of the season in order to play the Miami Heat in the second round of the playoffs. I&#x27;m not going to get into why they wanted to do that (it was discussed to death by me and others in the NBA forum, and people made money fading the Nets in those last two games). So there you go, you never-tankers!

NinjaNight · Answer

I think sunster&#x27;s point is that teams rarely tank rather than never tank. So if you&#x27;re betting a team is going to tank you&#x27;ll usually be wrong.

nunong · Answer

&#xA; &#xA;One can lead a horse to water...but can&#x27;t force it to drink

sunster19 · Answer

lol, your rebuttal is that the double digit favourite steelers almost won besides a couple miraulous plays by the other team, the raiders, the team that was suppossed to tank?No when a team is tanking, they try to lose on purpose, hence the name. Don&#x27;t come in here and say the favourite almost won but didn&#x27;t because their fg kicker slipped as indication that the raiders were trying to tank. If you watched the game, you would have noticed that the raiders played extremely tough throughout the whole game. You brought up tanking in the NFL. all of a sudden because you can&#x27;t provide any evidence you switch to NBA. yeah im sure there is tanking in the NBA. Different sport, different cicumstances. You could get generational talent with number one picks. In the NFL you can&#x27;t usually unless there is a manning or a luck at the top. No one is tanking this year to get Bosa. Teams may play bad, but thats because they are bad and suck. Cardinals could get destroyed tomorrow. doesn&#x27;t mean they tanked. Just means they have a lot of injuries and can&#x27;t match up.

DoctorSuccess · Answer

BB, I always enjoy reading your posts. You always have an unusual and interesting take on the games.

begginerboy · Answer

So you mean when Gruden unloaded all that talent he did it so he would make the Raiders a winning team this year. LOL Who is naive now? Teams tank, players play to win (for pride, to keep their job, to get a raise, etc.,) two seemingly contradictory things can be true at the same time. This is not an either/or argument. I think you completely misunderstand me.

sunster19 · Answer

no, you keep trying to change your story. Gruden trading his players away might be trading for the future. Doesnt mean he is tanking in any particular game, where you can use it in your handicapping. Just like last week supposed tank when raiders won straight up.

and just like right now right. I guess jets didn't get the memo they were suppossed to tank this game

Cavs2017Champs · Answer

"Tanking" has to be the dumbest term in Sports... If a team was trying to lose on purpose, they would never win a game... If i am playing a game and my goal is to lose, i would lose every time but that doesnt happen in Sports..