Tuesday, November 23, 2010

NFL Picks: Week 12

Patriots over the Lions. I'll be on the road when this game is going on and I'm kind of glad about that. I'd be tempted to watch and frankly it's always hard for me to stomach the Patriots when they are winning. They should continue their success against Detroit but since I won't see it I'll still have my appetite when we hit the in-laws for Thanksgiving dinner. New England is amazing at finding very good offensive players that other teams either don't see the value in or can't take advantage of their talents. Welker, Woodhead, Branch, are examples. I still buy into the theory that they are better offensively without Moss. They won't score like they did a couple of years but they will score when it counts. Brady had another good game this past week with Indy. It's true the Pats lucked out a bit with the Colts when Manning threw that killer interception in the final minute but Brady is still the best QB in the league and most of the time they won't need luck.

Saints over the Cowboys. You know, I suppose the Cowboys could take the good vibe that's going on in Big "D" right now and win one for Jerry Jones on Turkey Day. But really, who wants that besides the good folks in Texas and all those "America's Team" diehards around the nation. I'm taking the Saints in this holiday battle.

Jets over the Bengals. Another close victory for the Jets last week. That can't be good for Rex Ryan's heart can it? Perhaps this is insensitive but they really need a couple of blowouts because Rex is a heart attack waiting to happen. I caught the last couple of minutes of the Jets/Texans game and I have to admit Sanchez was brilliant in the final minute when he threw two fantastic passes to win it. This week the battle between the Jet's corners (Revis & Cromartie) and Ochocinco and Owens brings some intrigue to a game that otherwise isn't all that interesting to me.

Falcons over the Packers. A lot of people might go with the Pack in this one. I'm tempted because they are awesome right now. Atlanta has been pretty decent too and they are tough at home. I actually think Rodgers is better than Matt Ryan but I think the Falcons will help out their QB this week. They are motivated to prove they are as good as their record.

Steelers over the Bills. The Bills are scrappy so you can't sleep on them. QB Ryan Fitzpatrick has some mobility and some guts ....that's right, Harvard guys have guts too!.....and receiver Steve Johnson looks like a breakout start this season (over 700 yards). Still, when it comes right down to it the Steelers are just better.

Browns over the Panthers. It's risky taking the Browns with Jake Delhomme back under center this week but they play harder than the Panthers do. With Stanford QB Andrew Luck looking pretty damn good this year it seems that the Bills and Panthers are playing for his draft pick. Right now Carolina looks like it might get a crack at him. If you are a fan of a crappy franchise, do you root for your team to lose just so you can get a chance at a possible franchise QB? Speaking as a Ram fan who likes Sam Bradford a lot...........Yes...Yes you do.

Giants over the Jags. The Giants defensive front is relentless. Justin Tuck and company should harass David Garrard all day. Can he file a lawsuit if that happens?

Vikings over the Redskins. What the hell. They shouldn't win this. But maybe they have a "Chili" rebound. Brad Childress was a bad coach but the Vikings are just not that good this year and number 4 is one of the main reasons why. He has below a 70 passer rating. Maybe Tavaris Jackson would be better but they are into Favre for 20 mil. and you can't have that pile of cash sitting on the bench.

Texans over the Titans. So Vince Young goes mental again and will need to salvage his career next year. Young clearly does not have the mentality to be a starting QB in the NFL. I'm not saying he isn't intelligent (how do you measure that anyway?) but he certainly is lazy and immature. Receivers might be able to get away with that at times but the QB can't. Still I don't think Fisher is blameless in the Titan's problems. He's a strong personality and his teams always play hard but truthfully most of the years Fisher has been coaching his teams have been mediocre. In 16 full seasons he has coached the Oiler/Texan franchise he has 6 winning seasons. 6 out of 16. Is that surprising? It is too me. He is talked about as a great coach. The record doesn't support that. This week Fisher gets the equally frustrating and mediocre Texans. Houston should send everything they have at the inexperienced Tennessee QB that will be filling in the for the foreseeable future. What's his name again? Rusty Smith? Maybe Rusty will provide a spark. Maybe he'll get manhandled. I'm betting (figuratively speaking) on the latter.

Chiefs over the Seahawks. I know the Hawks are tough at home but the Chiefs have a more talented team. They need to win this to show they are legit.

Raiders over the Dolphins. Richard Seymour was stupid to punch Roethlisberger last week. The Steeler QB bumped him and no doubt said something douchey...... but he's a QB for hell's sake. You can't do what he did and not pay the piper. Maybe the Raiders won't need him though. Brandon Marshall may be out, and Henne or Thigpen haven't shown much this year. The Raiders should startGradkowski and hand the ball to McFadden.

