Alternative Picks – Week 8, 2017

This is turning into some Harlem Globetrotters/Washington Generals exhibition side show.

It was another hideous week for Andy,  who is currently checking with his accountant to see if it’s legally allowable to pay off debts with funds from his daughter’s college account.

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We’re kidding. … We hope.

At any rate, Tony’s commanding lead got bigger. Andy’s left pondering, once again, whether the game has passed him by. … Or whether there was ever really a time in which it was sitting in front of him and he actually knew what was going on.

With that little bit of positivity, here are the standings:

Andy, again, gets to choose. He goes first. And here are Tony’s winners, err, we mean the picks for this week.

1. Andy: Minnesota over Cleveland – The Vikings’ defensive line is on pace for 3,241 sacks this season. The Browns just lost the one good player, left tackle Joe Thomas, they’ve had for many years. He’s out for the season. Cleveland may never win again.
2. Tony: Philadelphia over San Francisco – I’m not going to lie–this strikes me as a trap game. Eagles confidence is soaring high–but they lost their LT. The saving grace for is that the game is in Philly, and traveling East usually makes even decent West Coast teams struggle.
3. Tony: New England over Los Angeles Chargers – Traveling East also makes bad teams even worse, especially when facing the class of the AFC.
4. Andy: Cincinnati over Indianapolis – Pagano may be gone-o after this game.
5. Tony: New Orleans over Chicago – Was dumbfounded when I saw a Tweet this week that the Bears and Fox had agreed to a five year extension. Then I realized it wasn’t John Fox, but WFLD-Ch. 32. Extending with Fox might still be questionable, but not as bad as extending with John Fox.
6. Andy: Kansas City over Denver – Broncos can’t score and the Chiefs will be pissed after losing in the last second 10 days ago in Oakland.
7. Tony: Atlanta over New York Jets – Battle of two surprising teams in 2017–although maybe the Super Bowl losers shouldn’t be so shocking. If the J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS win this one, I might give them a little bit of respect next week.
8. Andy: Pittsburgh over Detroit – The Steelers are one of the three or four best teams in the league right now.
9. Tony: Dallas over Washington – I’m not willing to put any NFC East matchup higher than this on my list.
10. Andy: Carolina over Tampa Bay – Facing Tampa’s beat up defense should be a good elixir for Cam’s woes the last few weeks.
11. Tony: Seattle over Houston – I almost went Houston here–in fact, I did in my bets. Decided it might be a stretch in Seattle, but…wouldn’t shock me.
12. Andy: Buffalo over Oakland – Rules say I have to pick one of the last two games.
13. Tony: Baltimore over Miami – Baltimore should win this game, with Matt Moore starting for the Dolphins. It says something about John Harbaugh’s team that this was picked last.

So for those scoring at home:

And for our more traditional picks:

And the picks: