
Close your eyes and maybe it will go away
Wow – how bad are the Lions?They just lost to what was arguably the worst team in the NFL – Arizona. And not just a close bumbling loss, it was a blow out. Arizona can’t generate any offense and they didn’t. But they still hung 38 points on the Lions who blew it on offense (2 pick sixes! And another pick returned to the 3) special teams (muffed punt inside the 10) and defense (they still allowed Beanie Wells to score 3 TDs). Coming into the game the Lions had blown a record 3 straight double digit leads. This game they never even got to double digits.
So is it time to clean house and start over? Stafford’s mechanics are awful. The offense lacks an alternative to Calvin – no 2nd receiver or running game. The teams undisciplined play is a reflection of the head coach (who can forget the errant challenge flag which cost the Thanksgiving game). The draft picks have been mediocre at best. Yeah – they need to clean house at the coaching and GM level to reach a consistent high performance level but it won’t happen. Keep in mind that in setting the record for blown double digit lead – they actually had double digit leads over the Texans and Green Bay both pretty good teams.
So the best to hope for is to bring in someone to coach up Stafford. Jim Tedford ( former HC at Cal) is available. Special teams needs a new leader (other than Hanson when was special teams a weapon for the Leos). Need to shore up the secondary, linebackers, offensive line and running back through the draft and/or free agency. A tall order and it won’t all be done but just a couple will get the Lions back to challenging for a playoff spot. A fourth place schedule will mask a lot of problems too.
Tonight the take on the league leading Falcons and are only getting 3.5 I would Mega bet this game if Atlanta didn’t play down to their competition and could be looking past this game before taking on division rival Tampa Bay.
So is it time to clean house and start over? Stafford’s mechanics are awful. The offense lacks an alternative to Calvin – no 2nd receiver or running game. The teams undisciplined play is a reflection of the head coach (who can forget the errant challenge flag which cost the Thanksgiving game). The draft picks have been mediocre at best. Yeah – they need to clean house at the coaching and GM level to reach a consistent high performance level but it won’t happen. Keep in mind that in setting the record for blown double digit lead – they actually had double digit leads over the Texans and Green Bay both pretty good teams.
So the best to hope for is to bring in someone to coach up Stafford. Jim Tedford ( former HC at Cal) is available. Special teams needs a new leader (other than Hanson when was special teams a weapon for the Leos). Need to shore up the secondary, linebackers, offensive line and running back through the draft and/or free agency. A tall order and it won’t all be done but just a couple will get the Lions back to challenging for a playoff spot. A fourth place schedule will mask a lot of problems too.
Tonight the take on the league leading Falcons and are only getting 3.5 I would Mega bet this game if Atlanta didn’t play down to their competition and could be looking past this game before taking on division rival Tampa Bay.

What great technique!
The Doofus got back to his winning ways last week going the standard 2-1 as:
Week 16 Recap
Arizona vs Nevada over 76.0 - What an exciting game. Not for the over – the game was a scoring extravaganza. The over was had on the very first play of the fourth quarter.
No – it was the ending. With the TD Arizona narrowed their deficit to 45 to 35. Now I was rooting for Arizona for my pool picks. But they were going to need two scores to either tie or take the lead. But try as they might neither team scored - until Nevada kicked a FG with 1:48 left. Now Arizona needed a miracle – 2 TDs with less than two minutes left . Not looking good for my pool.
The Wildcat drive didn’t start out to well as they fumbled on the first play on their own 29. But they recovered the fumble to keep hope alive. The rest of the drive was great as they worked the sidelines. Aided by two Nevada pass interference calls, Arizona had it first and goal at the 2. A quick pass later and AZ had the TD to cut the lead to 48-42.
Still needing a miracle - Arizona executed a great on side kick to get the ball back with 42 seconds at the Arizona 49 yard line. Two plays later they again had it first and goal at the 2. Pass - TD! Game!
