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NFL 2014: Week #6-The Furnace’s Five Best Bets

Posted by fantasyfurnace on October 10, 2014
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . 5 Comments

Another 3-2 week… That’s four on the season! At least we’re consistent unlike Thursday Night Football which finally broke the mold by giving us what turned out to be a pretty competitive game. Down by 24 points, Andrew Luck and supper stus T.Y. Hilton came roaring back to beat the Texans by six. Let’s hope this weekend’s games are just as exciting.

*Home team in CAPS

Steelers +1 1/2 over BROWNS- If making the Steelers the underdog against a pedestrian team like the Browns doesn’t rile the Black and Gold, then nothing will! The stat that we think is even more impressive is that Ben Roethlisberger is 18-1 against the Browns.

VIKINGS +1 1/2 over Lions- These Lions are a different team without the services of WR Calvin Johnson, who, as we went to post, was questionable with a bum ankle. Teddy Bridgewater is expected to start replacing Christian Ponder.

Chargers -7 over RAIDERS- Many are considering this year to be Philip Rivers’ best season of his career and so it makes it even more difficult to pick against the former first-rounder. His Chargers should be 5-0 save for an opening week 18-17 loss. RB Branden Oliver fills in nicely for the perrenial injury plagued Ryan Matthews.

FALCONS -3 over Bears- Do the Falcons play really badly on the road?? (Is J.J. Watt a defensive beast)? It is a different story AT the Georgia Dome, however. Matt Ryan is an unbelievable 38-10 at home and will be looking to avenge his team’s 30-20 loss to the Giants in Week 5.

CARDINALS -3 1/2 over Redskins- Arizona, with one of the best defensive lines in the NFl, will face a Redskins team decimated with injuries and full of  inexperienced replacements. Expect QB Kirk Cousins to spend a good deal of the day either on the turf or scrambling himself into throwing  pick or two.

 

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NFL 2013: Week #6-The Furnace’s Five Best Bets

Posted by fantasyfurnace on October 11, 2013
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 5 Comments

We had a monstrous week going 4-1 faltering  only to the imploding Atlanta Falcons on the last play of the game. The four wins now bring our season record to a respectable 15-10 entering week #6. We’ll need our two underdog selections (Browns & Saints) to come through in order to repeat week 5’s success. Here are this week’s Best Bets…

Home team in CAPS

BROWNS over the Lions- To say that the Browns have been on a proverbial roll would be an understatemnt as they have won their last three games. In other words they are undefeated since Trent Richardson was traded following the Browns 14-6 loss to the Ravens back in week #2. Cleveland is coming into this week’s contest with a full 10 days rest vs a Lions team that will not only have Calvin Johnson be a game-time decision but also one that gives up just under 400 yards of offense a game.  That’s a lot of real estate! Sticking with the Brownies…

JETS over the Steelers- The winless Steelers come into Met Life Stadium on Sunday to face the AFC offensive player of the week in Geno Smith as well as the team with the league’s second best defense. No easy task for Pittsburgh with their decimated offensive line that has allowed Big Ben Roethlisberger to be sacked 15 times in four games. Pulling out that last second 30-28 win over the Falcons last week, these 3-2 Jets look like they’re for real.

#7 Rookie Geno Smith unleashes one of his 3 touchdown passes (no INTs) vs the Falcons last week. Photo:Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

#7 Rookie Geno Smith unleashes one of his 3 touchdown passes (no INTs) vs the Falcons last week. Photo:Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

TEXANS over the Rams- After two wins over the Chargers and the Titans in weeks one and two, the Texans, and in particular QB Matt Schaub, has regressed as they lost their next three, while getting pummled by the 49ers last week 34-3.  If Schaub can stop throwing his now famous Pick Sixes, and the Texans defense can step it up for this Sunday’s home game, they should be able to beat a Rams team that is not very good.

