Thursday, February 7, 2013

The NFL Blog: 2012 Betting Lines (Season Review)



Last Week: Vs. Spread: (0-1); Straight Up: (0-1)
Playoffs: Vs. Spread: (5-6); Straight Up: (7-4)
Season: Vs. Spread: (135-126-6); Straight Up: (177-89-1)

Playoffs Review: I’ve got mixed emotions about this year’s NFL playoffs. My team lost a heartbreaker in the NFC Championship Game so I wasn’t going to love the playoffs this year no matter what. My pet team is New England and they got ousted by a team that I really don’t like. And that team that I really don’t like won the Super Bowl. But on the other hand, there were some pretty entertaining games this year. And the Super Bowl ended up being more interesting than I expected, even though I didn’t like the final result (not that I would have loved the Niners winning either but it would have been better than Baltimore).

As far as my picks are concerned this was not a memorable postseason at all. I finished under .500 ATS which pisses me off. I also didn’t pick the winners of the biggest games of the year and that always bothers me. I failed to pick the winner of the Super Bowl correctly for the second year in a row. 

I didn’t have a winning week ATS in any round of the playoffs, going .500 in the first 3 rounds and then 0-1 in the Super Bowl. I started off red hot picking winners, going 4-0 in the WC round and 3-1 in the divisional round, but I collapsed in the final 2 rounds. After a 7-1 start, I went 0-3 in the championship round and the Super Bowl. 

I finished just 5-6 ATS in the playoffs; my worst record ATS in the playoffs in the history of this blog and the first time I’ve ever been under .500. My 7-4 record straight up in the playoffs is actually better than last year when I was just 5-6 picking winners. 

Season Review: Well I ended up having another decent year picking NFL games. I never really got hot. Basically I got off to a good start and then held on the rest of the way. I was slumping badly down the stretch but I got one last really good week that clinched it. So I ended up over .500 ATS despite having to make a fairly major “correction” to my record late in the year. 

I know that all of you imaginary readers will recall that while making my picks in week 15 I realized that I had made a pretty significant error when calculating my record way back in week 3. I had posted my ATS record through 2 weeks as 19-11-2 instead of 17-13-2, so I lost 4 games off my cushion with only 3 weeks left. I managed to survive that hit. 

While writing this entry I realized that I also had an error with my straight up record. It turns out that I just totally screwed up in that week 3 post. Not only did I add my week 1 record ATS with the inverse of my week 2 record ATS to get 19-11-2 rather than 17-13-2; I also added my week 1 record ATS with my week 2 record straight up to get 20-12 rather than 22-10. So at least this error worked in my favor. 

I went back and looked at last year’s season review while preparing this entry and I realized that I had planned to keep track of my moneyline upset picks this season. Obviously I didn’t do that. I’m actually glad I didn’t and I don’t plan to make that change in the future. The reason is that I think it might cause me to pick more upsets than I would if I weren’t keeping track from week to week. I want this to be purely which team I think will win and nothing else. 

Anyway, I got off to a fantastic start this season. I had a great week 1, going 11-5 ATS. Then after going 2 games under .500 in weeks 2 and 3, I went 11-4 in week 4. After another decent record in week 5 I was 11 games over .500 through 5 weeks (though I actually thought I was doing even better due to that error). 

I had my first bad week of the season in week 6, going just 5-9 ATS. I treaded water for the next 6 weeks or so, matching good weeks with bad weeks. Then I hit a rough stretch. From week 13 through week 15 I went 18-28-2, plus I lost 4 games off my cushion due to the correction of that earlier mistake. 

I had been over .500 ATS all year. Suddenly with only 2 weeks of the regular season left I was just 2 games over .500. But I picked a good time to have my best week of the season, going 14-2 ATS in week 16 to basically clinch a winning record. I had a disappointing record in the playoffs but still finished 9 games over for the year. 

