Sunday Line Chatter, Week 8: Games We Want to Watch
Chargers (-3) vs. Saints in London
bielerd: 'allo, guvnah!
Matt Bonesteel: Hey, this game is near me!
larimerd2000: 'ello!
bielerd: yeah, Matt, you're in Europe, you have no excuse for not going to this
Matt Bonesteel: Perhaps I can stop on my way home.
larimerd2000: Is it gonna pour again and give the brits their second straight unwatchable exhibition of our grand game?
bielerd: I believe rain is in the forecast, which raises the question: Which pass-happy offense wold that hurt more?
Matt Bonesteel: The Saints can't stay at all healthy on offense, but the Chargers pass defense is awful. right?
larimerd2000: this is damn near impossible to pick with any confidence--the chance of rain and another bog of a pitch, the fact that both teams stink on the road, yet they're both on the road...
bielerd: Who will want revenge more, the QB who got rejected by the Chargers, or the QB who they kept but who just seems angry a lot of the time
Matt Bonesteel: is he angry, or just a doofus?
bielerd: a doofus w/an attitude
larimerd2000: DWA
Matt Bonesteel: MC Ren's new act. feat. Philip Rivers.
Matt Bonesteel: I'll go with the Saints, because I don't know any better.
Matt Bonesteel: Deuce is a mudder.
larimerd2000: My mantra has been to pick against the West Coast team playing at 10 am PST. That still applies to the Chargers, right?
larimerd2000: Right. Chargers
larimerd2000: Oops, I mean Saints. I take the Saints
bielerd: I think the team that has adjusted the quickest to the flat beer over there will win. The Chargers are that team, and they will bubble and squeak this thing out
Colts (+4) at Titans
bielerd: not a must-win game for the Colts, unless they actually want to win the division
Matt Bonesteel: Now the Internet is barely working over here. So I literally have nothing. Peyton Manning still plays for the Colts, right?
larimerd2000: I'm actually kinda fired up about this one. The Titans have a chance to take the division the Colts have owned by the throat.
bielerd: the Colts have owned it by the throat?
bielerd: I thought they owned it by the nape of the neck
larimerd2000: right. i meant they grabbed it by the deed.
Matt Bonesteel: Ah, it's back, in time for me to remind everyone that the Titans have yet to fail to cover this season.
larimerd2000: And the Colts have been so off, but they play great in-division under Dungy. (I meant to look up their record inteh AFC South, but forgot. It's really good.) They'll be ready for this one
bielerd: This has the look of a typical NFL regress-to-the-mean game. i.e., the Titans romped last week while the Colts looked terrible, so it stands to reason that each team will return closer to form. but will the Colts get close enough to form to cover?
Matt Bonesteel: Colts haven't lost on Monday night since 2002
Matt Bonesteel: But they haven't covered in Tennessee in their last four there.
bielerd: yeah, but they were probably favored in those games. now they're getting some points
larimerd2000: Still, even with me warning myself not to write off the Colts in what is a huge pride game for them, they just can't get a running game together this year, and the Titans have allowed all of one passing TD. I'll take the Titans.
bielerd: I will take the Colts, and I will very much regress to being mean if they don't cover
Matt Bonesteel: Titans, I guess.
larimerd2000: "I guess?" I figured you'd be all over the Titans. I thought you were in the tank for them.
Matt Bonesteel: I'm in the tank for their DST.
larimerd2000: Right now you're just tanked
Buccaneers (+2 1/2) at Cowboys
larimerd2000: This is the suspicious line of the week
Matt Bonesteel: Has Wade been fired yet?
larimerd2000: Is there that much dumb money out there to make the Cowboys favorites?
Matt Bonesteel: Yeah, even knowing nothing I can smell the funk of this line from across the briny blue.
bielerd: With all that's going on with the Cowboys, it almost seems like they shouldn't even be favored, but that's not a lot of points to cover at home
larimerd2000: The only reason I'm not locking this game is I'm gun-shy with road teams right now. The Bucs are the second-best team in the NFC. They'll get after Brad Johnson.
bielerd: Yes, but surely the Cowboys defense will hammer Jeff Garcia now that Phillips is focusing his coaching acumen on the defensive play-calls
larimerd2000: If he can stop looking at himself on the Jumbotron
bielerd: Plus, Dallas should be more focused altogether now that it's back to just one Roy Williams
bielerd: At some point, doesn't Dallas have to wake up and play some good ball? I refer to the Bieler regress-to-the-mean theory, and I take the Cowboys.
Matt Bonesteel: If the Rams can smother the Cowboys' offense, I'm guessing the Bucs can be smotherier. Tampa.
Falcons (+9) at Eagles
bielerd: Caw!
larimerd2000: Double Caw!!
Matt Bonesteel: Caw Caw!
bielerd: just wanted to beat Matt to the punch while he's struggling with the time difference
Matt Bonesteel: Sorry, I was trying to find the translation for CAW!
larimerd2000: I was hoping this chat would regress to nothing but bird noises
bielerd: Both team coming off byes, the question is: can the Falcons keep playing well?
Matt Bonesteel: Unfortunately, I'm typing on a 'Merican-style keyboard. I wanted to include many umlauts and that weird "B" think used to denote the "SS" sound in German.
bielerd: dude, umlauts are so metal
larimerd2000: That's a lot of points for a 4-2 team to be getting. But then, as good as Ryan has looked, that's a tough pass rush for any rookie
Matt Bonesteel: If there's a defense that can fluster a rookie QB, it's a Jim Johnson-coached defense.
bielerd: it is a lot of points, but for some reason I think the Eagles will win by double-digits
larimerd2000: Well, against the two best teams the Falcons have played (Bucs and Panthers), they lost 24-9. So I guess I should be worried more about a 15 point spread and a 33 over/under than a nine-point spread.
Matt Bonesteel: Eagles are 8-2 ATS in their last 10 games following a bye week. Good enough for me. Philly.
bielerd: it's important not to get locked into thinking of Atlanta as the team that went 4-12 last year, it did pull off a convincing win at Green Bay in its last road game, I'm really torn on this one
Matt Bonesteel: yeah, but Green Bay ain't the team that went to the NFC title game last year, either.
bielerd: true dat. OK, I'll take the Eagles
larimerd2000: I don't think the Eagles are quite as good as the Bucs or Panthers, but they're pretty good. So let's say they win 24-12.
By
David, Des and Matt
|
October 24, 2008; 1:55 PM ET
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Game Previews Week 8
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