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Bet on It

By Dalton Del Don – Senior Writer

Last week, my hot stretch finally came to an end, posting a 7-9 record. I’m not going to get too down – if my bad weeks remain close to .500, I can’t complain. But hopefully we get back on track this week, although I’m already 0-1 after picking the Packers Thursday night. My overall season record stands at 91-76-9. Here are the Week 13 winners:

Packers +6.5 at Cowboys

Falcons +4.5 at Rams

Bills +5.5 at Redskins

Lions +3.5 at Vikings

Texans +3.5 at Titans

Jaguars +7 at Colts

Jets +1 at Dolphins

Chargers -5.5. at Chiefs

Seahawks +3 at Eagles

49ers +3 at Panthers

Browns +1 at Cardinals

Broncos -3.5 at Raiders

Buccaneers +3 at Saints

Giants -1.5 at Bears

Bengals +7 at Steelers

Patriots -20.5 at Ravens

Best Bet: Broncos

Comments: I try not to make a habit of picking road favorites, especially as a best bet, but such is the case this week. I’m buying low with the Broncos, coming off a disappointing loss in which they blew a late 14-point lead, while selling high on a Raider team that actually won a game last week. Justin Fargas could have a big day, but Mike Shanahan and company love sticking it to Al Davis, so expect the superior Broncos to run away with it.

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7 responses to “Bet on It”

  1. Dreamweapon Avatar
    Dreamweapon

    Triple-D, what do you think about a column addressing the inherent shortcomings of the H2H format?

    I know you got screwed this year yourself, but the tribulations of my main team are the stuff of legend, I kid you not. I had Tomlinson (R1), Peterson (5), Roethlisberger (7) and a ton of other pieces I traded for during the season, including Braylon, Gates…..even Ryan Grant. In our format, exactly three teams averaged 100 ppg this season. Most were at 90 or less.

    I scored below 90 points exactly once in 13 weeks. Once. I scored over 1420 on the season, shattering our league’s single-season scoring record by nearly 100 points (this goes back three years). In short, I had a wonderful campaign, the finest season ever turned in by a club in our format.

    I also went 7-6 and missed the playoffs by 1/2 game (to a team which will not crack 1100 on the season), due to fluke occurrences, such as, say, Favre hitting Jennings on a 80-something yard bomb in OVERTIME ON THE MONDAY NIGHT GAME to bring my opponent back from a 17-pt loss to a 2-pt win, or losing to the worst team in the league (the only autodrafted one) when they had a miraculous 120 point day, by far their best of the season (I had like 115, 2nd most in the league that week). I LOST more games in which I scored over 100 points than 3/4s of the teams managed to pass that mark, W or L.

    That was nothing but luck. I struggle to think of analogies, but maybe this is like an MIT grad losing out on a nice job to a newly-minted DeVry grad. Or maybe a Ferrari losing a race to a Fiat, because a friggin’ meteor fell out of the heavens and hit the Ferrari mid-race. FFL is supposed to be a “tournament of skill”, which is the whole reason we can put money on it and escape the prohibition on gambling. I am now convinced that H2H format in football is nothing but gambling, that there is very little skill involved at all. At least with baseball and basketball there is a tendency towards the norm; that’s not present in football b/c of the tiny slate of games.

    I missed the playoffs last year (again, by a 1/2 game) despite having the 3rd most points in the league, but that was no biggie to me, it still seemed fair. This year was so much worse. I don’t know what your thoughts are on the subject, but I have proposed to my league (and they have accepted) that next year’s pot will be split, with halfish going to the playoff winners, and the other halfish (there are small weekly payouts for the high scorer as well) going to the 1-2-3 finishers on points over the entire 17-week season on a roughly similar split.

    This might not be perfect, but at least it eliminates the apparent problem of superpower teams getting jack squat b/c of totally arbitrary scheduling. I’m just curious to hear your thoughts on the matter.

  2. Kritter77 Avatar
    Kritter77

    10-4 going into tonight this week, great to see my Raiders playing well, and yes, DONKEYS DOWN!!!

  3. Kritter77 Avatar
    Kritter77

    Meaning KRITTER’S STRAIGHT PICKS of course not my horrid fantasy team…

  4. RotoScoop Avatar
    RotoScoop

    It’s like you’re inside my mind Dreamweapon. I’ve been planning on writing an article regarding the utter ridiculousness of the H2H format, so keep your eyes peeled in the coming days…

    After tonight, there’s a good chance that I scored the second most points of the week in my 12-team league during three out of the past four weeks and lost every single time. Read that again.

  5. RotoScoop Avatar
    RotoScoop

    Kritter – Congrats on Oaktown coming through. Russell looked pretty good in limited action too.

  6. Kritter77 Avatar
    Kritter77

    Yeah JaMarcus looked decent, was nice to see him, 11-4 this week on the picks, I wish I had money on these picks, I’ve had a good year!

  7. Kritter77 Avatar
    Kritter77

    I kinda like H2H, I love being able to mess with my opponent, but I see where people get frustrated with it. It depends on if things are going good or not…

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