Last week was nothing to brag about with an 8-8 record against the spread and a 10-6 record straight up, but Del is keeping his head above the water as the season winds down. The important thing is we’re still above .500, and while the Top 3 have struggled going 1-2 the past two weeks, you’re still in the green area if you’ve been betting the locks consistently all year.
As was the case last week, Del is going to sleep on a couple of his Top 3 selections and give it some thought. I wanted to get the picks out before the Thursday night game begins in case some of you are in pools. For the record, the Thursday night game is not going to find it’s way into Del’s Top 3 this week, so don’t worry about that.
One game Del feels strongly about is the Ravens -3.5 at Cleveland. The Baltimore team we saw against the Saints last weekend looked a lot better than the one we watched almost blow a lead against the Texans the week before. The Saints are one of the best teams in football, and the Ravens handled them. The Browns, on the other hand, are headed in the wrong direction. Since a stretch of great football against some of the league’s best teams, Cleveland has squeaked by Miami and Carolina and lost to two of the worst teams in football — the Bills and Bengals. Having Colt McCoy back will help, but I think the Ravens are a much better team.
The other two Top 3 picks this week are the Cowboys -6 in Arizona and the Bucs -6 at home against Seattle. The Cardinals are coming off a loss to the Panthers and have become one of the worst teams in the NFL. Jon Kitna is coming off a strong performance against Washington and Jason Garrett has been able to get Dallas to buy into his system. As for Tampa Bay, the Lions surprised a lot of people by defeating the Bucs in overtime last weekend. Tampa will be looking to bounce back, and the Seahawks could be a worse team than Detroit at this point. I don’t see the Bucs losing back-to-back games to terrible teams.
(ATS = Against the Spread, SU = Straight Up)