Broncos over the Rams. I'm just not sure all the pieces are there yet for any consistency with the Rams. I think Bradford as QB means St. Louis is competes is not an automatic loss anymore. But they aren't legit winners yet either. Denver is going to throw a lot and the Ram defense needs to play much better than they did last week.

Bears over the Eagles. They'll be in Chicago and the Bears seem to be better than I've been giving them credit for. Vick is playing well but I agree with those that say he is taking too many hits. How is he going to survive the rest of the season? He better look out for Urlacher who is making up for a couple of lost years.

Ravens over the Bucs. If Tampa really wants to prove they are for real they need to beat Baltimore. Every win they have this year is against a team that currently has a losing record. The three quality teams they've played (Falcons, Steelers, & Saints) have beaten them and 2 of those contests weren't even close. I like the Bucs but there is a good chance they'll go 3-3 to end the season (ending up at 10-6) and they possibly won't beat a good team the entire way.

Colts over the Chargers. I'm already thinking I might be wrong about this. The game is in Indy but the Colts have that grind it out offense this year and Manning has to do more than ever to win games. Speaking of doing it all, Rivers has been fantastic so far. That weird arm motion of his makes me think the ball can't possibly get where it's intended to go but somehow it does. A loss would be a real setback for either team so I hope the Colts can pull it out.

49ers over the Cardinals. Disappointing teams with QB issues. Not an unusual thing in the NFL. The NFC West sucks donkeys....... so amazing as it sounds, both of these clubs still have a a shot of winning the division. By the way they each have 3 victories. Could we have a sub .500 division winner this year? And if that happens could we get any traction on at least the idea of giving playoff home games to teams with better records?

Last Week: 11-5
Overall: 87-72

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

NFL Picks: Week 11

Dolphins over the Bears. Why am I so hesitant with Chicago? Their record is good. Is it that I just don't trust Jay Cutler? Yeah, I guess so.

Bengals over the Bills. Cincy should win this but Palmer has been terrible. Perhaps a new team could get Palmer going again (like Arizona did for Kurt Warner). Right now I just don't think his receivers have much confidence in him.

Cowboys over the Lions. Let's all jump on the Jason Garrett Bandwagon after one game! It's fun, he's a good driver and apparently he doesn't allow bathroom breaks so we'll get where we want to go much faster. Is that all it takes to win?---a coach who is willing to get pissed at his players? Maybe the lack of accountability did play a part in the Wade Phillips disaster but wasn't Garrett part of that too? Garret's got the reigns now though (at least as much as Jerry Jones will give him) and perhaps that will make a big difference. The hard luck Lions come to town this week so that may be a plus. If the Cowboys lose though, expect the Jon Gruden, Bill Cowher speculation to resume again.

Titans over the Redskins. The Skins don't look good, that's for sure. They scored over 20 points but were never in the game. People definitely over-reacted to the news about the McNabb contract. As many of the more sane media are telling us (Peter King, Dan Patrick, etc.) the contract has quite a bit of flexibility for the Redskins and they can still let this guy go if they need to and not take a big hit financially. McNabb needs some big games in the next few weeks if he wants to restore anything that's left of his QB reputation. I just have trouble seeing that happen. I think the Titans win this thing in a close one .

Chiefs over the Cardinals. Come on K.C., a little consistency would be nice. Your coach was wagging his finger at the Denver coach last week when he should be laying into his own team. It's time take advantage of that young talent.

Packers over the Vikings. Maybe the passion of the is game will ignite Favre and he'll play well again against his former team. He will need it because he sure looks done. ---Like stick a fork in him type done. You can't have 8-10 terrible plays a game and 4 fantastic plays. It leads to losses and this year Favre is a turnover machine. Rodgers is going to be giddy if he can defeat the Vikes and Favre in Minnesota and he' won't be the only one. For the first time in a long time I'm not rooting for Favre anymore.

Jets over the Texans. Should be close. Somehow the Jets are pulling out the close ones.

Steelers over the Raiders. That New England game should be a wake up call for the Steelers. They got a beat down by a team they could see in the playoffs again. I think they'll take that out on the Raiders this week.

Ravens over Carolina. As I said last week, I like Ray Rice. He's the only reason I would watch any of this game.

Browns over the Jags. Tough one to pick because the Jaguars are so up and down. Garrard may play great like he did last week or may play like he's the the 2nd coming of Ryan Leaf. You never know with him.

