Week 9 Recap

Decent week - 2 games over the top plus another 4-martini winner. Note for you parlay fans that the top 5 picks of the week all came in - now that’s what I’d call cash-tastic.

This week: 8-6 (57%)
Season: 73-52 (58.4%)
5 martini picks: 3-1 (75%)
4 martini picks: 4-2 (67%)
3 martini picks: 7-3 (70%)

The “Merrill Hoge is a Spin Button” pick ‘em play of the week: Chicago = WIN

5 martinis
None

4 martinis
Baltimore over Cleveland (-1.5) - WIN - Brady Quinn is Romeo Crennel’s last chance to stay on as head coach of the Browns. I’m not counting on this being a successful move.

3 martinis
None

2 martinis
Miami over Denver (-3) - WIN - The Broncos defense has caught up with them. SI’s Peter King reports that the media may have anointed Jay Cutler too soon. Where have I heard that before?

Cincinnati (+7.5) over Jacksonville - WIN - People are starting to realize that the Jaguars aren’t a very good team. Of course, we’ve been there for a while now - they have a rep as a power running/good defense team but they don’t have offensive or defensive personnel on the lines to execute.

1 martini
Arizona over St. Louis (+3) - WIN - The Rams got a nice dead cat bounce under Jim Haslett, but they still blow. The Cardinals, on the other hand, are finally living up to their pre-season hype (of the last 5 years.) Kurt Warner is fantasy MVP so far, given that he likely went undrafted in most leagues and is currently one of the top QBs in the fantasy game.

New York Giants (-8.5) over Dallas - WIN - Everyone’s beating down the Cowboys all of a sudden but when Romo gets back the line will start to look a lot better. The secondary will likely have problems for the rest of the season, though - with or without Terence Newman.

Tampa Bay over Kansas City (+8.5) - LOSS - C’mon Chiefs, close the door! Jeff Garcia is getting patted on the back for “leading the comeback” but when you play as poorly as he did against a team as bad as KC, that’s a bad indicator for the future. See Cutler, Jay vs. San Diego. Just because you win a game in dramatic fashion doesn’t mean you’re good. Of course, Brett Favre has made an entire career like this.

Washington (-2) over Pittsburgh - LOSS - Woof. The Redskins looked so good a few weeks ago against Dallas and Philly but the last couple of weeks have seen serious decline. Clinton Portis can’t run it 400 times and Campbell has been looking way to shaky for my tastes. It will be interesting to see if Zorn can get these guys back on track during the bye week.

Rotgut
Oakland (+3) over Atlanta - LOSS - I don’t see room in the NFC playoffs for Atlanta, but Matt Ryan is the most NFL ready QB to arrive in a long time. Oakland sucks but he’s posted decent stats against some contenders as well. But remember this - the NFL will get tape on him - don’t assume this isn’t the best he’s going to be, sometimes that happens.

Philadelphia over Seattle (+6.5) - WIN - McNabb had the ugliest big game of the year, throwing for almost 350 yards after starting the game 3 for his first 13 passes. Also, the Eagles still can’t punch it in although now Akers (4-4 in FG) has settled down. His longest was 42 yards which is pretty good for him. If I’m Matt Hasselbeck, I’m calling Carson Palmer and discussing 2009.

Houston over Minnesota (-4.5) - LOSS - I don’t think there’s much of a difference between Matt Schaub and Sage Rosenfels. We’ll find out over the next 4 weeks.

New York Jets over Buffalo (-5.5) - WIN - Something stinks in here, and I think it’s the Bills’ running game. Marshawn Lynch is getting wasted back there. The AFC East is clenching up pretty quickly, none of these moes are contenders but somebody has to win the division.

Indianapolis (-5.5) over New England - LOSS - The first time in a long time that this game meant little and was legitimately boring. I turned it off to watch taped games from earlier in the day - no reason to waste time with these also-rans.

Detroit over Chicago (-13) - WIN - Detroit is still rolling towards the perfect season although Chicago ended up scaring them quite a bit.

Tennessee (-5.5) over Green Bay - LOSS - The story of the Packers’ season - looks pretty good, but not quite enough to actually win. Aaron Rodgers sure is flush now, though.