Amateur Hour for Thanksgiving Week

The New York Jets.  Where to begin? The bumble? The turnovers? How about they gave up 35 points in the 2nd quarter and the Pats ran 6 offensive plays and had the ball for 2:14 in the quarter.

Philadelphia Eagles.  3 consecutive offsides then they give up a TD to the panthers.  On the kickoff that ensued,  they coughed the ball up for the 3rd time.

Graham Gano. Missed an extra point. Should be a "gimme" for just about any kicker at any level.

Jim Schwartz. Cost his team the game by throwing the challenge flag, thus negating the review that would have brought back a Texans TD.

Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner. Caught taking Adderal and now face 4 game suspensions. The number 1 and number 2 corners for a Seattle Seahawks team that needs all the help they can get to try and secure a Wildcard playoff spot.

Ryan Kalil. Not just this week, but in general. I wonder how quickly he realized his mistake in taking out that ad I the Charlotte newspaper telling Panthers' fans that they would win the super bowl. I assume he would quote the great Ron Burgundy, and immediately regret that decision.

Streak for Cash: November 8th

Upset central last night... If you were like me and panicked, say good-bye to the WStreak. After flip-flopping and multiple second guessing, I decided to pick the Houston Dynamo over Sporting KC. Bad decision: Houston had a 2-0 aggregate lead in the series, which meant all they had to do was sit back and absorb every attack KC sent their way. So it makes sense that KC would at least put one goal in, right? Exactly. That's what they did. And I knew they would. But it changed my pick last minute. Dumb. This is why Streak for Cash is so tricky. The second guessing and the fact that you may never be 100% sure of anything.

So if you were like me and took the Dynamo, or you were any of the 93,772 Streakers that lost in the Bowling Green-Ohio game, its time to start over. Luckily, I managed to lock in the LA Galaxy quickly after Sporting KC won to redeem myself.

Jim: 

Liverpool: Win or Draw @ Anzhi Makhachkala Win.

Soccer is my weakest category this month, a mere 1-2. BUT I have faith in this pick. Why? Liverpool is sitting most of their starters. Their Reserves will get the start. They have a big game against Chelsea this Sunday, so they will look forward to that match-up. Anzhi is unbeatable at home this season and they will be playing their full squad. Look for Eto'o to run all over Liverpool. I'll be surprised if he doesn't put one in the back of the net.

Liverpool: Win or Draw @ Anzhi Makhachkala Win.

James:

Inter Milan: Win @ Partizan Belgrade: Win or Draw

Inter Milan looks like a good choice to beat Partizan Belgrade. Inter has been on fire as of late and are coming of an away win at Juventus. BUT be careful: 2 of Inter Milan's starting defenders will be out due to injury. If the reserves can hold their own, Inter will take this match.
    
Inter Milan: Win @ Partizan Belgrade: Win or Draw

Matt: No Pick

"Its all crap-shoot tennis matches, 50-50 NBA games, and weird Florida State/Virginia Tech props. Wouldn't touch any of them with a 10-foot pole."  


Bonus Match-up of the night:

Indianapolis Colts @ Jacksonville Jaguars 

The Colts are 5-3 coming off a win at home vs Miami. The Jaguars are 1-7 coming off a bad loss to the Lions at home.
Jacksonville's only win was against the Colts in Indianapolis in Week 3. Yes, the Jaguars won 22-17, but it was early in the season. We've seen Andrew Luck start to come into his own and it looks like the offense is beginning to click after winning 3 straight. (VS Cleveland, @ Tennessee, VS Miami.) Yes, neither of the three teams own a winning record, and yes all of the Colt's wins have been by less than double digits. Look for the Colts defense to keep the Jaguars offense quiet and hopefully give Andrew Luck enough time on the field to get some points.

Jim: Colts
James: Colts
Matt: Colts "0% Chance the Jags win... And I Just jinxed the shit out of the Colts."

Streak for the Cash Election Day

Tonight's big streak matchup is who will win the election. It should be a close one today. The polls are close. Obama is leading in the early streak percentages, but signs may point to Mitt Romney. According to the Redskins rule, the election will mirror the last Redskins home game before the election. If the Skins win, the incumbent party is reelected, if they lose, the Presidential challenger wins. The Skins lost at home on Sunday.

Another fun fact is that since election day became every first Tuesday in November,  every November 6th election has gone to the Republican party. 

