NFL Picks 2014: Week 5

by Zoneblitz Staff | Sep 30, 2014 | 2014 season, NFL Picks

Okay, Tampa goes and loses by 15 touchdowns to Atlanta and then wins, in Pittsburgh, on a last second TD? Kansas City dismantles New England in such a fashion that it looks like the Belichick/Brady era is winding to a close? Defenseless Dallas dominates the Saints in another prime time game over by halftime?

These are the confusing weeks that make the NFL fun to watch but also occasionally maddening to predict. Fantasy Editor Maggio handled it best of anyone last week, going 8-5 and catapulting into the lead in our overall standings. The rest of us were sub-.500 for the week.

The good thing is eventually things usually start to normalize. You start to figure out who the good teams and bad teams are. It clears up a bit in terms of who the surprisingly solid teams will be and the disappointments also start to take shape.

I’m not sure we’re quite there yet, though. We’ll see.

Here are our picks: (more…)

NFL Picks 2014: Week 4

by Zoneblitz Staff | Sep 22, 2014 | 2014 season, NFL Picks

As the furor surrounding several off-field issues faded into the background for a couple days, normalcy returned to the field a bit in week three, as well. Good teams beat bad teams, mediocre teams played other mediocre teams close in games that swung our standings and two or three really good games stood out.

And we managed to fare alright this week, coming back nicely after a brutal week two. John Vomhof Jr. hit 12 of 16 contests while the rest of us trailed by a game. Tony still leads the overall pool for the season – though friend of Zoneblitz Dr. Phil went 12-4 in week three to tie him for the lead. If he can match us for the entire season we’ll have to hunt down some Zoneblitz swag for the good doc.

The bye weeks start this week, so there are only 13 games on the slate. And again there are maybe a couple standout matchups along with a couple duds. Division games are at a minimum. So if there were a week you needed to take off for work or something, this might not be a bad one to pick.

Here are our picks:

(more…)

NFL Picks 2014: Week 3

by Zoneblitz Staff | Sep 16, 2014 | 2014 season, NFL Picks

There was a lot of carnage in the NFL this weekend and it didn’t all happen on the field.

Several upsets – at least in how we picked the games, anyway – dotted the landscape, sending spiraling a picks segment that going back a few years has generally been fairly solid.

Fantasy Editor Anthony Maggio led the way this time around with an 8-8 record, to give you a sense for how bad things got. Weekly guest picker Dr. Phil got roughed up a bit too, going 7-9 – but he remains a game behind Tony for the overall lead after two weeks at 18-14.

Here are the standings through two weeks:

We’re shaking our heads and licking our wounds, but we’re getting back on the bicycle and taking another crack – while we wait to find out when superstars like A.J.Green and Jamaal Charles will return from injuries and ponder whether or not Adrian Peterson should be dressing this weekend for the purple.

Here are our picks for Week three: (more…)

NFL Picks 2014: Week 2

by Zoneblitz Staff | Sep 9, 2014 | 2014 season, NFL Picks

Last minute comebacks, upsets, meltdowns and questionable coaching decisions dotted the Sunday and Monday NFL landscapes. It’s great to have football back again.

Given the weirdness that took place last weekend, particularly at the end of some of the early games, I’d say we came out of the weekend relatively intact. Nobody embarrassed themselves too badly and Tony, who thrives on picking the unpredictable, nailed the week with a 12-4 mark. He’s in control of the leader board after one week. Dr. Phil from the audience also made picks last week – if my count is right, he hit an 11-5 mark — maybe he should join the staff.

Here are the standings:

(more…)

NFL Picks 2014: Week 1

by Andy | Sep 1, 2014 | 2014 season, NFL Picks

OK, enough of the “assessing our depth” and “it’s not about winning” quotes that come with pre-season. It’s time for real football.

Rosters are nearly set. The pretenders are off into obscurity, looking for real jobs. And kickoff is just three days away.

We’ve been doing these picks for a few years now. Last year we actually did pretty well. There were four of us. Tony and I tied at 166-89-1 records for the season. Anthony Maggio went 157-98-1. Rich picked 154 correctly against 101 misses and the lone tie – we all matched up fairly well with a collection of experts whose picks are observed via NFLPickWatch.com. In 2011 I beat Tony with a 172-84 mark compared to his 169-87. And in 2012, I used a 27-5 run through the last two weeks of the regular season to go 166-89-1 again, compared to his 161-94-1.

This year Anthony, Tony and I are joined by John Vomhof Jr., who chipped in on a few of our fantasy football buy/sell posts. He’ll be ramping up as the season moves forward. Without further ado, here are our long-sought picks for week one: (more…)