“Soon the trees will be bare and standing stripped
like ghostly silhouettes against the late autumn sky
Their summer glory lying in a dark mess on the ground…
Now the darkness of night will come early…”
- Graham Dean
Sunday afternoon, high above the field at the RCA Dome, a group of older men in a private skybox enacted their yearly tradition, a bit later then usual, but to them is was surely just as – if not more – sweet as usual. And as they sipped their drinks, popped corks and cheered, one lonely back slowly walked off the field in shame and defeat.
Yes Virginia, the Colts can be beaten. Their almost impossible 13 game winning streak has been snapped – snapped by the team that lost in overtime to the Steelers last year and lost last week to the Dolphins, of all teams. Not even the late game heroics of Payton Manning was enough to save the Colts – they had been ground down all game and by the time the Colts started to show themselves as what they are, it was much, much too late.
Tony Dungy has all but effectively blown his shot at football immortality. Everybody remembers that Don Shula was the coach of the 1972 Dolphins, but who remembers that Sam Wyche coached the 1988 Bengals?
Wait, who cares about those boring comparisons? It’s time to get off this ugly and boring tangent and on to something else – after all, that loss is Old News, almost a week old now. And there’s more interesting stuff going on in Cincinnati right now with Chad Johnson.
It seems that at some point this year, Mr. Johnson hit a deer while driving and took care of it, nursing it back to health in his garage. And now, just in time for the last home game in the season, it appears that he has a Christmas present for the fans in the stands – he says that he’s planning on bringing out a live, wild animal for a touchdown celebration. And even he knows that he’s going to get in trouble for this, too – “They might suspend me for the last game, but I think this one is worth it." – and he doesn’t care.
This is crossing some weird line that nobody would have thought of two, three years ago – bringing a wild animal (that has been living in a garage by itself, no less) into a stadium full of screaming people – while I doubt that it’ll be an actual deer (I’m guessing he’ll get a cheerleader to wear reindeer antlers or something) the idea is more then enough – I like this kid more and more each time I hear about him.
And hell, I haven’t seen an animal in the end zone since the days of John Matuszak…
(Wait, there I go – crossing my own line into slander and lies by calling a dead man an animal… Let’s just ignore that, dear reader, since he wasn’t an animal and he sure wasn’t dangerous – unless you played for the Cowboys… No, lets leave this mess of an article behind and get to the meat of this – the predictions for week 16)
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New York Giants at Washington Redskins (Washington -3)
Not even Clinton Portis will be able to keep the Redskins in this game, as the killer offence of the Giants (Plaxico Burress, Tiki Barber, Eli Manning) keeps the Giants ahead of a surprisingly tight Redskins offence – after all, since Brunell hasn’t been passing to Moss lately, if the Giants can shut down the running game Brunell will be short on options. The Giants will play spoiler as Washington finally bows out of the Wild Card hunt.
Jacksonville Jaguars at Houston Texans (Jacksonville –6)
Who cares? Jacksonville couldn’t even muster two touchdowns against the 2-win 49ers last week while the worst team in the league (their 2-12 opponents) scored three times as many. But Houston wants to lose this game so they can stay in the hunt for the #1 pick and draft Reggie Bush while Jacksonville almost seems to win in spite of its offence. Of course Jacksonville will win this one – but it won’t be the blowout that it could be and Jacksonville will be hard pressed to cover the spread.
Atlanta Falcons at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Tampa Bay –3)
Two warm weather teams that both lost last week in the cold – and are fighting for the same Wild Card spot. And despite their superior record, Tampa Bay’s defence has been looking very bad lately – especially in the 28-0 loss to New England last week – while the Falcons were able to score on a tough Chicago defence. And despite Michael Vick’s rib injury, I think that the Falcons will be able to pull this on out, although not to the same extent that they did last year in the playoffs.
Indianapolis Colts at Seattle Seahawks (Seattle –7.5)
With both of these teams having powerhouse seasons, this could be the Super Bowl match up this year – if the Seahawks can actually win when it counts in the postseason. As such, this should be a good idea of what to expect from both teams in the postseason – except that both teams will be playing their starters in Detroit. Seattle will not pull out a win here and their “great” defence will be put to the test to even keep them close.
San Diego Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs (Kansas City –1.5)
After their upset win at the RCA Dome, the Chargers are hoping to keep on a winning path to the post season but are playing against one of (# 9 overall) the better run defences in the league – which can spell disaster for a team that relies heavily on LaDainian Tomlinson. Kansas City, however, has been hurting since the loss of Priest Holmes and is all but out of the playoff hunt and will try to play spoiler to a hot San Diego team… but it won’t be enough; the Chargers will cover the spread.
Buffalo Bills at Cincinnati Bengals (Cincinnati –14)
Buffalo is having the worst year in the NFL… never mind that there are teams with worse records or stats (After all, who expected San Francisco, Houston or the New York Jets to post good seasons?) it’s a matter that if they had a good QB this year, they’d be right in the playoff hunt. With Kelly Holcumb and JP Losman, though, they’re a .500 team at best that’s playing a definite Super Bowl contender on the road on Christmas Eve. But a 14-point spread is more too much for even the Bengals to cover, especially when they don’t need it – It’ll be closer to 10, if not under, since the Bengals don’t even need to win this game – but will anyway.
San Francisco 49ers at St. Louis Rams (St. Louis –9)
In a game that matters only for a position in the draft, St. Louis will win – maybe. Fitzgerald, for all his comebacks, is unreliable at best and the 49ers nearly pulled out a win against a much better Jacksonville last week. Still, with losses both this week and next (and Houston winning one of their next two) the 49ers will have a great shot at drafting Reggie Bush. Look for the Rams to cover the spread.
Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers (Chicago -6.5)
The Packers of today are like the Patriots of yesterday – almost unable to win when it counts and will be in the cellar for the foreseeable future. Chicago’s defence will shut down Brett Farve’s passing game and with Samkon Gado out for the season their running game is lousy at best; the Bears will make this look easy.
Minnesota Vikings at Baltimore Ravens (Baltimore –2.5)
After embarrassing the Packers last week, the Ravens are on a hot streak that should carry over to this late Sunday game – look for the Vikings to continue to fall apart as their season comes to a close as Baltimore covers spread.
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