NFL Picks, Week 7

The NFL's crazy start to the season continues.  The Eagles and Bills were the last two undefeated teams in the league.  Now they've both lost two straight.  And the teams with the best record in each conference are Tampa Bay and Indianapolis.  Who could've seen that coming in Week 7?  (The Bucs maybe, but certainly not the Colts.)

And the craziness has already carried over into Week 7.  Joe Flacco beat Aaron Rodgers in the Ben-Gay Bowl, which suddenly has Cincinnati back in the mix.  The Bengals aren't the only random team that's in it, either.  And with how nuts this season has already been, I wouldn't be surprised to see the wackiness continue well past this week.

Thursday Night: Pittsburgh (Loss)

Rams (4-2) vs Jaguars (4-2): Rams-Who would've figured that the final London game would be such a big matchup?  But that's exactly what we've got.  The Rams are in a three-way tie for first, and the second-place Jaguars have wins over San Francisco and Kansas City.  Can they add the Rams to the list?  I don't think so.  The Rams' defense is too good, and staying in Baltimore all week after playing the Ravens was such a smart move.

Saints (1-5) at Bears (3-2): Chicago-Everybody in the NFC North is above .500.  That's how things have been for the Bears in recent years.  They're 3-2, and they're still in last place!  That win over Washington (their second straight 25-24 victory) is really encouraging, though.  They started 0-2 and have now won three straight.  Make it four straight.  With Baltimore, Cincinnati and the Giants coming up, will we actually be talking about the Bears as contenders in the second half of the season?

Dolphins (1-5) at Browns (1-5): Miami-Two teams that badly need a win take on each other.  Miami has at least been competitive outside of its Week 1 loss to Indianapolis.  The Browns, meanwhile, are the Browns (who somehow randomly beat the Packers).  With the game being played in Cleveland, that's the one thing that might give the Browns an advantage.  The Dolphins are the better team, though, and they know this is their chance to get their season back on track.

Patriots (4-2) at Titans (1-5): New England-Their win over the Bills has the Patriots sitting in first place.  With Buffalo on its bye week, New England has a chance to make that a half-game lead.  And you know Mike Vrabel has extra motivation to get the win in his return to Tennessee.  The Titans have actually gotten worse since he left and are so bad that they just fired his replacement.  Meanwhile, Vrabel moved into a much better situation with a Patriots team that's on the rise.

Raiders (2-4) at Chiefs (3-3): Kansas City-It took until Week 7, but the Chiefs are finally playing a 1:00 game!  Yes, that's right, Kansa City's first six games were in national windows!  You've gotta think they might be relieved to be out of the spotlight and be just another Sunday afternoon game.  They haven't been above .500 all season.  That's certainly not what they expected.  Here's their chance to do something about that.

Eagles (4-2) at Vikings (3-2): Philadelphia-After giving up 18 fourth-quarter points against Denver, the Eagles allowed 34 to the Giants in that Thursday night upset.  They've had 10 days off since then to hopefully right the ship.  As for the Vikings, welcome back!  This is their first game in the United States in almost a month!  They haven't played in this country since Week 3!  They at least got a well-deserved bye after back-to-back games in Ireland and England.  I'm sure they were hoping for a better welcome home present than the Eagles, though.

Panthers (3-3) at Jets (0-6): Jets-Can the Jets finally get that first win?  They thought they had it last week in London, but the Broncos kicked that late field goal to drop them to 0-6.  I actually think they have a decent chance of pulling this one out, though.  Sure, Carolina is a surprising 3-3.  But, let's look further into it.  The Panthers are 3-0 at home and 0-3 on the road.  In their last road game, they got their butts kicked by the Patriots.  Clearly they aren't the same team away from Charlotte.

Giants (2-4) at Broncos (4-2): Denver-What is it about the Jets-Broncos matchup that makes for absolutely terrible football games?  And will traveling from London to Denver without a bye week affect them at all?  I don't see how it can't!  Meanwhile, New York's other team has had 10 days to bask in that upset of the Eagles.  The Giants are suddenly relevant and exciting again.  If they can pull this one out and get to 3-4, they'll also be worth paying attention to.  That might be a tall order, however.  The Broncos are 4-2 for a reason.  They know how to win ugly if they have to.  Case in point: last week.

Colts (5-1) at Chargers (4-2): Indianapolis-I bet CBS wishes they had the doubleheader this week so that they could've made this the national game.  As it is, the matchup between the top two teams in the AFC will have a very limited regional audience.  Which is a shame.  Because it deserves a bigger stage than it's getting.  This is the Colts' biggest test to date.  And they can show us that they really are as good as their record indicates if they go into SoFi and beat the Chargers.  Which, just as importantly, would give them the head-to-head tiebreaker should it come into play.

Commanders (3-3) at Cowboys (2-3-1): Dallas-Washington losing to Chicago suddenly has Jerry Jones feeling all optimistic.  The Cowboys are still an incredibly flawed football team, but the Eagles and Commanders are letting them hang around in the NFC East, which is all Jerry wants with the trade deadline approaching.  As bad as Dallas has been on the road, they've been just as good at home.  They've scored 40 points twice in their two games at Jerry World this season.  If they make it three, they'll move ahead of Washington in the division.  So, Jerry's right.  It is right there for the taking.  As long as they win this week.  (And don't forget how the tie essentially takes them out of any tiebreakers with anybody except the Packers.)

Packers (3-1-1) at Cardinals (2-4): Green Bay-Will the plane issue that delayed the Packers' travel to Arizona have any impact?  I can certainly see them getting off to a sluggish start if nothing else.  And this game does have "trap" written all over it.  So, a Cardinals win wouldn't totally surprise me.  I think the Packers will do what they've done all season, though, and find a way to pull it out in the end.

Falcons (3-2) at 49ers (4-2): San Francisco-Atlanta continues to be the most confusing team in the NFL!  The Falcons crushed the Vikings in Minnesota, so naturally they lost 30-0 to Carolina the following week, only to follow that up with back-to-back wins over playoff teams from last season.  On Sunday night, they head to San Francisco, where the 49ers lost to Jacksonville the last time they were at home.  They've picked up two good road wins since then and sit in a three-way tie in the NFC West.  Whoever wins here will make a statement that they're a team we need to watch out for the rest of the season.

Buccaneers (5-1) at Lions (4-2): Detroit-People started to question/worry about the Lions after they lost to the Packers in Week 1.  As it turns out, it was nothing more than a road loss against another good team.  Detroit is fine.  They reeled off four straight wins after that before their loss in Kansas City last Sunday night.  See where I'm going with this?  The Lions have no reason to panic after losing to the Chiefs.  Tampa Bay might, though.  Because Detroit may take it out on them.

Texans (2-3) at Seahawks (4-2): Seattle-Game 2 of the Monday night doubleheader is a 10:00 Eastern time start in Seattle.  And you can bet Seahawks fans are hoping the Mariners get it done in Game 6.  Because otherwise the start of the Seahawks-Texans game will be going right up against Game 7.  The NFL obviously couldn't have anticipated that when they made the schedule, but what would've happened if the Mariners were scheduled to potentially be at home?  Anyway, the Monday night doubleheaders are done after this week.  This is the game that got moved from ESPN+ to regular ESPN when ESPN bought NFL Network.  That streaming exclusive is, fortunately, a thing of the past.  Just like these Monday night doubleheaders will be next season.

This Week: 0-1
Last Week: 9-6
Overall: 59-34-1