Futbol, Football and NFL Week 3

 

I'm on a train in France trying to make sense of this NFL slate this week despite steamrolling into the highly anticipated Paris FC v Strasbourg match, sort of the French version of a Falcons v Bears game.  It's nice to be out of the country for a break.  I looked at the paper this morning thinking about that quote I recently read that said something like "Now Americans will understand how Nazi Germany happened as one third of the nation performs cruelties on another third while the last third stands and watches".  Just for those keeping score at home on the Dictatorship board, we've got state controlled media, loss of free speech, state prosecution of political foes, scapegoating of fringe groups, masked federal police tossing people in vans, loss of due process, troops on city streets and rewards for total loyalty so there's not much left to accomplish.  Congratulations America, you are now Turkey.  Next stop?  Who knows.  The great news is that there will be a stadium filled with drunk ass Browns fans singing "Proud To Be An American" in the 4th quarter as the Browns are down 34-10.  Bread and circus baby!  

I can't do anything about my ever diminishing feeling of pride I used to have for my country, but what I can do is embrace one of our nation's highest values... gambling on NFL Football!  (Cue "Proud To Be An American"). I am getting on the Rams today versus Philadelphia.  The Eagles are probably going to be one of the four left standing at the end, but they aren't playing that well right now.  They're 2-0 so no one really thinks about how they were in a close game with Dallas that had to fight to the death with the Giants, and looked unimpressive playing a Kansas City team that finally looks like they'll have to suffer a minor rebuild.  The Rams are sneaky good.  Their problem is I can't see how they play 17 regular season games with a 37 year old QB that has a fucked up disc in his back.  Stafford will be his version of healthy today though, and that's all that matters.  I'll take McVeigh on this game to outcoach the Philly staff after their Super Bowl reshuffle.  LA Rams +3.5     

If I had to choose one team to win the NFC right now, that would be Green Bay.  It's a young team on the rise, good QB, good coach, and a disruptive pass rush.  The Browns haven't been able to move the ball convincingly on a crappy Bengals D or the Ravens coming off having Buffalo drop 40+ on them.  How does Joe Flacco, a 40 year old QB that looks like a 40 year old guy playing QB, create time crunching drives with that offensive line?  The Browns defense looks much better than the offense, but to win this game they will need to create game changing turnovers.  When faced with the option of being on the side of the Browns getting lucky or Green Bay coming in and being the better team, I'll take the latter.  I am going to pay the tax and take a point on this as insurance.  Green Bay -6.5

They say that the best bets are the ones that make you uncomfortable.  This must be a great one because I am going to take the Saints today.  Let's not mince words.  The Saints blow.  However, they do have offensive weapons who, though usually hurt, are healthy today in Olave and Kamara.  Spencer Rattler is playing like a poor man's Gardiner Minshew, not a great compliment but I'm trying here.  He's been sorta better than expected, almost a "we can maybe win with him" but certainly not a "he will make us win" guy.  Seattle is playing so conservatively as if they already have buyer's remorse on Sam Darnold.  This game should be low scoring, boring, and close.  Don't get me wrong, the Saints will end up losing but not by more than a touchdown.  New Orleans +7.5 

Current record: 3-4