I’ve done a lot better with my timing this week. I sit here writing this at just about 10am on Thursday morning and I hope to post this before Thursday Night Football. As opposed to posting it on Sunday last week. The only thing I’m waiting on is Concret3Cowboy to send me his picks. But he has one of those “real jobs” that takes his time away from this unpaid, totally voluntary, meaningless yet incredibly important assignment that roughly 30 people will read. We all have unnecessary things that get in the way of what really matters in life.
That being said, let’s take a look at how he and I did last week with our picks:
Week 4 Results
Blind Owl: 8-8
Concret3Cowboy: 5-11
Perhaps there is reasoning for the Cowboy’s tardiness with his picks other than trying to selfishly provide for his family. He’s probably sitting down there in Florida licking his wounds after yet another beating I put on him. I’ll give him credit though, he took some shots to try and catch up to me. Like trusting the Texans and Eagles to cover against the Bills and Chiefs respectively. It’s easy to be a front runner, but when you keep putting up crooked numbers like I am, well, you get really cocky.
Take a read of our Week 4 picks here if you want to catch up: https://www.blindowlblogs.com/post/2021-week-4-nfl-picks
Before you say it, no I wouldn’t be talking this much crap if we weren’t separated by almost 2,000 miles, but guess what, we are so I’m going to rub it in as much as I can. Don’t take my word for it, let the overall records do the talking:
Overall Record:
Blind Owl: 33-31
Concret3Cowboy: 25-39
I have an 8 game lead now. That’s half a week of football. The Cowboy has to hope I have a terrible week coming up soon and he has a great one. Or he can just pick the opposite of what he thinks I will and hope for the best. Let’s see what he does in Week 5.
LAR @ SEA: LAR -2.5
Blind Owl: The Rams are coming off what I think was a “look ahead” loss. Not taking anything away from the Cardinals, but LA wasn’t prepared correctly. This week, the Rams will be laser focused on going into Seattle and beating the Seahawks. Seattle is a tough place to play, but the Rams used to beat them with a bad QB. Now they have a good one. So I’ll take the Rams.
Concret3Cowboy: The Rams just had their undefeated season blown up by their inter-division foes in the Arizona Cardinals. However, the Seahawks are not the Cardinals. I think most people would agree that McVay is a top coach in the NFL and the Rams have a top talented roster, these kinds of teams don’t lose too many in a row. Even though the Hawks just beat the 49ers in San Fran, it was with their rookie QB stepping in for Jimmy G out with a calf injury.
DEN @ PIT: PIT -1
Blind Owl: What a pathetic display by my Broncos last week. My Drew Lock take isn’t looking too good, and injuries are piling up. They limp into Pittsburgh who also are coming off a bad loss, but to a much better team in the Packers. It pains me to do this, but I have to take the Steelers here.
Concret3Cowboy: Denver felt the weight of early injuries in the season, even before Teddy Two Gloves was knocked out of the game. Having Jeudy still out and Hamler out for the season isn’t going to end well for a team that has a QB that needs talent around him. The Steelers have been very poor this season. I may not be doing too hot with my picks so far but at least I’m having a better season than Big Ben.
NE @ HOU: NE -8.5
Blind Owl: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Houston is TERRIBLE. Pats all the way.
Concret3Cowboy: I watched very little of the Bucs/Pats on Sunday night. When I did tune in it was for Mac Jones INT and I went “sounds about right,” then continued with my night. Somehow the Pats made a game out of it and kept Brady out of the end zone. Does Brady need Gronk? Probably not but they cover on Houston.
NYJ @ ATL: ATL -3
Blind Owl: These two teams are both pretty bad. The Jets put up their first win which will probably keep them away from the first pick in the draft (again). The Falcons squandered away a lead (again) and made me look dumb. Well, I’ll ride with the Falcons again. The Jets can’t keep this win streak of one game going.
Concret3Cowboy: Jets surprised about 98% of the NFL world in the longest game ever against the Titans. I’m not betting on Atlanta, even though home teams tend to like short weeks.
NO @ WAS: NO -2
Blind Owl: Jameis continues to be a toss up from week to week. He is consistently inconsistent. He had an off week last week, so I guess this is a good week? I don’t know. Give me New Orleans.
Concret3Cowboy: Matty Ice threw for 4 tds on this Washington defense, who was supposed to be in the tops of the league but seems like they read their own news clippings too much. The Saints did just give the Giants their first win of the season, and it wasn’t because Jameis played bad either. The Saints and Titans, no one has any clue what they’re about.
GB @ CIN: GB -3
Blind Owl: Green Bay did really well last week beating a decent Steelers team. Meanwhile, the Bengals barely beat the Jags on TNF. The Packers should put a beating on the Bengals in what could be an offensive explosion.
Concret3Cowboy: I’m buying in on the Bengals, which means that this will be the point where they start to crumble apart. They won’t win their division, but Joe Burrow has this team looking pretty good. They came out cold against JAX the first half last week but ran away with it in the second half. That Green Bay defense is fairly poor and porous. I like Cincinnati.
DET @ MIN: MIN -7.5
Blind Owl: The Lions continue to be bad. I’ll finally ride with the Vikings here. Only because they’re going against the bad Lions. I have Adam Thielen on one of my fantasy teams, let’s hope he does well in this one too.
Concret3Cowboy: The Vikings put us to sleep against the Browns. Kirk Cousins is having a very good, albeit quiet, season so far. Due mostly to the fact the Vikings haven’t been winning where they should. That Browns team is very good, this Detroit team is not.
