NFL Week 14 Early Leans & Stats of the Week
No comments on my continued ability to set money on fire. Doing this week’s stats by team. I was originally feeling ambitious and planned on posting something for every team but only got through half.
Stats of the Week
Cincinnati: The Bungles have had a different player rush for over 100 yards in each of their last three games (Bernard Scott, Larry Johnson, Cedric Benson).
Pittsburgh: The Steelers have lost four games in a row for the first time since 2003. In all six of their losses this season, the Steelers have led in the fourth quarter. S Troy Polamalu did not play in five of the six losses and was removed in the first quarter in a loss against Cincinnati.
Kansas City: The Chiefs have allowed 87 points in the last two weeks.
New England: Miami has allowed 134 points in the fourth quarter of games this season. Tom Brady went 1-7 for 11 yards and 2 INTs in the 4th quarter Sunday.
San Francisco: QB Alex Smith had the first 300 yard passing game of his career Sunday. Mike Singletary & His Stopwatch managed to called three timeouts in this game in the first eight minutes of the first quarter.
Chicago: The Bears are 20-23 since their Super Bowl appearance in 2006, having failed to make the playoffs each season. At 5-7, they are two games back of the last playoff place and trailing in tiebreakers. Bears GM Jerry Angelo:
I have been in this league a long, long time. Believe me, I will never live without hope,” he said. “There might be situations that look hopeless but it certainly is not that way internally. We will come out of this better for it. I promise you that. Sometimes things don’t work out according to plan. Doesn’t mean the plan was bad. The plan was solid. It just didn’t work. We’ll go back and we’ll re-visit the things that didn’t work, fix the things that didn’t work, and when you do that you will be better for it.
Minnesota: Brett Favre’s 2 interceptions Sunday night put him up to 5 for the season. Offensive turnovers by team for the season:
Team G TO
GB 11 10
SD 12 12
MIN 12 13
BAL 11 13
NE 12 15
Houston: Rex Grossman, subbing for an injured Matt Schaub, threw an interception on his first pass attempt.
San Diego: Antonio Gates caught eight passes for 167 yards in the Chargers 20-23 win over Cleveland. Gates and the Chargers have been quietly awesome. Gates has 67 receptions for 994 yards on the season and the Chargers have won 7 straight.
Dallas: The Cowboys haven’t had a winning December since 1996, which happens to be when they last won a playoff game.
Denver: DE/LB Elvis Dumervil has 14 sacks on the season, leading the NFL.
New Orleans: The Saints first lead on Sunday came with 8:31 remaining in overtime.
Washington: At one point in the 4th quarter, the Saints were estimated to have a 1% chance of winning against the Redskins. The Redskins had 455 yards of offense on the day, easily their highest total of the season. Their 30 points (which should have been 33 if not for the FG miss below) was also a season high.
Tampa: Tampa also rolled up a season high in yards with 469 in Carolina Sunday. Thanks to Josh Freeman pulling a Dirty Sanchez (5 INTs in a game for the uninitiated), the Bucs scored all of six points.
Carolina: Matt Moore is now 3-1 for his career as a starter. Shockingly, Vegas is ignoring this tidbit as Carolina is a 2 TD underdog @ New England this week.
Oakland: The 21 points Oakland scored in the 4th quarter against the Steelers is more than they’ve scored in any single game this season. Not that Kevin Harlan is bad, but the only thing missing in the Raider comeback was a little Gus Johnson.
Early Leans
None. By now, you shouldn’t be following my picks anyway.