Picking games straight up I got off to a great start with a 13-3 record in week 1, but in two of the first six weeks of the season I had really poor records picking winners. I was just 5-11 in week 3 and 5-9 in week 6 straight up. I never had even one week like that in 2011. 

It was smooth sailing the rest of the way, however. And I finished strong, going 25-7 straight up the last 2 weeks of the regular season and 7-4 in the playoffs. Plus, I got a 4-game boost after the Super Bowl due to the correction of that error. 

During the 17 weeks of the regular season I was 7-8-2 ATS (over-under-at .500). I went 0-1-3 ATS during the playoffs (over-under-at .500). Overall I was 7-9-5 (over-under-at .500) ATS during the 21 weeks of the NFL season. This was a major step back from last year when I was 13-6-2 ATS (over-under-at .500) during the 21 week season, including 11-5-1 during the regular season. 

Picking games straight up I was 15-2-0 (over-under-at .500) during the regular season this year. I was 2-2-0 (over-under-at .500) during the playoffs. Overall I was 17-4-0 (over-under-at .500) straight up during the 21 week season. This too was down from last year when I was 15-0-2 during the regular season and 17-1-3 overall straight up. 

As mentioned earlier, I never really got hot this season ATS. My hottest stretch ATS was 2 straight weeks over .500 (week 4 through week 5). I also had 4 straight non-losing weeks (week 9 through week 12). My worst streak ATS was 3 straight losing weeks (week 12 through week 15). However, I had 5 straight non-winning records to finish the season (week 17 through Super Bowl).  

I posted 13 straight weeks of winning records straight up (week 7 through divisional round). My worst stretch straight up was back to back losing weeks to finish the season (championship round and Super Bowl). 

My best week ATS this season was week 16 when I went 14-2 (.875). Other than the Super Bowl when I was 0-1 ATS, my worst week ATS this season was week 14 when I went 5-10-1 (.333). 

Other than the first two rounds of the playoffs when I was a combined 7-0 straight up, my best week picking winners this year was week 7 when I was a near perfect 12-1 (.923). Outside of the final 2 rounds of the playoffs when I was a combined 0-3 picking winners, my worst week of the season straight up was week 3 when I went 5-11 (.313). 

Overall, my best week of the season was week 16 when I was 14-2 (.875) ATS and 13-3 (.813) straight up. My worst week was week 6 when I was just 5-9 (.357) both ATS and straight up. 

In the end, I finished 135-126-5 (.517) ATS overall. This is down .022 from last year but it’s my third straight season over .500 ATS overall. I went 177-89-1 (.663) straight up. That’s also down from last year (by .007) but it’s my second best mark in 5 years of this blog. After going 6-5 ATS in the playoffs for 3 straight years I went just 5-6 (.455) for my worst ever record in that category. I went 7-4 (.636) straight up in the playoffs to improve upon last year’s poor 5-6 mark. 

For those who are interested (I know, just me and the Imaginary Readers), my records for each year of this blog are listed below. 


2008
ATS: 128-128-11 (.500)
Straight Up: 169-97-1 (.635)
Playoffs ATS: 7-4 (.636)
Playoffs Straight Up: 6-5 (.545)


2009
ATS: 127-134-6 (.487)
Straight Up: 177-90 (.663)
Playoffs ATS: 6-5 (.545)
Playoffs Straight Up: 7-4 (.636)


2010
ATS: 131-130-6 (.502)
Straight Up: 165-102 (.618)
Playoffs ATS: 6-5 (.545)
Playoffs Straight Up: 8-3 (.727)


2011
ATS: 139-119-9 (.539)
Straight Up: 179-88 (.670)
Playoffs ATS: 6-5 (.545)
Playoffs Straight Up: 5-6 (.455)
 
2012
ATS: 135-126-6 (.517)
Straight Up: 177-89-1 (.663)
Playoffs ATS: 5-6 (.455)
Playoffs Straight Up: 7-4 (.636)

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