Davis Sports Deli's
Week 14 Review
By: Patrick Crawley

 

Week 14 Deli Picks Review - December 11, 2007

Of all the Deli staff who participated in this first edition of NFL Picks, Deli rookie Paul Topchyan spit, by far, the most trash talk. In that regard, justice was served on Sunday -- and Monday -- as Team Fischman took a commanding first week lead over Team Kool-Aid, finishing 9-1. The match-up came down to two critical Sunday afternoon games (Chargers at Titans and Buccanneers at Texans), with Team Fischman claiming victory in each. Given the young nature of the feature, many of the picks made by our contributors were similar (in fact, Joshua and Collin agreed on every one of their five match-ups). Stay tuned to see how that aspect of the Weekly Picks plays out next week.

Until then, check out the scores and analysis from the Week 14 picks:

For a full listing of the Deli Staff's Week 14 picks, go here.

Scoreboard:

Overall -
Team Fischman: 9-1
Team Kool-Aid: 7-3

Individual -
Aaron (Team Fischman): 5-0
Joshua (Team Fischman): 4-1
Paul (Team Kool-Aid): 3-2
Collin (Team Kool-Aid): 4-1

Bill Belichick "Genius of the Week" Award -
Aaron Fischman: 5-0 win-loss record, 14.2 point average margin of victory, 1 ambitious upset (Texans over Bucs)

Analysis:

Fortune is a fickle house-guest in the NFL. Just ask the Denver Broncos (who seem destined to participate in a nail-biting, down-to-the-wire game each and every week...perhaps as a cruel vindication for Mike Shanahan's awful tan job). Sometimes fortune is like a troubled sibling. Sometimes it walks through your doorway, sets down its bags and stays for months. Other times it's like a newly married couple; 90 minutes of polite pleasantries and then it's outta here.

With that said, the fortunes of the 2007-08 Dallas Cowboys are like 70-year-old Asian parents when it comes to paying a visit. Before you know it, they've renovated the attic of your house into a master bedroom, packed away all of their old stuff into your storage closet and taken up permanent residence. There's no seperating good fortune from the Cowboys this season; they're riding its coattails all the way to the Super Bowl. Take for instance, this week's game. Down by 6 points with 2:15 left in the game and possessing no timeouts, Tony Romo and the Cowboys drove 83 yards for the Romo-to-Jason Witten touchdown which would seal the one-point, last-second victory (their second win in such fashion this season).

Forget for a moment that Detroit has less security in their secondary than a blind, deaf and dumb German Shepard. Forget that a previously potent Detroit running game failed to advance the Lions past their own 39 on the drive before Romo's two-minute drill. Focus more on the luck of the 4th-and-6 conversion at the Dallas 40 yard line, or the 12-men-on-the-field penalty against Detroit at the :45 second mark, or the 16-yard completion to Sam Hurd along the sideline that was challenged and upheld. This team didn't just kiss destiny, it took her in the bedroom, plied her with wine and convinced her to break out a bunch of nasty sex toys. The way this is going, the Cowboys will advance to the NFC Championship game, endure 8 interceptions and a fumble from Romo and STILL beat whoever they are playing. It's just plain ridiculous. Romo could literally stand out on the wing of a moving airplane right now, blind drunk, and he wouldn't fall off.

Anyway, both of our Deli teams were rescued from the embarrassment of a Cowboys loss this week thanks to the poise, composure and confidence of America's favorite new son: Tony Romo. Let us all be in awe of his splendor.

Moving on to a few of the other not-so-interesting games, the Seahawks-Cardinals, Colts-Ravens, Broncos-Chiefs, Patriots-Steelers and Saints-Falcons match-ups were basically what we all expected them to be. In hindsight, I should not have picked nearly as many of these games for the docket this week. But in my defense, I did create the list on Tuesday (a few days before the Anthony Smith guarantee) and the Steelers defense did come into New England with the league's top-ranked defense. I can create similar excuses for the other four match-ups; but, really, what's the use? They all turned out to be gimme-games and each of our contributors called them correctly.

Conversely, the Eagles-Giants game was the only contest that both teams were wrong about. Joshua from Team Fischman and Collin from Team Kool-Aid each went with the home-team Eagles against the Struggling Manning Brother (Eli, of course). But crafty ol' Eli engineered two scoring drives in the third quarter and the Giants D held on in the fourth to seal a 16-13 win for the G-Men. Fresh off of more disappearances than an episode of Without a Trace, Giants receiver Plaxico Burress hauled in 7 catches for 136 yards and a touchdown against Pro Bowl corner Lito Sheppard. The loss was the only blemish to a nearly-spotless Week 14 showing for the Fischman Bros.

Speaking of the Fischman's, on Saturday Aaron predicted that Sage Rosenfels and the Texans would erase Tampa Bay's win streak. Sure enough, Rosenfels exploded for 3 touchdowns and 200+ passing yards while completing 75% of his passes. Performances like that must make fans in Houston a helluva lot more comfortable with the fact that their starting QB (Matt Schaub) insists on doing his best impression of Samuel L. Jackson in Unbreakable every week. Seriously, Matt, a 70-year-old blue-hair with osteoporosis has more staying power. Get a hold of yourself. Also, props to Aaron for recognizing Houston's ability to up-the-ante in games outside of their division (the return of Andre Johnson doesn't hurt, either).

Moving on to the deal-breaker of the week for Team Kool-Aid, the San Diego Chargers plucked a victory out of thin air in Nashville to cement a Week 14 victory for Team Fischman. Despite tossing two first-half interceptions, Chargers QB Philip Rivers pulled the monkey off of his back just in time to hit The Visor and Antonio Gates on consecutive fourth quarter touchdown passes; followed by yet another rushing TD for Tomlinson on the second Chargers drive of OT. I chalk this one up to the collective karma of LT's fantasy owners and my own fighting interest in a Chargers victory (their win put the Titans in a draw with my long-suffering Bills in the AFC Wild Card chase). Even though Rivers shifted out of neutral in time to salavage a road win, there's no way I can trust this gentleman to win a game in the playoffs. You could have five LT's on this team and I still wouldn't trust them in a do-or-die situation. As long as Norv Turner is calling the shots and Philip Rivers is delivering the pigskin, fans in San Diego are more likely to find a retiree in the Gaslamps than they are to find a Chargers playoff win in 2007-08. I feel sorry for the Visor.

Final analysis for the week: Team Fischman took more educated risks this week and they reaped the benefits of it with an emphatic victory. Although both squads scored well over .500, only one can be the victor. That team is Fischman Bros. Sorry, Rookie Paul.

Look for next week's picks on Saturday, December 15 before the 49ers-Bengals game.