Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Oh, yeah. There's a football game tomorrow...

My God, I have been HORRIBLE about football postings this year. I'm ashamed and apologetic, especially to those of you who made a mint last year, betting the exact opposite of my picks. Remember me in your will...

Well, it's never too late, especially when you write a blog no one reads. So, let's talk Cowboys-Jets for a moment, shall we?

The Cowboys are favored by a stunning 14 points over the lowly Jets. As I've mentioned before, point spreads over 10 in the NFL give me a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. I wouldn't touch this game as a gambler with Medieval jousting lance. However, with that said, the Cowboys should, SHOULD, kill 'em.

Some reasons the Cowboys might not kill 'em:
  • With all apologies to Wade Phillips' 3-4 genius, this defense is not that good. The Redskins, with a friggin SEC QB not named Manning, exposed this thing for what it is. And what it is is a suspect group that struggles to mount a consistent pass rush and has big holes when the safeties are asked to cover.
  • Special teams are, in a word, scary. These guys give up some big returns almost every game, and the Jets, for all their patheticness, can return kicks. I can easily see 14 points coming off special teams mistakes.
  • Running game. What running game? JJones and MBIII looked to have a little something last year, when they each had a specific role. The suspect JJT, writing in the DMN this morning, made a good point when he put forth the hypothesis that these guys are being mis-used when they alternate series, which has been the case more often than not this year. Romo the Jedi Knight and the suddenly-prolific TO Owens have been producing enough, more than enough, to cover for the near-absence of a coherent running game, but you'd think this weakness would jump up and bite Dallas eventually.

Even with all that, I'm still thinking Cowboys, and perhaps a laugher.

And, for a BIG change, the early game is not a time-waste. Detroit is not as silly as usual, and I still am not sold on Green Bay. I think this is a decent game. I'm going to go against my heart and pull for the Packers, but mostly because I want to see them come into the Partially Domed Rathole on 114 next week with the big record, setting up a major stop-down for everyone in the DFW Metroplex of Love.

And the late game? Well, Time Warner and the NFL Network are still miles apart, so I'll have to settle for highlights on ESPN. I hate that these organizations can't get their you-know-what together, and I'm getting the short end of the stick shoved up my wazoo as a result. But that's another post for another day.

Go (insert your team here)!

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