TEN @ JAX: TEN -4
Blind Owl: How can you lose to the Jets? They’re just awful. Tennessee is trying to prove that it was just a fluke by drawing an even worse team this week. Add the Titans being mad they lost to Urban Meyer’s nonsense and I think this is a recipe for a shellacking. Hopefully they can do what they’re supposed to do and beat the Jags in what may be the worst division in football history.
Concret3Cowboy: Big Ben isn’t the only person that I’m having a better 2021 season with… Urban Meyer. This dude stayed behind after his team lost a prime time game to hang out in Ohio. Went to his restaurant and.. well, went to brown town. Urban apologized to the team by positions, where also each group laughed their asses off as soon as he left. I was never high on Urban coming to the NFL but wow… just wow. Also, who the hell are the real Titans? Screw it, they cover.
PHI @ CAR: CAR -3.5
Blind Owl: Philly showed some offense in their matchup against the Chiefs. Jalen Hurts didn’t embarrass himself and showed he can chuck the ball around pretty well. I think this success will translate into Week 5 and they’ll do well with the points against the Panthers who are still without their best player.
Concret3Cowboy: I don’t know how I feel about this pick. May just want to flip a coin. No word about McCaffrey playing this Sunday, and Carolina looked better on the scoreboard then they did on the field against Dallas. The Eagles may be the best 1-3 team right now but I’m not thinking Carolina is going to go full implode after being exposed by the Cowboys.
MIA @ TB: TB -10
Blind Owl: Tampa fell into the emotional trap of Brady returning to New England. They came out relatively unscathed with the win, but it was close. They get to let out a breath here and get the lowly Dolphins. It’s a big spread, but they’ll cover just fine. Although, the defensive back situation in Tampa is troubling. If you have any Dolphin pass catchers on your fantasy squad, consider them this week. They’ll be down and passing a lot against a decimated secondary.
Concret3Cowboy: Funny how everyone thought the Dolphins were going to be in contention for the AFC east title going into this season. They did beat the team that the Bucs barely edged out last week. Went to overtime with the Raiders but then lost big to the Bills and just lost to the desperate Colts. Expect the Bucs to look like the Bills in week 2.
CLE @ LAC: LAC -1.5
Blind Owl: One of the good games this week. Cleveland is riding high as are the Chargers. This could be a shootout to end all shootouts. The Chargers will win here but I wouldn’t be shocked if Cleveland pulls this one off. I’m actually excited to watch this one.
Concret3Cowboy: Eeny, meeny, miny, moe I don’t know which way to go. Can a Charger tap his toe, in the corner of the end zone? Will the Browns answer, I sure don’t know. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, screw it Browns.
CHI @ LV: LV -5.5
Blind Owl: I went against my own instincts and picked an Ohio State QB to win last week, and it paid off. I’m not playing with fire again. I like the Raiders here. Derek Carr keeps showing he is good, and he’ll have to do his best, the division is wild.
Concret3Cowboy: Fields is starting this week, he will not be starting for my fantasy team. The Raiders were thrown around by the Chargers, but Jon Gruden is the kind of guy to take that all out on a lousy football team. Good for him, there’s one in Chicago. Even with a new play caller they like to call “Lazer.”
SF @ ARI: ARI -5.5
Blind Owl: Arizona is apparently for real. Kyler Murray is chucking the ball around and tearing up defenses. The 49ers are sliding away in the division and that slide will continue here. Arizona will put up some serious numbers.
Concret3Cowboy: Ok, ok.. ok. I still don’t believe in Kyler Murray sustaining this for 13 more games. Trey Lance is not going to be able to keep pace with this Arizona offense.
NYG @ DAL: DAL -7
Blind Owl: Back to the NFC East where you never can tell. I have to go with what I saw last week and pick the Cowboys. But I wouldn’t be shocked if the G-men pull it out in Dallas. They’ve done it before.
Concret3Cowboy: Dallas seems to have figured out both sides of the ball. Their defense was historically bad last season, they have been strides and strides better so far this season. Daniel Jones still likes to turn it over, Dallas likes to take it away.
BUF @ KC: KC -2.5
Blind Owl: Game of the week here. And of course it’s on at 8:30 again. Jokes on the NFL, I don’t have to work Monday. So I’ll actually be able to watch it. This will be an absolute shootout. We may get 90 total points here. I don’t do over/unders here, but I’d take the over. In my mind this is a toss up. Buffalo’s defense has looked better than KC’s, so I’ll take Buffalo with the points. It’s going to be GOOOOOOOOOOD!
Concret3Cowboy: The Bills have seemed to figure out their offense. This should be a nice shootout and I’m not sure why the Chiefs are favored. Maybe because they have more of a track record, but the Bills should take care of this one. The Chiefs are still in last place in the AFC west, just saying while I can.
IND @ BAL: BAL -7
Blind Owl: Monday Night Football gets a stinker of a game this week. There’s a few good ones, and this is what they put out there. I may watch a bit of this but it won’t be good. Indy got their first win last week. Baltimore kicked the snot out of my Broncos. The Colts will lose by 10 here in a boring game.
Concret3Cowboy: The Ravens made the Broncos look like their old Vance Joseph ways. The Colts have been a big disappointment this season, they went from a playoff team with Rivers to a bottom 5 team with Wentz. I didn’t expect that, maybe I was too optimistic with Carson being reunited with Reich. I have a question though, why do the Ravens have another Monday night game? And why does the NFL love the Ravens so much? I hope their 100+ yard rushing streak ends, it won’t, but I hope.
