My “Suerte Cinco” Moneymaker Picks for Week # 4 In The NFL

Bears (-6) over the Panthers, Result: Loss

Take the Bears at -6 ½, Vegas usually doesn’t make a ton of mistakes, but they made one here. Cam Newton is a great talent but he is prone to mistakes and these are going to multiply as teams get more film on him. Vince Young was great as a rookie as well, though by his second year you knew the book on him. The reality is that we are going to get more information – lots of hitters in baseball have good first halves as rookies but then the second half comes up, and it’s their second time around against a rotation – they’re not running the football whatsoever! DeAngelo Williams, Jonathan Stewart have only compiled a 150 rushing yards in 3 games. For all his early promise, Cam makes mistakes as he’s been picked off 4 times and this is the best defense he’ll face, on the road. Jay Cutler – listen, against teams without a great pass rush and that are beat up like Carolina is, they’re going to be fine. Chicago holds a huge advantage on special teams as well. Outside of the offensive line and maybe the receiver – the Bears are better across the board. From coach to quarterback, all along the defense…swallow the 6 ½ points, it’s a mistake by Vegas, the Bears roll 28-9.

Falcons (-1) over Seahawks, Result:  Win

I can’t believe this line! It was a one point -1 and now it’s about a field goal and a half at -4. Whatever it is, under a touchdown I like it! Atlanta let’s say at -3 ½ or 4 over the Seahawks. The Falcons are desperate and Seattle is a puttered offense, forget last week! They’re averaging about 214 yards per game – that’s lousy! That is unbelievably bad!! They have one of the worst offensive lines in football. They have maybe the worst quarterback in the league and Marshawn Lynchs’ great run against the Saints last year – he didn’t have one before and he hasn’t had one since. These teams met last year and Atlanta barbecued them at home. Let’s be honest about Seattle – they were a lot better last year than they are this year. Now, Atlanta has played Chicago, Philly and Tampa…those are playoff contenders. This is a huge drop down in class with huge significant advantages at quarterback, running back, wide receiver and offensive line. Atlanta goes into Seattle and hammers the Seachickens 27-13.

Patriots (-4.5) over Raiders,  Result: Win

Listen, Patriots defense can’t stop anybody, but here is something to know about the Raiders. As much as I like their front seven and Richard Seymour, they’re secondary right now is a mess! 4 safety’s alone on the injury report. 4 safeties and 3 corners for Oakland on the injury report and the Patriots’ offensive line has been excellent at protecting Brady with 3 sacks given up this year. The Raiders are tough but they’re 28^th in pass defense and this offensive line will give Brady time to throw. The Oakland offense is pretty pedestrian through the air and that doesn’t even count! The banged up wide receiver position, Jacoby Ford Ltd, Lewis Murphy didn’t practice. I’m only having to swallow 4 ½ points. Brady and Belicheck are tremendous off losses; the Raiders come down after their most emotional win in 2 or 3 years. Swallow the points; New England wins it 31-21.

Jets (+3.5) over Ravens: Result: Loss

I tell you, this game is going to be low scoring! I get a field goal and a half in this game? I’ll take the points all day long – I’ll take the 3 ½. Now, I don’t know if the Jets win, but last time they played it was 10-9. Now, one of the things the Ravens do – Terrell sucks on the right hand side, it’s a nightmare! But D’Brickashaw Fergueson at tackle for the Jets neutralizes one of their great core strengths. People forget this about Joe Flacco – he’s got a lot of new targets! He was never the most accurate guy to begin with but folks, he’s completing a very mediocre 54% this year. This Jets defense has been told for a week that they’re soft, they’re finesse and over the hill – they will be breathing fire in this game to prove that they’re still an elite team. Mark Sanchez has quietly been engaging in a very interesting game of improvement with Plaxico Burress, they are starting to really connect. That throw against the Raiders last week in the endzone for a TD was the best throw by any quarterback in the league last Sunday. I like the Jets – I don’t know if they win, but I’ll take the points…I’m going to take them to win it 21-20. Flacco is still a guy that I don’t believe see’s the entire field well.

Utah (-7) over Washington, Result: Loss

Another favourite here, Utah is giving up 7 but they are at home. Now, they’ve had 2 weeks to prepare after thumping their rival BYU and they’re healthy. Washington, vulnerable in the trenches, has to go on the road after really tough physical games against Cal and Nebraska. Utah’s Jordan Wynn spreads the ball around! 11 different receivers have caught the ball and the Huskies right now, a rebuilding program, are not very good at linebacker and are very poor in space. Utah can spread you out and get it to different guys. Kyle Whittingham has never lost a game in the regular season off a bye! He’s 11-0…swallow the points, Utah well rested beats the Huskies 34-23.

The Tail of The Epic Collapse By The Boston Red Sox’s

By the way, Boston fans were all over the blogs and twitter today and were saying stuff like “I’m okay with it, I’ve come to terms with it….we have other great teams…” ohh please stop!!! Can you at least for once in your life be authentic you Sam Adams-drinking-fist-fighting-rebelling-happy-eating-the-yankees-exhaust-third-place-phony….it hurts badly!!! Eat it!  For seven or eight years you’ve had a great run…it’s over! The Celtics are old, the Patriots are unbalanced and the Bruins hit the lottery…it’s not going to happen again. You had a great run, now take your rightful place in the world…eating lobster rolls all day and beating up your 5’3 ½ brother!!

