2013 Week 14 Review & Week 15 Picks
Week 14 Review (Week 4-1, Season 39-29-2)
Week 14 lines seemed to reflect public perception over actual team production more so than most weeks this season, and as a result, our picks went 4-1. We capitalized on clearly undervalued teams like Cleveland and Minnesota as well as teams that were being overvalued like Carolina which was at New Orleans, and Green Bay, which is a different team without Aaron Rodgers. Moving forward, we will like teams who are still fighting for playoff spots, and we will dislike teams that have either been eliminated or that can't improve their playoff seeding.
Week 15 Picks
San Diego +10.5 @ Denver
(See Thursday's Post)
Seattle -7 @ New York
New York, in our minds, continues to be a lower third team this year despite a somewhat impressive mid-season win streak. While Seattle has historically struggled in East Coast morning games, we believe that they are too good of a football team not to win by a significant margin, especially considering that last week's loss to San Francisco should light a fire under them to clinch the number 1 seed. We like Seattle to keep their foot on the gas from start to finish in a turnover heavy blow out.
Saint Louis +6.5 vs New Orleans
Though we predicted both New Orleans' big road loss in Seattle, and their big home win against Carolina, it would seem that most everyone else did not. New Orleans is a great football team, but they are not a road team. Saint Louis on the other hand, is a great home team that plays a physical brand a football that should pressure Drew Brees all day. Seattle D, Carolina D, and Saint Louis D back to back to back is a difficult task for any offense, and we believe New Orleans will lose a defensive struggle outright.
Cincinnati -2.5 (-125) @ Pittsburgh
Cincinnati has continued to fly under the radar largely due to Andy Dalton's good but unexciting play. Pittsburgh on the other hand, just added to their long list of season disappointments by losing at home to warm weather Miami. Following Denver's Thursday loss and the injury to Gronkowski, we believe that Cincinnati will make a strong push for the number 1 seed in the AFC and play extremely hard in the final weeks.
New York +11 @ Carolina
While Carolina will be looking for vengeance following an in division loss to New Orleans, and Geno Smith is essentially running headfirst into a spinning buzz saw with this matchup, we do not think Carolina can realistically score enough points against a good New York defense to win by double digits. Of course, any opposing point total is possible when Geno Smith is your quarterback, but we like New York to stay somewhat competitive in a low scoring game.