Lastly, Da Bears. Bucking the trend here, the Bears with nothing to play for are giving the Pack three. Makes no sense to me, in light of the spreads in the other shame games. As with Carolina, if the Giants win the Pack may be drawing dead (depending on how that strength of schedule thing works out). But you know what, even if they are, there is the potential for this to be a last chance to rally round His Royal Favreness. I'm going to take the points on the belief that the Bears will sleep and the Pack will be motivated for some reason. Pick: Packers +3
That takes care of the potential Games of Shame.
The Chiefs are giving 2.5 to the Jags in KC. Both these teams are alive provided they win and three other teams lose. If the good Jags show up, they should handle the Chiefs easily. Let's assume that if there was ever a reason for them to show up it's now. Pick: Jaguars +2.5
The Giants are giving 2.5 to the Skins in DC. You know, even though they will be without Michael Strahan and (possibly) Jeremy Shockey, I really can't see them losing this game. Maybe they can just ignore Coughlin and come up with their own game plan. Maybe Tiki won't be ready to let this to be his last game. It would make Sunday a lot more interesting if they lost, but I gotta figure they beat the sorry Redskins by at least a field goal. Pick: Giants -2.5
St. Louis has exactly a snowball's chance in hell of making the post season. They need everybody and their Auntie Emma to lose including, the Giants, which means there is the potential for them to be drawing dead. They are giving the eliminated Vikes 2.5 in Minnesota and the Vikes are the better team. Pick: Vikings +2.5
Lastly, because if I make and win eight spread picks I can redeem my season, I'm going to make a pick in the only game where both teams have been eliminated. Houston is giving 4 to the Browns down in Texas. The Texans are probably feeling a little more positive considering they just beat the Colts, whereas the Browns just dropped a groaner to the Bucs. Plus, I think the Browns are a bit more banged up. Pick: Texans -4
Article comments
1 - RJ Elliott
Why didn't you pick Dallas over Detroit on the Money Line? Dallas needs to win, and Detroit wants to lose.
Hell, even I picked the Lions to lose!
2 - RJ Elliott
Er, please delete comment #1... :-/
3 - david mazzotta
Oh, RJ, so sad. Now we don't get to see how Millen screws up the first pick.
Fittingly for this season I finished with a grinding loss of 3-5 against the spread.
Also fittingly, though the money line was only 4-6, the big payoffs mean I came out up. Woot!
4 - Matthew T. Sussman
Exactly how much is the editor's cut?
5 - RJ Elliott
Yes, but looking on the bright side, we get to see how will Millen screw up the 2nd pick!