2023 Picks, Week 6

I don't know if this falls under "people are funny" or "people are stupid," but, after the Giants' injury report for this week came out, there were a lot of calls for them to be flexed out of the Sunday night game.  On Friday!  As if it was possible to make that change on two days' notice.  I don't completely disagree with the sentiment, and I wondered if they might flex it out, but it's obviously not happening two days before the game!  So, sorry America, you're being subjected to the Giants losing in primetime for the fourth time in six weeks.  The good news is they only have one scheduled primetime game after this.

One game did get flexed this week.  Bucs-Lions was moved from a 1:00 start to a 4:25 start.  Here's the interesting thing, though, they made it a late game, but it's still not the national game.  That's Jets-Eagles.  And FOX already had a second late game in Rams-Cardinals.  So, why did they switch it to a late kickoff if they were keeping Jets-Eagles as the national game?

Thursday Night: Kansas City (Win)

Ravens (3-2) vs Titans (2-3): Baltimore-The 2023 London schedule concludes with the Ravens and Titans.  This won't be like last week where the Jaguars stayed there.  Both teams traveled, so neither will have the advantage there.  Baltimore's closer to London than Nashville, but not by much, so that shouldn't be a factor.  What should be a factor is the fact that the Ravens scored only 10 points against Pittsburgh last week.  Their offense is better than that.  This week, they actually show up.

Commanders (2-3) at Falcons (3-2): Atlanta-Washington goes from nearly beating Philadelphia to getting blown out by Chicago.  They've been sitting around for 10 days since that loss.  The Falcons, meanwhile, came back from London and barely held on to beat Houston.  But they won.  That's the important takeaway.  They should win again, extending the Commanders' losing streak to three.

Vikings (1-4) at Bears (1-4): Minnesota-Chicago didn't just pick up its first win last week, it put up 40 points!  To say that came out of nowhere would be an understatement.  The Vikings, meanwhile, gave the Chiefs a game and actually had a chance to win.  They didn't, but that's beside the point.  They've still got a chance to straighten their season around.  If they lose in Chicago, though, they could be setting themselves up for a long year.

Seahawks (3-1) at Bengals (2-3): Seattle-Am I the only one who's confused by the Bengals?  You never know which team's gonna show up.  Will it be the one that was held to a field goal in Tennessee or the one that put up 34 points a week later in Arizona?  Do they even know?  Is it all dependent on how good Burrow feels?  Anyway, I like a rested Seahawks team coming off its bye against them.

49ers (5-0) at Browns (2-2): San Francisco-Coming into the season, most of the talk about the 49ers surrounded their defense.  Now, it's their offense getting all the attention.  Trey Lance is still undefeated in the regular season as an NFL starter, and they've scored at least 30 points in every game this season.  While I don't think either one will be undefeated when they play the Eagles in early December, I'm not sure when that first loss is coming.

Panthers (0-5) at Dolphins (4-1): Miami-That Dolphins offense is pretty good, huh?!  They've only played two home games...and averaged 50.5 points in them!  Sure, that ridiculous 70-20 score against Denver skews that number, but they put up 31 against the Giants last week.  Their third home game is against another opponent they should have no issues scoring against.  The Panthers are the only remaining winless team in the NFL.  They'll stay that way.

Colts (3-2) at Jaguars (3-2): Jacksonville-Jacksonville is 2-0 in London this season, but only 1-2 in the United States.  Playing that second straight London game was a huge advantage against the Bills.  They were fresher, while Buffalo was jetlagged.  And it showed.  Now I wonder if the Jaguars will be the jetlagged ones, since they're back at home without a bye.  They'd better not be.  Because this is an important one for the division lead against a surprising Colts team.

Saints (3-2) at Texans (2-3): Houston-While much of Houston's attention this week will probably be on the Astros' annual ALCS appearance, the Texans will get a busy Sunday started by hosting the Saints.  I correctly predicted that the Saints would go into Foxboro and beat the Patriots last week.  What I didn't see coming was them shutting out New England.  Houston, meanwhile, went to Atlanta and only lost by two.  For some reason, I think the Texans win this one and even their record at 3-3.

Patriots (1-4) at Raiders (2-3): Las Vegas-Josh McDaniels returning as Offensive Coordinator was supposed to be a good thing.  It hasn't been.  New England can't score and Mac Jones has been benched in each of the last two weeks.  Bill Belichick insists he'll stick with his QB, but you've gotta wonder for how long.  The Patriots' aura has definitely worn off.  It's not like the Raiders are good either, but they're less bad than New England.  At least they can score (with former Patriots backup Jimmy Garoppolo under center).

Cardinals (1-4) at Rams (2-3): Rams-Even though their record might not indicate it, this Rams team is much closer to the juggernaut that won the Super Bowl at home two years ago than that dumpster fire they were last season.  Also consider, two of their losses have been to the 49ers and Eagles.  Playing the Cardinals at home, they're in the rare position of being favored.

Eagles (5-0) at Jets (2-3): Philadelphia-These two always used to play in the final game of the preseason, but that annual matchup went away when they got rid of the fourth preseason game.  Now we'll only see it every four years when the NFC East and AFC East match up.  This was, of course, supposed to be Jalen Hurts vs. Aaron Rodgers.  That had the makings of a pretty good game.  Instead, it's Zach Wilson and Jalen Hurts.  That's not quite the same.

Lions (4-1) at Buccaneers (3-1): Detroit-Had they flexed this one into Sunday night instead of a non-national late game, it would've made more sense.  It's actually a pretty important one, too.  They're both first-place, one-loss teams, and the winner will have the tiebreaker should it come to that at playoff time.  It doesn't look like the Eagles or 49ers will lose much, either, so, more importantly, the winner will keep pace with those two.  That will be a Lions team that's already proven it can play with the big boys.

Giants (1-4) at Bills (3-2): Buffalo-Most people think this one will be ugly, but can it really be any uglier than Cowboys-49ers last week?  They also thought the last Sunday night game involving a New York team, the Taylor Swift Bowl two weeks ago would be ugly, and it turned out to be anything but.  Do I actually think the Giants will make this competitive?  No.  My hope is that they at least manage to score a touchdown.

Cowboys (3-2) at Chargers (2-2): Dallas-Dallas plays its third West Coast game in the first six weeks at SoFi Stadium against the Chargers.  The first two didn't go well.  They simply played poorly in a loss to the Cardinals, but they got their butts kicked by the 49ers.  There's no way around that.  Yet, for some reason, I'm picking them to beat the Chargers on Monday night heading into their bye week.

This Week: 1-0
Last Week: 8-6
Overall: 50-29