NFL Rant – What?! No Upsets In Week 12?

By Angry Tom

Let me get the Bills beating the Dolphins out of the way first, because nobody expected Miami to continue their overachieving with a rookie quarterback on the road and Ronnie Brown on crutches. And if you think the Niners’ 20-3 victory over the Jaguars was an “upset” then you didn’t see the betting line. San Francisco was favored by three-points. Instead, the football gods teased us with possible upsets…and then took them all away from us.

Josh Freeman and the craptastic Bucs couldn’t even polish the Atlanta Falcons off with Matt Ryan on the sidelines after leading the entire second half. The Redskins saw a 7-point lead whittle away in the final quarter and lost to the Philadelphia Eagles instead of putting McNabb and the rest of us out of the misery of having to deal with Philly as an NFC contender. As expected, the Lions, Raiders, Chiefs, Panthers, Rams, Browns and Bears all lost.

What does that say about the NFL so late in the season? Simple. All the good teams are spoken for, and the bad teams are polluting the League. What’s left amongst this catastrophic level of parity is an unexciting playoff picture. You know who’s going to the playoffs. In the AFC it’s Cincinnati, New England, Indianapolis and San Diego and less than four teams have a reasonable shot at the wildcard. In the NFC punch tickets to the post season if you cheer for New Orleans, Minnesota, Dallas/Philadelphia or Arizona. Awesome. We have five weeks of useless betting left and we already know what teams we’re going to be watching in January.

I’ll take solace in the tired fact that at least some of these losers are covering the NFL betting spread.  But if you need me, I’ll be drowning this uninspiring season in a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Wake me up in the New Year when the NFL season matters again.