Bettin’ or Braggin: Close isn’t perfect
Kudos to Ali and Chelena, who were both just one win away from Bettin' or Braggin' perfection in Week 7.
Kudos to Ali and Chelena, who were both just one win away from Bettin' or Braggin' perfection in Week 7.
Eight weeks in to Bettin’ or Braggin’, we’ve all done a lot of the former, but not too much of the latter.
OK, some. But we paid the price, almost instantly. As predicted.
So this week, it’s about giving credit where credit is due.
Kudos to Ali and Chelena, who were both just one win away from perfection in Week 7. OK, so actually, two wins, but since Seattle-San Francisco pushed (we got in at 7 instead of 7-1/2 like much of the country), we all started with an unsatisfying gray square on our scoresheet.
Ali stumbled only with Oakland, who eked out a no-they-didn’t-cover three-point win over Jacksonville. Ah, Oakland. 2-4 against the spread this season. Something to sneer about as we all pick Oakland this week over Kansas City.
Chelena, meanwhile, got tripped up in Buffalo, where Tennessee had the nerve to score a last-minute touchdown to take home the game.
If shoulds-and-coulds were dids-and-dones, the world would be a different place.
As it stands, here’s another week worth of our best guesses.
Fair warning: We’re not touts, sharks or bookies. We don’t splash action around the web or line up bets in back alleys. We’re just a few local writers picking games without much of a clue. So using these picks for your own gambling is probably a very bad idea.
Name | Bankroll | Last week |
Jesse | 11,500 | +0 |
Ali | 9,800 | +800 |
Chelena | 9,500 | +300 |
Game | Ali | Chelena | Jesse |
San Francisco (-7) at Arizona |
ARI 100 |
SF 100 |
SF 400 |
Oakland at Kansas City (-1 1/2) |
OAK 200 |
OAK 100 |
OAK 400 |
New York (N) (-2) at Dallas |
NY 200 |
NY 200 |
DAL 400 |
New England (-2) at St. Louis |
STL 100 |
STL 100 |
NE 800 |
Seattle at Detroit (-2 1/2) |
SEA 200 |
DET 100 |
SEA 200 |
Jacksonville at Green Bay (-14 1/2) |
GB 500 |
GB 100 |
JAX 200 |
To refresh anyone’s memory on how point spreads function, the team with the “minus points” is the favored team, and has the “point spread” deducted from their score at the end of the game. The final score adjusted by the point spread determines the winner of the bet.
If a team is favored by three points, they must win by more than three points to win a point spread bet.
Of course you can play along with Bettin’ or Braggin! What kind of pro football picking game would Bettin’ or Braggin’ be if you couldn’t play?
You can win prizes! (We can’t. All SFBay staff can win are bragging rights over each other. In other words, priceless.)
But first, some rules:
* – Actually, we will be picking two Thursday games, the Seattle-San Francisco game Oct. 26 and the Denver-Oakland game Dec. 6. On those weeks, the deadline for weekly picks will be Thursday at 5 p.m. See why we don’t like Thursday games? Too complicated.
Third-place: SFBay black fleece hoodie, high quality. Nice stuff. $50 value.
Second-place: Limited-edition, authentic SFBay Golden Gate FC soccer shirt, customized with your name. $120 value.
First place: A green Joe Montana Notre Dame Adidas jersey, “True School Authentics,” Size 56. Very high quality retro-authentic heavy mesh. Brand-new, never-worn condition. All tags attached. Very collectible. $250 value.
Jesse Garnier is the editor and founder of SFBay. A Mission District native, he also teaches journalism as associate professor at San Francisco State University.
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