Hurley's Picks: Angry Patriots Fans, Plus Peyton's Chance To Add To Colts' Misery
BOSTON (CBS) -- For a group of folks who root for an undefeated team, football fans in New England sure are angry these days. And I can't say I entirely blame them.
As the nation opted to audit every aspect of the Patriots organization over the past 11 months, feelings were -- naturally -- hurt. Slightly underinflated balls or not, only a fool would argue that the months-long pursuit (which is still being carried out in a court of appeals to this very day by Mr. Goodell) was anything but incredibly stupid and a grand waste of time, money and resources. It was, quite literally, the most ridiculous saga in sports history.
The fact that Tom Brady is absolutely decimating the NFL this season with "properly inflated footballs" only hammers home that point.
But it's not enough to undo nearly a year's worth of emotional damage, and I've seen it up close this past week.
The main catalyst was Jay Glazer's report that Andrew Luck has played with broken ribs this year. This is particularly noteworthy, beyond the obvious, because Luck's rib injury has not been listed on the Colts' injury reports this year. That is a violation of the rules.
Now, obviously, Colts GM Ryan Grigson believes very much in the upholding of all rules. All he wants is a level playing field, and he would never defraud the vigilant stewards of the shield and the overall integrity of the game by withholding information on an injury report. That's something only the Patriots would do; it's absolutely not something Grigson would do from his glass house.
This situation followed some reports over the weekend about the extent to which the Jets, by way of NFL security team members, interrogated two game-day employees at Gillette Stadium in Week 7.
Most of the response I saw from Patriots fans could be summed up by saying ... well, they were mad. Real mad.
Now, this is where some media stooge might climb atop a soapbox and wave a finger, telling them "You're better than this!" and that two wrongs don't make a right and that there's no need to get petty just because of the nonstop harassment of your favorite team/player by the NFL.
But screw that.
This is sports. Sports! They don't really matter. Leave things like "logic" and "being rational" in other areas of life. In sports, you're allowed to be wildly hypocritical and unreasonable, so have at it.
On the Luck matter, hell yeah you should be mad. Failure to disclose an injury is an offense on par with maybe taking fractions of a PSI out of a football, so as stupid as you sound saying it, go ahead and say you want Roger Goodell to pay for a $5 million "independent" investigation that slams the Colts and costs them a first-round draft pick. Express your outrage for Luck being able to simply say "I don't know, I'm not going to get into that right now" when asked about his ribs, because you had to watch White House reporters and the news media pepper Tom Brady with questions for a half-hour about the PSI in footballs. And say that it's time for Grigson to be kicked out of the league, because if he's such a stickler for the rules, certainly he should be abiding by them.
And on the Jets, I'll tell you this: You should be mad about one thing, and one thing only. According to the reports, neither Jets security director Robert Mastroddi nor NFL security team member Lenny Bandy even knew the rules of what they were interrogating the employee about. Just like in January, when none of the goofballs in NFL game ops had any clue about PSI or basic physics, these clowns wanted the Patriots to fry for having an employee in charge of batteries for the referee's microphone. Problem was, that's exactly what the employee was supposed to be doing. And the accusers did not know the rules.
It might be high time for Robert Kraft to make some public statements, at least about the Jets sweeping the locker room and prompting an investigation that forced two game-day employees to hand over their phones, because the anger is growing. And I say to the fans ... you should let it fester some more.
On a personal note, I'm a little angry at the way the NFL action unfolded last week. From the Panthers falling asleep in the fourth quarter to the Falcons being fraudulent to Pittsburgh flopping at home to the Seahawks being a bit of a mess to Green Bay failing to show up in Denver, it was a rough one for me.
But as always, I'll soldier on.
(Home team in CAPS; Wednesday lines)
Cleveland (+11) over CINCINNATI
I'll tell you one thing: The judge and the hot dog guy from the commercial promoting this game can take a hike. They can get right out. You hear me?
While I subscribe to the Prime-Time Curse that haunts Andy Dalton and Marvin Lewis, and while I do think the pressure of being UNDEFEATED will eventually catch up to the Bengals, I do think they can handle a home game with the Browns. Just ... not by 11 points. The Bengals have won by double digits just twice all year. Plus, you understand it's going to be dark out during this game, right?
BUFFALO (-3) over Miami
Dan Campbell was stripped of his tough guy mojo last week in Foxboro. Rex Ryan lost his dignity by losing to Jacksonville ... in London.
These two teams aren't exactly riding high right now.
But the Bills fared pretty well against the Dolphins a month ago. I'm going with the "It's Just A Good Matchup" reasoning.
St. Louis (+2.5) over MINNESOTA
I'm calling it now: The Rams are overrated. Everyone's losing their mind over Todd Gurley while overlooking the fact that the Rams have picked up half their wins against the Browns and 49ers. They got beaten handily by the Packers, and they have a 12-6 home loss to Pittsburgh and Michael Vick on their record. They average 190 passing yards per game. They're 28th in the league in scoring. The Rams aren't that good.
