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Hello my friends..
Today is Pearl Harbor Day, with that in mind I would like to send out a huge "Thank you for your service" to those brave men and women that gave their lives in that horrific event as well as those that lived thru that hell and in the end persevered to defeat and force the surrender of the Axis of evil.
Well, here we are, week 14 of the NFL season already!! A glance at the most currently divisional standings reveals that of the 8 NFL divisions, a total of five divisional races are topped with a team owing a straight up win mark of 9-3 (Denver, New England, Arizona, Philadelphia, and Green Bay), two divisional races are topped with a team owing at least 8 wins (Cincinnati and Indianapolis), the real head scratcher is the fact that the remaining division (the NFC South) is led by a team with a straight up mark of 5-7!!
And believe it or not New Orleans with their 5-7 straight up record is in a battle with Atlanta, who also has a record of 5-7, for the divisional lead, the Falcons actually have the inside track as they have already defeated the Saints (37-34) in the season opener played at Atlanta and when it comes to a tie breaker the Falcons are also 4-0 straight up in divisional play while the Saints are currently 2-1.
The reason for laying out the happenings in the NFC South is because the needy Saints are taking on divisional rival Carolina in a Sunday afternoon contest and opened up as a double digit home favorite of -10, the line has been bet down to Saints -9 but don't be surprised if ole Joe Public bets the line right back up to a solid Saints -10 again.
Dating back to the start of the 2010 season, which is a span of 10 games played now, these Saints have only ever been installed as favorites of more than -7 or -7.5 one time and that contest took place on October 3rd of 2010 Carolina visited the New Orleans Superdome as a road doggie of +12.5 points, when the smoke cleared the Saints won the game 16-14 but Carolina cashed the ticket at the window.
Dating back to the start of the 2010 season New Orleans holds the straight up edge over Carolina in head to head meetings 6-4 but Carolina holds the better ATS mark of 6-4, in the past four meetings held in New Orleans. The Saints stock is high right now with public bettors because the Panthers enter this contest losers of 6 straight outings this season and are fresh off a 13-31 arse-kicking in Viking land, meanwhile, the Saints are playing at home where historically they play their best and they are fresh off a nice 35-32 win at Pittsburgh.
The feeling here is that New Orleans will be happy with a win against Carolina, a win that they need badly in order to maintain their neck to neck race with Atlanta in the divisional standings, as already mentioned, this is also a divisional contest and New Orleans needs to pick up each and every divisional win they can get to off set Atlanta's lead in that department.
Look for the Saints to play "not to lose" instead of playing to win, on the flip side of things I would expect to see Carolina to play with some semblance of looseness as they are going nowhere and they know it, so why not let it all hang out in this divisional contest against an opponent that they know quite well? Give me CAROLINA +9 over New Orleans.
There was a lot of controversy surrounding the Rams, their players, and their fans last week when they took the field in St Louis with several of the Ram players coming out of the tunnel with a "hands up" gesture, this gesture was a protest to the unfortunate shooting of Michael Brown. To bad these same players and their fellow protestors never took the time to delve into just how Michael Brown was and his past which led up to the unfortunate event taking place.
If they had these same mindless robots that are protesting would have found out that this innocent "gentle giant" had just robbed a store and strong armed the owner of the store prior to his confrontation with the police. Funny how the national media keeping depicting Brown as a "good and wholesome" kid when in fact he was a gang banger with 2nd degree murder charges hanging over him, this is the same national media that keeps doctoring pictures of Brown taken from Browns own facebook page...pictures of Brown that were cropped by the media because they don't want the general populas to see this sweet gentle giant was flashing gang signs.
For the life of me I can not understand WHY the media has to over-hype incidents that are really not racially motivated at all and in turn make it a racial issue which in turn then causes social unrest...all in the name of selling newpapers and getting the great unwashed to what the news on TV which in turn raises station revenue via the commercials that the station sells and in turn we watch. If I were a conspiracy buff I would say that our government has a hand in this totally biased and untruthful news reporting because in the end as long as our government keeps us at each others throats....blacks vs whites, gay vs straight, men vs women, rich vs poor....we will never be able to concentrate on what THEY (our government) are doing. Its the ole divide and conquer technique that historically has proven itself to work time and time again.
I digress, and hop off the soap box...sorry!! Getting back to the Rams, last week the Rams took this misguided emotion and throttled the visiting Raiders to the tune of a 52-0 thumping in St Louis, meanwhile, the Rams opponent this week is the Washington Redskins who in turn were throttled 27-49 at Indianapolis as a +7.5 point road doggie. Add the two results together and presto, the odds maker inserts the Rams as a -3 point road favorite at Washington!!
Me thinks those protests in St Louis along with the distractions and emotional energy spent last week by the Rams will hurt them this week in this road contest at Washington. A peek into the ole history book reveals that since the start of the 2000 season these St Louis Rams have only been favored a total of four times as a road favorite against teams from the NFC East and in those affairs the Rams posted a mark of 2-3 straight up and 1-3-1 ATS. Give me WASHINGTON +3 over St Louis.
What is up with that line in the Kansas City game that has the Chiefs visiting the Cardinals of Arizona? The line opened with the hometown Cards installed as a -1.5 point home favorite but has since been bet the opposite way to the point that the visiting Chiefs are now listed as a -3 point road favorite?
Kansas City enters this contest fresh off two straight losses as does Arizona, yet for some reason the betting public is really enamored with the Chiefs to the point of a mega 4.5 point line move....go figure. Me thinks ole Joe Public has it wrong, a glance that the most current result sheet shows that Kansas City is fresh off two straight emotional divisional losses and in truth these Chiefs were fired up the week prior to these two losses when they faced visiting Super Bowl Champ Seattle....that was three straight weeks the Chiefs needed to charge those emotional batteries prior to taking the field, thus the question, can they charge those same batteries for the 4th straight week and do so on the road against a non conference team? Me don't think so.
Arizona lost some face last week by losing 18-29 at Atlanta, but come on now, let's cut these Cards a little slack for that loss. After all, prior to traveling to Atlanta last week these Cards had to travel to Seattle and take on their hated divisional rival Seahags in a game that the Cards eventually lost by a final of 3-19. Unfortunately these Cards let that Seattle loss follow them to Georgia, now these Cards are back home where they are a perfect 6-0 straight up and 5-1 ATS...and you say I can have the CARDS +3 over Kansas City?
I have cooled down over the past three weeks in going 3-5 ATS with my side and total wagers, so buyer beware!! Over the past eight weeks I am now 21-11 ATS for a cover rate of 65.63% and for the season I am not sitting at 36-20 ATS for a cover rate of 64.29%, hopefully Sunday will bring something other than a "juice-burner" like last weeks 1-1 ATS mark!!
Take care and be well my friends
Jim
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