Week 13: Happy Thanksgiving

Neither of us will ever forget this
Thanksgiving memory from 2012. (New York Post)

Thanksgiving is the most awesome holiday of the year!  Sure, for us Christian folk, Christmas tends to be a little more special, but it's also a lot more formal and material.

Thanksgiving is about getting the family together to do two things: eat and watch football.  What's better than that?

Um ... nothing!

Stally does his little 5K run in the morning to keep the calories down, and Austen does a 5K in his dreams wondering why anyone would get up early on the best holiday of the year to go for a run.  But, to each his own.

By the time the games kickoff on Thursday afternoon, both will be situated in front of a TV, watching the games, and waiting for a turkey leg to gnaw on.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Here are our picks for the week:

Austen's Eight-Point Pick
@Indianapolis over Washington

Austen: This game is not actually on Thanksgiving, but Andrew Luck has to be looking at this game like a Thanksgiving feast. Luck might be down a lot of his top offensive weapons, but he definitely has enough to to make minced meat out of these Redskins (don't blame me for the team having a racist name). 

Stally: This is the QB matchup everyone has anticipated since the 2012 NFL Draft, right?  First overall pick Andrew Luck versus ... Colt McCoy?  The Redskins were in such desperate need of a quarterback in 2012 that they drafted Robert Griffin III second overall and Kirk Cousins in the fourth round.  Some problems never alleviate themselves, I guess.

Stally's Eight-Point Pick
@Pittsburgh over New Orleans

Stally: At some point, it's gone from funny to pathetic.  Out of respect for the world's football intelligence, I can't let Austen keep taking the Saints.  They suck.  They flat out suck.  They're 4-7 ...  because they suck.  Give me someone, anyone, other than them right now.  I'll even go ahead and predict that the Steelers score at least 40 points in the win.  Why?  Because the Saints suck!

Week 12: Delay of Game

Andrew Luck and the Colts should run away from the Jags. (Getty)

Apologies that we didn't get this out by kickoff on Sunday.  We had some issues connecting and weren't able to do the picks until around noon on Sunday.

Stally's Eight-Point Pick
@Indianapolis over Jacksonville

Stally: With their loss to the Patriots, the Colts are now back in contention for the AFC South, a division that most were ready to crown them in a month ago.  They only lead the Texans by a game.  But put that in perspective: with the Raiders win on Thursday, the Jags are now back in contention for the first-overall draft pick.  They're 1-9, going on 1-10.

Austen: Even with all the injuries, I cannot imagine Andrew Luck not working his magic and easily taking down the hapless Jags. Even if the Jags some jump out to, say a 28-10 lead at halftime, Luck could probably still win the game. He is the best player in football right now.

Stally: The best player in football would figure out how to beat good teams.  He's the best player against garbage teams.

Austen's Eight-Point Pick
Kansas City over @Oakland

Austen: Well, remind me never to hop on the Andy Reid bandwagon again. Just when I thought, hey, maybe my criticism of him all these years was more of a personal bias. Yes, it is one game, but it is a divisional game they had to win. This looks like a repeat of last season where they will probably make the playoffs as a wild card team, and not win a game after that.

Stally: Wow!  This was a catastrophic loss for the Chiefs to the previously winless Raiders.  They went from being in a position to steal the division from the highly-touted Broncos to falling far off the division pace, especially when factoring in tiebreakers, and slipping into the Wild Card discussion with the likes of Miami, San Diego, and Cleveland.  Welcome back to mediocrity, Kansas City!

Stally's Seven-Point Pick
@Philadelphia over Tennessee

Week 11: Big Deal in the Big Apple

If Austen loved Drew Brees and the Saints anymore,
we'd have to change his nickname to "Elmo."

Stally: Austen is out this week.  The New York City apartment that I visited last weekend was painted this week, and he's helping his parents move everything back in place and clean it up.  Projections from Mama Elmore are that this will be a two-day process.  Needless to say, Austen would rather be sitting around in his ratty, last-place New York Jets t-shirt watching the games.

Be sure to check back after the week is over as he'll do a recap in place of his predictions.

Also, a special shoutout to our Number 1 reader, Gary Chagnon.  I always like when a reader checks to see when the blog will be up, because it means we have at least one person interested in reading it!

Austen's Seven-Point Pick
Denver over @St. Louis

Stally: This game seems like a pretty obvious pick, but as Lee Corso would say, "not so fast!"  The Rams beat the Seahawks at home a month ago, and they've also beat the 49ers and lost to the Cowboys by three this season.  I'm not picking the upset by any means, but St. Louis could prove to be more of a challenge than expected for the far superior Broncos.

Stally's Seven-Point Pick
@San Diego over Oakland

Stally: It's Week 11 and the Raiders haven't won yet.  Why consider them now?

Austen's Six-Point Pick
@New Orleans over Cincinnati

Week 10: OXen Sunday

Calvin Johnson's return could be the difference maker in a
surprisingly intriguing game between Detroit and Miami.

Stally's in New York City this weekend to visit Austen, so the two of us got to do this week's draft in person.  It also meant we found time to publish the blog before kickoff, which is always great!

Here's a look at some of the games we'll be watching together this afternoon.

Stally's Seven-Point Pick
Denver over @Oakland

Stally: Don't look too much into Denver's loss at New England.  It could certainly be cause for concern come playoff time, but should be a blip on the radar in regards to the regular season.  The Broncos should blowout the winless Raiders.

Austen: The Raiders cannot score points against anyone (31st in the league) and their defense cannot stop anyone from scoring points (26th in the league). Those are kind of important statistics when it comes to winning football games. It's even worse when the Broncos are coming to town angry. 

Austen's Seven-Point Pick
@Seattle over New York Giants

Austen: I've been on the "Giants are terrible" bandwagon all season long. I'm not hopping off now! A home game against the banged up Giants is exactly what the Seahawks need to give them the confidence to make the strong playoff push we all know they are capable of. 

Stally: Seattle hasn't been as dominant as expected, but the Giants simply aren't very good.  They're on a three-game losing streak and have one of the lesser defenses in the league (28th in pass defense and 22nd against the rush).

Week 9: A Spooky Week

Derek Carr has been the most impressive rookie quarterback
so far this season, but that has lead to a total of zero wins
for the Raiders, something that will not change today.

Maybe there is something in the air due to Halloween weekend, but the SOB boys took a lot of upset picks this week. There is more disagreement than there has been at any point so far this season. Maybe it is not Halloween, maybe it is just the fact that the parity in the NFL seems to be at an all time high.

Either way, our disagreement usually means there will be a lot of close, very entertaining games to watch this week. That means pay close attention to your televisions today people. Watch and enjoy, but first read our analysis.

Austen's Seven-Point Pick
@Seattle over Oakland

Austen: While the Seahawks have struggled mightily so far this season, they still have enough mojo to crush the only winless team in the league in their own home. Hell, even the Jets took care of business against the Raiders.

Stally: If Seattle doesn't win this one, we can officially consider the title defense null and void.  The Raiders are in the midst of a 13-game losing streak dating back to last year, which includes two (TWO!) losses to the Jets.