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NFL 2013: Week #7-The Furnace’s Five Best Bets

Posted by fantasyfurnace on October 18, 2013
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

We are almost at the halfway point in the season and the elite teams are beginning to separate themselves from the pack. Injuries have taken several teams out of contention for the moment, most notably the Atlanta Falcons who are without Julio Jones, Roddy White and Steven Jackson. Ouch!! We took it on the chin last week (1-4),  bringing our season record to 16-14. We look to get off the carpet this week with the following Best Bets…

*Home team in CAPS 

EAGLES over the Cowboys- Unfortunately, the Cowboys have two key players listed as doubtful going into their game in Philadelphia on Sunday. For Defensive end DeMarcus Ware (strained quad), it will be the first game that he has missed in his career. RB DeMarco Murray (sprained MCL) has insisted that he’ll play this weekend while the Cowboys have said they will be cautious with him. In either case, their defensive line is in shambles and they’ll face the high-octane offense of the Eagles with Nick Foles under center instead of Michael Vick.

#9 Nick Foles, one of our Waiver Wire Pickups this week, will not have #94 DeMarcus Ware (left) breathing down his neck this Sunday. Yong Kim/Staff Photographer):

#9 Nick Foles, one of our Waiver Wire Pickups this week, will not have #94 DeMarcus Ware (left) breathing down his neck this Sunday. Photo: Yong Kim/Staff photographer

49ers over the TITANS- Even though the Titans are 3-3, they have beaten a 1-4 Steelers team, an inconsistent Jets team, and a pretty decent Chargers team. They will step up in class this week and take on the 49ers who have beaten their last three opponents by 24, 31 and 12 points respectively. We don’t think that Tennessee has the defense to stop the Niners although they might slow them down, but not enough to garner the victory.

CHIEFS over the Texans- Houston has been in a free-fall having lost their last four consecutive games. Beleaguered quarterback Matt Schaub (ankle/foot), will yield the start this Sunday to little known and undrafted backup QB Case Keenum. Starting your first career NFL game AT Arrowhead Stadium is no easy task especially when your team is minus -12 in turnovers. The Texans are in disarray and would be hard pressed to beat any team at the moment, let alone the Chiefs.

Ravens over the STEELERS-  This is an ongoing heated rivalry and every game is a war when these two teams face one another, but we’re going to go with the underdog in this one. The reason? There’s three… For one thing the Ravens have won their last three regular season games at Heinz Field. For another the Steelers win last week against rookie quarterback Geno Smith and the Jets is not that impressive. Lastly, Ben Roethlisberger has been sacked 18 times this season and you can expect the Ravens to add to that total.

The two rivals face off in another heated contest on Sunday at Heinz Field.

The two rivals face off in another heated contest on Sunday at Heinz Field. Photo; Getty Images

GIANTS over the Vikings- We haven’t been able to win once with the G-Men this season (0-2) but we think that given the improvement in their 27-21 loss to the Bears last week, we’ll give them the distinct edge. Now if only Eli Manning can have just one game where he only throws to the players wearing his team’s blue uniform, then the Giants will have a shot at winning their first game of the season. Center David Baas is set to return in the Monday Nighter and now that N.Y. has had some semblance of a running game with Brandon Jacobs going off for 100+ yards and 2 scores last week, the addition of Peyton Hillis could put less pressure on Eli Manning and his errant passes of late. Giants win their first game in front of their home crowd on Monday!

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NFL Playoff Predictions…

Posted by fantasyfurnace on January 12, 2013
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 3 Comments

Although we don’t like making excuses, we have to say that since last week was an an anomaly, we received no help from the Bengals. Houston’s secondary is not the sharpest in the league so Andy Dalton, who couldn’t make a pass to Katherine Webb, Brooklyn Decker, or any of the Sports Illustrated Swim Models last week,  just made this boring game even more of a yawner. The Bengals should have, and could have won this one… 

And the Redskins, who never had a fully healthy RGIII on the gridiron last week, didn’t stand a chance against the Seahawks. Reports prior to the game said he was fine. His knee was never 100% and he played way too long; the blame for which gets placed directly on the doctors for passing that information along to Mike Shanahan.

The Ravens, well, let’s just say they had an emotional high going on with Ray Lewis’s impending last home game of his career rather than the Colts, who seemed drained from the emotions they left on the field in the game before when head coach Chuck Pagano made his return from treatment from Leukemia. The Colts, well, if you pardon the pun, just ran out of Luck..

Enough sour grapes. We look to make amends this week and better our post-season record with these picks…

*Home team in CAPS

BRONCOS over Ravens- We have heard all of the rhetoric all week long of how Peyton Manning doesn’t like the cold weather. Yeah, yeah, yeah..I’m sure he decided to make his return to the NFL after a year recovering from four neck surgeries just to cave when the temp dips below 30. Right! This is a Broncos team that hasn’t lost a game since October 6th in Foxborough. Joe Flacco won’t have the emotional crowd behind him or rookie Andrew Luck on the other team to deal with. Instead he’ll face future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, frigid temps, a hostile crowd, and Von Miller & Elvis Dumervil. Different story. Different ending. Broncos by 15!

