Week 3 ATS Recap: The Comebacks

You can throw my making up all the ground I lost to Dre last week, when I shit the bed with TWO wins, onto the pile of comebacks the NFL has seen this season so far. For some teams, blowing leads has become chronic (Minnesota), while for others (Buffalo) coming back has been par for the course. Of course, Buffalo should be used to coming back, considering they own the largest comeback in playoff history.

Also, what's with all the pushiness this year so far? We've seen more pushes (4) than we saw for ALL of 2010 (3). This season pushes have become like Tom Brady interceptions. You never used to see them, now you see nothing but...

• Panthers 16, Jaguars 10 - Both winners - We didn't factor for the weather, but the skies cleared enough for Cam Newton to toss a late TD to Greg Olsen and send the Panthers to their first win of 2011. It's hard to grade out Blaine Gabbert's first start due to the conditions, so I'll wait to see more before deciding if he's the answer over Luke "It's Not About the Money" McCown. It's not about the money. Really. We mean it. Seriously guys, c'mon.


• Titans 17, Broncos 14 - Both winners - In the wide open AFC South, Tennessee stands at 2-1 having gotten NOTHING from Chris Johnson and that new contract. The former Oilers turned to the other side of the ball in both their wins, leaning on an underrated (or underestimated) defense in what could be a surprising season in Nashville. Matt Hasselbeck looks like the winner so far in the geriatric QB carousel.


• Saints 40, Texans 33 - Jason winner, Dre loser - If Dre could skew these picks on how lucky he thinks my wins are, he'd be up 15 or so games on me already for the season. His Texans, down 33-32, needed only keep the Saints out of the end zone and force a field goal attempt to seal the win for Dre. Instead, they let the Saints ramble right down the field and let my fantasy goat, Mark Ingram, score his first ever NFL touchdown. Houston has nobody to blame but thier porous defense.


• Lions 26, Vikings 23 - PUSH - The Vikings would be 3-0 if games lasted 30 minutes. After a 17 point collapse the week prior against Tampa, the Vikings decided to get up 20 at halftime to up and coming Detroit. This game also marks the second week in a row that Dre and I differed on a game but both agreed on its "pushiness." Both times the game was a push. Both times I took the favorite and he took the dog. Both times a team needed a furious comeback to force the push after defeat stared me in the face. We need to stop agreeing on games looking pushy.


• Giants 29, Eagles 16 - Both winners - I found myself agreeing with Mike Vick. His style of play and his recklessness does cost him when it comes to refs giving him the benefit of the doubt on roughing calls and personal fouls. But what the refs are not in control of are the shitty offensive lines that Vick has had to labor behind in Atlanta and now Philly. The book on Vick is clearly to bust him up, get in his head, or better yet get him the hell out of the game. I'm sure teams would gladly take a 15 yard penalty to see #7 on the sideline for the rest of a game. They'd probably even spot the Eagles a 14 point lead before the opening kickoff if Andy Reid would promise not to use Vick. When you have the most versatile weapon in the league, maybe you should try to protect him better. The refs can only do so much.


• Bills 34, Patriots 31 - Dre winner, Jason loser - When you use the word "pick" and Tom Brady, it's usually used in a sentence like this: Tom Brady picked apart the Buffalo secondary. Which he did. That is, until he started dispensing the bad kind of "pick" like picks were something that came out of a Pez dispenser. Sure, not all the interceptions were Bradys fault. But Buffalo, down 21, seized on every Patriot mistake and when crunch time came, one team looked like the battle tested champs and the other like mistake prone up and comers. Guess which team looked like what? Scoreboard!


• Browns 17, Dolphins 16 - PUSH - If Dre wants to whine about luckiness, he should have been all over it on this game. You don't always have to win to be lucky. The Brownies played like ass for 58 minutes before scoring a late go-ahead TD. Miami then had the ball past midfield and proceeded to run three boneheaded pass attempts and then missed a 4th down conversion. Sometimes, not winning OR losing is winning.


• Niners 13, Bengals 8 - Both losers - We're all losers here, including anyone who watched this shitbag of a game.


• Raiders 34, Jets 24 - Jason winner, Dre loser - In a pass happy league, the Raiders have gone to the ground to pound out victories. It's like Al Davis is saying "fuck you" to all the teams that are copying his sling-it-deep attitude and unleashing the punishing attack of Darren McFadden and Micheal Bush just when the rest of the league least expected it. Not that I think Davis has anything to do with this, I just find this all amusingly ironic. The Raiders are a Buffalo comeback away from 3-0 and looking more solid than "favorite" San Diego. Mark Sanchez threw for 369 yards, and if you ever need to know the result of a Jets game without looking at the score, just look at Sanchez's passing totals. If he threw for 369 yards, the Jets lost. Bad.


• Ravens 37, Rams 7 - Jason winner, Dre loser - Dre lost his shit on this pick. When he uttered the words "fuck you, faggot Ravens" I just knew he was channeling the anger of how bad Baltimore let us all down the week before in the Music City Hangover. I wasn't going to fall into that trap, and the carnage on the field only really lasted a quarter, after which Baltimore was up 21-0. The Ravens were up 27-0 at halftime, and shockingly, won! That's how crazy the NFL is right now.


• Chargers 20, Chiefs 17 - Both losers - There's nobody but myself to blame for this loss. I called all the reasons WHY the Chiefs would cover but didn't have the balls to make the pick. This is what playing it safe after a 2 win week does to you. Hanging my head in disappointment this very moment.


• Bucs 16, Falcons 13 - Both losers - To paraphrase the wordsmith Dre: fuck you, faggot Falcons.


• Packers 27, Bears 17 - Jason winner, Dre loser - Sure, Dre may be a little buttsore from the phantom holding call that wiped out one of the most amazingly deceptive plays I've ever seen, but I have a fundamental problem with that play: why did the Bears roll it out down 10 with very little time left? That's a play you sandbag until you NEED it, like in overtime or down a touchdown or less very late in game. Sure, it would have covered the spread, and that's great for Dre. But for the Bears, they showed their ass just to get the chance to kick an onside kick? You know what that smell is in the air? Desperation. Nothing else smells like it.


• Seahawks 13, Cardinals 10 - Jason winner, Dre loser - My "research" for this game entailed me knowing that Seattle plays good at home. That was it. Even the cheap wins count the same as the well thought out ones.


• Steelers 23, Colts 20 - Both losers - The Colts finally showed up, and almost took out the AFC Champs. Curtis Painter looked almost serviceable in the last few minutes of the game, but after almost three full games of Kerry Collins looking like he wanted to be back at home drinking a beer, anything would have been an upgrade. Painter will get the call this week, but we'll see if it's too little too late for the 0-3 Colts.


• Cowboys 18, Redskins 16 - Both winners - Boys/Skins used to mean something on MNF. That crap on my TV Monday was just....wow, that was bad.

Just like last year, neither of us want to step up and get a lead. After three weeks, we're all square. Would we really have it any other way?