That being said, I firmly believe that it takes a very good team to win four in a row. And while I like the Vikings, I think they succumb to the difficulty of a four-game win streak.
NEW ENGLAND (-14) over Washington
Please, with this line. Please. This ain't 2007, people. Help me out here.
The Patriots, dominant as they may be, have let some lesser teams like the Jets and Colts hand around enough to cover spreads in recent weeks. The reason I think they can pull this one off is the fact that Kirk Cousins' home/road splits are insane.
Cousins at home: 75 percent passing, 6 TDs, 2 INTs
Cousins on the road: 61.3 percent passing, 3 TDs, 6 INTs
I don't like that, Kirk.
JACKSONVILLE (+6.5) over New York Jets
On Wednesday afternoon, roughly 15,000 reporters and media outlets rushed to tweet that Todd Bowles announced that Ryan Fitzpatrick would be starting at quarterback. It was at that moment, seeing all of those people rush to pass along this very important breaking news, that I really saw the problem that we all have here in this great country.
NEW ORLEANS (-8) over Tennessee
Pretty much the only time I'd be comfortable taking the Saints by eight points would be if they're coming off a 52-point performance and are welcoming a team with no quarterback that just fired its head coach. And hey, would you look at that?
Oakland (+4) over PITTSBURGH
The season's only halfway over, but I feel comfortable in saying that the AFC wild-card race will essentially come down to three teams: the Raiders, the Steelers and the Jets. One of those teams will hit the jackpot by essentially earning a bye, aka a first-round matchup against some 6-10 winner of the AFC South, so the fight for that top wild-card spot is a big one.
The Raiders picked up their head-to-head tiebreaker with the Jets last week, and they can do the same this weekend in Pittsburgh.
And even if they can't pick up the W, the fact that Pittsburgh can't score makes taking the points the easiest decision of the week.
Green Bay (-2.5) over CAROLINA
For the Panthers' being on a short week, but more for the Packers' coming off a blowout loss and looking to redeem themselves, I'll firmly stand by Aaron Rodgers.
After seeing Andrew Luck rise from the dead and throw for about 500 yards in the fourth quarter on Monday night, I'm not feeling quite as hot about the Carolina D as before.
Atlanta (-7) over SAN FRANCISCO
BLAINE GABBERT ALERT! I repeat: BLAINE GABBERT ALERT!
New York Giants (-2) over TAMPA BAY
I ... think the Giants are better than the Buccaneers?
I think.
Denver (-5) over INDIANAPOLIS
It's pretty great that we get to see a real-life Kill Bill situation play out in Indy on Sunday afternoon. Peyton Manning doesn't seem to be filled with a thirst for vengeance or anything like that, but he's still a pretty prideful guy. He's also someone who was supposed to be a Colt for life. Anything else made no sense.
But the Colts saw Peyton injured, they saw Andrew Luck as the next great QB, so they tanked their little butts off to ensure the top pick before unceremoniously kicking to the curb the man who turned their sad-sack organization into a perennial powerhouse.
After that, Peyton enjoyed plenty of success of his own (in the regular season, anyway), but it still had to gnaw at him every time he saw the Colts living happily in their new little world. New coach Chuck Pagano was a peach. Everyone loved interim coach Bruce Arians. Luck was the real deal. The team continued to get better every year (while getting squashed by the Patriots in consecutive postseasons, mind you), and they even ended Manning's season in Denver last January.
Now, the Colts are rapidly unraveling. They fired their offensive coordinator this week and it's only a matter of time before Pagano gets pink-slipped. After that, it'll be Ryan Grigson, the man who took over as GM just two months before the Colts released Peyton. Then, maybe the franchise quarterback will decide he wants out. And it'll all leave owner Jim Irsay befuddled, burned out and broken down.
Any great athlete loves the opportunity to send a message to the team that didn't want him. And if Manning can deliver a win* in Indy, it'll go a long way toward sending that franchise into even more disarray.
*This was all a bit hyperbolic. As we all know, Manning will throw for 200 yards, 1 TD and 2 INTs while the Denver defense will again carry the load. But please, shhhh. Do not interrupt my fairy tale.
Philadelphia (-2.5) over DALLAS
Credit to the Cowboys for valiantly fighting and making people believe they might actually contend during Tony Romo's absence. But I think last week was their death knell. A win at home over the defending NFC champs could have buoyed them for another couple of weeks, but a 13-12 kick-in-the-pants loss will be what does them in.
But I mean ... feel free to pick Matt Cassel if you want. It's a free country.
SAN DIEGO (-4) over Chicago
This may be it.
This may finally be it.
This may be the week that I decide to entirely forego the Monday Night Football experience. The week when I decide I value my life too much to sit on the couch by myself and watch two bad teams get together to play a bad football game, officiated by bad officials who throw bad yellow flags after every fourth play.
This might finally be the week.
(Who am I kidding? This won't be the week. I'll watch every damn bad snap.)
Last week: 6-7-1
Season: 56-60-3
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
