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It’s Week 4. We Continue Onward, if not Upward.

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

Dr. Sports had a pretty good week in Week 3. The Coach did not.

But we are progressing forward.

It’s Week 4 in the National Football League. The most intriguing matchups include Baltimore at New England, the unbeaten Jets at the unbeaten Saints, San Diego at Pittsburgh on Sunday night and, of course, Green Bay at Minnesota in the Monday Nighter.

After Brett Favre’s heroics last week, the Lions first victory in 19 games and Michael Vick’s official return to the NFL, it’s hard to imagine anything could be better.

But Monday night, you can bet it will get better. Packers-Vikings. Favre vs. his old team. Monday night at the Dome. Wow!

Fasten your seat belts, Week 4 is going to be a terrific ride.

Remember, the Cardinals, Falcons, Panthers and Eagles all have the bye this week, the first bye week of 2009.

Let’s look a little more closely at Week 4:

1. Detroit Lions 1-2 at Chicago Bears 2-1 (-9.5)

Will magic strike twice for the Lions? Don’t bet on it.

Dr. Sports: Bears to win and cover

The Coach: Bears to win and cover

2. Cincinnati Bengals 2-1 at Cleveland Browns 0-3 (+5.5)

The Browns can’t seem to score and it doesn’t appear as if they’ll have any success this week. Even with Derel Anderson at quarterback.

Dr. Sports: Bengals to win and cover.

The Coach: Bengals to win and cover.

3. Oakland Raiders 1-2 at Houston Texans 1-2 (-9.5)

The Raiders offense is horrible but the Texans defence stinks. Nice combination.

Dr. Sports: Texans to win but NOT cover

The Coach: Texans to win but NOT cover.

4. Seattle Seahawks 1-2 at Indianapolis Colts 3-0 (-8.5)

Close your eyes Seahawks fans. You do not want to see what the Colts are going to do to your team.

Dr. Sports: Colts to win and cover.

The Coach: Colts to win and cover.

5. Tennessee Titans 0-3 at Jacksonville Jaguars 1-2 (+2.5)

This is the week that Jeff Fisher’s Titans finally get their first win. The Jaga are just awful and they play in front of family and friends.

Dr. Sports: Titans to win and cover

The Coach: Titans to win and cover.

6. New York Giants 3-0 at Kansas City Chiefs 0-3 (+8.5)

These teams couldn’t be more opposite. Even though this is the Giants third consecutive road game, they’ll win…by a lot.

Dr. Sports: Giants to win and cover.

The Coach: Giants to win and cover.

7. Baltimore Ravens 3-0 at New England Patriots 2-1 (-1.5)

Tom Brady will hit some big throws, but so will Joe Flacco to keep it close. Taylor loves the Ravens this week.

Dr. Sports: Patriots to win and cover

The Coach: Ravens to win and cover.

8. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 0-3 at Washington Redskins 1-2 (-6.5)

Josh Johnson will be making his first NFL start for Tampa Bay. Johnson, a fifth-round draft pick in 2008 who was inactive for all 16 games as a rookie, takes over an offense that managed just 86 yards total offense during last week’s 24-0 loss to the New York Giants.

Dr. Sports: Redskins to win and cover.

The Coach: Redskins to win and cover.

9. Buffalo Bills 1-2 at Miami Dolphins 0-3 (+1.5)

These two teams used to put on a great show. Not anymore. However, it’s still an inter-divisional rivalry and T.O. will be on the field.

Dr. Sports: Miami to win and cover.

The Coach: Buffalo to win.

10. New York Jets 3-0 at New Orleans Saints 3-0 (-6.5)

The great defence of the Jets matching up against the great offense of the Saints. The Jets blitz a lot. Drew Brees eats up blitzes. The Jets — and Mark Sanchez — bubble bursts here.

Dr. Sports: Saints to win and cover.

The Coach: Saints to win and cover.

11. Dallas Cowboys 2-1 at Denver Broncos 3-0 (+2.5)

Dallas is like New England. They’re not as impressive as they should be, but they will win this week.

Dr. Sports: Cowboys to win and cover.

The Coach: Cowboys to win and cover.

