NFL Power Rankings Week 1
by Robert Ferringo - 9/8/2016

Summer is dead. Winter is coming. The war drums are sounding on the horizon and echo over the hills. This symphony of ritualized violence, brought to you by the National Football League and the global telecommunications apparatus, is about to commence. And We will all follow the tune. We will allow ourselves to ingest that mystic concoction of gambling and brutality that we've come to know so well. It dulls our collective senses to the ruse that is the NFL. The League, run by the most loathsome and vile collection of sociopaths this side of the "Suicide Squad", has allowed The Game to become diluted.

NFL Betting: Home Underdogs a Solid Strategy or Myth?
by Robert Ferringo - 9/7/2016

People ask me for advice on NFL betting all the time. My first two suggestions are always the same: know your enemy and play against the general public. The first thing that any football gambler has to admit is that the oddsmakers that set NFL lines are much, much better at their job than gamblers are at theirs. Not only do oddsmakers have a far greater understanding of the math involved - and this is where I note that my tagline at Doc's Sports is that "Gambling isn't magic - it is mathematics" - but they also have a keener instinct and understanding of the betting market.

2016 Buffalo Bills Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 9/7/2016

Big, bad, blustery buffoon Rex Ryan is ready for Phase 2 of his plan to demolish hope, decency and disciplined football in Upstate New York. With both arrogance and incompetence in equal, and ample, supply, Ryan is proving again to be the latest example of the Peter Principal in action in the NFL.

2016 New England Patriots Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 9/7/2016

Does anyone doubt that the Patriots, despite Tom Brady's four-game suspension to start the season, are still the class of the AFC East, the division which they have dominated for nearly 20 years? You shouldn't doubt it. Because if you give Bill Belichick a solid defense, an offense stacked with skill position talent and experience, three of four home games to start the season, and a legit motivational tool to get his team to play with a chip on its shoulder then I think you have a winning mix.

2016 New York Jets Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 9/7/2016

Some franchises simply can't handle success. The New York Jets are one of them. After serving as a nice surprise in Todd Bowles' rookie campaign, winning 10 games and missing out on the postseason on the last day of the season, New York should've had a wave of momentum coming into the offseason. Instead, the Jets spent the summer feuding with their starting quarterback and top defensive player, only to cave in and re-sign both late in the summer. Those contract disputes have given the Jets a bit of an unsettled feeling coming into a crucial season.

2016 Miami Dolphins Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 9/7/2016

When football fans think of the Miami Dolphins they generally think of a proud, successful, historic franchise. This is the franchise of Shula and Marino, of 17-0 and back-to-back Super Bowls. However, with just one winning season in 10 years, the Dolphins are now the epitome of "also-ran".

2016 Minnesota Vikings Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 9/1/2016

This season was supposed to be the breakout for the Minnesota Vikings. Last year whet their appetite with a division title and an "oh-my-god-how-did-he-miss-that-kick???" heartbreaking loss in the playoffs. But Minnesota entered the 2016 season with a roster stacked with young talent and had, I felt, the third-best team in the NFC and one of the top five or six in football.

2016 Green Bay Packers Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 9/1/2016

The Packers have virtually the same team heading into 2016 as they had on the eve of 2015. Yes, Jordy Nelson is back from injury and that should give the offense the boost they were lacking. But it is essentially the same group. So whether you think that is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your perspective of what this team's realistic capabilities are.

2016 Chicago Bears Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 9/1/2016

Prior to training camp I thought the Bears might be a little undervalued heading into this season. They won just six games against a hellacious schedule last season. But Chicago was scrappy and a tough and suffered six losses by six points or fewer. With some subtle improvements and in Year 2 of the new coaching regime, I felt as if the Bears were a bit better than people realized.

2016 Detroit Lions Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 9/1/2016

The Lions were one of the biggest disappointments in football last season. After winning 11 games in 2014 they looked like they were poised as a potential threat to Green Bay's year-to-year dominance in the NFC North. But a disastrous 1-7 start crippled Detroit's season before it began. And the premature retirement of Calvin Johnson has carried a bit of the negativity over through the offseason.