We don't think that #18 Peyton Manning will be adversly affected by the cold weather. Photo: blacksportsonline.com

We don’t think that #18 Peyton Manning will be adversly affected by the cold weather. Photo: blacksportsonline.com

Packers over the 49ERS- Tough game. Explosive offense against a methodical defense. However, we’re going with the Pack here as they come in to this game having won 9 of their last 11 and, for the first time all season, are completely healthy on both sides of the ball. We’re still not convinced that Colin Kaepernick is this year’s version of Alex Smith. Yeah he can run and scramble but he tends to get flustered with a minimal amount of pressure and that’s what the Packers need to show him. They also need to try and slow down the ground and pound Niners and in particular Frank Gore. And if Green Bay’s O-Line can protect Rodgers, we think there is just too much offensive power for the 49ers to play catch up. G.B. in a close one, perhaps by a field goal.

Seahawks over the FALCONS- In what could be the best game of the weekend, Atlanta will be looking for it’s first win in it’s last three playoffs. The combination of Mike Smith and Matt Ryan have been bridesmaids but never a bride. The pressure will be more on the Falcons to finally get over the hump then it will be on the visiting ‘Hawks. Seattle has outscored their opponents 217-74 over their last six. Russell Wilson has played like a seasoned pro instead of a rookie and their defense has been stellar. We must admit it was a bit unnerving when they fell behind to the Redskins 14-0 last week, but good teams just find a way to win. It was also surprising that the Seahawks decided to travel back to Washington after the Redskins game and thus have been forced to make two cross-country trips in a week, but they are playing on such a high and with so much confidence, that we’re going with them regardless. We also think that their DB’s will handle Julio Jones and Roddy White, while Ryan gets to see the kind of pressure he witnessed in last season’s 24-2 loss to the Giants.

PATRIOTS over the Texans- Frankly, the Texans should not have won last week’s game vs the Bengals. It was more of a case of the Bengals beating themselves than the Texans beating them. We still think they peaked back when they were 11-1 and feel the results of the blowout to these same Patriots will be evident again. Tom Brady has an arsenal of receivers to pass to and Rob Gronkowski, who didn’t play in the 42-14 drubbing on December 10th returns for this game. This could, and probably will get ugly early. This game is not for the faint of heart so ‘viewer discretion is advised.’

#12 Tom Brady should have a proverbial 'field day' against a mediocre Texans secondary. Photo: nj.com

#12 Tom Brady should have a proverbial ‘field day’ against a mediocre Texans secondary. Photo: nj.com

NFL Week #6-The week’s Five Best Bets

Posted by fantasyfurnace on October 12, 2012
Posted in: NFL. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 5 Comments

Following the Titans win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night, a sixth sense is telling me that this could be a week of many upsets. We’ll pick a few underdogs but we won’t go overboard as common sense and statistics will always prevail over sixth sense feelings.

We finished week #5 going 4-1, bringing the last two week’s total to 9-1 and our season record to a more respectable 17-8. We’re hoping this little hot streak continues in Week#6. Here are this week’s five best bets:

*Home team in CAPS

Chiefs over BUCCANEERS: There are several reasons for us going with the Chiefs this week as a road dog. The first is that KC is one of only three teams to rank in the Top 10 in both offense and defense. This week, what makes that stat so overwhelming is that Tampa Bay is one of two teams to rank in the bottom five in both offense and defense. The Bucs have won only one game in their last 14 dating back to October 23 of last year. Their only victory was in week #1 this season; a 16-10 win over Carolina. Not very impressive and thus no reason why the Chiefs cannot pull off the upset in this one.

FALCONS over the Raiders- We simply cannot see the undefeated Falcons caving at home against an under-achieving Raider team that has to travel cross country for the second time in the last four weeks. Raider RB Darren McFadden has only rushed for more than 34 yards just once in Oakland’s four games this season. We don’t think the bye week will help turn this team around enough to beat Matt Ryan, Roddy White, Julio Jones, and co., especially when you take into account that they are 2-8 in their last 10 regular season games.

#20 RB Darren McFadden has had a rough time through 3 of the first 4 games this season failing to rush for more than 34 yards in those games. Photo: denverpost.com

CARDINALS over Bills- The Cards are decimated at the running back position due to injuries to Beanie Wells and Ryan Williams and will have to turn to LaRod Stephens-Howling to handle the starting duties this week, but since as a team they only rush for an average of 2.7 yards per carry and are still 4-1, it shouldn’t make too much of a difference. We like Stephens-Howling and think the Darren Sproles type running back could put up some decent numbers against a Bills team that became the first team to give up 300 yards rushing and 300 yards receiving in the same game!

Lions over the EAGLES- Another upset pick here as the Lions, coming off a bye and in need of a win, travel to a difficult and hostile environment in Philadelphia. The Eagles have been winning games with mirrors all season, winning three games by a total of 4 points and scoring more than 19 points just once in their five games. Michael Vick has been sacked 14 times, has fumbled 8 times, and has looked ‘shaky’ and uncomfortable in every game this season. We don’t think he will be able to match Detroit’s offense which is beyond overdue for a breakout game when all the Eagles were able to muster was 6 points against Arizona in week 3 and 14 points vs the Steelers last week.

#7 QB Michael Vick hasn’t been able to generate much offense due to his fumble issues and many sacks this season. Photo: associatedpress

TEXANS over the Packers- The 2-3 Packers have played some Un-Packer-like football through their first five games this season. They are currently 16th in the league in passing and 20th in rushing. We simply cannot see picking a team that’s lost to Seattle (scoring only 12 points) and Indianapolis, a game in which they were up 21-3 at halftime and lost by giving up 27 points in the final two quarters. You can’t expect them to eke out a win on the road and against the team with the league’s number one defense. Just not happening…