Bucs over the 49ers. I said a couple of weeks ago that I thought Troy Smith was a respectable player for the Ravens when he was the backup QB. I never did understand why they cut him. He's played well in his two starts and Alex Smith has never given the San Fran faithful much to look forward to. So can you blame them for looking at Troy Smith, realizing the dude won a Heisman and thinking maybe he's their next Steve Young? Problem is, this week they are playing another team with another talented young QB who is maturing fast. I like Tampa in this one.

Saints over the Seahawks. Is Reggie Bush back yet? Even though he really hasn't crashed the league like he did the college football world (in more ways than one) he is someone I always keep an eye on when he's playing. I miss him. I don't miss seeing Pete Carroll fist bumping players at USC. he's not doing that as much I would guess with the Seahawks. Just tread water for another year or two Pete then you can go back and rip the SC job from Kiffin.

Falcons over the Rams. The Rams were disappointing last week against the 49ers. Baby steps Sam Bradford. Baby steps.

Pats over the Colts. This game is looked forward to all year. Yet I think this may be a real let-down this week with a lopsided game in favor of the Brady Bunch. Brady and Belichick have had a couple of hiccups this season but for the most part they look ready to contend for the Super Bowl. Bastards. Manning won't be enough this time.

Giants over the Eagles. I want to say the Eagles will win this. Vick's been fun to watch. The Monday night game was unreal but I'm not sure he can do that twice in row. He might need to be superman again though because I think the Giants will send everything and the kitchen sink at him. Hopefully he can stay on the field because when he's playing it's must-see- t.v.

Chargers over the Broncos. What's this talk about the Chargers maybe ending up in L.A. if the L.A. area gets a team back? The Chargers out of San Diego would be sad and weird.

Last week: 8-6
Overall: 76-67

Thursday, November 11, 2010

NFL Picks: Week 10

Falcons over the Ravens. I love the way Ray Rice runs the ball. The other bigwig in that offense, Falco, definitely has his moments. Butt then again so does Matt Ryan and Michael Turner. Two decent QBs. Two decent teams. If Baltimore's defense shows up big tonight Atlanta is in trouble. I think Atlanta takes this home game.

Jets over the Browns. The Browns gave me an early Christmas present with their thrashing of the Pats last week. However, Mangini is no Santa. Come to think of it though, Rex Ryan does resemble the big guy from the North Pole. If my theory is correct then Santa sure can curse.

Vikings over the Bears. How can you trust either of these teams? The Vikes are talented but dysfunctional with a QB that could, with any given snap, throw a brilliant TD or q butt ugly interception. Wait, maybe that's the Bears I'm talking about.

Colts over the Bengals. Colts bounce back this week. They looked shorthanded last week even with the correct number of players on the field. They need a more dynamic running back with speed and Manning needs Collie back from the concussion. Probably won't happen this week though with the way Collie was knocked cold against the Eagles.

Texans over the Jags. Houston is maddening to root for I would imagine. They can't help but tease you with their talent. Andre Johnson may go down as one of the greatest receivers that the general public knows nothing about.

Titans over the Dolphins. The "fins" stay winless at home this year.

Bucs over the Panthers. Carolina looks lost.

Bills over the Lions. Just bad luck for Matt Stafford. He's hurt again but I don't think he's injury prone, he's just a QB on a mediocre to poor team. He's taken some hard and unlucky hits. They have a great star though in Calvin Johnson and Ndamukong Suh on the defensive side. The Bills have to get a win this week though...don't they?

Broncos over the Chiefs. Chiefs should win this but just maybe this week the Broncos use that mile high advantage to ....their advantage.

Cardinals over the Seahawks. can't wait.

Giants over the Cowboys. After a rough start to the season, the Giants have been great. Bradshaw is racking up yards, Eli looks good, the defense is dominant. Now they get the Jason Garrett led Cowboys. It would be hard to blame the G-Men if they looked past Dallas but the Cowboys haven't shown any signs of life all season and I'm guessing that won't change just because Wade Phillips got the pink slip. Let me be another in the long line of folks calling for the firing of the Cowboy GM. That's right Jerry, get in front of a mirror and do your best Donald Trump imitation.


Rams over the 49ers. I've been picking against my Rams for 3 years. Now I can't stop myself, I'm picking them for a "W" every week. I'll admit I'm a bit over-eager.

Pats over the Steelers. Or maybe Steelers over the Pats. Sounds like a good game. Ok. let's go with the Patriots. They just got clocked by the Browns so this totally makes sense right?

