Week 12 Thoughts

It's Thanksgiving which means it's time for real football.

Well that didn’t last very long.

In fact, what I hoped would be a seven week streak of me winning didn’t get past four p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

Worse yet, Brother couldn’t muster up a winning performance of his own (I’m really starting to feel for the kid) and so once again Mother is victorious.

As bad as that was to accept, it pales in comparison to seeing her name pop up on my phone on Monday morning as she explained to me why she picked the Texans and thus claimed victory.

She’s decided you, the people, must be bored with all her winning and therefore she must provide insight. I cannot begin to express how embarrassing that is.

Even more embarrassing, she didn’t even bother to update the standings to I took it upon myself to do it. Where normally we write the victor’s name, I wrote “Dictator”.

Reluctantly, to the games.

Bills 19 Texans 23. Two weeks ago we laughed at Mother when she picked the Jets over the Browns. That blew up in our faces. We didn’t learn our lesson because when she typed “Texans” Brother and I celebrated and I said “1-0 For the downtrodden.” Clearly the Bills and Texans, in particular their defense, conspired with Mother because Houston mauled Buffalo. I know the score line and most of the stats don’t suggest that but two do. The Texans sacked Josh Allen eight times and hit him a further 12 times. They also forced three turnovers from the Bills. Buffalo seems to be taking after Carolina with their strong win followed by a bad loss trend. Good for my Patriots, bad for my picks. After the game Mother returned to my aforementioned text to say “1-0 baby.”

Surely that’s a taunting penalty ref.

I will say now what I said then. “The downtrodden remain down and trodden.”

Colts 20 Chiefs 23. Here is where we lost the weekend. Literally the first two games. Brother and I took Jonathan Taylor, Mother took her Chiefs. After three quarters it was looking good for the downtrodden cause. Then the Colts decided scoring points was something they just were not interested in doing. To be completely fair the fourth quarter and over time stats from this game show a chasm between these two teams. The Chiefs shut Indy down and put together three long drives to take the dub. That being said, I still think it’s absolutely insane to give Taylor the ball on the first play of the 4th quarter and then NEVER AGAIN TILL OVERTIME. The Chiefs are still alive and the Colts I fear are untrustworthy.

Seahawks 30 Titans 24. A closer score than you want between a Super Bowl contender and the only one win team left in the league but Seattle improved to 5-1 on the road. Jaxon Smith-Njigba continues his march to the first 2000 yard season by a wide receiver in NFL history. He finished with eight catches for 167 yards averaging almost 21 yards a catch. Ridiculous.

Vikings 6 Packers 23. Another two interception game from J.J McCarthy. I think the Vikings are curse to have great teams but never the guy at QB. They need to figure out how to get Justin Herbert or Joe Burrow because that team would immediately be a real Super Bowl contender. As it stands, they’re getting comfortable in the basement of the NFC North. Green Bay meanwhile played extremely conservatively but got another division win putting them in a strong position to win the division title.

Jets 10 Ravens 23. My coworker’s non betting on the Jets magic has run out. The Ravens actually trailed at half time (bad) but two Derrick Henry third quarter touchdowns gave them a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Speaking of leads, despite starting 1-5, Baltimore now leads the AFC North. It’s to due a combination of winning five straight games and the team that started 4-1 being the frauds I said they were this whole time.

Giants 27 Lions 34. Once again you’re looking at this score saying this is such an ugly win for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. If you’re the Lions you shouldn’t need Jahmyr Gibs to rush for 219 yards with two touchdowns and have 45 yards receiving and another TD. Keep in mind Amon-Ra St.Brown gave them 149 receiving yards and a touchdown as well. All this just to beat the Giants in overtime? But then I remind you, this is just what this Giants team does. They fight. Look at their results this year. They beat the Chargers, stomped the Eagles and were embarrassing the Broncos before fourth quarter Bo Nix arrived. They would’ve beat the Bears if Jaxson Dart didn’t get hurt, then, led by Jameis Winston, they threatened the Packers and the Lions. Both NFC North teams got the full Winston experience. I cannot tell you how terrified I am of the Patriots playing the Giants on Monday night.

Steelers 28 Bears 31. Another battle of two teams I refuse to believe in. I was explaining to Mother I’ve thought the Steelers were frauds all year when she pointed out I took them to beat Chicago. Like that was some kind of gotcha. Yes, of course I did. I do not believe in the Bears. Now to be fair to them, I won’t accept the "‘Steelers didn’t have Aaron Rodgers’ narrative because I think the Steelers offense would’ve looked exactly the same with him. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise. And while it was a good performance from the Bears, I’m also not having ‘they beat a good team’ because the Steelers are frauds. They dropped from division lead to out the playoffs.

