Let's get the Vickers out of the way before I resume my Fixing Football series this afternoon. And actually, before I fix football, let me apologize to anyone who came in my path yesterday after the Saints lost their fifth heartbreaker of the season (including two in the last three weeks) as I came up one win short of breaking the bank.
I'd love to go into details of the screw job the refs delivered New Orleans in a two-point loss at Denver with under 2:00 remaining in the 4th...or the game they held Adrian Peterson to 32 yards on 21 carries, while dominating the time of possession and yardage battle, only to lose a freaky game to Minnesota by three...or the fact that Marques Colston and Reggie Bush missed a combined 13 games and never really played together...or the Redskins game, where they had a nine-point lead with under six minutes to play...or the Bears (week 15) and Panthers (week 17) games, where the Saints scored lead-changing touchdowns with three minutes to go, only to lose in overtime (Bears) and on a classic Jake Delhomme-off-his-back-foot-underthrown-lollipop-into-double-coverage that Steve Smith somehow came down with to put the Panthers on the brink of field goal range...really, I could. But I don't want to waste your time.
In simple terms: All I needed was one more win. I watched pretty much every Saints game and they very rarely caught any breaks. In the Snake Bitten Department, the 2008 Saints are one of the few teams I can remember who's crappy luck rivals the 2006 Bengals.
Okay, now that we have that out of the way, Monday's Vickers...
***NBA***
Hawks (-5) vs. Nuggets
Thunder (+9) vs. Suns
76ers (+6.5) at Jazz
***NCAAF***
Northwestern (+12) vs. Missouri
***NCAAB***
San Francisco (+15.5) at Boston College
UTEP (-7) vs. James Madison*****Neutral court*****
College of Charleston (+4.5) vs. Davidson
Yesterday: 4-4 (Goddamn Coppin State)
Overall: 135-123-6
-Brad Spieser (Brad@TwinKilling.com)
12/29/08
