If Week 12 of the 2020 season wasn’t one of the craziest in recent memory, then I must be forgetting legitimate insanity. In addition to having a Thanksgiving game moved to Tuesday night — which is no longer a completely impossible-to-expect outcome — we also had a team play without a quarterback. Then that same Tuesday night game became a Wednesday afternoon matchup.
We should be proud of how we have all handled this 2020 season. There are so many moving parts that many trends are completely irrelevant. As I’ve written about for the past few months, we have to take everything with the proverbial grain-of-salt. Kudos to us. We have.
Still, we keep facing new curveballs. This column couldn’t be released before Thursday because of the aforementioned Wednesday game. Then, it couldn’t even release immediately as we waited on a spread for the next Baltimore Ravens game, let alone the actual starting quarterback situation.
It’s a mess. But it’s the mess we’ve grown to accept.
I will always tell people that I love chaos in sports. I mean it. Despite placing such a high importance on consistency — especially when trying to predict an outcome — I generally enjoy those moments where the inexplicable happens. By welcoming this, we can, indeed, work through the erratic nature of this season.
Below are predictions for each game against the spread. Spreads have been taken from various websites and are subject to change. The spread in parenthesis denotes the selected team. An asterisk denotes a confidence pick.
*Confidence Picks – 2020 Season: 33-31-3 (Last Week: 2-2-1)
(2019 Season: 57-43-3) (2018 Season: 63-48-4) (2017 Season: 53-48-4) (2016 Season: 53-67-3) (2015 Season: 69-45-2) (2014 Season: 61-46-2) (6-Year Total: 356-297-18)
All Picks Against Spread – 2020 Season: 89-84-4 (Last Week: 8-7-1)
(2019 Season: 142-118-7) (2018 Season: 137-118-12) (2017 Season: 137-119-11) (2016 Season: 123-136-8) (2015 Season: 143-117-7) (2014 Season: 149-114-4) (6-Year Total: 831-722-49)
New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons
There are so many moving parts to an NFL weekend. There’s the Thursday game — two, last Thursday — the preparation for the night contests, the full slate of football, the tracking of what’s happening in each game, and the consideration for what it should mean in the following week. It’s a lot. Sometimes, I forget.
I usually write these columns entirely before Wednesday afternoon of a given week. By the time Sunday afternoon has arrived, I’ve moved countless pieces into place to try to capitalize on everything. But I legitimately forget why a certain team popped off the screen nearly five days prior. So I go back and read.
I read what I wrote to you in the column. I read what I wrote to myself in my notes. I read what I wrote to my friends in a text message.
I read and I try to remember exactly why I loved the Atlanta Falcons against the Raiders. I also read and try to remember why I didn’t use them as a confidence pick, despite my love.
In short, the Falcons were the pick for two reasons.