Ah, Thanksgiving. A magical time of the year built around gluttony, football and trampling people at Walmart for $5 off a Martha Stewart panini press. If Super Bowl Sunday is the Christmas of the football world, Thanksgiving is the...well... Thanksgiving of the football world. It's the one time of year I won't bitch about football on Thursday (except that the marquee game is the Pats and Jets) and really laugh at people who forget to set their fantasy lineups.
We had one of our best weeks ever last week. We all got bamboozled by the Jets game, so we won't talk about that. Other than that, there were only a couple of individual picks that were wrong. Take that 9-year old kid who probably still beat us!
So, as is tradition, it looks like we're going to follow up a good week with several big swing games. This week, Forty will either pretty much clinch the season, or fall way back (That's been said far too often this season.) Actually, I think this pick 'em's gonna come straight down to the wire.
A note on the Steelers (because this is Steelers N'At, not NFL N'At): There's been a lot of talk about how screwed the Steelers are right now. AB's out, Troy's possibly out, I'm sure there's a running back hurt somewhere and Ben, Leftwich and Cotchery are all out with the same injury. (Note to self: Trademark "Steeler's BBQ Rib Sauce) We're on our third-string, should-just-be-a-coach QB, Dennis Dixon said he'd rather be on the Ravens practice squad than get a game check this week, and Plax is back in town...but even with all that, I'd still take the Steelers over the Browns this week. Hell, I'd take the Power over the Browns this week, and they don't have a quarterback, either.
Batch is 5-2 as a starter for the Black N Gold. We're depleted in key areas, but we're not out in those areas. Hell, even if a meteor strikes midfield, Heath can still go in and throw to Plax. It's not the end of the world. If the Brownies made it to Thanksgiving with hope left for the season, then it'd be the end of the world.
******Keller's Note: Forty picked Washington over Dallas, but we put it in wrong. His pick will be reflected in the standings, but we didn't have time to fix the graphic. Happy Thanksgiving*****
Lock of the Week (Keller): Denver over Kansas City (solid, but unspectacular cover; at 27-10, take the Broncos and the Under): Dear Jesus, I almost broke down and took the Bengals as my Lock. They're at home, Oakland is awful, they looked good enough against the Chiefs last week... just couldn't bring myself to do it. Besides, Kansas City is awful-er, Denver's on a roll, and they've been forcing a ton of turnovers while the Chiefs have been giving them out like candy from a dark van with no windows. It's usually really tough to go into Arrowhead and get a win, but not this season. I think the Broncos take care of business and cover.
Lock of the Week (Weidman): Denver over Kansas City (Cover, over.)
With respect to Mr. Hayhurst below - and his points are very valid - I gotta take this game for the lock. Peyton has been known to hold back when he's looking solidly at the post season, but not this year. The Colts made a bold choice to cut him when he probably had a few years left in the tank to take The Next Big Thing (and I think Luck's going to mature into something impressive that will make people forget this season), but I doubt that Peyton "If you have a product, I'll sell it" Manning sees it that way. He wants to prove everyone wrong and put on another ring. That means not holding back, even against a JV team like KC.
Lock of the Week (Forty): Cincinnati over Oakland (31-17. The Bengals should be able to cover eight and look for the ball to be thrown around a lot, so go with the over.)Denver over Kansas City looks like the safe bet, but the Broncos could take a week off after pretty much clinching the west, even against a division rival. The Bengals, after a mid-season slide, are peaking at the right time and are hungry to get back into the playoff picture. The Raiders have lost three straight and their last two wins were against the only teams in the NFL possibly worst than they are, the Chiefs and Jaguars. Lets just look at points here. In the Bengals last two wins they've put 28 or more on the board while holding opponents to under two touchdowns. In their last three losses, Oakland has been able to score, but the defense has allowed 38 points or more. Here's the intangible: Carson Palmer. He's played well all year and you would think he would want to show up his former team, but that doesn't mean anything to his teammates. A lot of Bengals players remember Palmer basically being a crybaby and asking to be traded when the chips were down, then threatening to retire. They would like nothing better than to cram the ball down his throat. The Bengals are just way more motivated to get the win against a bad team.
Meet the "Experts":
Brad "QBERT" Keller
is the inventor and sole proprietor of the QBERT (Quantitative BERT
jones is awesome) system for rating quarterbacks. Using this
innovative approach and working tirelessly part time breaking down film
and finding angles inside the angles, he has mastered the art of
picking and handicapping NFL games. With an expanded playing field
this season, he's anxious to defend his title against a formidable
group of experts that... hey, you know what? He can beat these two
jokers, right? No problem. Because he has a foolproof system.
"Arena" Weidman's
prime qualification for this contest is that he's spent more than a
decade watching Steelers games with Keller while drinking. Because of
this, most of his picks might seem like they were done while drunk, but
that's just a facet of how he gets into "recall mode." A devoted
follower of the Arena Football League, Weidman's NFL world view is
colored through this lens. Because of this, he possesses strong
opinions on why more people should go to Power games and how the the
Cardinals should really be using the Rattlers as a farm team. Mainly,
he just has trouble with the field being way too big.
Leonard "Forty" Hayhurst
earned his nickname for his ability to grow the facial hair of a
40-year-old man at the age of 16, not his ability to pound 40s of King
Cobra, but there's that too. He owns the largest collection of Drew
Bledsoe memorabilia in the world (five items would be the largest,
right?). He feels for Cleveland Browns fans because when he started
rooting for a 2-14 club in the New England Patriots, they eventually
won three Super Bowls. Then Steelers fans brag about how they have six
Super Bowl wins, to which Leonard says they would have had eight if
the Patriots hadn't beaten them twice in the AFC Championship game.
They then mumble something about Franco Harris and walk away. 
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