ekblaw@uiucdcs.CS.UIUC.EDU (12/06/85)
Well, it's Friday! I have heard that people suspect me of fomenting gambling by including spreads in my picks. Well, I am not a gambler (I hat gambling, in fact). I put the spreads in to illustrate how much stronger I thought one team was over the other. However, in an effort to maintain peace and harmony for the upcoming Christmas season, I shall remove the spread. I will keep my score pick, as then anyone interested can do a little simple subtraction to determine the spread I chose. Now, on we go! Pittsburgh at San Diego Chargers 27:24 Atlanta at Kansas City Chiefs 24:13 Cleveland at Seattle Seahawks 10:6 Dallas at Cincinnati Cowboys 24:13 Detroit at New England Patriots 24:13 Indianapolis at Chicago Bears 27:3 LA Raiders at Denver BRONCOS * 27:24 * Miami at Green Bay Dolphins 31:17 New Orleans at St. Louis Cardinals 17:13 NY Giants at Houston Giants 17:10 NY Jets at Buffalo Jets 24:3 Tampa Bay at Minnesota Vikings 24:16 Washington at Philadelphia EAGLES 20:17 * LA Rams at San Francisco 49ers 27:17 BRONCOS: Denver is playing very well at home. Also, these two teams are both tied at the top of the AFC West. This is a grudge match if I ever saw one! I figure the game to be close, but home field advantage for the Broncos I pick to beat the "beat up the opposing players" philosophy of the Bloody Raiders. EAGLES: I picked the Eagles defense to beat Washington even before Thiesmann went out. Schroeder at the helm won't help much. Too, the Eagles have last week's game against the 49ers on their side. Washington will try to overcompensate for the errors last week, and cover their offensive holes that the 49ers discovered.However, I figure that the Hogs will do this exclusively (at least at first), so that the Eagles can beat the line doing normal defensive manuevers. BEARS: This deals with Monday's game, not this weekend's. It may surprise some people to realize that I was fairly pleased that the Bears lost. I hate to see an unbeaten team at the end of the regular season. After their win over Dallas, the only strong opponents left where Miami, Jets, and Detroit at home. I wanted the Bears to beat their divisional opponent (Detroit) and wanted to see the Jets get creamed, so Miami was the only team left to do the job. I picked the Bears to win because I felt that they were the strongest team (I still do, in fact), but I was secretly hoping for a loss. Now that they have one loss, they can win all of the remaining games. I won't mind anymore! Robert A. Ekblaw