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NFL Game of the Year and other Top Selections
2005-10-28 15:51
by Scott Long

I've been a little stingy with major plays in the NFL the past couple of weeks, as I haven't felt strongly on most of the schedule. Things change this week. 3 of the strongest plays I've seen are taking place Sunday, including my NFL Game of the Year! (I've always wanted to be able to post such a hyperbolic sentence.)

5 star Kansas City (+6) over San Diego
4 star Detroit (-3) over Chicago
4 star Green Bay (+9) Cincinnati
3 star Oakland (-1.5) Tennessee
2 star Buffalo (+9) New England

KC and San Diego are pretty much equals talent-wise. Throw-in that the Chiefs received a couple extra days to prepare because of last week's earlier kickoff caused by Hurricane Wilma and the number seems to even be more off. Add to this last week's blown loss to Philly and how the Chargers don't have much of a home-field advantage and it just seems like this should be a pick'em game at most. Take the Chiefs and bet the farm. This is such a strong bet that if you don't have a farm to bet, buy one and then immediately bet it.
Almost as good of a bet is Detroit this week, in a battle for the NFC North playoff spot. Chicago's defense is good, but they play best on grass, while Detroit will have the revenge benefit after getting slammed by the Bears in Soldier Field, earlier this year. If Dre Bly was playing and Shaun Rogers was a 100%, I would give this a 5 star rating, but it's still a great opportunity.
Sad as this sounds, despite having only 1 win, the Packers are only 2 games out of first, so they still have something to play for. The Bengals will be down a bit after last week's disappointing performance against rival Pittsburgh. Take the generous 9.
How Norv Turner gets his head coaching jobs, I have no idea, but the talent level in Oakland is too good to have a record like this, no matter how hard the competition has been. Raiders smack around another weaker opponent for the second straight week.
New England is too beat-up to be favored by 9 points over a Buffalo team, which will be playing for their season this week. Considering the Pats might be peeking at next week's game with Indy, this seems like a nice place to take the dog.

4 star Oklahoma (+1.5) Nebraska
3 star Florida (-4) Georgia
3 star Kansas (+5.5) Missouri
2 star Purdue (+15) Penn State

Remember when the Sooners/Huskers game was the biggest in college football? No game has been affected by the switch to a super conference more than this traditional contest. Oklahoma has started to find itself and its losses have been to teams with a combined record of 21-1 (Texas, TCU, UCLA), so some of the disappointment needs to be graded on the curve. Stoops vs Callahan. Take the Sooners by 10.
Georgia has some real injury issues, with a 3rd string QB trying to keep the undefeated season dream, alive. Florida wrecks those dreams on Saturday.
Missouri has an impressive record this year, but have no quality wins on the road. Kansas comes off an ass-kicking at Boulder, by the Buffs, but will bounce back, as their disappointing season is still salvageable if they win versus the Tigers.
A team that is past the point of being able to salvage anything is the Boilermakers. This game would have favored Purdue at the start of the year, so the big spread seems a little too high, though. Take the Pur(over)due Boilers to keep it close.

Comments
2005-10-31 06:38:09
1.   Scott Long
Nothing like going 60% on your NFL picks and 66% on your college picks and still have a disappointing week.

NFL game of the year loses, so any of you played with me last week, you get the next month of my picks, COMPLETELY FREE. (I always love when tout services do this. Just what you want after you get killed on one of their big picks, more picks from a loser.)

Oklahoma was never challenged, same goes with outright winner Kansas, while Florida blew it, pushing a game they were up by 14 points at half. I'm done with picking Pur(over)due, as it appears they have quit.

San Diego was up the whole game, but KC did cut it 8 points, but could never get the extra field goal, as they decided not to cover Antonio Gates the whole game. Detroit was in field goal range late in the game, but Garcia took a sack, pushing them out of it and eventually causing OT, where he threw the ball away for a game ending TD.
Favre threw 5 interceptions and the Pack still covered. Amazing.
Oakland was up huge and tried to give the Titans back the game, but prevailed, while the Bills were in command the whole game, but gave away the outright win late, but still covered easily.

Hey that's my version of this week.

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