Great ending - and a great start to the bowl season. Final score Arizona 49 Nevada 48 WIN
Tampa Bay @ New Orleans over 53.5 – It takes two teams to tango to get the over. New Orleans did their part as Drew Brees threw for 307 yards and 4 TDS. But Josh Freeman stunk worse than Woz’s milk jugs left behind the couch for a week. The Bucs turned it over 8 times in New Orleans territory including 4 picks by Freeman.
Tampa was able to generate nearly 400 yards of offense but no points. That sucks. Way too many turnovers deep inside New Orleans territory. Final score New Orleans 41 Bucs 0 LOSS
Denver -2.5 @ Baltimore – As expected Baltimore is a shell of their former selves. The defense is living on reputation but is really struggling. The Broncos came into the Ravens house and shredded their defense for 27 points. Add in a pick 6 by the defense and Denver cruised for an eay win. It was the 11th straight time Peyton Manning beat the Ravens. Baltimore’s offense is struggling too. Last week Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron was canned (Yes that Cam – the former QB coach at Michigan and HC at Indiana). But the Ravens replaced him with Jim Caldwell who never called a play before at any level. Against the Denver defense it was a total mismatch. The Ravens offense was stuffed until the game was out of each at 31-3. Baltimore got some garbage points leaving the final score at Denver 34 Baltimore 10 WIN
Week 16 Recap
Arizona vs Nevada over 76.0 - What an exciting game. Not for the over – the game was a scoring extravaganza. The over was had on the very first play of the fourth quarter.
No – it was the ending. With the TD Arizona narrowed their deficit to 45 to 35. Now I was rooting for Arizona for my pool picks. But they were going to need two scores to either tie or take the lead. But try as they might neither team scored - until Nevada kicked a FG with 1:48 left. Now Arizona needed a miracle – 2 TDs with less than two minutes left . Not looking good for my pool.
The Wildcat drive didn’t start out to well as they fumbled on the first play on their own 29. But they recovered the fumble to keep hope alive. The rest of the drive was great as they worked the sidelines. Aided by two Nevada pass interference calls, Arizona had it first and goal at the 2. A quick pass later and AZ had the TD to cut the lead to 48-42.
Still needing a miracle - Arizona executed a great on side kick to get the ball back with 42 seconds at the Arizona 49 yard line. Two plays later they again had it first and goal at the 2. Pass - TD! Game!
Great ending - and a great start to the bowl season. Final score Arizona 49 Nevada 48 WIN
Tampa Bay @ New Orleans over 53.5 – It takes two teams to tango to get the over. New Orleans did their part as Drew Brees threw for 307 yards and 4 TDS. But Josh Freeman stunk worse than Woz’s milk jugs left behind the couch for a week. The Bucs turned it over 8 times in New Orleans territory including 4 picks by Freeman.
Tampa was able to generate nearly 400 yards of offense but no points. That sucks. Way too many turnovers deep inside New Orleans territory. Final score New Orleans 41 Bucs 0 LOSS
Denver -2.5 @ Baltimore – As expected Baltimore is a shell of their former selves. The defense is living on reputation but is really struggling. The Broncos came into the Ravens house and shredded their defense for 27 points. Add in a pick 6 by the defense and Denver cruised for an eay win. It was the 11th straight time Peyton Manning beat the Ravens. Baltimore’s offense is struggling too. Last week Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron was canned (Yes that Cam – the former QB coach at Michigan and HC at Indiana). But the Ravens replaced him with Jim Caldwell who never called a play before at any level. Against the Denver defense it was a total mismatch. The Ravens offense was stuffed until the game was out of each at 31-3. Baltimore got some garbage points leaving the final score at Denver 34 Baltimore 10 WIN

Week 16 - yeah Baby!! Back to winning again!
And here are the
Week 17 Mega Bets
Fresno State -11.5 vs SMU Hawaii Bowl – Sorry Brett, the Mustangs are going to go down hard in this game. SMU basically backed into a bowl beating Tulsa to become bowl eligible. Tulsa mailed it in as they were preparing to face UCF for the second time in three weeks for the CUSA championship. This team is regressing under June Jones losing to Tulane and Rice this season. The Mustangs rank 64th in defense and 93rd in offense this year. Not what you would expect from a June Jones team.
