There are no words. I started to write a different introduction and then erased it. Tried again. Erased again. These are times in which picking games against the spread is frustrating. Not bad, just frustrating.
In this particular case, it’s even more frustrating because we know what’s happening. That is, this is an outlier year that also has an element of the unknown to it. Even though I thought this would work to our benefit, the inability of watching these teams in the preseason has been a problem. We really don’t know much about roughly half the league. The Seattle Seahawks? We knew they’d be good.
But what about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Did we really know that Tom Brady would slide in and lead this team to a massive win over the Green Bay Packers. Did we really know that the Tennessee Titans would have multiple games moved around the schedule and still be 5-0? Did we really know that the Houston Texans would start this year with the same head coach and quarterback as of prior seasons and still not make any improvement?
The point is that we are fighting an unnatural increase of variables on a weekly basis. I take pride in being able to navigate these as well as possible, but we’re dealing with never-before-seen factors.
The important part is that it’s not too late to turn things around and make a push. In reality, it’s almost never too late. The key remains finding the patterns that will work in 2020 and leaning on them.
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: 17-18-1 (Last Week: 2-4)
(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: 42-48-1 (Last Week: 5-9)
(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)
Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants
It’s never fun to be thrown to the metaphorical wolves. Yet here we are.
I continue to write about the success and failure of ‘traps’ in 2020, and how it forcing us to view games differently than we would otherwise. Not surprisingly, the first game of Week 7 is a ‘trap.’