Boston is the most provincial major city in the United States! Not overly diverse and certainly not sports diverse. It’s one of the only cities that won’t watch anything that is not Boston. So eat it hard…a lot of us revel in it. Go back to your duck boat you side-hat-wearing-Ben-Affleck-loving-chower-worshiping phony!!! I thought it was absolutely great! Not a leader in that clubhouse in this $160 million dollar payroll. Conversely, Tampa’s got no money!! They’re at $40 million bucks! Yankee’s payroll is $205 million, Red Sox’s $160 million…Tampa? $800,000 in cash and they’ll give you a pizza parlour on 3^rd and Vine in Lakeland…they’ve got no money and yet all they do is win.

I’ll say this, Buster Onley nailed it – you know what? It was great to see Baltimore compete…good for Baltimore! The winners write the stories folks, not the losers. Baltimore could’ve easily mailed it in. Yet they played with everything they had, good for Baltimore. Buck Showalter and those guys in game 162 of the season – which meant nothing to them and yet they played like it was Game 7…that was awesome! When you win, you decide how you are going to celebrate.

Boston, you can’t blame a goat, Babe’s gone, Bartman wasn’t yours…blame yourself! Buster Onley on the Mike & Mike Show on ESPN radio this morning was talking about how there are some real questions in Boston saying “They’re ownership has spent around $340 million dollars over the last 2 years and what do they have to show for it? Zero playoff appearances and the greatest September collapse ever seen in the history of the game. So whether it’s Theo Epstein or Terry Francona or a bunch of coaches or others, I don’t think any of it – at this point, we should be shock by” Unbelievable!! Like at least when New York spends money, they win!

I’ve always said this, Kentucky basketball may do some things that are skivvy but they win, Baylor basketball cheated for a decade and they still stunk. Like I mean, at least when the Yankees spend money, they win! The Cubs and the Red Soxs open the vault up and play like they’re on a 6 day meth bender! At least show up and have some heart!! It was absolutely unbelievable. Listen, Boston is short and angry when they wake up every morning…now, they just piled another level of anxiety. Unbelievable sport I tell you!

And for all these people ripping the Yankees – and they’re saying you didn’t compete and that they tanked it, excuse me? How many at bats did Jeter have? He had 3, Granderson? He also had 3, Texiera? Had 4, Cano? He had 4 as well, Swisher? He had 3. If your mailing it in, your not sending you’re All –Star’s up that many times!! The Yankees led 7-0; they didn’t trail 7-0!! That’s a ridiculous argument.

The bottom line is that Joe Girardi was using guys like AJ Burnett for about 8 pitches and then they ran out of guys in the back end, but the Yankee’s told us “listen, we’re not going to use our 7, 8 and 9 guys; we’re just not going to use them! We’re the Yankees” The Yankee’s have always been the Lakers where it’s not about getting into the playoffs; it’s about winning World Series titles. That’s the way it works for the Lakers, that’s the way that it works for Duke Basketball, that’s the way it works for the Yankees.

To show you the difference between the Yankees and everybody else, Joe Girardi would’ve been fired driving home last night if the Yankees had collapsed like the Red Soxs did. He would’ve gotten the call from the Tampa area code, picked it up and they would’ve said “we’ve already boxed your stuff, don’t come back!” Francona may survive. So even the Red Soxs – the level of expectation is a notch lower than the Yankees. So it’s all about – like once the Yankees wrapped it up, it’s all about getting ready for the Detroit Tigers or the Rangers, but now it’s the Tigers…that’s all its about. Don’t tell me they tanked it for nothing.

Listen, I stayed up last night way too late, but if you did not see what happened, here you go…there is not a nicer guy in baseball than Joe Madden, he’s goofy! If Tampa was a rock band, it would be the “Joe Madden and the Overachievers” and their #1 single would be “Unloved, unwatched and winning” but if you didn’t watch it, it was 7-0 Yankees and Girardi is just going through pitchers, “here’s another guy to bring in” I think he ran out at some point. So it was 7-0 Yankees, but I sit and turn to my buddy and I’m like “I don’t know who the Yankees have left to pitch!” so I changed the channel for about 4 minutes and come back to it and its 7-6 and it’s just a wild wild wild scramble by Tampa, then they have a 6run 8^th, led mostly by Longoria’s 3 run homer.

So it’s 7-0, you get 6 runs in the bottom of the 8^th and its 7-6 then in the bottom of the 9^th you still trail, 2 strikes, Dan Johnson…and what do you know! He homers and it’s tied at 7’s. Then they go to the 12^th tied at 7 and here they go again! Longoria goes deep on a walk off home run, his second of the game…unbelievable!! They pay their players in crackers, he lost his 8 highest paid players….they gutted the franchise – they can’t afford any of them and they come back and they can compete annually with the Yankees and the Red Soxs. God, it’s really an unbelievable sport – there is nothing like it in sports. It would be like having a University of Alaska college football team and they’re like beating Ohio State every year. How in God’s name do they do it!!!