2016 Seattle Seahawks Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/25/2016

Football success in Seattle has been the norm in the Emerald City throughout this century as the Seahawks have made the postseason 10 times in 13 years, won three conference championships, and hoisted the Super Bowl trophy in 2013. Those numbers are better than supposed football powers like Dallas, the Giants or even the Denver Broncos. Pete Carroll will attempt to continue his Pacific Northwest dynasty, and this year's Seahawks should be better than last year's streaky 10-6 outfit.

2016 Arizona Cardinals Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/25/2016

The Arizona Cardinals have the best roster in football. This is not an opinion as much as a statement of fact. Arizona has talent, depth and experience on both sides of the ball and at just about every position. They are the only team in the league that doesn't have a weakness anywhere on the 53-man roster.

2016 Washington Redskins Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/25/2016

It is difficult to like Washington because they are one of the most despicable, shady, soul-sucking, corporate-whoring organizations in all of sports. Daniel Snyder, the leader of this debacle, is impossible to root for. And time and time again during his stewardship it has been made clear that this front office cares way more about the prospect of winning and selling their fan base on the hope of future wins than it cares about following the necessary steps to being a top-tier organization and actually finding on-field success.

2016 Dallas Cowboys Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/25/2016

The fun thing about Dallas is that as long as we are still in the Jason Garrett-Tony Romo Era I don't have to do much scouting on this team. We all know who the Cowboys are. We've seen them. We've seen them perform (and fail) in all manner of situation over the last few years as America's (Mediocre) Team has been forced down our throats in big, nationally-televised games year after year.

2016 New York Giants Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/25/2016

The Tom Coughlin Era in the Meadowlands is over. The Giants were apparently the last ones to realize that Coughlin should've rode off into the sunset three years ago. Instead, he stuck around and guided a sloppy Giants team to three straight losing seasons before they finally sent him packing. That means for the first time in a decade New York enters a fall with fresh blood on the sidelines.

2016 Philadelphia Eagles Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/25/2016

It's a new, old era in Philadelphia this year as former Andy Reid assistant Doug Pederson makes his head coaching debut for in The City of Battery Love. The irony of Pederson's hiring is pretty thick; Eagles fans and management ran uber-successful Andy Reid out of town - the scapegoat of some horrific personnel decisions gone wrong. Now just three years later the Eagles bring in a guy who will try to mimic everything Reid did and to pick up the pieces of the failed Chip Kelly experiment.

2016 San Francisco 49ers Expert Predictions and Season Win Totals Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/25/2016

Most football coaches - high school, college or pro - are dickheads. Between the mix of rage and daddy issues there is always a distinct, undeserved air of faux toughness and authority. Football coaches are generally delusional and antisocial dicks. Chip Kelly fits that mold.

2016 San Diego State Aztecs Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/18/2016

Last year the Aztecs found themselves sitting at 1-3 after a sloppy three-game losing streak that included an upset home defeat as a 17-point favorite. But Rocky Long's team wouldn't lose another game, reeling off 10 straight wins, including victories in the Mountain West title game and a 42-7 thrashing of Cincinnati in the Hawaii Bowl.

2016 Boise State Broncos Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/18/2016

The shiny veneer of Boise State's sophomore season in the Mountain West glossed over what was, in actuality, a disappointing season for the Broncos. Boise State brought back 17 starters from the 2014 squad that went 12-2. But the Broncos managed just one impressive win, an emotional season opener against Washington, while taking some ugly losses, including a shocking home loss to New Mexico as a 31-point favorite.

2016 Air Force Falcons Football Predictions and Season Win Total Picks
by Robert Ferringo - 8/18/2016

Troy Calhoun has quietly been doing tremendous work with this Air Force program. Military academies have a lot of built-in disadvantages - not the least of which is the fact that Air Force's enrollment is 4,000 compared to say, Ohio State's, which is 57,000. But Calhoun has kept the Falcons competitive during his nine-year tenure, earning a 67-50 record while posting just one losing season.