Conventional wisdom sometimes works
| Week 9 Results | ||||
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| 89-43 8-5 |
80-52 7-6 |
79-53 6-7 |
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| Thursday, November 5, 2015 | ||||
| Cleveland @ Cincinnati | Cincinnati | Cincinnati | Cincinnati | |
| Sunday, November 8, 2015 | ||||
| Miami @ Buffalo | Buffalo | Miami | Miami | |
| Green Bay @ Carolina | Green Bay | Carolina | Green Bay | |
| St. Louis @ Minnesota | Minnesota | Minnesota | Minnesota | |
| Washington @ New England | New England | New England | New England | |
| Tennessee @ New Orleans | New Orleans | New Orleans | New Orleans | |
| Jacksonville @ N.Y. Jets | New York Jets | New York Jets | New York Jets | |
| Oakland @ Pittsburgh | Pittsburg | Oakland | Oakland | |
| Atlanta @ San Francisco | Atlanta | Atlanta | Atlanta | |
| N.Y. Giants @ Tampa Bay | New York Giants | Tampa Bay | New York Giants | |
| Denver @ Indianapolis | Denver | Denver | Denver | |
| Philadelphia @ Dallas | Philadelphia | Philadelphia | Dallas | |
| Monday, November 9, 2015 | ||||
| Chicago @ San Diego | San Diego | Chicago | Chicago | |
| Byes: Arizona, Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City, Seattle | ||||
| © 2015 Gehlke Bros. Football | ||||
On the shortest week of the season, with just 13 games to entertain us, the Gehlke Bros. managed to find five splits. That would be a lot in any week, but given that the Senior Bro was in total agreement with the general public and that upsets are a guarantee every week, it was a question of whether the Junior Bro could successfully figure out where to abandon the conventional wisdom and march to his own drumbeat of victory.
But occasionally the oddsmakers know what they're doing. Such was the case in Buffalo, where the bye-rested Bills came to play against the Dolphins, romping to a 33-17 victory and giving Glenn the early advantage. That was quickly negated when the undefeated Panthers held off a furious rally by the visiting Packers, 37-29, to put Sean on the board.
Perhaps the best split of the weekend was Sunday morning's contest between the Raiders and Steelers, where Oakland showed plenty of moxie in taking its host to the limit in a game that saw Pittsburg quarterback Ben Roethlisberger go down with a foot injury that will keep him on the bench a couple of weeks. The Steelers held on after that — just barely — to take home a 38-35 win with a final field goal that put Glenn back in front for the day.
In the fourth split of the day, the Giants won on the road, overcoming the Bucs, 32-18, in a game that was much closer than indicated by the final score. Regardless of how it ended, it gave Glenn his third win of the weekend and backed Sean — already guaranteed his fourth consecutive losing week — into a must-win scenario on Monday night. His Chicago Bears responded, however, coming from behind in a sloppy penalty-filled fiasco to defeat San Diego, in the process looking more like the '85 Stupor Bore champs than the 3-5 team they are in 2015.
Sean managed to avoid worse damage by finishing 7-6 for second place, but he now finds himself 9 games down to his big brother, who won the week for the sixth time this year by going 8-5. Ben notched a 6-7 finish for third, but he now slips to last place in the overall standings, 10 games behind. Upsets? Yes, there were a few. We all correctly picked Cincinnati, Minnesota, New England and the New York Jets. However, nobody picked Tennessee to win its thriller in the Big Easy, or San Francisco to win with Blaine Gabbert at QB, or Indianapolis to knock off previously undefeated Denver. That's why we play the games!
