Survival Football Advice: Road teams dominate Week 11 possibilities
Week 10’s biggest killer: Green Bay over Chicago (0.87 percent)
Week 10’s biggest success: Detroit over Cleveland (72.77 percent)
My picks so far: Buffalo – Oakland – New England — Seattle — Philadelphia — Atlanta (x) — Minnesota — New Orleans — Jacksonville — Detroit
The list of groups teeing off on the New York Giants has been a long one this season.
There’s the Big Apple tabloids, the previously winless 49ers and even the team’s own fans.
Now it’s time for us to join the party.
This week’s play is the Kansas City Chiefs over Big Blue in New Jersey. No one thought the Giants would be 1-8 at this point, let alone a team that people would feel comfortable picking against in survival while playing at home, but here we are. Over half of Yahoo users are going with the Chiefs to survive Week 11.
I actually like Jacksonville winning in Cleveland a bit more than this pick — when in doubt, always pick against Cleveland — but I used the Jags two weeks ago against Cincinnati, so c’est la vie.
The Chiefs are a good alternative pick, though. Kansas City is coming off a bye while the Giants were just humiliated by the Niners in Santa Clara and have clearly given up on head coach Ben McAdoo.
If there’s anything that makes you feel bad about picking KC, it’s that four of their last six games will come at home, including contests against struggling Buffalo, Oakland and Miami. But this is a challenging week with more than a few road favorites and you have to pick someone.
It might as well be the Chiefs.
Other thoughts: Those of you who still have the Patriots at your disposal might be tempted to pick the Patriots over the Raiders, but don’t forget this game is in Mexico City. You have to imagine the Pats playing two straight weeks at altitude (they beat the Broncos in Denver last Sunday) might take its toll … Seeing New Orleans over Washington gives me the shakes because it’s a reminder of my worst survival league beat in Week 15 of 2006. The Saints back then were unstoppable at home and I had a clear path to the end of a pool offering a nicely-sized prize. All New Orleans had to do was handle a Skins team that would finish 5-11 that year. I probably don’t need to tell you what happened next … The Chargers over the Bills is an attractive play this weekend, so long as you can live with the fact you won’t be able to play Los Angeles against the Browns in two weeks. (If you go this route, make sure you’re staking your life on Philip Rivers and not Kellen Clemens) … Who’s excited to have a good reason to pick the Bengals next weekend? … This week’s funishment belongs to Atlanta Falcons fan Jay Busbee. If the Chiefs lose, he pledges to watch last year’s Super Bowl starting at 28-3 and to broadcast his reactions on Facebook Live.
