5-9. That's what happens when you make your picks at 2:00 in the morning (I actually have to lock them in to Yahoo! before the Thursday night game, but it sounds better if I blame it on that). Everybody has a bad week during the season, and last week was certainly mine. Although, it wasn't completely my fault. Who could've seen Rams-Broncos coming?!
Anyway, we move forward. On to this week, where I'm already 0-1. But again, the Raiders actually winning is not something everyone's necessarily going to bank on.
Thursday Night: Kansas City (Loss)
Browns (6-4) at Falcons (4-6): Cleveland-Herein lies the incredible difference between the AFC North and the NFC South. The Browns, who are two games over .500, went from first place to last place when they lost to Houston last week. The Falcons, meanwhile, beat Carolina to move into first place...despite being two games under .500. One of the reasons is because the NFC South's only win over the AFC North this season was Tampa Bay's upset of Pittsburgh (there was also that wonderful Bengals-Panthers tie). I can't say I see that changing.
Buccaneers (2-8) at Bears (4-6): Chicago-The Bears finally won a home game! It took them until Week 11, but they finally got one against the Vikings last week. Now Lovie comes back to Chicago. Can they beat their former coach and make it two in a row?
Jaguars (1-9) at Colts (6-4): Indianapolis-I'll say this about Indianapolis. They might play in the worst division in football (well, second worst), but they also rarely lose to teams they should beat. Their four losses this season are to Denver, New England, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Needless to say, Jacksonville isn't in that category.
Packers (7-3) at Vikings (4-6): Green Bay-How hilarious is that Sunday NFL Countdown commercial where Ray Lewis makes his picks for the NFC and flashes his Super Bowl ring in Cris Carter's face? The only reason I'm bringing this up is because one of the teams he says has a very good chance is Green Bay. And they do. The Packers are 6-1 since starting 1-2 and have scored 108 points in the last two weeks. They're on a roll alright.
Lions (7-3) at Patriots (8-2): New England-Speaking of teams on a roll, how about the Patriots? They've already beaten each of the other three division leaders in the AFC, which means they've got the 1-seed all but locked up right now. But they'll be tested in the next three weeks: Detroit, at Green Bay, at San Diego. I doubt the Patriots come out of that unscathed, but they'll add another first place team to the hit list this week and knock off the Lions.
Titans (2-8) at Eagles (7-3): Philadelphia-On Thanksgiving, we finally get the first Eagles-Cowboys matchup of the season. That'll go a long way towards deciding who wins the NFC East. But first Philadelphia has to play the Titans. Despite that thrashing they took in Green Bay last week, that shouldn't be a problem for the Eagles.
Bengals (6-3-1) at Texans (5-5): Cincinnati-Don't look now, but Houston is making a push towards challenging Indianapolis in the AFC South. This is, of course, a rematch of the playoff matchups in 2011-12, both of which were won by the Texans. Fortunately for the Bengals, this isn't a primetime or national game. Just your run-of-the-mill CBS early game. As a result, I think the AFC's third-best team picks up another road win. (Also, sidebar, J.J. Watt's NOT the MVP, and it's idiotic to say he is. Right now, the MVP is Tom Brady.)
Rams (4-6) at Chargers (6-4): San Diego-The St. Louis Rams have now beaten both of last year's Super Bowl teams and San Francisco over the last five weeks. Imagine how good they'd be if they had Sam Bradford. Anyway, the Chargers are quietly doing what they always do and making a playoff push. If the Broncos lose and the Chargers win, it'll be a three-way tie atop the AFC West heading into December.
Cardinals (9-1) at Seahawks (6-4): Seattle-The game of the week! We finally get a matchup between Arizona and Seattle. The Cardinals might have the best record in football, but the Seahawks are still the defending champs, and it's still tough to beat them in Seattle (although Arizona was the only team to figure out that trick last season). Should Arizona win in Seattle again, the remaining doubters will be silenced. However, I think their second loss of the season comes this week. And they'll do the opposite of the Rams. They'll have their only two losses be road games to the Super Bowl teams.
Dolphins (6-4) at Broncos (7-3): Denver-Fun fact: these two teams played only like three times during the entire 15-year span of Marino and Elway's careers, which is one of the things that prompted the new scheduling format. Last week's Denver loss was shocking, but the Raiders certainly helped them out by beating the Chiefs on Thursday. Now the Broncos can move back into sole possession of first place with a victory. Oh, and the Broncos are playing the Chiefs on Sunday night next week.
Redskins (3-7) at 49ers (6-4): San Francisco-For some reason, this game isn't just on CBS, but it's also the CBS national game. I have no idea why, but I'd much rather see Miami-Denver (or, if I'm being completely honest, Arizona-Seattle). Anyway, back in the 80s when CBS actually covered the NFC, this would've been a great national game. Not so much these days. Santa Clara should take this one heading into that Thanksgiving night matchup with the rival Seahawks.
Cowboys (7-3) at Giants (3-7): Dallas-If there's any team in the NFL that needs a win more than the New York Football Giants, I don't know who it is. Five straight losses as they run this ridiculously tough gauntlet the NFL handed them. At least some relief comes next week with the Jaguars. But first, they play their annual Sunday night game against Dallas, which is usually a good thing. Sunday night games against the Cowboys usually go pretty well, but, oddly, they haven't played that well at home against Dallas since Met Life Stadium opened. While the Cowboys might get caught looking ahead to their Thanksgiving showdown with the Eagles, I don't think they will.
Jets (2-8) vs. Bills (5-5): Jets-Moving the game out of Buffalo was the right decision. There's no way they would've been able to play with the current condition of the city and the stadium. Moving the game to Monday was also the only logical solution. That would've been incredibly unfair to the Bills. While I preferred Toronto as the alternative site (the Bills didn't have a Toronto game scheduled this year), the CFL playoffs (Hamilton is hosting Montreal) made that impractical. So instead it's Detroit, which was the hometown of late Bills owner Ralph Wilson. Apparently, when NFL games involving New York teams get postponed/moved because of weather, they take place in Detroit on a Monday night. Anyway, a Bills win would be an incredible lift for their city, and Buffalo's certainly the better team. But with everything they've had to go through this week and the lack of practice time, I'm actually going to take the Jets, who'll be the more prepared team.
Ravens (6-4) at Saints (4-6): New Orleans-The official Monday night game is the Ravens' first trip to New Orleans since Beyoncé made the lights go out in their Super Bowl victory. The Superdome mystique is starting to wear off for the Saints, who've dropped the first two games of their three-game homestand. Yet somehow, at 4-6, they've remained tied for first in the incredibly awful NFC South. They always get up for Monday night games, though. And you can bet the Superdome will be rocking as they wear those all-black uniforms. I see New Orleans winning this one.
BYE: Carolina (3-7-1), Pittsburgh (7-4)
This Week: 0-1
Last Week: 5-9
Season: 99-62-1
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