49ERS over the Cardinals- The Niners have come-on over their last two games, scoring a combined 69 points while only giving up 14. QB Colin Kaepernick has settled down following two shaky starts against the Seahawks and the Colts, both losses. We’re expecting a huge game from veteran TE Vernon Davis, RB Frank Gore, and the Niners D who will contain Carson Palmer and make him struggle to remain upright. ‘Blowout alert’ in this one…

Saints over the PATRIOTS- Never like to pick against the Pats, (we did it earlier this season and took the loss…) but the Saints are too good a team to just lay down and be manhandled up in Foxboro. As this post is going to publishing, TE Rob Gronkowski still had not been cleared for Sunday’s game and even if he plays it might be in a limited role. Meantime the Saints have beaten their last three opponents by a total of 53 points (24-21-and 8) and have a more cohesive unit than the Patriots especially on defense. When New England played against two good defensive teams this season in the Jets and Bengals, they were only able to put up 13 and 6 points respectively; not your typical Patriots offensive output. The Saints in a close one..

Saints Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan has brought a passion to the league's 6th ranked defense. Chuck Cook/USA TODAY Sports

Saints Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan has brought a new passion to the league’s 6th ranked defense. Photo: Chuck Cook/USA TODAY Sports

OUR PICKS- The Day After…

Posted by fantasyfurnace on October 17, 2011
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

THE GOOD-

RAVENS over TEXANS- We said in our week 6 ‘Best Bet’ picks that the Ravens are arguably the best team in the AFC. We have no reason not to feel the same way today, by virtue of their dominance over the teams they have  beaten, and now outscored 135-45. Pretty impressive. Yesterday they took care of business in what we said would be a lopsided affair, 29-14. Houston’s last score was midway through the 3rd quarter, although they were playing without stand-out WR Andre Johnson. The Ravens defense sacked Schaub four times and forced two fumbles. Now at 4-1, they’ll face Jacksonville, Arizona, and Seattle in 3 of their next  4 games, as well as the Steelers who they already beat 35-7.

Ray Lewis celebrates victory over the Houston Texans and shows why Ravens are #1 Photo: Getty images

THE BAD-

49ers over LIONS- We picked the Lions who had the lead by one with 1:51 to go in the fourth quarter. And then Alex Smith burst our bubble with a 6 yard pass to Delaine Walker who now has more TD’s so far this year than in his previous five. Megatron went over the century mark with 113 yards receiving but alas, there were to be no touchdowns on this day. The 49ers continue to play an awesome defense, not only stopping Calvin Johnson’s string of TD’s and completely shutting down the Lion’s running game; Jahvid Best was held to just 37 yards on 13 carries, but their ‘D’ line chipped in with 5 sacks on the day. Stafford still managed to get just shy of 300 yards passing on 50 attempts. This was a tough loss for us an even tougher for Detroit losing their first game of the year.

Delanie Walker's touchdown late in the 4th qtr. vs the Lions. Photo: Dave Reginek/Getty images

THE UGLY-

BEARS over VIKINGS- This was just U-G-L-Y! The Bears destroyed the Vikes 39-10 in last night’s game, highlighted by Jay Cutler’s two TD passes and no INT’s which gave him a quarterback rating of 115.9 for the game! He had thrown four picks in his previous five but decided it would be better to throw the ball to the guys wearing the same uniform as him…The Bears also stifled the Viking’s running game, limiting Adrian Peterson to just 39 yards on 12 carries, although he did manage the only touchdown Minny would see all day. Jared Allen, who we mentioned in our pick, had the lone sack of Cutler and that was key. Props to Devin Hester and his 48 yard touchdown reception as well as his 98 yard kick-off return for a score.  Give Da Bears credit; they brought their ‘A’ game because they didn’t want to hear it from the fans or the media …for at least another week.

Bear's coach Lovie Smith had 39 reasons to smile during last night's game Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

* Last week 2-3

** Season  16-9