Meanwhile Fresno State is returning to its former potential BCS buster form. The Bulldogs only losses were to Oregon, CUSA champ Tulsa and co-MWC champ Boise State. FSU was 14th in overall offenses and 19th in defense. This is a solid team.
SMU fans like to state that they will have an advantage since June Jones coached Hawaii for nine years. But Fresno plays there every other year as part of the old WAC and now MWC. SMU will just be glad to be in Hawaii while Fresno will be al business and take down the Mustangs.
Expect to see a lot of interceptions – FSU’s Phil Thomas leads the nation with eight interceptions and is tied for pick sixes at three. Meanwhile SMU is tied for the most interception returns for TDs with six and is sixth in total interceptions with 19.
Chicago -5.5 @ Arizona – Don’t let the blow out of the Lions fool ya – Arizona is still terrible. Ryan Lindley is still the worst starting QB in the league by a large margin. Granted – Chicago’s defense is pretty banged up with Urlacher out but their defensive line should have no problem with Arizona’s porous offensive line. Unless there is some kind of flukey play (like what they did against the Lions) I don’t see the Cardinals scoring into double digits.
The Bears aren’t getting much done on offense either. Their passing game is also a one trick pony to Brandon Marshall. What’s different is the Bears also have Matt Forte toting the rock. He should have a great day going against a Cardinal defense that has let up an average of 175 yards on the ground the last four weeks.
Carolina -8.0 vs Oakland – Lots of nice angles in play here. First is the Pat Time Zone Angle as Oakland travels east to play a 1:00 game. Next is that Oakland is playing out the string. Yeah they beat an even worse KC squad last week. But the scoring was 5 FGs. Not a lot of effort there.
But the primary reason I like the Panthers is that Cam Newton is back on fire again. Over the last five games he has thrown 10 TDs and no INTs. Last week he destroyed and equally lethargic San Diego 31-7 and that was in their crib. The week before he was magnificent in taking down Atlanta 30-20 in Charlotte.
And the Panthers won’t be relying solely on Cam – De Angelo Williams has been coming on strong too. last week against the Chargers he ripped off 93 yards on the ground and 51 yards receiving. This week he faces a Raider defense that is 25th against the run and looking ahead to getting home for Christmas.
After a short hiatus I’ll take some Mini Megas to with
UL Lafayette -4.5 vs East Carolina New Orleans Bowl – UL Lafayette will be playing in their back yard. Last year the Ragin’ Cajuns beat a much better San Diego State team in this bowl and for the first time in history will be playing in back to back bowls. UL Lafayette cam on strong over the last month going 4-1 with their sole loss to Florida 27-20.
East Carolina had a solid season too but all four of their losses came to bowl eligible teams. By definition – ULL is bowl eligible. ECU also lost to every non conference team they played going 0-3 against the spread in those games.
Expect some real home run type plays from ULL. They led the nation in plays over 70 yards with eight.
Indianapolis -6.5 @ Kansas City – The Colts beat up on weak competition beating up on the likes of Jacksonville (by 17) Tennessee (by 4) Buffalo (by 7 and yes even Detroit (by 2). Kansas City is arguable worse than all those teams. Indy may get caught looking ahead to a rematch next week with Houston but even on cruise control they should put away the pathetic Chiefs.
New Orleans @ Dallas over 51.0 –OK , let’s try this again. Last week Tampa puked in the red zone and blew the over. New Orleans almost got it by themselves but just needed a little help. They didn’t get it. Once again two teams that can score but can't defend go at it. Dallas won’t stumble in the palace in Dallas. Get the popcorn ready – this should be a fun high scoring game.
And here are the spreads, records and picks for Week 17
Week 17 Mega Bets
Fresno State -11.5 vs SMU Hawaii Bowl – Sorry Brett, the Mustangs are going to go down hard in this game. SMU basically backed into a bowl beating Tulsa to become bowl eligible. Tulsa mailed it in as they were preparing to face UCF for the second time in three weeks for the CUSA championship. This team is regressing under June Jones losing to Tulane and Rice this season. The Mustangs rank 64th in defense and 93rd in offense this year. Not what you would expect from a June Jones team.
