***SWAMPACLAUS SATURDAY SPECIAL DOUBLEHEADER***
A little Xmas treat from the NFL as they give us two games a day early to feast on as an appetizer before the Sundie games, gotta love it. You know what that means, I'll be picking both of 'em! SwampaClaus loves this time of year and is looking to spread some joy while giving as many Xmas winners as possible! The merky apps today go as follows:
***WASHINGTON REDSKINS +7.5***
The first game on deck is a good 'ol rivalry which I am actually looking forward to despite the opposite ends of the NFL spectrum where these two teams lie. One would first glance at this game and quickly think "oh the Birds are going to blow the Skins out, especially coming off of two losses...etc." In the words of Lee Corso, not so fast my friend! The last two times these teams played was early in the season and they beat the hell out of eachother in a close one in Philly with the Birds coming out victorious in the end 37-34. Today in Washington, I see the Skins treating this as a bit of a mini Super Bowl per say for themselves as they are clearly not in the playoff race and their season is pretty much over. They will come motivated to play today being that it is a rivalry and against a team that left a really bad taste in their mouths earlier this year. Another plus for them, is that they are facing the forever shaky QB Mark Sanchez, and not Nick Foles whom they saw last time around. Sanchez has not been playing well and in my experience with watching the Butt Fumble at work is that he does not fair well under pressure. If the Birds want their playoff chances to stay alive, this is a must win game for them. That type of pressure in a hostile enviornment doesn't bode well for Butt Fumbs. I think the Skins get in his face today and rattle him a bit into a costly turnover or two. On the other side of things we have Redskin QB RG3 trying to totally redeem himself after losing his job due to poor play once again this year, call me crazy but I like him to do so today. RG3 looked refreshed and motivated last week when coming into the game against the Giants to relieve QB Colt McCoy after an injury. Today he will be in the zone to win his job back heading into next year and will resort back to what made him successful in the first place, utilizing his legs. I expect a good gameplan from Gruden today using both RG3 and RB Alfred Morris successfully to put up some points against this Philly defense and hang within the points here, if not totally play spoiler and upset the Birds in this one. They would surely love nothing more than that as they close out their season. Skins in this one at home.
***SAN DIEGO SUPER CHARGERS +1.5***
Same 'ol story here in this one as it is a "do or die" scenario for the Chargers in December once again. Last year they needed many things to go their way in order to help them get into the playoffs as well as win out the rest of their season and they got the job done. Never count QB Philip Rivers out as this guy has arguably the most heart out of any player in the NFL. He is playing injured and hurt but that is nothing new for this beast and you won't hear any complaints from him as he heads into San Fran today to take on a struggling team who is out of the race but has a lot of turnmoil going on behind the scenes where a win at home could surely help the situation tremendously. San Fran is most likely changing coaches and maybe even QBs this offseason so in other words, nobody on that team is safe with a potential change of enviornment next year. Everybody needs to put some good tape together for the new coaching staff to come in and look at while they put together who they still want around next year and who they can do without. Despite all of this, I just don't think the Niners have enough to get it done today due to their injuries and lack of leaders at the moment. Kaepernick is just lost when it comes to reading these defenses and unfortunately for him it looks like the NFL has figured his game out and how to gameplan to stop it and force him to beat them with his arm. I've said it many times, the kid has all the talent in the world but lacks the smarts to continue to be successful in this league. Maybe that will come with more experience down the road, but as for today I don't think his luck changes against the San Diego defense. This group is good, they have just had been dealt a tough end of schedule facing both Manning and Brady back to back these last two weeks and falling short of wins in both. However today I like them to bounce back against a broken Kaepernick and take advantage of his mental mistakes and diminishing QB play. The Chargers will be without top WR Keenan Allen and RB Ryan Matthews. Losing Allen is a big blow no doubt but they have other weapons in the WR core along with their TEs to help make up for that. Missing Ryan Matthews also is a big loss but nothing new to this team as he is often injured and backups Donald Brown and the youngster Branden Oliver have proven this year that they are capable of picking up the slack. I think the Bolts get it done today and most likely with some help get a wildcard spot in the end. In Rivers I trust, kinda scary I know.
SwampaClaus will be back tomorrow morning with the Muck 5 ladies and gents! Stay tuned....
