When the coach(es) call out the players

Did you notice this past week that BUF HC Gailey questioned the mental toughness of his team? And did you notice they still loss to SF on the road? They tried to hang with them in the first half, but again in the second half they collapsed as they did in the prior week @home vs NE ( a much hated division rival).

This past week TEN DC Jerry Gray also called out his defense for lack of toughness and how did they respond? Again they were run over roughshod by MIN. Prior week HOU took them to the woodshed

These public calling out of players I guess should be viewed as desperation by the coaches involved as they've probably tried everything else they can think of and it hasn't worked.

Both games had similarites, BUF & TEN faced teams known for their run O (SF & MIN) and D's that played solid. Maybe it was just 'haves' vs 'have nots' and the 'have not's' knew it and showed it

In short bet against these teams....

2012 - week 05 - picks

10/07 1:00 PM
411 ATL -3 **
412 WAS 50½ under

ATL only -3????



10/07 1:00 PM
413 PHI 44 under
414 PIT -3½ *

CoB PIT
I would normally go with the over in this once every 4 yrs interstate rivaly, but Vick & Co sputter too much, PIT off a bye week should play better with rest and the return of Harrison & Polamalu.



10/07 1:00 PM
415 GB -7 under
416 IND 48 *

CoB IND
IND HC Pagano diagnosed w/leukemia,
OC Arians (Interim HC) tells players 'why can't we extend season for HC Pagano?'



10/07 1:00 PM
417 CLE 44 under
418 NYG -9 *

CLE WR's banged up, not practicing



10/07 4:25 PM
419 TEN 43½ UNDER
420 MIN -5½ **

giving up 5.5 with MIN seems like a lot, but their D should be able to stop TEN with QB Hasselbeck. I expect a short passing game from TEN and nothing much else. It's MIN D that is formidable and with a rocking home crowd will give TEN QB Hasselbeck & Co. headaches all game long



10/07 1:00 PM
421 MIA 44½ *
422 CIN -4½ over

MIA has played in 2OT games consecutively, Lots of spunk, taking points seems prudent



10/07 1:00 PM
423 BAL -5 **
424 KC 46½ UNDER

KC - smells like toast??



10/07 4:05 PM
425 SEA 43½ UNDER
426 CAR -3 *

GiB CAR
This is a bit of a toss up to me, but SEA and long road trip should work against them



10/07 4:05 PM
427 CHI -5½ *****
428 JAC 40 UNDER

GiB CHI
GiB JAC
Going into bye week for both teams, CHI on a high, JAC on a low...
JAC has yet to play well @home, could be 0-4, except for "lucky win" @IND, spread could be -14½


10/07 4:25 PM
429 DEN 51½ OVER
430 NE -7 *

Two of the best O's play, which means that total is looking awfully small, unless both teams decide to run more often. O's are ahead of D's, thought of taking points, but both teams are coming off of wins over division rivals... this seems like a homer game



10/07 4:25 PM
431 BUF 44½ UNDER
432 SF -9½ **

BUF HC questions "mental toughness" of players



10/07 8:30 PM
433 SD 54 OVER
434 NO -3½ **

GiB NO
Another supreme effort from NO should easily get this over the total



10/08 8:35 PM
435 HOU -7½ **
436 NYJ 41 UNDER

And to pile on the bad news, HOU trounces NYJ, they should be embarrassed from last week, but I think they are still in the woe is me mode...



interestingly enough....

teams on bye this week DAL, DET, OAK, TB all lost last week



CoB Coming off bye
GiB Going into bye

the anti joe namath

Sometimes you read something and you just gotta let it be known for everyone else....

http://www.footballperspective.com/jim-harbaugh-has-turned-alex-smith-into-the-anti-joe-namath-or-jim-harbaugh-2-0/

great piece of writing and stats mixed all into one....

CHFF TV

again followed another blog entry from google reader and thought this was worthy ...


http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/chff-tv/

interestingly enough they had a spot on SF @MIN and we all know it was the upset of the week for wk 03

this week they are highlighting HOU chances of a 16-0 run, again interesting, but I guess with video it still captures my attention...

Compiling numbers for the "White Hats"

I was going thru google reader and noticed a blog entry for officials and lo and behold, it's a treasure trove of info...

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/officials/

Since umpires are the head of the officiating crew they get to wear the 'white hat'. I'll need to review the entries in detail at a later time and I hope to glean some useful info from a betting perpective

2012 - week 05 - Thursday - pick

10/04 8:25 PM

301 ARI -1 UNDER
302 STL 38½ *



since '07 ARI 9-1 vs STL (last 5 years)

ARI w/o DT Dockett, RB Wells, OL has issues

STL OL has issues as well, I'm just thinking HC Fisher will have another wrinkle and out coach Wisenhunt & Co.

2012 - week 04 - results

A very good week, especially for totals. I wonder if this is due to the regular referees being in charge or not? Or maybe it's just because I had a ten more hours to work with and make picks? Or because on the plane ride back to 'vegas I met a fellow passenger with an enthusiasm for football. Todd, who came into town for the body building event, picked fairly well ATS only missing on SEA, OAK, ARI, NO & DAL. He picked winners of SF, HOU, NE, MIN, CIN, WAS and got a push with NYG.

I wrote on the USAtoday Friday edition that CIN & WAS were my best bets and they came thru, but I had forgotten I blogged/picked CHI@DAL as an over game, but notated it as an under on the rag (sigh), the others total picks of WAS@TB under, NO@GB over and SF@NYJ under all came thru.

I never did get to watch the FSU @USF game (so much to do first day back from traveling), but I did notice on donbest.com that USF as a 'dog won the $$ and total went under the wire as well.

Maybe I haven't picked as well the past three weeks because I was on the road and couldn't put in the time to review teams, games, and/or situations. Now here's a situation to watch with MIA having played in consecutive OT games losing both SU (0-2), but ATS 1-1 and the totals going over twice. What will this third game be? I noticed MIA maybe a good first half bet and maybe over the total for the whole game, though I do expect adjustments in the totals numbers from the sportsbooks, we'll see....