Meanwhile Fresno State is returning to its former potential BCS buster form. The Bulldogs only losses were to Oregon, CUSA champ Tulsa and co-MWC champ Boise State. FSU was 14th in overall offenses and 19th in defense. This is a solid team.
SMU fans like to state that they will have an advantage since June Jones coached Hawaii for nine years. But Fresno plays there every other year as part of the old WAC and now MWC. SMU will just be glad to be in Hawaii while Fresno will be al business and take down the Mustangs.
Expect to see a lot of interceptions – FSU’s Phil Thomas leads the nation with eight interceptions and is tied for pick sixes at three. Meanwhile SMU is tied for the most interception returns for TDs with six and is sixth in total interceptions with 19.
Chicago -5.5 @ Arizona – Don’t let the blow out of the Lions fool ya – Arizona is still terrible. Ryan Lindley is still the worst starting QB in the league by a large margin. Granted – Chicago’s defense is pretty banged up with Urlacher out but their defensive line should have no problem with Arizona’s porous offensive line. Unless there is some kind of flukey play (like what they did against the Lions) I don’t see the Cardinals scoring into double digits.
The Bears aren’t getting much done on offense either. Their passing game is also a one trick pony to Brandon Marshall. What’s different is the Bears also have Matt Forte toting the rock. He should have a great day going against a Cardinal defense that has let up an average of 175 yards on the ground the last four weeks.
Carolina -8.0 vs Oakland – Lots of nice angles in play here. First is the Pat Time Zone Angle as Oakland travels east to play a 1:00 game. Next is that Oakland is playing out the string. Yeah they beat an even worse KC squad last week. But the scoring was 5 FGs. Not a lot of effort there.
But the primary reason I like the Panthers is that Cam Newton is back on fire again. Over the last five games he has thrown 10 TDs and no INTs. Last week he destroyed and equally lethargic San Diego 31-7 and that was in their crib. The week before he was magnificent in taking down Atlanta 30-20 in Charlotte.
And the Panthers won’t be relying solely on Cam – De Angelo Williams has been coming on strong too. last week against the Chargers he ripped off 93 yards on the ground and 51 yards receiving. This week he faces a Raider defense that is 25th against the run and looking ahead to getting home for Christmas.
After a short hiatus I’ll take some Mini Megas to with
UL Lafayette -4.5 vs East Carolina New Orleans Bowl – UL Lafayette will be playing in their back yard. Last year the Ragin’ Cajuns beat a much better San Diego State team in this bowl and for the first time in history will be playing in back to back bowls. UL Lafayette cam on strong over the last month going 4-1 with their sole loss to Florida 27-20.
East Carolina had a solid season too but all four of their losses came to bowl eligible teams. By definition – ULL is bowl eligible. ECU also lost to every non conference team they played going 0-3 against the spread in those games.
Expect some real home run type plays from ULL. They led the nation in plays over 70 yards with eight.
Indianapolis -6.5 @ Kansas City – The Colts beat up on weak competition beating up on the likes of Jacksonville (by 17) Tennessee (by 4) Buffalo (by 7 and yes even Detroit (by 2). Kansas City is arguable worse than all those teams. Indy may get caught looking ahead to a rematch next week with Houston but even on cruise control they should put away the pathetic Chiefs.
New Orleans @ Dallas over 51.0 –OK , let’s try this again. Last week Tampa puked in the red zone and blew the over. New Orleans almost got it by themselves but just needed a little help. They didn’t get it. Once again two teams that can score but can't defend go at it. Dallas won’t stumble in the palace in Dallas. Get the popcorn ready – this should be a fun high scoring game.
And here are the spreads, records and picks for Week 17

Week 17 Bettors Guide.xls |
GO JUMBO Oct 26th 2013 at the LVH hotel