Picking Football Games, Week 10

I made it through Week 9 unscathed in my survival league, which I think is pretty impressive considering the amount of crazy upsets there were last week.  Jaguars-Bills?  No one saw that coming!  Same with Cowboys-Broncos.  And Falcons-Saints.  Every season has a week like that, though, and I guess Week 9 was this year's.  So, of course, the Dolphins beat the Ravens on Thursday night to give me my first strike!

Thursday Night: Baltimore (Loss)

Falcons (4-4) at Cowboys (6-2): Dallas-You know the Cowboys are eager to get back on the field after last week's debacle.  They did show some life at the end (after Denver didn't care anymore), but, still.  They were down 30-0!  Was that their egg that every good team lays every season?  Probably.  There's too much talent in Dallas for them to have back-to-back bad weeks.

Saints (5-3) at Titans (7-2): New Orleans-Tennessee doesn't just have the best record in the AFC, the Titans have already played all of the good teams on their schedule and beaten all of them (yet, they also somehow lost to the Jets!?).  And they made a statement last week in LA.  The Saints, meanwhile, had an inexplicable loss to the Falcons and now don't have Alvin Kamara.  Yet, for some reason, I think New Orleans goes into Nashville and pulls the upset here.

Jaguars (2-6) at Colts (4-5): Indianapolis-Jacksonville's got to be riding high after not just upsetting the Bills, but holding that vaunted Buffalo offense to just three points.  Can they do it again against Carson Wentz and Co.?  It'll be a tall order after that absolute clinic Indy put on last week.  The Colts really can't play any better than they did in the Jet game.  Realistically, the Jaguars can't play any better than they did last week, either.  The law of averages, then, figures you play the odds and make the obvious pick here.

Browns (5-4) at Patriots (5-4): Cleveland-This game actually has huge implications in the AFC playoff race.  A lot of teams are 5-4 right now, including the Browns and Patriots.  So the winner here not only moves a game ahead of the other, they'll own the head-to-head tiebreaker.  These are the types of games that Cleveland has shown a penchant for winning over the past couple years.  These are also the types of games that you'd just take for granted New England would win.  But the current incarnation of the Patriots needs to show that they can do what the Patriots of old could.

Bills (5-3) at Jets (2-6): Buffalo-When the Bills saw Miami, at Jacksonville, at Jets coming off the bye, they figured this was the easy part of their schedule.  At least it should've been.  But that unexpected loss in Jacksonville now has the Bills suddenly just a half-game ahead of the Patriots in the AFC East.  It's possible they were looking past the Jaguars, which is a dangerous thing to do with any opponent.  They won't be looking past the Jets, whose two wins are both at home against good teams (Tennessee and Cincinnati) in their last two home games.

Lions (0-8) at Steelers (5-3): Pittsburgh-Ben Roethlisberger is on the COVID list and won't play.  Not that it should matter much for the Steelers, who are rolling and, thanks to the Ravens' loss, have a chance to move into a tie for first place.  The Lions, meanwhile, didn't lose last week!  What's crazy is I don't think Detroit is the worst team in the league.  Far from it, actually.  But, with two road games against AFC North foes coming up, they very well could be 0-10 when they play the Bears on Thanksgiving.

Buccaneers (6-2) at Washington (2-6): Tampa Bay-In hindsight, this is the game I should've used in survival this week.  The Bucs began their Super Bowl run last season with a wild card victory in Washington.  Everyone knew that Washington was totally overmatched in that game, and it'll be the same thing here.  Throw in the fact that Tampa Bay's coming off its bye and this one may not be pretty.

Panthers (4-5) at Cardinals (8-1): Arizona-After their first loss of the season dropped them out of the NFC's No. 1 seed,  the Cardinals are right back in the top spot.  That Monday night game against the Rams in a few weeks will probably determine who wins the NFC West, but they both need to take care of business first.  Carolina, meanwhile, is sitting just a half-game out of a playoff spot despite being 4-5.  And now Cam Newton is back!

Vikings (3-5) at Chargers (5-3): Chargers-Remember when everybody thought the Chargers were the best team in the AFC?  No one thinks that anymore (even though it might actually be true!).  Anyway, after their back-to-back losses, they got back into the win column last week, even if it was with an uninspiring performance in Philadelphia.  Now they're back home to face another NFC foe, a Vikings team that's played nothing but close games this season.  Unfortunately, Minnesota's come out on the short end of most of them.  That should be the case again here.

Eagles (3-6) at Broncos (5-4): Denver-Give Denver credit.  They've taken advantage of their schedule.  The Broncos have beaten the teams they should beat (with a surprise victory in Dallas thrown in) and made the AFC West a four-team race.  The Eagles are a team they should beat.  And they'd better.  Because things are about to get a lot tougher after the bye, when they play five of their last seven games within the division.

Seahawks (3-5) at Packers (7-2): Green Bay-Russell Wilson will play.  Aaron Rodgers probably will.  Which is good news for both teams.  Because we've seen how both the Seahawks and Packers play without their star quarterbacks.  Whether Rodgers is cleared or not will really be the difference here.  With him, the Packers win.  Without him, another week of Jordan Love under center isn't a fun prospect and the advantage swings over to Russ. 

Chiefs (5-4) at Raiders (5-3): Kansas City-Have the real Kansas City Chiefs finally shown up?  If so, it's about damn time!  Of course, we can only take so much away from a win over a Rodgers-less Packers team (where they only scored 13 points themselves), but it got them back over .500 and right back into the AFC West mix.  In fact, they can move ahead of the Raiders in the standings with a win in Las Vegas.

Rams (7-2) at 49ers (3-5): Rams-Old rivals meet on Monday night, with the Rams traveling up I-5 to face the 49ers.  I don't read too much into last week's game against the Titans.  LA got outplayed by another very good team.  Simple as that.  Doesn't mean there's anything "wrong" with them.  But, just to be safe, they gave Matthew Stafford another new toy to play with in the form of Odell Beckham, Jr.  Of course, do you really need Odell when Cooper Kupp is an All-World receiver right now?  I didn't think so!

This Week: 0-1
Last Week: 9-5
Overall: 94-43