My advice is to get out and vote, and leave this matchup alone. It's simply too close to call and the delays caused by hurricane Sandy as well as the possibility of a recount could result in this matchup not going final for a few weeks.

Streak for the Cash November 5

Jim likes the Knicks to beat the Sixers tonight. I'm taking the Golden State Warriors over the Sacramento Kings. We're both staying away from the Eagles vs Saints game. Its too close to call and both teams should come out desperate and swinging. Jim is going for a W6 and I'm trying for a W3

Amateur Hour of the Week

Amateur Hour of the Week

Christian Ponder- 11 of 22 for 63 yards and a pick. Is a Tim Tebow thought considered a Christian Ponder?

Eli Manning- 10 of 24 for 125 yards and a pick (It should've been two but the Steelers defender that he hit right between the numbers dropped it) . Twice as many yards as Ponder, but his stat line looks like it should belong to a quarterback from that other New York/ New Jersey football team.

Tennessee Titans- The Titans gave up 51 points, including a score on a blocked punt, a pick six, a rushing TD and  3 TDs to Brandon Marshall. They turned the ball over 5 times. They lost by 31, and it wasn't that close.

Josh Saunders- Most of you are probably saying, "Who the hell is this guy?" He's the Goalkeeper for the LA Galaxy, who let a goal get by him in stoppage time of last night's LA Galaxy vs. San Jose Earthquakes game. I'm not saying that I can play goalie in the MLS, but I'm pretty sure I can stop this.

Green Bay Packers fans- In case you missed it in the NFL Recap, Pack fans did this for Military Appreciation, and that's awesome, but some fans also made these helmets, so overall Packers fans did great, but these guys were amateur hour.

NFL Recap Week 9

NFL Sunday Recap

Military Appreciation in the NFL, and Green Bay did it the best. Simply awesome. Thank you to anyone and everyone who has or is currently fighting and sacrificing for the freedoms that we enjoy here in our great country.

Packers 31 Cardinals 14 Aaron Rodgers throws for 4 TDs but loses Jordy Nelson to an ankle injury and Clay Matthews to a hamstring injury. Larry Fitzgerald and LaRod Stephens-Howling scored touchdowns for the Cardinals. The Packers will look to heal up this week, as they have a bye.

Broncos 31 Bengals 23 Peyton Manning throws 3 TD passes (2 to Eric Decker). Broncos also get a Kick return TD to open up the second half. The Red Rifle had a pretty good game with a nice TD toss to AJ Green, but it wasn't enough to win the game.

Ravens 25 Browns 15 A tough game between divisional foes. The bright spots for the Browns were rookie running back Trent Richardson who had over 100 yards on the ground and kicker Phil Dawson who had 5 field goals, accounting for all of the Browns' points. Torrey Smith had a receiving TD and Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce added rushing TDs for the Ravens.

Texans 21 Bills 9 As Jim predicted earlier, the Texans win by double digits. I think they had a tighter game than Jim had expected, but their defense just smothered the Bills offense. Arian Foster had 111 yards and a score, and Andre Johnson had 118 yards receiving. Nothing really of note to talk about on the Bills' side.

Colts 23 Dolphins 20 Andrew Luck threw for a rookie record 433 passing yards and 2 TDs to lead the Colts to a 3 point win over Miami. The Colts improve to 5-3, validating the success of their 2011 "Suck for Luck" campaign. Miami falls to 4-4 with the loss, making them still better than the Jets. This was a good game between two teams who have surpassed expectations this year.

Lions 31 Jaguars 14 Mikel Leshoure rushes for 3 TDs to lead the Lions to victory in a game that they controlled throughout. The Jaguars are a bad team and they are even worse without Mo-Jo. Megatron had 129 receiving yards for Detroit.

Bears 51 Titans 20 Just as I called it this morning, The Bears dismantled the Titans, scoring on a Brian Urlacher pick 6, and a blocked punt. The Bears offense had it going too. Matt Forte had 100 yards and a score on the ground and Jay Cutler hooked up with Brandon Marshall for 3 TDs. CJ2K had 141 yards and a TD, but that TD came on an 80 yard rush in the 4th quarter with the game well out of reach.

Panthers 21 Redskins 13 Cam Newton led the Panthers to a win in Washington this afternoon. He rushed for a TD and threw one to Steve Smith. The Redskins have now lost three straight, but they wore probably the best throwback unis of all time today. The helmets were painted to look like the leather helmets they would have worn with this uni in 1937.

