It took six weeks to play out, but big bets finally led to big trouble in the world of Bettin' or Braggin'.
It took six weeks to play out, but big bets finally led to big trouble in the world of Bettin’ or Braggin’.
Three of our four unanimous picks crashed in flames, with only St. Louis eking out a win by a half-point. And two of those games took four-figure-sized chunks out of Bettin’ or Braggin’ players’ bankrolls.
All three losses looked bleak from the outset.
Oakland fought tough against Atlanta, leading at halftime before losing by just three.
Baltimore’s defense lost Ray Lewis and Lardarius Webb while allowing Dallas to steamroll them for 29 points Sunday. Dallas could have won if not for a botched two-point conversion. I put 2,000 SFBay Bucks on Baltimore to cover 3-1/2 points. Wrong.
And San Francisco? Their humiliating defeat told the entire football world they’re not as good as they think they are. We all took a bath on this one, with SFBay reader ParksideGreg blowing 5,000 SFBay Bucks on the home team. ParkSideGreg still leads SFBay readers with 10,900 SFBay Bucks.
Chelena’s slow-and-steady strategy is looking savvier by the day, as a $500 loss still leaves her plenty of breathing room.
Ali, meanwhile, rode Week Six right down the middle. He went 3-3 and ends up the week even.
We’re not big fans of Thursday football, but are rushing this Bettin’ or Braggin’ out the door early because San Francisco hosts Seattle in yet another iteration of the What’s Your Deal Bowl. Forget Jim Schwartz, we predict the Jim Harbaugh-Pete Carroll postgame handshake remains one of the iciest — and most anticipated — in the game.
As for the number, well, these western conference games can be wacky, and defenses stingy. We’re split toward Seattle in this one, with only Chelena siding with the home team.
We’re also split on Jacksonville-Oakland, with Chelena siding with the road team. Small bets all around mean we still can’t trust Oakland with much of anything.
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 | -2,300 |
| Chelena | 9,200 | -500 |
| Ali | 9,000 | +0 |
| Game | Ali | Chelena | Jesse |
| Seattle at San Francisco (-7) |
SEA 100 |
SF 100 |
SEA 200 |
| Jacksonville at Oakland (-4) |
OAK 100 |
JAX 100 |
OAK 200 |
| Arizona at Minnesota (-6) |
MIN 200 |
MIN 100 |
MIN 200 |
| Washington at New York (N) (-6 1/2) |
WAS 200 |
WAS 100 |
NY 300 |
| Tennessee at Buffalo (-3) |
TEN 200 |
BUF 100 |
TEN 200 |
| Cleveland at Indianapolis (-3) |
IND 300 |
IND 100 |
IND 1000 |
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.
I’m writing you not as a fan, not as a sportswriter, but as a little tutu-wearing blonde with little...
tis a long season… like I said, I’ll brag later!
Seattle over SF $500
Oak over Jags $500
Minn over Cards $1000
NY over Wash $ 2000
Buff over Tenn $500
Browns over Ind $500