Week 12 Thanksgiving Spectacular.

Week 11 Predictions heads up: 13-3

Week 11 Predictions against the Spread: 7-8

Record so far: 70-57

Week 12 started out pretty ugly with a Bears 16-0 win over Miami and it didn’t get much prettier throughout as most of the games during the week were blowouts. The Raiders showed they’re not ready to make the next step quite yet getting blown out by the Steelers, Aaron Rodgers finally put a stake in the heart of the zombie that is Brett Favre, and Tom Terrific finally turned the tables and beat Peyton for the first time in years. I’m writing this from my desk at work so let’s try to get into the quick hits faster than usual this week. Also since we have a few games even earlier than Thursday this week I'm going to put these Thanksgiving day games up tonight and get to the rest of the picks on Friday after a jazzy new NBA piece. 

San Diego SUPER CHARGERS

This year like every year under Norv Turner the Chargers got off to a slow start and like usual they’ve strung off a few wins to get themselves back into contention for a division title. They’re now sitting at 5-5 after starting this year 2-5. With two tough wins over the Titans and the Texans combined with a blowout of a divisional foe in the Broncos they’re sitting exactly where they want to be. The Chargers not only control their own destiny in the AFC West they have the easiest remaining schedule of the remaining AFC West teams with the remaining teams on their schedule having a 25-35 record. The only above .500 teams they still have to play are the Colts and Chiefs and the Chargers are 4-1 over their past 5 games against the Colts so that match up isn’t as daunting for them as it would be for other teams. Phillip Rivers is continually building his MVP resume with game after game of fantastic performances with an undermanned squad. Once again he was without his top 3 receivers and still sliced and diced a team to the tune of 233 yards and 4 touchdowns. You combine that with a defense that has been playing at a high level pretty much the entire year and these Chargers are starting to look as dangerous as they always do. Oh yeah but what about those special teams? Those same special teams that have cost the Chargers at least two games if not more this year. Well they’ve held up surprisingly well in kick coverage and punt protection ever since Norv made the declaration that anther punt wouldn’t get blocked for the rest of the year. Although something like that isn’t a crazy prediction in the NFL; if you saw the Chargers special teams of the first few weeks you’d realize how big a leap Norv was making with that. However it looks like things are paying off for him as the Chargers seem once again poised for a solid playoff run.

Is this the return of the early 2000 Pats?

The only respectable cut offs of any kind

37 seconds left the Colts are down by 3, Peyton Manning in the shotgun and............he throws in an interception to end the game. That sounds like a script from the early 2000’s Patriot Colt rivalry because for the past 2 or 3 years Manning has owned the Patriots to the tune of a 4-1 record in the past five meetings.  The Patriots were the team that changed their formula to success building a modern day super team that ran roughshod through the NFL for 18 games before losing in the most important one of the year in their Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants. However they seem to be reverting to form now, the Patriots of all were a team that revolved around Tom Brady with a group of quick undersized receivers and a running back by committee approach and this Patriots team uses that exact blueprint on offense to a solid amount of success. On defense they’re a lot younger than those Patriot championship teams of lore, but their bread and butter are still turnovers and without them they struggle to keep great offenses at bay. They’re not a dominant defense by any means, but they try to employ a bend but don’t break strategy and outside of their week 9 loss to the Browns where they were broken by Peyton Hillis they've managed to implement it rather well. However games like that happen to the best teams, and that’s what the Patriots are shaping up to be one of the best teams in the league.

Chilly Willy finally gets the axe

In the second most overdue coach firing of the year, the Vikings finally let the hammer fall on everyone’s least favorite mustache aficionado. Brad Childress had alienated his team, alienated his fan base, and alienated the owner I don’t know how he had survived for so long up to that point. When a report comes out the week before the game with several players both talking about how they absolutely hate you and hate playing for you and the other half talking about how they’ve essentially stopped playing for you and things don’t seem to be going your way. The best part of this if you’re a Vikings fan is that you’re replacing him with someone who was one of the hottest head coaching candidates for the past few years in Leslie Frazier. If he can string together a series of respectable performances along with some wins the Vikings may have found their coach of the future. Despite all of the turmoil the Vikings still present one of the most if not the most attractive available coaching position going into next year. As many jobs as Frazier has interviewed for in the past 2 years or so I doubt he ever thought his first shot at head coaching would be coming at week 11

New England @ Detroit

New England – 7

So I just got done talking about the current Patriots resembling the actual championship variety Patriots, so clearly this is a game those team’s won. Indeed it is, and the Pats will beat this overmatched Lions team, but something that might get some attention because of the audience of this game is the excellent defensive line play of the Lions. Ndamukong Suh has been an absolute man on a mission and has bucked the trend of shoddy play by first year defensive lineman. If he wasn’t a rookie I’m sure he’d be getting more attention for the defensive player of the year category but even so he’s having an absolutely brilliant year so expect to see him flash a few times during this game despite the fact he’s matched up with All-Pro Logan Mankins. However him flashing won’t be enough to deter Tom Brady, who hasn’t practiced this week but won’t need to as his last game was a mere four days ago. Patriots give the Lions what they tend to get every year for Thanksgiving, a loss at home.

Patriots 24

Lions 16

New Orleans @ Dallas

New Orleans -4

Ginger kid definitely, head coach...maybe

If the Cowboys were to win this game it would make it 3 straight under Jason Garrett and you would begin to hear the drumbeat for the interim tag to be removed from his title. Looking at the two Cowboy win’s I think they snuck up on a Giants team that was obviously looking past them, and then beat a deflated Lions team that just lost their starting QB for the year. The Saints won’t be looking past this Cowboys team, and I don’t think the Boys’ will be able to hold up under an elite teams (or at least a good teams) full attention.

Saints 27

Cowboys 20

Cincinnati @ New York Jets

New York Jets – 9

The power of Santonio Holmes can’t be denied, he’s launched the Jets into 3 straight victories with excellent crunch time performances in each game. At the price of a 5^th round pick he seems like the smartest acquisition of an offseason that was filled with team’s trading for wide outs. Also as far as last second drives go, Mark Sanchez put together one of the best I’ve seen over a 40 or 50 second span. Games like that make me wonder whether Sanchez has made it into the second tier of QB’s beneath the top 5 or 6, but right alongside the Matt Ryan’s and Joe Flacco’s of the NFL. I do know one QB who used to be considered a top tier QB who has fallen out of the good graces of pretty much everyone. Of course I’m talking about Screen and Roll out favorite Carson Palmer. Combine his normally erratic play with an actually good defense, and T.O. calling Darrelle Revis an “average corner” and you have a recipe for a Jets blowout. I don’t think the final score will tell the story because the Bengals have done a great job scoring points in garbage time this year.

Jets 31

Bengals 23