At the risk of losing some credibility, I’ve decided to publish my pre-season NFL bets and see how they’re looking with 3/4 of the NFL season in the books. 

To start with, I was extremely down on the Giants going into the season. I thought their Super Bowl win was a fluke, and I was convinced they were heading for a sub .500 season. So that worked out well, considering the Giants are undeniably the best team in football at the moment. 

Giants -190 to miss the playoffs – Status: Lost

Giants -140 under 9 regular season wins – Status: Lost

Giants +275 to finish 4th in the NFC East – Status: More retarded than Eugene

Giants +225 to finish 3rd in the NFC East – Pat, I think I officially drank too much Eagles kool-aid. Status: Lost

Colts +600 to finish 3rd in the AFC South – Looked great after the first couple weeks of the season. If only the Jaguars weren’t such a joke, I’d be in solid position on this one, and I still believe this was good value. But then again, I’ve never won much betting against Peyton Manning. Status: Delusional

Texans +500 to finish 2nd in the AFC South – Terrible bet, although to be fair I was counting on Vince Young being the Titans QB for the length of the season, in which case I believe with all of my heart that they’d be hovering around .500. And I’ll continue to believe that the Texans are on the verge. Status: Lost

Steve Slaton +1800 and Chris Johnson +1400 to win Rookie of the Year – Both turned out to be tremendous values, and Johnson could pay off huge if only Matt Ryan weren’t putting up such a great season on a playoff team. Status: Unlikely, but very defensible. 

Colts -170 Under 11 Regular Season wins – At 8-4 the Colts need to win 3 of 4 to beat the under, and they’re playing the Bengals, Lions, Jaguars, and a likely resting Titans team in week 17, so if it stays with the trend it’ll be another loss. And if so, Sage Rosenfels owes me money.  Status: Likely loss, but possible

Browns -120 Under 8 Regular Season wins – Finally looks like I’ll be getting on the win column, unless the Romeo Crennel hits his “miraculous finish” and Ken Dorsey goes 4-0 against the Titans, Eagles, and Steelers on the road and the Bengals at home. Status: Looking good

Bengals -145 Under 7 1/2 Regular Season wins – Well at least I did a good job of recognizing two overrated teams coming into the season. But even with a healthy Carson Palmer, I still can’t believe this line. Marvin Lewis deserved his job about as much as this guy. Status: Win

Eagles +180 to make the playoffs – I’ll leave this one to Pat. Status: Doubtful

Bucs -140 to miss the playoffs – I thought Earnest Graham was a joke, Jeff Garcia was old, and they had no playmakers. I didn’t count on their D being so good, but there’s still a small chance they could collapse down the stretch. Status: Unlikely

Browns -150 to miss the playoffs – Betting against Romeo Crennel is something I should have caught onto much longer ago. Status: Win

Jaguars +350 to reach the conference final – Defense got old, O-line got hurt, season went to shit. Status: Blinded

So that would amount to a 3-10 record if everything holds up, not counting the two ROY bets. Pretty, pretty, awful. This seems like a good time to mention that I made the playoffs in all 5 of my fantasy leagues, so maybe I should just stick to that. I have managed to make some of the money back throughout the year on regular game spreads, plus a great bet on the Titans +300 to win the AFC South after week 2 when we found out VY wouldn’t be running the show.