NFL Midseason Awards

- Chris Giannini

Finally, the NFL gave us an exciting Sunday of watching football!  It only took them 8 weeks to get it right.  After this week I still struggle wondering who is good?  Every week nothing seems to make since with this league except my Patriots are great and my Browns could stink up a Yankee Candle.  I thought I would break out the “tiers” to attempt to understand where these teams stand as of now.  It didn’t work.  Below is my ranking that I settled on after many attempts. 

Podcast: Episode 27 - Nov 3rd, 2016

Gary and Chris sit down for a live show on facebook and periscope and talk about the Cubs World Series win over the Indians, the massive ratings that it drew (even going against the CMAs with Beyonce... which was discussed), the amazing moments in Game 7, Memphis offensive coordinator calling the wrong number trying to recruit Jalen Hurd, and Richard Sherman talks about why NFL ratings are down. The Alabama / LSU game is broken down both in history and this year's game, whether or not Coach O deserves the job whether he beats Alabama or not, and, finally, the picks for the week in college football and NFL.

WCE Thursday Picks

Cubs win. And what a game it was. Now, it's time to get back to football. 

Holy freakin moly.  We've got this thing rolling right now.  Three straight winning weeks in college football, and 6 out of 8 thus far.  Last week we got tricked by Michigan and Washington St, who both won, but failed to cover in road games against conference foes.  We won't be fooled this week.  

This is the time of year where things get much, much tighter, so we're rolling with 4 underdogs in college games where the line is MUCH too big.

 Check out our NFL picks, head-to-head biggest games, and our SEC Fantasy picks for the week below.

Not just viewers... NFL gambling is down too.

NFL viewers are down this year. And apparently so is gambling.

This is the first time in 6 years that the 190 Nevada Sportsbooks have had a decline in the amount of bets taken.  The total amount is down 3.9% in September, which equals out to about $6 million down during the same month last year.

One thing we never figured to see a decrease in would be gambling, especially in today's market, but that just gives you an idea of how disinterested people have been in the NFL this year.

College football viewership has been up.  And the matchups have been fantastic.  But the NFL games have been so dreadful that even the betters have stopped giving a damn about the games.

Butch Jones's Tennessee team is a dumpster fire.

Yesterday's press conference from Knoxville just confirmed what we already knew about the Butch Jones tenure at Tennessee:  they won't reach expectations under this coach.

To be fair, Butch helped turn this thing around after the disastrous era under Derek Dooley.  They are setup to be able to compete (in most games), which is something they simply could not do during Dooley's tenure.  Dooley's teams looked completely lost on the field.  They lost to Kentucky for the first time in almost 3 decades.

The Jones tenure has felt different.  They were steadily building.  And this was supposed to be the year that put them over the top in their division.  But this team had expectations put on it for the first time in forever, and the coaching staff and players have not lived up to expectations in any single game this season, sans an explosive 2nd half against a Florida team without their starting quarterback.

So what exactly has gone wrong?  Did this group of experienced players simply slack off, thinking the preseason hype would win them games against inferior competition?  Have they just had too many injuries and the backups were not ready for the spotlight?