My 2022 NFL Picks (Week 9)

We've reached the halfway point of the NFL season and the Eagles are still undefeated.  Philly got to 8-0 with its victory in Houston on Thursday night, which obviously got the talk of the '72 Dolphins going.  Do I think the '72 Dolphins are safe?  Yes, I do.  But, considering how collectively bad most of the league has been this season, the fact that somebody's still undefeated is cool.

Speaking of those other teams that have been collectively bad, they're running out of time to get their acts together.  Especially since their schedules won't exactly get easier.  Although, I think it's a safe bet to say we're looking at multiple 10-7 or 9-8 playoff teams, maybe even division winners.  So that, frankly, should be the goal.

Thursday Night: Philadelphia (Win)

Chargers (4-3) at Falcons (4-4): Atlanta-The Falcons are perhaps the most surprising division leader in the NFL, which I think says more about the rest of the NFC South than it does about them.  Especially when you consider we were a Panthers field goal away from it being a four-way tie at 3-5.  After this week, the NFC South leader will be above .500 for the first time since Week 5.  Because I don't know why, but I think the Falcons win.

Dolphins (5-3) at Bears (3-5): Miami-I don't think it's a coincidence that the Dolphins are 2-0 since getting Tua back.  Granted, they haven't played the strongest opponents and they barely beat both the Steelers and Lions.  But the point is they beat both of them, and they're sitting comfortably in a playoff position at 5-3.  Make that 6-3 unless the Bears pull off one of their random good weeks.

Panthers (2-6) at Bengals (4-4): Cincinnati-Even though the Panthers aren't good, they sure make life difficult for their opponents!  They haven't won a game outside of their division, but have really only gotten blown out once.  Which means the Bengals are in for a dogfight (catfight?) this week.  They should find a way to pull it out, though.

Packers (3-5) at Lions (1-6): Green Bay-Of all the teams with shockingly bad records, the Packers are perhaps the most surprising.  Maybe this is why they'd never played in London before!  They were 3-1 when they went out there, but haven't won since.  Four straight losses for a team that had become accustomed to only losing three all season.  And they've got Dallas, Tennessee, Philadelphia after this, so that could easily become eight if they don't beat the Lions.

Colts (3-4-1) at Patriots (4-4): New England-This is one of the most difficult games this week for me to pick.  Mainly because both teams have been so hit-and-miss all season.  It'll depend on which version of each team shows up.  Will it be the Colts that beat the Chiefs or the Colts that tied the Texans?  Will it be the Patriots that dominated the Jets or the Patriots that got their butts kicked by the Bears?  Since the game's at Foxboro, though, I'll take the chalk and say the good Patriots show up.

Bills (6-1) at Jets (5-3): Buffalo-If the playoffs started today, the Jets would be a wild card team.  That's still true after losing at home to the Patriots for the 10 millionth time in a row last week.  Things don't get any easier this week, as they play their second straight home division game against arguably the best team in the AFC.  At least this week, the loss will be a little less unexpected.

Vikings (6-1) at Commanders (4-4): Minnesota-Don't look now, but the Vikings have a 3.5-game lead and we're only just now hitting the halfway point!  So, Minnesota's in really good shape and can afford a clunker.  Of course, they're also just a game behind the Eagles (who beat them in Week 2, Minnesota's only loss so far), so they need to keep it going.  And there's no reason to think they won't in Washington.

Raiders (2-5) at Jaguars (2-6): Jacksonville-Then you have games like this one.  But even the bad teams need to play somebody every week, and when they play each other you know one of them has to win.  I'm saying Jacksonville here because, well, why not?  On paper, the Raiders are slightly less bad, but they mailed it in last week in New Orleans and I don't see faring much better with another 10 am Pacific kickoff.

Seahawks (5-3) at Cardinals (3-5): Arizona-While Atlanta's the most surprising division leader, the Seahawks are right there behind them.  I think their being in first place speaks to the parity of the NFC West more than anything else.  There haven't been many NFC West division games yet, and I have a feeling that they'll all just beat each other up.  I'm also more inclined to take the home teams in those battles.  Thus, I'm going with the Cardinals here.

Rams (3-4) at Buccaneers (3-5): Rams-When they picked this one as an exclusive national late game midway through the season, I don't think anyone expected it to be essentially a must-win for both teams.  Yet here we are.  The Rams are below .500 (which is more a consequence of their schedule), while the Bucs are, shockingly, 3-5.  This is by far the worst three-game stretch of Brady's career.  Can it conceivably be a four-game losing streak that they take to Munich?

Titans (5-2) at Chiefs (5-2): Kansas City-Our Sunday night matchup features the No. 1 and 2 seeds in the AFC from last year's playoffs.  And this one is huge for this season's playoff seeding.  The winner won't just go a game ahead, they'll also have the head-to-head tiebreaker.  So, yeah, this is a big game.  It's also the type of game that the Chiefs usually thrive in.  The Titans are good, but they aren't at that level just yet.

Ravens (5-3) at Saints (3-5): Baltimore-Sunday night will have a direct bearing on Monday night.  Because if the Ravens win, they'll be tied with whoever loses that one.  Of course, Baltimore needs to worry about winning the AFC North before it can worry about seeding (especially after what happened last year).  And they'll get a challenge from the Saints.  Not enough for them to lose, but enough for them to know they need to bring it.

This Week: 1-0
Last Week: 10-5
Overall: 71-52-1