11 Picks For NFL 2010 Week 14, Broncos at Cardinals
Published Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 12:00:00 PM
One team just fired its coach and is floundering. And that's the team that's on the road and still favored by four points. Because it's heading out to play a team whose starting QB is a rookie named John Skelton. In other words, this game is probably going to be a mess.
This week's game is the Denver Broncos at Arizona Cardinals. The opening line was Denver -4, but we're all just picking the game straight up.
Edited to add: The Cardinals ended up blowing out the Broncos.
This list was published on Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 12:00:00 PM under the category NFL Picks.
It currently has View Comments.
Published Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 12:00:00 PM
One team just fired its coach and is floundering. And that's the team that's on the road and still favored by four points. Because it's heading out to play a team whose starting QB is a rookie named John Skelton. In other words, this game is probably going to be a mess.
This week's game is the Denver Broncos at Arizona Cardinals. The opening line was Denver -4, but we're all just picking the game straight up.
Tecmo Super Bowl simulation. (7-6) Apparently, 19 years ago, neither of these teams could move the ball either. I expected that from Phoenix but thought that Elway could at least make the Broncos potent. He could not.
The Broncos refused to run anything but two plays: Reverses and flea flickers. Those started getting blown up, Elway threw two picks, and the game was just a mess. Finally both teams scored in the second half and the game went to overtime. The Broncos won the toss, marched down and quickly kicked a field goal for the win.
Madden 11 simulation. (5-8) This game was nice and ugly, as expected. Both offenses struggled and could really only score when the defenses produced turnovers. (And that's when the defenses managed to do that. Every incomplete pass was really a dropped interception.) There were also missed extra points from both teams.
Arizona scored to bring it to 16-6 with two minutes left, but false started on the two-point conversion attempt and blew it. Denver recovered the onside kick then marched down field and, rather than just take knees, actually kicked a field goal as time expired. They'd already covered the spread. Who know what goes on inside of the strange artificial intelligence of a computer. The pick is the Broncos.- Laska, my parents' dog. (7-6) Laska knows not from new head coaches or rookie quarterbacks. She just knows which treat looks more delicious. And this week she ate the treat representing the Cardinals. Beautiful.
Accuscore. (11-2) I'm so bored and annoyed that Accuscore is running away with the season. I almost feel like banning it next year. If I wasn't afraid that it's become self-aware, I totally would.
Anyway, this week it sees the Broncos winning 59 percent of the time, the Cardinals winning 40 percent, and Tim Tebow getting called up during the rapture and prematurely ending the game one percent.- ESPN's Sports Guy. (6-7) ESPN's Sports Guy is going with what seems to be the more popular opinion -- Denver is in turmoil but no turmoil compares to a rookie making his first start on a bad team. So he's taking the Broncos to cover on the road.
- 11 Points Reader Battle. (8-5) All three readers correctly picked the Falcons last week, so all three are back to pick again this week.
@AtTheStars455: "Hard to pick between bad & worse, but I'll take the motivation of a new coach over a team starting a raw rookie QB. I pick Denver."
@Bourtweet: "going to have to go for Denver this week have to say I enjoy Kyle Orton and actually went to mile high as a kid...ah memories"
@natelopez53: "Full dsclr: Im a DEN fan (sorry Sam) but ARI is amzngly worse than DEN. Look 4 DEN to play big for the new hc. I say DEN 28 ARI 24"
So it's a clean sweep again -- and somehow two of them were randomly longtime Denver fans. The Broncos are the reader pick for the week.
Internet psychic. (6-7) Each week I spend $1.99/min on this psychic, and have to disguise the pick as a more innocuous question because psychics refuse to predict things that have tangible, immediate outcomes. Here's this week's...
Our spiritual guide for the season.
"I am dating two women and need to make a decision. One is wild, like a Bronco. The other is elegant, like a cardinal. The bird, not the clergyman. Which one should win out?"
Turns out he's freakier than expected and quickly -- only $1.99 worth of time -- went with the Broncos. This is almost a clean sweep so far.- Randier cheerleaders. (6-7) Here's a screen grab of Denver's cheerleading calender. Between the black-and-white and general style, I feel like it's quite classy...
But, regardless, it was never going to be a contest. The Cardinals cheerleaders are from the Phoenix/Tempe/Scottsdale area. No one ever had a chance to compete in randiness. I picked this photo from their Halloween game but it was never in doubt anyway.
A no-doubter for the Cardinals. - Turnover margin. (7-6) The Broncos have 17 giveaways and 12 takeaways -- the fewest takeaways in the league, by the way -- for a margin of -5. The Cardinals have more takeaways, with 20... but an insane 30 giveaways. That's tied for second-most in the league, and gives them a -10 margin. So in a sloppy one, the Broncos take it.
- Higher team salary. (8-5) The Broncos have a total team salary of $103,746,442, with the most money going to Champ Bailey. The Cardinals have a total salary of $99,736,539, with the most going to Larry Fitzgerald. Someone's got to throw the ball to a wide receiver, you know. With a bigger payroll the pick, yet again, is the Broncos.
- The opposite of my pick. (8-5) I thought this game might divide people because of the storyline. Denver, struggling all year, fires its coach, goes on the road. Should be a recipe for losing. But they head to the stadium of one of the league's worst teams, who are giving a no-name rookie quarterback his first-ever start. But pretty much everyone above went with Denver, and I can't disagree -- teams seem to rally around new coaches, and rookie quarterbacks miss a lot more than they hit. I think Denver is going to win and, therefore, my pick is the Cardinals.
Edited to add: The Cardinals ended up blowing out the Broncos.
This list was published on Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 12:00:00 PM under the category NFL Picks.
It currently has View Comments.
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Read more about 11 Points and Sam here.
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