NFL 2011 Suicide League Week 9

[Lorini]

In new territory! Next week (assuming there is one) I'll have to figure out what to do about deadlines. In the meantime, no one lost last week, so here's the schedule.

Miami at Kansas City
Cleveland at Houston
Atlanta at Indianapolis
Seattle at Dallas
San Francisco at Washington
N.Y. Jets at Buffalo
Tampa Bay at New Orleans
Cincinnati at Tennessee
Denver at Oakland
N.Y. Giants at New England
Green Bay at San Diego
St. Louis at Arizona
Baltimore at Pittsburgh
Chicago at Philadelphia

[email protected] by noon Friday.

[sluggo]

I have no clue who to pick this week.

[Fishbreath]

I have one good-looking pick and one maybe, neither of which are the Patriots or the Ravens, both of whom I still have available. >.>

[sluggo]

Miami at Kansas City - Miami has flirted with wins the last few weeks and they're going to get one eventually. KC, who everyone thought was one of the worst teams in the league a few weeks ago, feels too risky for me.

Cleveland at Houston - I worry about Houston from week to week. They could win this 27-6, or this game could be 13-13 in the 4th.

Atlanta at Indianapolis - Again, I know it's Indy, but Atlanta has been inconsistent all year and they're on the road.

Seattle at Dallas - The Cowboys are one of the most intriguing teams in the NFL to me. On any given week, they're a team you could see losing to the Dolphins or beating the Packers. Their performance is all over the place.

San Francisco at Washington - Are the Redskins primed for a rebound performance? Are the 49ers overdue for a flat game on the east coast?

N.Y. Jets at Buffalo - Man, who knows what these teams will give you from week to week.

Tampa Bay at New Orleans - I've already picked the Saints, and I'd be worried about the Bucs anyway.

Cincinnati at Tennessee - a total coin flip game.

Denver at Oakland - Tebow aside, they played a close game in week 1, and now who knows what Palmer will look like.

N.Y. Giants at New England - I've picked both these teams, and I could see this going either way.

Green Bay at San Diego - again, I've picked both teams, and I wouldn't be shocked if an angry Chargers team gave the Pack their first loss this week.

St. Louis at Arizona - ewwwww.

Baltimore at Pittsburgh - these games are always close.

Chicago at Philadelphia - Does Philly have it rolling now? Or will they have another lousy outing?

Toughest week of the year.

[Lorini]

KC should have lost that game last night. Depending on the opposing QB to drop a snap will not lead to winning a slew of games. They beat OAK because OAK had no real QB. So to me, they are very fortunate to have won four games.

I'm probably taking Atlanta in my Eliminator league over at somethingawful.com. Atlanta beat the Lions at home, and that was a major effort, so I don't see why they can't beat the Colts.

[Fishbreath]

Do you have an up-to-date spreadsheet? I'm a bit foggy on who I picked at the very beginning of the year.

[Lorini]

It's in the week 8 post.

[DT]

For those playing along at home, I believe this is correct:

Fishbreath - Ari, NYJ, Car, NO, GB, Pit, Dal, Hou
seventimessix - Ari, Pit, NO, Chi, NE, Bal, Dal, SF
sluggo - NE, Pit, SD, GB, Det, NYJ, NO, NYG

[Greatatlantic]

I'd wager the safest bets are San Francisco (who keeps on rolling while Washington is having troubles), Dallas (Seattle is a bad team, especially on the road), and Houston (at home, against a horrible Cleveland offense). Atlanta at first struck me as a good game to pick, but I think may be a trap. Atlanta is coming off its bye week and plays New Orleans next. However, Atlanta is no New Orleans in talent and will play the Colts on the road, and we all know what happened to New Orleans in St. Louis.

[sluggo]

What's the furthest this contest has ever gone? Is 9 weeks a record for us?

[Lorini]

Yep, week 9 is a record.

[Hanacker]

Usually we're on about Week 4 of the second chance league by now.

[sluggo]

Pick sent.

I can't say I'm overly optimistic, certainly nowhere near as confident as recent weeks. We'll see. :)

[Fishbreath]

I sent my pick in, too. Hopefully it's not the same as everyone else's.

[seventimessix]

Since there's only three of us and we've all made our picks we could probably just say what they are.

