The Results, Week 01, Weekly NFL Related Humiliation

Meant to do this post Tuesday, got distracted by other things. As far as my Seasonal Humiliation, I'll update it also during these weekly results posts. My Seasonal Humiliation has started out at a perfectly mediocre 8-8, while my Weekly Humiliation has started out at a surprisingly unhumiliating 4-1. I screwed up on the lines I used, cause ESPN's website has added a confusing new feature of fan-created lines, but in the cases of the games I picked, the results wouldn't have changed one way or the other. In the future, I'll use the proper betting lines, rather than ESPN's new dumb gimmick. I expect my seasonal totals to get more and more humiliating, given that A) didn't account for injuries such as Tom Brady's B) Detroit is really terrible C) NY Giants may not be terrible D) Oakland might be historically awful (as in 0-16 bad) E) Pittsburgh may go 14-2 rather than 9-7 F) I don't think I've ever taken one of these lettered lists all the way down to "F" before G) It's a loooooong season. On with the weekly results . . . (you'll just have to trust me on the seasonal results, or consult the original posts, it's up to you, I've got a spreadsheet to make it easy to keep track of, but it's in excel, and I'm not going to bother to convert it to a google doc and post it on the web, I'm lazy, though not so lazy that I didn't create an excel spreadsheet to keep track of an entire season's worth of football picks)

Woohoo!! NYJ 20 at Miami 14, my pick NJY -4
Got it right, barely. The Jets tried to lose this at the end, but managed to hold on for the six point victory. I'm not so sure The Jets are that good, but they've just been helped out quite a bit with New England suddenly becoming very mediocre. There's still no hope for Miami this season, but give it a year or two and they might have something in South Florida.

Woohoo!! Tampa Bay 20 New Orleans 24, my pick New Orleans -3.5
It was a close game, and both teams looked good on both sides of the ball. Reggie Bush's spectacular 42 yard TD reception proved to be the difference, though. If New Orleans has that Reggie Bush playing for them this season, then that 12-4 and NFC Championship appearance looks ver possible. Also, Tampa Bay looks like a solid playoff contender, even with the usual Gruden-esque QB confusion that seems to be going on again this season.

Woohoo!! Dallas 28 Cleveland 10, my pick Dallas -5.5
Dallas controlled this contest the entire way, dominating both sides of the ball. Given their offensive performance, 'only' scoring 4 touchdowns might be a little worrisome for Dallas. They had a few fruitless drives, so if their defense doesn't dominate, they might find themselves in a tight game where they shouldn't be. It's hard to figure out what this means for Cleveland. They just got schooled by a superior team, doesn't mean they'll be bad this season, just means they aren't in Dallas' league at the moment.

Woohoo!! Chicago 29 Indianapolis 13, my pick Chicago +8.0
I was right despite being wrong. I thought Indy would win this one, but it'd be close. Instead Chicago looked great, and Indy looked mediocre. It's Matt Forte's world, we're just living in it. I still say Devin Hester should QB this team, though. He should be more involved in their offense, but for this one week, Kyle Orton didn't look terrible. I think Indy is as mediocre as they looked this week, and will struggle to be barely above .500 for the season.

D'oh!!! Minnesota 19 Green Bay 24, my pick Minnesota Even
Can't win them all (well, you can, but it's rare, and didn't happen this week). Minnesota struggled all game offensively, then woke up in the 4th quarter, but by then it was too late. Both these teams looke pretty good against each other, which could mean that they're both pretty good, or both equally mediocre. How they do against other teams will determine whether or not these are both decent teams, or not.

So, that was the first week of the NFL. Of course, the big story was injuries to Tom Brady and Vince Young. The Brady story is a season ender, while the Vince Young had the added twist of the whole calling the police to check up on their QB angle cause they were worried about his mental state, angle. I don't know what to expect in week two, hopefully some of the games televised hereabouts will be worth watching, week one's games were mostly forgettable (even the close ones). Beats watching baseball, though, even if both Los Angeles area teams appear headed to the playoffs (Angels are the first team to clinch, and the Dodgers seem in control, but they could still blow it, and nobody's dreaming of a freeway series, yet)

Totals so far . . .

Seasonal 8-8
Weekly 4-1