WEEK 8 THOUGHTS --- BEFORE & AFTER THE GAME

Every week before the games, sometimes on Thursday, sometimes on Friday or Saturday, I take a few minutes and wander over to the OPFOR website. It's always interesting, and sometimes it's funny too. This week of course, it's the Atlanta Falcons and we will be playing in a 'hostile' environment (so to speak..) down there. I watched/listened to Marcus Mariota talk with the reporters. Dude is pretty 'light-hearted' and seemed to be a "good interview". It's always fun to hear what your opponents are saying about you (at least what they're saying in PUBLIC..).

Mariota seems pretty thoughtful and was careful to avoid any sense of impropriety when he was asked specific questions about Carolina. There was, of course, very little new information there, as would be expected. Still....it was fun listening in, you know, sort of like spying on the enemy.   

It's going to be an interesting game. They seem to be 'mostly' healthy and should give us a pretty balanced offense to defend against. All of the prognosticators are 'talking' Atlanta to win. The odds line favors them as well, although we saw exactly what that was worth last week. For those who care, the Panthers were 12.5 point 'dogs' against the Bucs last week at game time. If you were a betting man, and bet the line (Bucs to win..), you would have lost your ass. The Over/Under was sitting somewhere around 40 and THAT would've been "safe" only if you knew something about the outcome before the game started. I imagine a LOT of money changed hands last week on our game.

This week the Panthers are 4.5 point dogs (once again no love for the Panthers..), and the O/U is sitting at 41.5..... I think the ONLY smart bet here is the UNDER (and that MAY not fly either..). If you bet the Panthers +4.5, I think you probably lose. I feel like we lose this game by 7-10....... but I don't think it gets up to 41.5 total. 
So, I'm on the record here. And all of you know how terrible my "bets" are. (That's why I don't bet..).