^ what about the colts man...that should be tighter than people think today given our defense
Love the Colts. Only submitted the early play. I'll be back later for the afternoon games. I like to see where I'm potentially standing from my morning picks before I leverage my afternoon bets.
Here are my write-ups for my picks for the morning:
Eagles +3.5
The media has a penchant for following the drama that they create for a team as opposed to sticking merely to the football side of things. Is the Eagles season done? Is Vick going to be replaced? Will Reid be fired?....Who cares? Look...Nick Foles is getting the start and while some may have been calling for Vick's head, I feel certain that Reid didn't want to make a move to insert Foles as the starter unless he absolutely had to. Why subject your rookie to an offensive line like that if your high on him like it seems the Eagles are? Point being, the Eagles and Reid will be going back to the basics in order to protect Foles. That means running the football and finding a run/pass balance that should have been implemented weeks ago. I really like Foles and know he can make the throws. They just need that offense to be balanced to keep the D guessing, and ultimately keeping Foles upright. He releases the ball earlier than Vick and will impress today. It'll be close, but in the end, the Eagles will utilize their amazing talent the way it's supposed to be and when that happens, they look downright dominate. RGIII will have to play even more out of his mind than he usually does for the ******** to pull this one out. Home game or not.
Lions +3.5
Packers dealing with a ton of injuries. An okay offensive line just lost Bulaga. Defense without Clay and Woodson. Bettors and fans alike, have a propensity to give in to the recency effect. That is, the Lions getting dominated by the Vikings. Biggest difference here?...AP isn't running the football. In fact, the Packers don't have too much a scary threat in that backfield. The Lions D-Line should get it done in the trenches, stopping any run attempts and putting pressure on Rodgers, while their offense is still dangerous, and Stafford and CJ are clicking. A shootout looms, but the advantage is with the home team.
Panthers +1.5
Buccaneers are on fire right now. Panthers and Cam are not the talk of the town anymore and have sidled down the ranks to where people are forgetting about them. Bad move. It's a common theme in the NFL that a team starts to get hot only to be knocked back down to reality while another team not playing it's best ball, rises to the challenge to come up with a big W. It's a mild, overcast day in Charlotte so the weather shouldn't play a huge role, but the home team should have the upper-hand in a division tilt such as this one. Teams aren't running for a lot of yardage against TB, but they also aren't attempting to. Carolina has a surprisingly great game on the ground today.
Cardinals +9.5
Going out on a limb with this one, but my gut tells me the that this number is too high. Atlanta should win (home game), but Cardinals never get enough credit for how tough they can play. Especially their defense. Key here is that Skelton finds a little groove. Atlanta coming off a tough loss to the Saints and is probably just chomping at the bit to play them again and may have let some prep time slip for the lowly Arizona Cardinals. They have the talent and the better team so they'll win, but they will only do just enough and I don't see this being a blowout. Special Teams being the equalizer. P Peterson will have a big day.