[Fishbreath]

I chose the Falcons this week. I thought the 49ers were a surer call, but my hopes are that 1) both of you guys thought the same thing and 2) they lose. :P

[Lorini]

Fishbreath and seventimessix chose the Houston Texans. Sluggo chose the Atlanta Falcons.

Spreadsheet here. (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvJxnt6OeNc7dC1HSTBLOE5nSjVYQnBNd0tYd1Iza Gc&hl=en_US#gid=0)

[Hanacker]

Fishbreath and seventimessix chose the Houston Texans.


I chose the Falcons this week.

Hmm...

Edit: According to the spreadsheet Fishbreath is correct.

[Fishbreath]

I had the Texans last week.

[sluggo]

Lorini, there are times I wonder just how much you drink during the day. :)



to loriniqt3
I'm stumped this week. I guess I'll let it ride on the HOUSTON TEXANS.
- Sluggo

Clearly this was just a mixup between Fish and my picks. (The spreadsheet seems to have the right picks). So this week:

Fish: Falcons
Sluggo, Sevenx6: Texans

I almost picked the Falcons, FWIW. LezzzgoColts!

[Fishbreath]

Despite being a Steelers fan, I have no trouble rooting for Cleveland. For a while, the Browns've been that one plucky little guy who keeps on picking fights above his weight class and getting beat up with no loss of enthusiasm.

[sluggo]

Houston: TD!
Cleveland: fumbles on their first play!
Houston: TD!

I like it!

[Fishbreath]

Atlanta: up 14-0 without having to rely on turnovers. :P

[Lorini]

^^^^^ I have Atlanta in my Eliminator league.

[sluggo]

Looks like we're all probably headed to week 10. :)

[seventimessix]

I was this close to taking KC this week. Really glad I didn't do that.

[sluggo]

I gave a *lot* of thought to picking KC.

Mostly, I waffled between Houston and Atlanta, and ultimately went with Houston because Cleveland is probably the easiest team Houston has on their schedule for the forseeable future. But I'm going to run out of good teams to pick soon, so I actually gave some thought to picking KC, who probably won't be a big favorite many other times this year.

(And they definitely won't be if they let Miami keep bullying them like they are today)

[Lorini]

KC never even crossed my mind. If not for some lucky breaks, they'd be 2-5.

[Lorini]

Sluggo, is MIA gonna lose today? :):)

[sluggo]

If I had picked KC today, I'd have officially been worried at 21-3.

I was *never* worried last week. :)

[Fishbreath]

Week 10! Unprecedented?

[sluggo]

Inconceivable!

I'm running out of teams, tho. :)

[Fishbreath]

I had a look at week 10. Ugh.

[sluggo]

Yeah, the free ride is over. I've looked ahead to the next few weeks and it's not pretty.

[Greatatlantic]

Baltimore over Seattle is the obvious pick, but I suspect you guys have already used that pick. Beyond that, Cleveland over St. Louis strikes me as an acceptable pick, mostly because St. Louis is a noticeably worse team, and Cleveland can win this one on defense and the leg of Phil Dawson. Or, you can bet on Indianapolis to keep on losing against Jacksonville.

[Lorini]

Even though it's only Monday, I do want to mention how the picks will go this week (I'll repeat in the Tuesday post). If you want to pick the Raiders (hilarity ensues) or the Chargers, then you need to get your pick to me by Thursday noon and I'll publish it. Otherwise the deadline will be as usual except if you pick after Thursday noon you can't pick the Raiders or Chargers.

[seventimessix]

I think all picks should be in by noon Thursday. Not knowing what your opponents picks are is part of the game and separate deadlines now seems not right.

[sluggo]

I wouldn't pick Cleveland even if they were playing Alabama this week.

[Lorini]

I think all picks should be in by noon Thursday. Not knowing what your opponents picks are is part of the game and separate deadlines now seems not right.

Well if everyone agrees that the deadline can change to Thursday then OK. The deadlines have always been Friday.

[sluggo]

I'd agree that it would be weird to post some picks but not all. I'd suggest one of the two:

1) All picks in by Thursday, post the picks Thursday.

2) Thursday picks in by noon Thursday, all others by noon Friday, picks are posted Friday afternoon.

There's only three of us. For simplicity's sake, option 1 is fine with me.

[Fishbreath]

I don't care either way.