The week ended on a frustrating note as the Bills’ frustrating loss to the Patriots on Monday Night Football wound up costing me the weekly pool in a tie-break. It stings a little extra as Christen wound up winning that tie break after picking the Pats. I still had a solid week going 10-4 overall and built a little bit of a cushion against the spread and the over/under, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less.
| Nick – W | Nick – L | Nick – T | ATS – W | ATS – L | ATS – Push | O/U – W | O/U – L | O/U – Push | Christen W | Christen L | Christen T |
| 10 | 4 | 0 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 0 |
| Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous | Previous |
| 108 | 71 | 1 | 91 | 87 | 2 | 82 | 78 | 3 | 104 | 73 | 1 |
| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| 118 | 75 | 1 | 100 | 92 | 2 | 90 | 84 | 3 | 114 | 77 | 1 |
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I won’t spend too much time with the Bills game because I already did that in My Buffalo Blues yesterday, but it was yet another one of those games where the mistakes just seem to get in the way. The final score was 14-10 for New England, but they sort of just let the Bills beat themselves. Don’t get me wrong, the Pats are legitimately good and played mostly mistake-free (if you ignore the handful of procedural penalties that went uncalled). Buffalo wasn’t so lucky, fumbling, dropping, false starting, wasting timeouts and challenges, and just putting themselves in the hardest possible spot all night long. The Pats took over the #1 seed in the AFC with the win while the Bills have to seriously worry about just making playoffs now.
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The Sunday night game wasn’t quite the rivalry game it could have been as the Chiefs dispatched the Broncos 22-9. It wasn’t much of a surprise but that’s five-in-a-row for the defending AFC champs while Denver goes back to .500 on the year.
The Seattle Seahawks finally got off the schneid with a 30-23 win over the 49ers in the afternoon slot. They damn near blew it though. Up by a touchdown with the ball at the SF 4-yard line, facing a 4th & 1, they decided to go for it rather than just kick the field goal and go up 10-points with 6-minutes left in the game. They did convert but wound up fumbling three plays later, giving the Niners a chance when they would have had basically none had they just gone up 10. Facing a 4th & 3 at their own 3-yard line, the Seattle defense came up with a huge 4th down stop to ice the game. The win does little for them in terms of the season, but it may signal that Russell Wilson is getting healthier.
The game that really end up costing me in the pick ’em was the Ravens’ 20-19 loss to the Steelers. After allowing Pittsburgh to score a TD and convert the 2-pt attempt to Freiermuth inside the two-minute warning, the Ravens needed to respond and they did. Baltimore went 60-yards in 8-plays, capped off by a Lamar Jackson-to-Sammy Watkins TD. John Harbaugh elected to go for the win on the road and they actually got the right play sent in, but they ran it to T.J. Watt’s side of the defense and he was able to disrupt the pass just enough as it was incomplete off Mark Andrews’ hands. The win doesn’t change things in the AFC North, but it kept the Steelers’ season alive.
The Rams got back on track with a one-sided, dominant victory over the Jaguars 37-7. Los Angeles desperately needed a game like that, not necessarily for positioning as much as just confidence-boosting. The Eagles and their fans are now experiencing mustache mania with Gardner Minshew under center as they handled the Jets, 33-18. The win keeps the Eags in the post-season conversation for now. Miami joined that conversation with a 20-9 win over the Giants who are going to be relegated to spoiler this season. That’s five-in-a-row for the Fins who are turning it on late in the season once again.
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In a game that had plenty of playoff implications for both teams, Washington went on the road to Las Vegas and came away with a 17-15 game. It was a hard-fought game on both sides of the ball and Vegas had taken a late lead to put pressure on Taylor Heinicke and rookie kicker Brian Johnson who’ filling in for Joey Slye. Johnson made both his extra-point attempts and nailed the game-winning 48-yarder. Believe it or not, that’s four-in-a-row for Washington and they are inside the playoff bubble. The Raiders fall back to .500 and will have to scratch and claw their way to a playoff berth.
The feel good story of Week 13 was the Detroit Lions getting their first win, unless you’re a Vikings fan. Trailing 27-23 inside the two-minute warning, Jared Goff engineered a 14-play, 75-yard drive that left the Lions with a 4th & 2 at the MIN 11-yard line. I don’t know exactly why, but the Vikes were playing off coverage and let Amon-Ra St. Brown settle in right in the front of the end zone and Goff found him for the easy game-winner, 29-27. I’m happy for Detroit as it’s clearly been a struggle this season filled with close games. The win doesn’t even get them out of last place overall, but it’s a good underdog win. Minnesota falls to 5-7 and continues to be plagued by a subpar defense and close losses.
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The Chargers re-inserted themselves into the playoff discussion with a 41-22 win over the Bengals. I thought Cincy was the better team heading into the game, but nothing seems to motivate a team like necessity. Thanks to a fumble and interception on the Bengals’ first two possessions, they found themselves in a 24-0 hole early. Those were some really bad omens early in the game it’s tough to overcome those kinds of mistakes, but they did gut the lead to 24-22 at one point. The Bolts responded with 17-unanswered points to close it out. Los Angeles moved ahead of Cincy with that win.
In completely unsurprising news the Buccaneers beat the Falcons 30-17. It was a 3-point game at the half but Atlanta didn’t score after that. In the other most predictable of the week, the Cardinals beat the Bears, 33-22, in some poor conditions. Chicago started the game with Andy Dalton throwing picks on back-to-back possesstions to open the game. Arizona made it 14-0 and never relinquished the lead.
Week 14 starts with Thursday Night Football as the desperate (5-7) Vikings host the almost equally as desperate (6-5-1) Steelers. I’ll take a deeper dive on that game tomorrow, but it’s an interesting matchup.
Not much change at the very top or the very bottom, but the Chiefs are back in the Top-5 with their five-game win streak and the Chargers vault into the Top-10 with an impressive road win.
| 1. Packers 9-3 (=) |
| 2. Cardinals 10-2 (=) |
| 3. Buccaneers 9-3 (=) |
| 4. Patriots 9-4 (=) |
| 5. Chiefs 8-4 (+3) |
| 6. Cowboys 8-4 (+5) |
| 7. Titans 8-4 (-1) |
| 8. Rams 8-4 (2) |
| 9. Ravens 8-4 (-4) |
| 10. Chargers 7-5 (+6) |
| 11. Bengals 7-5 (-4) |
| 12. Bills 7-5 (-3) |
| 13. Colts 7-6 (-1) |
| 14. 49ers 6-6 (=) |
| 15. Washington 6-6 (+5) |
| 16. Raiders 6-6 (-3) |
| 17. Steelers 6-5-1 (+2) |
| 18. Broncos 6-6 (-3) |
| 19. Browns 6-6 (-2) |
| 20. Dolphins 6-7 (+3) |
| 21. Eagles 6-7 (+3) |
| 22. Vikings 5-7 (-4) |
| 22. Saints 5-7 (-1) |
| 24. Falcons 5-7 (-3) |
| 25. Panthers 5-7 (=) |
| 26. Giants 4-7 (=) |
| 27. Seahawks 4-8 (+1) |
| 28. Bears 4-8 (-1) |
| 29. Jets 3-9 (=) |
| 30. Texans 2-10 (=) |
| 31. Jaguars 2-10 (=) |
| 32. Lions 1-10-1 (=) |
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