NFL Week 11 Picks Part 1

Wow, so it's been a while, longer than the last time. Many things have happened since week 6 (the last time I posted). First of all, and for no other reason other than the fact that I'm winning, I think that we are going to do a couple more games for the weekly picks. Just looking at the schedule for the upcoming week, there are 7 matchups that would be fun to pick based on interesting lines, matchups, and, well, just because it's my blog and I pick which games I want to pick against the spread.

Because I have no memory of anything that happened between week 6 and 10 (and to my knowledge I haven't been hit in the head as many times as Brian Westbrook in the last couple of weeks - more on concussions coming up), I guess I'll just focus on a few things that happened during this last weekend of football.

I was in Pittsburgh this last weekend for the Penguins and Steelers games - but I'll save hockey for when the season is over and I know that some people (Will) aren't hockey fans and wouldn't want me to start talking about it in a football blog entry - but I digress. I got to witness firsthand the Bengals beating the Steelers at their (what used to be) their own game. The Bengals offensive and defensive lines blew up the Steelers at the point of attack and without Polamalu, the Steelers D is not nearly as formidable... probably because Polamalu diagnoses a play better than anyone in the league. Sidenote: something that I feel was overlooked until recently when Polamalu started appearing in all those Head and Shoulders commercials is how he talks. His voice is so mellow and soothing that you would never believe that he is one of the hardest hitting and best safeties in the game. His voice is better suited for softly cooing to new born babies while sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch on a warm summer morning with his hair billowing in the breeze (*sigh*) rather than talking about the intricacies of Dick LeBeau's zone blitzing scheme. But that's just my opinion...

In non-Steeler news, concussions and football. I know Malcolm Gladwell just wrote an awesome piece in the NY Times or Post (can't remember which one), but I'm not sure too many of you would have read it and I think that it's a pretty interesting and worthy subject for discussion. To summarize, Gladwell talks about the debilitating long term effects former players feel after sustaining many concussions (and coming back too soon) in their career. New research is suggesting that those that suffer a concussion and come back too soon only set themselves up for more concussions as they will happen more easily if your brain is not allowed to heal properly in the first place. The long term effects of this can be devastating. It has been seen that an oft concussed former player in his 50's has the same brain usage as a dementia sufferer in their 80's. I feel that this is horrifying and easily preventable. If I were the commissioner, I would mandate proper fitting helmets. Watch ANY play in slow motion and you will see the helmets of whoever is running bouncing around as the helmets are not properly sized. I have seen very few players with their helmets snug enough on their heads so that the helmet does what it is intended to do - PROTECT YOUR HEAD! You may have to outlaw certain hairstyles (basically just really thick dreadlocks), but it would go a long way to preventing concussions. OK, I'm done now...

As the great Herm Edwards once said, "You play to win the game!" and that is exactly what the Patriots did by going for it on fourth and 1.5 at the end of the game at their own 28.5. I hate that not only did Belichick get skewered for his decision by the media, but half of them are back tracking after seeing the statistics that say that he made the right decision! And I'm sorry for all you Tedy Bruschi fans out there, but come on, do you seriously think that Belichick just alienated his entire defense by basically saying "I like my chances of getting 1.5 yards against an injured and not very good defense with my all world QB better than my chances of stopping an all universe QB who has my almost equally not as good defense tired from chasing the 6' 5" 225 lb QB's laser, rocket-arm throws over the last few possessions." I understand that Belichick probably got lost in Brady's dreamy eyes during the first time out, which possibly lead to having to burn their last time out (and the subsequent inability to challenge the spot - which was probably a first down). If you were going to burn Belichick for anything, I would say it would be for briefly turning into Andy Reid and burning his last 2 timeouts because of personnel reasons... but hey, hind sight is 50-50 (or something to that effect).

This entry went much longer than I intended, so I'm going to break it up into 2 parts, with part 2 coming on Thursday complete with actual picks for week 11...