Seahawks 30 Vikings 20 Russell Wilson threw for 3 scores (1 to Sidney Rice and 2 to Golden Tate) and Marshawn "Skittles" Lynch ran for over 120 yards and a touchdown. "All Day" Adrian Peterson pounded the rock for 182 yards and 2 TDs. Christian Ponder had a Tebow-esque 11 completions on 22 attempts for 63 yards and an interception.

Steelers 24 Giants 20 I blew this game earlier and lost my W6 in Streak for the Cash. The Steelers came out ready to play, and Mike Wallace had a 51 yard TD reception. Isaac Redman filled in for the injured Rashard Mendenhall and Jonathan Dwyer. Eli Manning played like a New York quarterback today with 125 yards and a pick.

Buccaneers 42 Raiders 32 The Buccaneers survived a comeback attempt by the Raiders today. Doug Martin ran for 251 yards and 4 scores to lead the Bucs to victory. Carson Palmer threw for over 400 yards and 4 TDs, but his 3 picks may have been why his team fell short.

Falcons 19 Cowboys 13 Matty Ice and Michael Turner "The Burner" led the Falcons to a 6 point win over the Cowboys. Matty Ice had a shade under 350 passing yards, including over 100 yards to Julio Jones and Rowdy Roddy White. A last minute Cowboys drive came up short. Atlanta improves to 8-0 while Dallas drops to 3-5.

Streak for the Cash November 4

James:
 I'm really liking two NFL matchups today and one MLS matchup tonight.

Chicago Bears @ Tennessee Titans Who will win this matchup?
I like da Bears here. They have a better offense, a better defense and better special teams. If the Bears can slow down CJ2K, the Titans will have a lot of trouble moving the football.

Hopefully this game doesn't go late and you are able to pick this next matchup


New York Giants vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Who will win this matchup?

I'm going with the Giants here. They're off to a fast start and this game is in New York (Jersey). Pittsburgh is flying in from Pittsburgh today instead of a few days a head of time, so their usual schedule has been changed up. Pittsburgh has had injury trouble as of late in the backfield as well. One more thing that I think will push the Giants to win was the hurricane this past week. I think New York will pull together for the Giants (Not that 3 ring circus they share a stadium with) and the Giants will come out strong and get a win much like the Knicks did the other night at Madison Square Garden against the Miami LeBron and Wade.

Another matchup that I could see going pretty well is the MLS playoff game between San Jose and Los Angeles. San Jose Win or Draw vs Los Angeles Win. I'd take San Jose here. They have beat LA two out of three games this season and the third meeting was a draw. This is the first leg of the playoff series. San Jose finished first in the MLS West, while Los Angeles finished fourth. I like San Jose to win tonight, but I think the least they will do is draw, making this a pretty safe matchup to pick.


Jim:
For me, I can't think of a more obvious pick than the Bills: Win or Single Digit loss @ Texans Double Digit Win.

This is a no-brainer...   The Texans are 6th in the NFL overall in rushing yards, while the Bills are LAST in opp rushing yards. Yes, the Bills are coming off a BYE, and will be prepared to face a very strong offense BUT the Texans are ALSO coming off a BYE. Which means they'll be ready to run train on the Bills. Not to mention, when San Francisco beat the Bills, they put up 311 total rushing yards and averaged 8.2 yards per carry. Unreal. Talk about pushing the chains on almost every carry.

Bills: Win or Single Digit Loss @ Texans Double Digit Win
For a W5... Let's do this.

Matt:
Alright the streaks at four. We've officially hit "scared by every game because I don't want to lose my meager streak" mode. This always ends in failure. Once it's in your head an you're not just picking games based on matchups, you've put the bad karma in the world and you're screwed. And it is rattling my cage right now baby.

That being said, I'm taking the surest thing on the board (until it isn't because I picked it), Baltimore over Cleveland. I know the Ravens' D is banged up, and Flacco hasn't looked exactly "elite" lately (his words, not mine). But this Browns team is still atrocious. Is there hope for the future? Yes. Richardson is definitely the real deal and Brandon Weeden actually looks competent as a QB. But they're still a ways away, and I will NEVER bet against Ray Rice going up against the Browns D. Especially when he's on my fantasy team.

The Pick: Ravens over Browns