12. St. Louis Rams 0-3 at San Francisco 49ers 2-1 (-9.5)

In their last 13, the Rams are 0-13 and don’t look for any improvement here. Coming off a tough loss week to the Vikings the 49ers will be very focused. How ’bout this? The Rams, Tampa and Cleveland all go 0-16 this year.

Dr. Sports: 49ers to win and cover.

The Coach: 49ers to win and cover.

13. San Diego Chargers 2-1 at Pittsburgh Steelers 1-2 (-6.5)

Do you think the Champs are happy being 1-2? Watch for a big win at home.

Dr. Sports: Steelers to win and cover.

The Coach: Steelers to win but NOT cover.

14. Green Bay Packers 2-1 at Minnesota 3-0 (-3.5)

Does it get any better than this? This is more than a football game. It’s an event. For many, many years, when you thought of Green Bay, you thought of Brett Favre. Now he’s playing for the rival Vikings, the team all Packers fans must hate (it’s actually a Wisconsin State law). This is the third biggest game of the year, behind the Super Bowl and when Favre and his Vikings play at Green Bay on Nov. 1. Dr. Sports going to be there live, enjoying the magnificence it all.

Dr. Sports: Vikings to win and cover.

The Coach: Vikings to win and cover.

The Doc is 30-18 this year and 25-23 against the spread. The Coach is 29-19, 22-26 against the spread.

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What we learned from Week 9: Nothing that we didn’t already know.

Posted on August 23, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

I don’t boast when going 2-0. I have been at this gambling thing long enough to know that if you go 2-0 one week, it’s likely you’ll go 0-2 the next. So unlike those gambling tip sites out there, the ones that go through an NFL season at around .500 and scream about how brilliant they are, we won’t brag here just because we had a good week.

 

Besides, the two outcomes in the CFL West in Week 9 were semi-obvious.

 

Edmonton, a healthy club with a great quarterback and a decent defence, had an easy time with a Saskatchewan team that still had 16 starters on injured reserve. The Eskimos were at home, too, and in a game that had a chance to be close (even though, in the end, it wasn’t), homefield is still important.

 

Yeah, yeah, I know, I said throw out all the theories this week, but in games in which the teams (even with one badly injured team) are solidly matched, home cooking will have an affect on the outcome.

 

We picked Edmonton to win easily on Thursday and the Eskies won 27-10. No surprise. Nothing new.

 

Meanwhile, on Friday night, in a game in which we thought Calgary would win by two touchdowns, the Stamps won their second straight road game, this time 36-29 in B.C.

 

B.C. played better than I expected (especially the defence) while Calgary wasn’t as good as I thought. Still the Stamps won a road game by seven points and that’s significant.      

 

Granted, it was the first time the Stamps have won in Vancouver since Aug. 1, 2002 and they did have to put together their winning drive with just six minutes left, but all in all, Calgary has a team that will contend for the Grey Cup — and they won on Friday in front of 34,000 hostile fans.

 

Stamps quarterback Henry (Brain Fart) Burris hit Brett Ralph with a five-yard TD throw with less than three minutes in reg. and then, to their credit, the Stamps defence didn’t choke again — like they did in Winnipeg last month. In fact, former Bomber Wes Lysack picked off a Buck Pierce pass with less than a minute to play to save the game for Brain Fart and the rest of the Calgary cowboys.

 

The Stamps are now tied with Edmonton at 5-3 (just two points back of first place Saskatchewan) and the two teams will play back-to-back games starting on Labour Day at McMahon Stadium. 

 

I like the Stamps to win two straight and by the seventh of September they’ll be tied with the Roughriders, a team that will be lucky to split with Winnipeg. The Bombers have new life since Kevin Glenn was returned to the starting QB’s position and then allowed to call his own plays by his screaming, out-of-control, apoplectic coach. In fact, with Glenn running the offence, it gives Doug Berry more time to yell at his kicker.

 

Yeah, that should make the Bombers a threat in the East. Swear some more, Doug.

 

In the meantime, if Brain Fart Burris ever plays an entire 60 minutes up to his physical and mental capabilities, there is no telling how many points he’ll put up. Burris has the most talent among quarterbacks in the CFL. It’s just that he always does something stupid (or a series of stupid things) to keep opponents in games. 

 

One of these days, he’s going to be flawless — and that day will be scary.

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