Time again for football picks with Michael Watts and Monica Roberts ; though between the ongoing issues involving concussions, the name of the Washington club, and now the domestic violence scandal that has the league trying to play catchup after first not treating it seriously enough to begin with, its becoming almost embarrassing to be a football fan some days. Roger Goodell has proven to be an ineffective commissioner who only does the right thing when public pressure forces him to, and he needs to go. Tampa Bay at Atlanta: I have twice picked the Buccaneers to pull off the upset, and both times they’ve performed more like they were singing in the Pirates of Penzance than competing in the National Football League. This week, I know better than to pick them. FALCONS over Buccaneers. San Diego at Buffalo: The Chargers shocked the Super Bowl champs, but the Bills have pulled off two upsets and have a chance (if they continue to play as they have the past two weeks) to be this year’s NFL darlings. The problem with a Cinderella though is that there is always something that really isn’t much better than last year, it just hasn’t broken—yet. And that would be the Bills pass defense. They’ve given up an average 275 yards though the air against Jay Cutler and Ryan Tannehill, average NFL starting quarterbacks, and if the weather is good in Buffalo on Sunday consider what Phillip Rivers (a pretty good quarterback) could do against them. CHARGERS over Bills. Dallas at St. Louis: Ever wonder what a great team without a quarterback would look like? See the Rams. Their defense and Austin Davis were good enough to eke out a win against Tampa Bay, but they won’t be enough to keep up with Dallas’ offense. COWBOYS over Rams. Washington at Philadelphia: Kirk Cousins played well after RGIII was gone. OK, so it was against Jacksonville, but he’s still good enough that if Dan Snyder wasn’t the owner and hadn’t mortgaged the farm to get Griffin, Cousins would be getting a serious shot to be the #1 starter, even when RGIII comes back. [upset special: SNYDERS over Eagles] Houston at N.Y. Giants: The Texans don’t look like last year’s Texans at all, leading the NFL in point differential at +27 through two games, but the Giants still look an awful lot like last year’s Giants, having a point differential of – 32, second worst in the league. Eli Manning, who led the league in interceptions last year, has already thrown four to the wrong team in two games this year. Sure the game is at the Meadowlands, but Houston would win this game anywhere on the planet. TEXANS over Giants. Minnesota at New Orleans: With Adrian Peterson gone, The Vikings have no offense. Even against a New Orleans defense that has coughed up more points in two games than anybody except Jacksonville, Minnesota will be going home with a loss. SAINTS over Vikings. Tennessee at Cincinnati: Quick: Which team has given up the fewest passing yards in the NFL? Would you believe it is the Tennessee Titans? Unfortunately for the Titans, one reason is because they haven’t done very well against the rush. Cincinnati brings in a balanced offense featuring quarterback Andy Dalton and running backs Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill. Receiver A.J. Green is listed as questionable but even without Green the Bengals should have enough tools to defeat Tennessee. BENGALS over Titans. Baltimore at Cleveland: You could make a good case for either team, but last week Joe Flacco proved that Baltimore could overcome the loss of Ray Rice against Pittsburgh. Look for Flacco to go to work against Cleveland and their bad pass defense that is giving up almost 300 yards per game through the air. RAVENS over Browns. Green Bay at Detroit: Detroit starting slot corner Bill Bentley and his reserve, Nevin Lawson, are both gone for the season. Cassius Vaughn will get the start for Detroit, and this whole game may hinge on how well he does covering Green Bay WR Jordy Nelson. LIONS over Packers. Indianapolis at Jacksonville: After two losses, Andrew Luck has to be ready to come out firing. That’s bad news for Jacksonville, which also has two losses to open the season, but will have a whole lot more by the end of the season. COLTS over Jaguars. Oakland at New England: Really? The only way Oakland wins this game is if somebody spikes the Pats’ water cooler with Fleet’s enema. PATRIOTS over Raiders. San Francisco at Arizona: A key NFC West matchup that doesn’t involve the Seahawks. Both teams have been hurt going into the season by injuries and suspensions, but after losing their home opener against the Bears, the 49ers will head to Glendale looking to beat up somebody else. Oh my, Drew Stanton, aren’t you lucky? 49ERS over Cardinals. Denver at Seattle: A rematch of last year’s Super Bowl. Not exactly though, as Denver fixed a lot of their problems on defense though free agency, while the Seahawks had pick and choose who to sign and who to let go. I’m still picking the Seahawks to win, but the score definitely will not be 43-8. SEAHAWKS over Broncos. Kansas City at Miami: After a great Cinderella season last year, Alex Smith is morphing back into the guy that the 49ers mostly just asked to hand off to a running back over the few years prior to 2011. This year he has a 63.6 rating with under six yards per pass and a 1/3 touchdown to interception number. Unfortunately for Smith though, running back Knile Davis has only 82 yards total in two games—only four yards more than Smith has on scrambles. DOLPHINS over Chiefs. Pittsburgh at Carolina: Among the more intriguing matchups between teams that don’t see each other very often. Carolina is among the teams caught up in the NFL domestic violence scandal, with DE Greg Hardy suspended. No doubt Ben Roethlisberger will appreciate not having Hardy (who averaged nearly a sack per game last year) in his face all day, and he will make it matter. [UPSET SPECIAL #2: STEELERS over Panthers.] Chicago at N.Y. Jets: What do you call it when two enigmas get on the field with each other? This may be the hardest game to predict all week, as both teams can play like Super Bowl champions or they can stink the place up (and with a 1-1 start that comes with that kind of schizophrenia.) The Bears have had the more classically erratic start to the season, losing at home to the Bills and then winning on the road in San Francisco. The Jets at least beat the team they were supposed to beat, the Raiders at home before losing at Green Bay. Looking a little deeper though, I have to go with the Jets because they lead the NFL in rushing, on both sides of the ball (running for 179 yard per game on offense and giving up only 52.5 on the ground.) That second stat won’t matter much because the Bears don’t run a lot anyway, but with Chicago’s defense giving up 161 yards rushing, expect the Jets to keep feeding the Bears a steady diet of Chris Ivory and Chris Johnson pounding away on the ground (and quarterback Geno Smith can pick up some yards using his feet as well.) Jay Cutler won’t get much chance to pass as he will spend most of the game sitting on the bench watching the Jets move the yardsticks a run at a time. JETS over Bears. Last weeks picks are here: https://facebook/luke.roadwalker.1/posts/885844401444042
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 04:37:01 +0000
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