I basically start and end every season with the same commentary in my introductions. That is, where others hate the first week of the year, I love it. But, where others are driven crazy by the lack of clarity entering the final week of each regular season, I, too, feel uneasy. In fact, Week 17 is usually the week of picks that I dread most.
Not this year.
It’s not because of some newfound confidence in the games – I am staying with a low amount of confidence picks again – but in the likelihood of key factors remaining projectable. In other words, we usually have a lot more uncertainty in Week 17 than we are seeing, this year. There are typically more teams threatening to rest players and more teams competing for a spot in the postseason. This time, we don’t have that. Not in abundance, anyway.
More importantly, we shouldn’t expect too many surprises.
For those of you who only pick regular season games against-the-spread, best of luck in capping off what-has-been an outstanding season. For the rest, I’ll see you in the playoffs!
Below are predictions for each game against the spread. Spreads have been taken from various websites and are subject to change. The spread in parenthesis denotes the selected team. An asterisk denotes a confidence pick.
*Confidence Picks – 2019 Season: 53-39-3 (Last Week: 4-1)
(2018 Season: 63-48-4) (2017 Season: 53-48-4) (2016 Season: 53-67-3) (2015 Season: 69-45-2) (2014 Season: 61-46-2) (5-Year Total: 299-254-15)
All Picks Against Spread – 2019 Season: 126-107-7 (Last Week: 9-6-1)
(2018 Season: 137-118-12) (2017 Season: 137-119-11) (2016 Season: 123-136-8) (2015 Season: 143-117-7) (2014 Season: 149-114-4) (5-Year Total: 689-604-42)
Cleveland Browns at Cincinnati Bengals
If we have seen anything from the Cincinnati Bengals, it is further confirmation that they were not exactly trying to lose games. This does, however, mean that the team was simply bad, all year. Somehow, that feels better in terms of intention. But not when it comes to the team, as a whole. Because, where we can argue that the Dolphins don’t care about winning four or five games, we see that the Bengals wanted to tally wins over the course of the season.
They have one.
This is in stark contrast to the Cleveland Browns, who entered this year with Super Bowl aspirations. It’s crazy to think of it now, but it is part of the narrative that has been written over the course of the season.