NFL -- Week 9, Counting The Bodies

[ed. revisited win conditions -- see Leaderboard post]

Wow. I stunk the place up this week. Two certifiable whiffs plus one merely bad pick, and then one squeaker -- but they all count as losses for me. I only had one solid, clear, I-told-you-so win. That's not going to get it done, ladies.

Check out the aftermath:

1. Miami at Kansas. Harumpf. Rather than building on their 4-streak, the Chiefs looked like they were trying to find a way to be viewed as an underdog again. My lesson: emotional teams can't stay high forever. I guess the question is -- are they streaky emotional? I bet they are and I bet they lose again next week before rattling off another couple wins.. We will see. At any rate, I got schooled on this one. Vegas did too, by the way. Vegas was 32 points off the line. Unfortunately I went 6 points the wrong way and only added to their stupidity -- for a whopping 38 points off the line. But on this one VEGAS WINS.


2. Seattle at Dallas. Vegas gave Seattle 12.5 points to play with, and even though Seattle would have won you money in Vegas, my 5.5 points weren't really enough. My takeaway this week here -- yeah yeah, some home teams are worth a lot more at home. I should check out home numbers before I flip out my lines.. Since the Vegas line is closer to -10 then VEGAS WINS.


3. San Francisco at Washington. Here's another one of these emotional and "hot" teams playing a massively underperforming team (i.e. Miami vs. KC). In this case the under-performing team is "tinkering" with a lineup.. Heck, I'm still searching for the answer on that KC game. This one went exactly as I expected, the score was on the non-Vegas side of my +7 line so SHELBY WINS.

4. Green Bay at San Diego. Vegas called a close one, but they were thinking field goals and didn't have the two best QBs this weekend properly dialed into their math. San Diego put up a very valiant fight, for sure. And maybe the Norvettes are on their way back. I don't think so. I can even see a scenario where the Bolts don't make it to the playoffs. Of course Norv keeps his job.. Boo. Green Bay on the other hand is still undefeated and they get Minnesota again next week. So while my +8 was almost the right number for the +7 final score, I'm going to claim a proximity victory here SHELBY WINS.

5. Chicago at Philadelphia. They featured Vick and Urlacher in all the head-to-head pre-game hype, but it should have been just Cutler they talked about. Geez, that guy shredded. He was sharp and resourceful -- he scrambled better than Vick! Sadly I mis-read the line here and I put up a silly line. I thought Vegas was giving Chicago 5.5 points since Philly was clearly the home favourite. Not. That was 5.5 for the Eagles! Vegas saw this one coming! Wow. My line should have said CHI@PHI-10 so I whiffed hard for 10 points in the wrong direction, my second terrible linke out of five. Not good. Better improve Goerlitz! VEGAS WINS.

Next week's lines coming later Tuesday -- looks like Vegas already has opinions.. Damn, I hate doing this with just my gut. Let's see if I can do a little data work this week, eh?