WEEK 15 Plus Final Results
WEEK 15
The Guest Picker Update: Scott Holtzman burst onto the scene with an impressive +30 to +10 win over Marcia Mayes. Scott rode to victory with a tip from our waiter at last week’s pick’s lunch. And that tip was: SF over AZ on Monday night for the win. Well, Scott better be ready for this week as we are adding a little class to the competition. Doug Howe joins us from his day job as a Partner at Century Golf Partners. They run the Arnold Palmer Golf Management brand, so you may have heard of one of those names at some point. Doug pretty much worked every job that existed during his years at ClubCorp as well as working with all the Savants and his GP competitor. We’ll see that experience has readied him for his debut on the Savant’s webpage. So, what is in store for us this week? Will Doug show his true calling is picking NFL games? Will Scott be able to maintain his momentum without help from the waiter at Friday’s? Or, did Scott actually stop in at Friday’s and get a tip for this week as well? Let’s see if we can have two straight weeks of positive results. Good Luck.
This Week’s Headlines: The Savants Show Life - Moved from Critical to Stable Condition. The Savants combined for a plus 40 week. While not earthshattering, these guys are just one week removed from a minus 200 week. Led by Frank’s and Rand’s +50 week, things are starting to look up. Tom blames his minus 10 on bad luck - not bad picks. And, Dick … well, let’s see where to start. He claims that he has changed his pick holder and only good things are to come. Off 7 straight minus 50 weeks, the tide has to turn, right? Perhaps Dick will follow his Cows for another losing December. For another week none of the Savants go with the Cassidy Hammer pick. Why not? There is a rumor that another Savant actually wanted the same pick - and there was general approval of this week’s pick. Should we award him the win today? Oh, let’s let’em play.
Season through Week 14+
Dick -100 -50 = -150
Tom -80 -50 = -130
Rand 0 -10 = -10
Frank Gore -100 +50 = -50
This Week’s Guest Pickers
Doug Howe -10 versus Scott Holtzman -10
This week’s picks
Dick: $50 on Arizona -12. After going 0 fer 2 on New Orleans the last couple of weeks, he abandons the Saints just as the Cows arrive. Does he have inside information that the Cows want to win this one? More likely, Detroit is awful, so take the sure thing in whoever their opponent is. So, Cassidy jumps on the the inconsistent Cardinals expecting them to open up a can on the hapless Lions this week? XXX Only one thing can wake up the hapless Lions - knowing Cassidy picked against them. The Cardinals escape with the lives in a shocker.
Tom: $50 on San Diego -6.5. Tom risks the Chargers on a letdown week playing a team trying to win one for their dead teammate. Why challenge the football gods this way? Read his lips: Cincy is overrated. XXX Never bet against a team with a cause. The Bengals tried to win one for their lost friends, didn’t, but kept the Chargers from the covere.
Rand: $10 on Green Bay +2. Rand stays on the hot Pack, especially against the ice cold, divided lockerroom, possibly packing it in Steelers. +++ Pittsburgh suddenly decides to show up this week - who’d figure that - but only by 1 point.
$10 on Minnesota -9. Rand trusts in Brett. And why not, have you seen who the Panther QB is? XXX Losing to the Panthers either shows Brett has a December swoon of his own, or old guys don’t like cold weather.
$10 on Baltimore -11. Rand takes another easy pick here. The league is starting to notice a trend - the Bears are bad on offense with their “great” QB, and their defense is worse. +++ The pick of the week as the Bears played up to their pedigree.
$10 on Washington +3. Rand gets in the grill of Frank this week by taking the Redskins. It seems like smoke and mirrors, but the Skins have been playing well as of late. XXX A stinker of a pick - perhaps +33 was the correct line.
$10 on Seattle -6.5. Rand takes the lesser of two weaklings as he looks for the Seahawks to show they don’t belong in the downtrodden class that the TBucs occupy. XXX Another head scratcher - the TBucs winning a game.
Frank: $50 on New York Football Giants -3. Frank jumps from one NFC East team to the another this week. After only giving up 45 to the Eagles, Frank thinks that the Giant defense is ready. Well, maybe not ready, but the better team with a chance for the playoffs has to win, right? +++ Frank’s rise from the ashes continues as his NFC East knowledge proves correct again. Will he get his nickname back? Stay tuned for next week?
This Week’s Guest Prognosticators - Doug Howe and Scott Holtzman
Doug: $10 on San Diego -6.5. Doug also likes the Chargers in this one, and shrugs off the potential negative vibe of Tom picking them as well. XXX a quick lesson for Doug - don’t pick anything that Tom or Dick like.
$10 on New Orleans -7.5. What is this? Another GP not afraid to go opposite Cassidy’s Cows. Perhaps the highly effective offense versus the not so effective offense may have something to do with this. XXX Doug learns that the Cows aren’t to be trusted - good or bad - as they somehow handle the 13-0, now 13-1, Saints.
$10 on Seattle -6.5. Doug agrees that the TBucs stink - so he goes with the slightly less stinky Seahawks. XXX Seattle decides to stink it up more than the TBucs.
$10 on Baltimore -11. Doug joins Rand on this one. They should almost get credit for this one in advance - that’s how easy this game looks. +++ Doug takes the easy game of the week - why didn’t we all see this was the easy game of the week?
$10 on Philly -8.5. Well, if you’re going to diss one Savant by picking against his team, you might as well go against a second by picking the Eagles laying a big number against Frank’s 49ers. Will they have any offense left after last week? +++ The Eagles show up and the 49ers can’t repeat last week’s heroics against the Cardinals.
Scott: $20 on New England -7. Scott likes Brady and Company so show rumors of their demise are greatly exaggerated. We’ll see. Push - This one lands on the Pats winning by 7 - no harm, no foul.
$20 on Minnesots -9. Scott shows no sign of concern that a Farve swoon is about to take place. He’s probably right about that. XXX Minnesota doesn’t play well in the cold - Bud Grant just rolled over in his grave.
$10 on Baltimore/Chicago Under 40.5. Scott shows he can get back on the horse that threw him. After missing the under by a mere 38.5 points last week, Scott crawls under this one. Will Chicago participate? If so, watch out. +++ As expected, Chicago doesn’t participate and the Ravens stay under - barely.
Note: The Sports Savants do not gamble with real money and do not endorse, recommend or promote doing so. The dollar figures above are in “pretend” money, as a way of measuring our success in the game. Not only is gambling illegal in many jurisdictions, it is also pretty dumb. In the end, the house always wins. That’s why the house has gold plated ceilings, dancing girls, magic shows and enormous fountains out front.
*Unlike last year, the guests will compete against each other. The winner between the guest pickers each week will continue to pick the next week. If they win that week, they keep going. There is one asterisk to that sentence - we are attorneys you know - if a guest picker buys lunch for the Savants at the regular pick’em lunch, they will continue to the next week whether they beat the new guest picker or not.
** Perhaps the Savants have been spending a bit too much time concerning themselves with country club law, private clubs and resorts law, membership law, and related hospitality law matters.
Last Week’s Guest Picker’s Results
Scott Holtzman +30 versus Marcia Mayes +10