WAYNE ROOT
Millionaires—New Orleans
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No Limit–Seattle –
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Perfect Play–Indianapolis –
The youngest vs the oldest. We’re talking about starting QB’s as in Jameis Winston for the Bucs and Matt Hasselbeck for the Colts. Matt is 3-0 this season and Jameis is trying for his first 3 game winning streak. Both teams are trying to improve to 6-5 to continue to feels that they are playoff bound. Win out and one never knows. The Colts are tied for the top spot of the AFC South. Hasselbeck is in since Andrew Luck was diagnosed with a lacerated kidney and partially torn abdominal muscle. He is now operating under Rob Chudzinski, as the new offensive coordinator. The are very few detractors concerning Luck’s capable replacement. For the Bucs, besides Winston play better than expected, the have a running back that needs to be stopped. Doug Martin rushed for an NFL season-high 235 yards last weekend. Opponents passing and rushing totals are not has defeated the Colts. Blame it on injuries or not, Luck played poorly and threw for 12 interceptions costing his team more losses than wins. Hasselbeck seems to have the experience needed to run this team thru their distractions. Look for the Colts to continue to get back to the form everyone thought they would be entering the season with a solid win at home. Laying a field goal appears to be somewhat cheap.
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Inner Circle–Atlanta
NFL Favorite of Month
Whatever happened to the Vikings last week shouts out that there is a problems. Maybe their young leader, Teddy Bridgewater. A lack of confidence in their game plan and play calling. They had won 5 straight and got a chance to make a statement against Green Bay…at home. They put up 13 points; a season low. They allowed 30 points; a season high. Now the doubt starts to settle in. Traveling to play Atlanta is not the antidote. Very difficult venue to win. The Falcons are also dive bombing after starting the season 5-0. But they still show a small lead in the last wild card spot and need to re-evaluate their coaching decisions. They get nice leads and them allow teams to get back in the game. And win outright. That’s on first year defensive minded coach Dan Quinn. The Falcons last 3 losses have been be a total of 7 points. Add in the first 5 wins and smart play in recent games and this pointspread would be somewhat higher. The only sour spot is with QB Matt Ryan. He’s had 10 interceptions and 3 lost fumbles. We still back him. He’s looking at a 90 passer rating with a 65% completion rate. Additionally, he’s averaging a career best 300 yards passing each game. It’s just those costly turnovers. But he’s the type that will refocus and hit the film room. He is teachable. His ego allows for him to take responsibility so look for a well played game from him. This number is very cheap for the home team.
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Pinnacle–Washington
NFC Game of Month
In the crazy world of the NFL, we find that with a Redskins victory against the Giants, Washington would move into first place in the NFC-East with a 5-6 record. The Redskins’ four-game win home streak is their longest in three years, with a 47-14 victory over New Orleans in their last game at FedEx Field on Nov. 15. There’s no reason not to get number 5 and move into first place. The Giants secondary should put smiles all across the face of Redskins QB Kirk Cousins. He’s third in completion percentage in the NFL. Cousins has nine touchdown passes and no interceptions with a 122.6 passer rating in the four-game home win streak. Look for a lot of play-action passing from Cousins. Their first match had the Giants winning by 11 points in New York. Some very costly mistakes played a major role in that defeat. Washington gets to extract their revenge today. Look for mush scoring thru the air with Cousins out dueling Manning in a points fest. This performance today and moving into first place this late in the season should shut up most of his detractors and make most forget about RGIII.