Want to gauge how the NFL season is going for handicappers? Asking them about their bankrolls get generalities about being up a bunch or down a little. Hardly of any use. However, if one turns to the status of the NFL survivor pools a glimpse into how the public is progressing can be gleaned. In short, if these contests are any indication of how they are doing then the landscape is strewn with the remains of more than a few bankrolls. What went wrong on Week Two of the NFL season and how do we manage to stay on top and even gather steam going into the week ahead? All of this is on tap for your Monday morning edition of Americas Bookie’s The Brink.

Saints Started it Off

A fleeting glimpse of the schedule got people clicking away before a second thought could hit them. Tampa got waxed at home with a rookie quarterback and now had to travel to one of the toughest places to play, New Orleans. The problem is that one of those statements is no longer true. Losers of five straight at home hardly denotes the titan strength of this former lock at home. Although Tampa had an extreme spread bestowed upon them, backing a franchise in a survivor pool with that many straight home losses proved to not be prudent. Poof and the herd was thinned out just in that one game.

Obituaries

Baltimore bit the dust in a high scoring game at Oakland. People backed the Ravens despite having two straight games in different time zones on the road. On a lesser scale, two other upsets had survivor pools being trimmed. Washington used a two prong rushing attack and beat up on the Rams at home. Finally, Jacksonville eeked by Miami and gave the Suh era its first black eye in an inner state rivalry game.

This coupled with college going 1-12 with spreads over twenty points mid way through Saturday has helped define this as the year of the underdog so far. Heck even Alabama fell to Ole Miss and in the process gave the Rebels their first two game winning streak over the Crimson Tide. However, good news is on its way. Definite patterns have emerged so that one can roar back in week three of the NFL season. Digest this for today and come back tomorrow as we start down the road for recovery for those affected by the big name upsets.