Patriots 26 Bengals 20. I was so relieved when the clock hit zero. Number one seed, first team to ten wins, still undefeated on the road, yeah yeah all that good stuff. Far more importantly no more of our players could get injured. Good grief. The entire left side of the Pats O-Line is now out for at least the Giants game and probably one if not both of the games against Buffalo and Baltimore. Not great. Also, this felt like the occasional mid-2010’s game, where the Patriots played a terrible team who, for whatever reason, would play out of their minds that day. It would be really nice if they could run the ball even a little bit, and maybe next game score a touchdown on one of the eight chances you get inside the five. But hey Bills loss plus Pats win equals one step closer to the division. The good news in Cincy, Joe Burrow is back. Thank goodness neither he nor Ja’Marr Chase played on Sunday.

Browns 24 Raiders 10. Shedeur Sanders did quite a lot of talking for someone who beat the Raiders. And I know what you’ll say. Didn’t the Patriots lose to the Raiders? Yes, yes they did. They’ve also won ten games since then while the Raiders have yet to win another. Also all due respect to Sanders, but I have no doubt it was easier to win that game because Miles Garrett plays for his team. He had another three sacks, taking him to 18 on the year, and the Browns had 10 in total.

Jaguars 27 Cardinals 24. I’m actually very impressed the Jags won this game because it would've been the quintessential Jags thing to do to lose it. And that was before Trevor Lawrence threw three interceptions and fumbled the ball for the Cardinals first score of the game. To Lawrence’s credit, he did throw for all three of Jacksonville’s touchdowns. They may have needed overtime but the Jags are 7-4 and solidly in a playoff spot at the time of writing. Meanwhile it must be brutal to be an Arizona fan when the other three teams in your division have as many wins as you have losses.

Eagles 21 Cowboys 24. Stunned. Flabbergasted. Speechless. That’s how I felt watching the Cowboys drive down the field at the end of the game with a chance to win it. The Eagles led this game 21-0 with 22 seconds left in the first half and my brother and I were viciously mocking everyone who’d been foolish enough to even consider the Cowboys could win. Philadelphia never scored another point. Dak Prescott threw two touchdowns and ran another in while George Pickens scored a touchdown of his own to go with his 146 receiving yards. I have no clue how to feel about the Eagles now. On the one hand they’ve had quite a few games like this one this season. Take a big lead then let the other team back in. On the other hand, Denver game aside, they’d won all of them. They’re such a strange team. I still don’t believe in the Cowboys.

Falcons 24 Saints 10. I thought this was a no brainer and thus was very surprised to see both my opponents pick the Saints. I know the Falcons have made it their business to lose games they could or even should win but the Saints are really bad. And so it proved.

Buccaneers 7 Rams 34. Three weeks ago the Bucs were 6-2 and very serious. This was a crash down to earth game for them. Three more TDs sans an interception for Matt Stafford, including two from the one-yard line to Davante Adams, as the Rams put on a clinical display. They saw the Seahawks tactic of scoring 30 before halftime, thought “hey what if we did that”, and promptly bashed the Bucs brains in. Right now I struggle to see this team not representing the NFC in the Super Bowl. Particularly if they get the number one seed they’re so tightly holding on to at the moment.

Panthers 9 49ers 20. Right on schedule the Panthers lose a game badly. The last five weeks they’ve been blown out by Buffalo, beat Green Bay, lost by 10 to the Saints, pulled off a great comeback against the Falcons, then lost to the Niners in a game Brock Purdy threw three first half interceptions. And they never looked like they would beat San Fran. That being said 6-6 and fighting for a wildcard is not where I thought these Panthers would be so full credit to them. Meanwhile I’m so impressed by the Niners. They’ve been sooooooooo banged up this year, yet here they are at 8-4 in a wildcard spot. More impressively they’re 4-1 in their division with wins over the one seed Rams and the eight win Seahawks. This team’s pretty good.

I’ve saved the final word for a remarkable display.

In the years we’ve been picking games I don’t think any of us have picked a perfect weekend. I know my brother once came very close and I think Mother did too but somewhere, at least one game has always gone awry.

This weekend my lifelong friend, who, full disclosure, was also the reason for my first “back by popular demand” in ‘Week 6 Thoughts’, nailed every single one of his picks.

Chiefs, Seahawks, Packers, Ravens, Lions, Bears, Patriots, Browns, Jaguars, Cowboys, Falcons, Rams and 49ers.

I don’t know if he did or what he would’ve picked for the Thursday night game. I also don’t care. That was remarkable to see and I can only congratulate him.

And to all those celebrating today, Happy Thanksgiving.