I've got a bone to pick with the NFL. Every team gets a Thursday night game. I get that. I'm fine with that. So, why then, knowing the baseball schedule and knowing that Derek Jeter's final home game was going to be on Thursday night, did they schedule the Giants' Thursday night game opposite Jeter's Yankee Stadium finale? Why couldn't the Thursday night game be Cincinnati-Cleveland or another matchup New Yorkers don't care about? No! Instead they make us choose between Derek Jeter and the Giants. Not cool.
Anyway, rant over. At least the Giants won, making 3-for-3 in blowouts on Thursday nights (4-for-4 if you count Seahawks-Packers, but I'm only talking about CBS Thursday night games here). You know what, rant not over. Because this week is the start of byes and I can't, for the life of me, figure out why there are six. You made it a point to have eight divisions of four, so why aren't there four byes each week for eight weeks? Instead you've got a couple weeks with six, a couple weeks with two and a couple weeks with four. It makes no sense! And, as a result of the six byes, there are only 10 games on Sunday afternoon this week.
Thursday Night: Giants (Win)
Packers (1-2) at Bears (2-1): Chicago-What's wrong with the Packers? That's the question a lot of people have been asking at this early point in the season. It's not time to worry about Green Bay yet, but those concerns do seem valid after barely beating the Jets at home and losing to the Lions (without putting up much of a fight). Chicago has recovered since that Opening Day loss to Buffalo, but the Bears won't have the national spotlight shining on them this week. Regardless, Jay Cutler is my backup fantasy quarterback who I'm starting this week during the Broncos' bye, so I need another big game from him and the Bears offense.
Titans (1-2) at Colts (1-2): Indianapolis-See, all it took was playing a division game for the Colts' offense to look like the Colts' offense. They play another one this week. Look for the Colts to be 2-2 and right back in the thick of the AFC South race.
Dolphins (1-2) vs. Raiders (0-3): Miami-The first of three London games this year, and this is rough trip for Oakland, which is the "home" team in this one despite it taking place more than 5000 miles away...and at 10:00 in the morning local time. What makes the trip worse for the Raiders is that they were in New England last week...so they haven't been in California since last Friday. Oh, and did I mention the Raiders aren't good? Yeah, all signs point to a Dolphins victory.
Lions (2-1) at Jets (1-2): Detroit-Detroit and the Jets. Not sure what to make of this one. The Lions are probably a little better than I think, and the Jets certainly aren't as good as they think. They almost beat the Packers, then came close against the Bears, and I forget who the Jets player was that said it, but he blamed both losses on the officials (even though another Jets score would've only tied each game). I wonder whose fault it'll be when the Lions win 27-10.
Buccaneers (0-3) at Steelers (2-1): Pittsburgh-The Bucs have had plenty of time to recover from last Thursday night's shellacking at the hands of the Falcons. Tampa Bay's one of only three winless teams, joining Jacksonville and Oakland. A trip to Pittsburgh doesn't improve their chances of finally breaking into the win column.
Panthers (2-1) at Ravens (2-1): Carolina-One of the better games of this week involves two of the three teams most embroiled in the NFL's domestic violence problems. They both seem to have weathered the storm to an extent, although Carolina's defense certainly had its flaws exposed last week against the Steelers. Even with the game in Baltimore, I think the Panthers rebound and get the W this week. Cam Newton will get it done.
Bills (2-1) at Texans (2-1): Houston-Both of these teams suffered their first loss last week, the Bills falling to San Diego and Houston getting its butts kicked by the Giants. The Texans haven't been home since Week 1, so you can bet they're chomping at the bit to get back to Reliant Stadium. And they've got J.J. Watt. With a victory, Houston will be the first team in the NFL to better last season's win total.
Jaguars (0-3) at Chargers (2-1): San Diego-If we've learned anything about the Jaguars over the first three weeks of the season, it's that their defense is still terrible. I'm not sure their offense is much better, either, but at least they're scoring points this season. Regardless, they're not flying cross country and winning in San Diego.
Falcons (2-1) at Vikings (1-2): Atlanta-Matt Cassel broke his leg and is out for the year, which means the Vikings are Teddy Bridgewater's team now. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Because Bridgewater's going to be the quarterback as the Vikings begin life without Adrian Peterson, and life without Adrian Peterson begins now. Because he's not coming back. At least not this season. And the Vikings have absolutely no clue what they're doing without Adrian Peterson.
Eagles (3-0) at 49ers (1-2): San Francisco-Philadelphia's the only undefeated team in action this week, and they've got a tough trip to Santa Clara for a matchup with a 49ers squad that's desperate for a win. This really is almost a must-game for San Francisco after back-to-back losses to Chicago and Arizona. When the 49ers' backs are against the wall, they tend to play well. I don't see that changing this week, and we'll only have two undefeated teams by Sunday night.
Saints (1-2) at Cowboys (2-1): New Orleans-Speaking of Sunday night, this should be a fun one between New Orleans and Dallas. The Saints finally got their first win last week against Minnesota, while Dallas made that amazing comeback after falling behind 21-0 in St. Louis. The Cowboys are 2-1, and both of their victories came on the road, but they beat two teams that aren't the caliber of New Orleans. Now that the Saints finally have a win, I think they're just getting going.
Patriots (2-1) at Chiefs (1-2): New England-The Royals are going to the playoffs! Congratulations to them. They'll probably be hosting the AL Wild Card Game on Tuesday night. As for the Chiefs' game across the parking lot on Monday night, I don't see it going very well for the home team. They are, after all, playing the Patriots.
BYE: Arizona (3-0), Cincinnati (3-0), Cleveland (1-2), Denver (2-1), Seattle (2-1), St. Louis (1-2)
This Week: 1-0
Last Week: 11-5
Season: 30-19
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