Eagles over the Redskins. One of the few games this week where I really am rooting for one team to win. Go Eagles. I'm loving watching Vick again and I still can't stand Mr. creepy eyes Shanahan.

Last Week: 10-3
Overall: 68-61

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

NFL Picks: Week 9

I'm sure we have another average (i.e. insane) week of football ahead in the NFL this next week. That's why we love this crap. It's never dull. Think about this past week: We had a Hall of Fame receiver get waived after 3 weeks. We had Rex Grossman brought in (on purpose!) by the Redskin coaching staff to run a 2 minute offense to win a game. And my Rams have already won 4 games! 4! They have a total of 6 wins in the past 3 years combined so this season is officially awesome. Sam Bradford, I am on your bandwagon.......Please be careful because I get motion sickness.

onto the picks:

Bills over the Bears. The Bills are at home and they're playing hard despite sporting an "o-fer" in the win column.

Falcons over the Bucs. Josh Freeman and company come back to earth a bit this week. Don't worry J-Free (thank me later Josh for the nickname) you'll get your mojo back soon. This team is seemingly better than we thought. Right now the Falcons seem solid but a one and done type of team if they were to make the playoffs.

Patriots over the Browns. I really wish the Pats had kept Moss. It's looking more and more like shedding him was the correct thing to do. So naturally I wish they had kept him. With the Pats sneakingly dominant again, I will now have to break out the Tom Brady Voodoo dolls from their dusty storage spot. I know I've got those 4 inch pins here somewhere.

Jets over the Lions. The Lions deserve a win. The Jets are schizophrenic. Close game but one that goes NY/NJ's way.

Vikings over the Cardinals. Both desperate. Should be entertaining. Hey, by the way....Brad Childress is a really bad coach.

Saints over the Panthers. People are blaming the Saints somewhat slow start on Super Bowl hangover. That's bogus. Injuries, some bad luck, and just the natural parity of the league have caught them this season. It may not be a Super Bowl season this year but they'll be in the playoff hunt all season.

Ravens over the Dolphins. I know the Fins have been playing well on the road but the home fans want some love too. This week I think another road stop doesn't end as well for them. Someone get Joe Flacco some tweezers. That unibrow is distracting.

Chargers over the Texans. Both have issues. But how about Arian Foster this season? 700+ yards and 5.7 yards a carry. Every season has a surprise runner. He's it this year.

Giants over the Seahawks. The Seahawks are one of the more maddening teams in the league with their inconsistent play. So in other words, business as usual in Seattle.

Chiefs over the Raiders. The Raiders are no joke (which is funny) and McFadden has been great, but as you know I've been plugging the Chief's Jamaal Charles all season and I'll continue to say to the Chiefs: feed him the ball! He's got over 600 yards and he's getting over 6 1/2 yards a pop.

Eagles over the Colts. Manning is surgical. But I think maybe this week some bad bounces go against them and Philly catches them a little flat footed. By the way, how genius is Andy Reid looking right about now for ditching McNabb?

Packers over the Cowboys. I like many of the Cowboy players. Barber and Ware are cool, Romo is a decent guy and Miles Austin is getting a big head but I still like the fact he was a overlooked and then made good. But I can't hide my giddiness over Jerry Jones and his mis-management of this team. Jerry's just plain creepy and he's the main reason I went from a Cowboy fan (from age 8) to a Ram fan since 1997. It's been obvious for a couple of seasons that Wade Phillips was not the right fit for his team but Phillips allows Jones to run the team without interference and Jones loves that ultimate control. No doubt Wade is probably a genuinely hard guy to fire because he's such a nice guy but I think Jones fears bringing in a more disciplined type because it threatens him too. Suck it up Jerry and can Wade. You can hit the plastic surgery parlor afterwards to help you feel better.

--Clay Mathews is a monster. He reminds me of Ray Lewis and Urlacher (of a few years ago). Packers scored big with him.

Steelers over the Bengals
I used to think that Palmer and Roethlisberger would duel for many years to come. Palmer however is done. Washed up. Too bad because I've liked him.
=== I'm wondering if James Harrison of the Steelers is just going to go all kamikaze on Palmer this week. He's a playing the victim lately but you can see that he just likes to knock people out. Watch the shot he took on Brees last week. It was totally unnecessary and Harrison is a punk if he feels that shot is just hard nosed football. It's a cheap shot James. Knock those off and don't worry about the other clean hard hits. You may get fined occasionally for some helmet to helmets that are at time impossible to avoid but it's the cheap shots that will get you suspended. Stop whining and just play.

Last week : 7-6
Overall:58-58