Both totals fell right by their numbers, also pretty much as Bokolis said they would. Fittingly, had I cosigned them, I would've split.
The Packers didn't so much as crack as they shriveled up. Nonetheless, this wasn't the anticipated shootout, even if the total did manage to climb above the number. But, the lads took a bath on this game.
The problem was, these muthafuckas wanted to play a middle instead of using the Packers as a hedge. Bokolis was in the car and I couldn't micromanage the process. From a distance, I couldn't talk them out of it. They cocked it up on both sides of the play, putting too much on the Packers and not enough on the Falcons.
The thing that infuriates the fuck out of Bokolis is that they do these {redacted} teasers. In (gridiron) football, this means that, in this case, you can take 4 teams and buy yourself 13 points of leeway, but all four have to win. I hate them because they always put too much on them, it always works out that, with all that buffer, far less consideration is taken in the decision making process and, invariably, one of the picks is simply to make up the numbers, because there's no way that can happen. This time, the no way was the Packers losing by more than 18.5.
The only smart thing Bokolis managed on this game was to have them take the Falcons to win the first quarter. I correctly speculated that, one way or another, the Falcons would have the ball to start the game because the Packers would defer if they'd won the toss. At 31-0, I tried to get them to take the Packers in-game, that the Falcons would not keep focus. By this point, they were shaken and they refused...should have sold it harder.
Undaunted, the boys laid the hammer on New England money line, but took the Steelers at +8, again looking for the middle. This time, Bokolis was settled and made sure they got in as a hedge. After all, of all the happenings on Sunday, I was most certain of a Patriots victory.
After New England opened by taking the field goal on 4th & 1, Bokolis told the lads that, if it were any team other than New England, I'd say to rip up the tickets. Ruthlessbuggerer didn't hand it over, at least not while the game was still in reach. But, losing Bell was always going to be the problem, even with a capable backup.
Notwithstanding, even when the Steelers missed the extra point on their first TD, it seemed more like cause for ridicule than relief. Brady had three very easy passes to make for his touchdowns, as the Steelers only had blips of pressure and were quite soft in coverage against an ordinary receiving corps.
When the first half ended on 8, Bokolis had the boys lift the hedge by taking the Pats second half at PK. I have to lament that we didn't lay the hammer on New England in the second half. We spent most of the second half looking for early super bowl lines (NE -3) and wondering whether the under that we didn't take would hit.
Hitting both games gets Bokolis to 6-5 for the playoffs on this channel, nominally ahead, but effectively even. Getting y'all to the window for another year will hinge on the bowl. I already know who will win. But, why do anything before we have to?
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