Tuesday Night Week 12 Recap.

Week 12 Predictions heads up: 10-6

Week 12 Predictions against the Spread: 9-7

Record so far: 80-63

Just when you thought Peyton Manning couldn't throw any more interception he proves us all wrong. I think for the most part we all saw the Chargers catching up to everyone in the AFC west and looking to overtake them in the final weeks of the season. The luck of the interim head coach continued as the Vikings eked out an ugly one over the Redskins and the Bears have finally earned my beleaguered kudos in this week’s recap.

The Beasts of the East

Fun Fact: Brian Urlacher ate Donald Duck after this photo

After Watching the Falcons win a great game against the Packers I was ready to declare them the best team in the NFC. Then I saw the Bears beat the Eagles in a 31-26 game that wasn’t actually that close and I have to say the Bears are legit. I’ve been railing against the Bears and their early win’s against nobody for a while but after beating the team I thought was the best in the NFC handily I have to give them their due.  Jay Cutler was absolutely phenomenal throwing a more or less perfect game, 247 yards 4 touchdowns no interceptions. Their defense did an outstanding job shutting down the big plays that fuel the eagles and keeping everything in front of them with their cover 2 defense. They also did a great job of not over pursuing and creating running lanes for Michael Vick they kept him more or less in check for the entire game as far as running the football goes.  He got 44 yards but it came on 9 carries so he was held under 5 yards a carry and I’m sure most teams would take that. Michael Vick still played a pretty outstanding game, outside of one red zone interception he was patient moving down the field and taking what the Bears gave him and he made one of the best passes of the year on his 30 yard touchdown to Brent Celek however it wasn’t enough. Vick’s performance reminded me of Aaron Rodgers performance earlier in the day where he pretty much was all of the Green Bay Packers offense on the road and almost single handedly lead them to victory over a very tough Falcons team, but the Packers special teams undid what should have been an overtime forcing drive. The Green Bay Packers had 418 total yards and Rodgers was responsible for 395 of them. This game confirmed that both of these teams are among the top 3 or 4 of the NFC and if they meet again it could easily be 20-17 the other way around.

Ok fine. I admit it. The Bears are for real

I’ve been trying for weeks and weeks to write off the Bears as a fluky team lead by a defense that isn’t as good as people think and an offense that doesn’t have anyone a single reliable player but that’s simply not true. The Bears area a team lead by a damn good defense and an offense that doesn’t have a single reliable player. The Bears defense is based more around the turnover than it is completely shutting their opponents down. While their pass defense is ranked a mediocre 16^th in the league they have 16 interceptions which ties them for second in the league. The cover two style they play forces quarterbacks to be patient with their throws or force something and possibly end up with an interception and clearly a lot of quarterbacks lack patience which is what the Bears defense capitalize on.  This defense has been lead by the resurgence of Brian Urlacher into the all-pro form he had a few years ago, he’s roaming sideline to sideline playing that 3^rd safety role that the middle linebacker in a cover two has to do so well. Offensively this team won’t particularly wow you with anything they’re 22^nd in points scored and 28^th in total yardage. However as bad as Jay Cutler has looked at times this season and he has looked really really bad, if you told Bears fans Jay Cutler would have 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions with a 90 QB rating they would have taken it.  Part of what makes up for their mediocre offense has been the return of stellar special teams play to the Bears sidelines, Devin Hester is almost back to his old self with two punt returns for touchdown this year the first he’s had since 2008. You combine all 3 things and this bears team has the classic composition of a Chicago football team, a team that’s lead by its defense has a competent but honestly not that good offense and relies on a special teams to generate field position.

Is this the beginning of the end for the Colts?

Seen this a lot more than usual

Part of me wanted to write an article about the Chargers here, but I think I’ve reference the comeback of the Chargers in this blog enough to where you all see where I would go with that. A much more unexpected storyline coming out of that Sunday Night game is that the Colts got absolutely blasted. They lost by 22 points and it should have been 35. I know that by and large the Chargers own the Colts and that Peyton always has bad games against them but the Colts are 6-5 at week 13. When was the last time we were this far into the season and the Colts were a game above .500? The closest I can come up with is the 2008 Colts and they were 7-4 in week 13 before ending the season on a 10 game winning streak. Hey maybe this Colts team will close the season on a 5 game winning streak and end up at 11-5 and we’ll forget that we ever had this conversation but I just can’t shake the fact this Colts team looks incredibly flawed. Normally the Colts can’t run the football, but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it this bad. Peyton Manning is on pace to break the all time passes attempted in a season record which is no good for anyone who likes the blue horseshoes. He’s averaging around 45 passing attempts a game and is over 30 attempts ahead of the next closest player.  He’s thrown 7 interceptions in the past two games and it seems as though he’s regressing to his old interception happy days. Many many years ago my brother and I used to call Peyton Manning “intercepto”, we thought of him as a super hero who’s only power was the ability to throw interceptions.  In his rookie season Peyton Manning threw 28 interceptions which is still quite staggering, he followed that up two years later a 23 interception gem. Just to clear up any confusion no I don’t think he’s going back to the days of his early years where he every pass he threw had you worried, but part of me wonders if the days of me thinking Peyton Manning could do no wrong have finally come to an end. 

Just when you thought it was safe: Week 12 Preview

I'm truly a mad man, two articles in one day. Enjoy the Sunday picks on Saturday night, or read them and laugh as my predictions fail miserably during Sunday's game. Either way enjoy.

Green Bay @ Atlanta

Atlanta – 2

Expect some of this on Sunday

This game is a battle between the top of the 2^nd tier QB’s. Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan are trying to step up into the top tier of NFL quarterbacks, but for them to do that they’ll not only have to generate success during the NFL season but get their first post season wins. However this isn’t the post season, its week 12 and both of these teams are still fighting for playoff positioning in an incredibly competitive NFC. The Packers are trying to establish themselves as a team to be reckoned with and a win against a Falcons team who’s undefeated at the Georgia Dome would do it. Looking at this game and as well as the Falcons have played at home I honestly can’t give a reason why they’d lose this game. The thing is Aaron Rodgers finally slayed the Brett Favre Dragon last week in a coach killing season crushing 31-3 beat down, and I think a win like that could catapult Aaron Rodgers into the stratosphere and I think he wins here on his accent into the Brady, Manning, Vick tier.

Packers 31

Falcons 27

Pittsburgh @ Buffalo

Pittsburgh – 6

Pittsburgh did what an elite team is supposed to do and that’s handle business at home as they absolutely blasted what I thought would be a game Oakland team. Now they face Buffalo this week before a huge AFC North showdown on the road against the Ravens next week. This has the feeling of a classic trap game, a good team goes on the road against a team that isn’t very good but can take advantage of the good team’s weakness while the good team is looking ahead to a big game it has the next week. I think the Steelers are good, but I don’t think they’re good enough to avoid getting caught looking ahead to the Ravens especially while facing a very solid passing game lead by Ryan Fitzpatrick and Steve Johnson. I think the Steelers win, by on a last second field goal by their recently signed kicker.

Steelers 23

Buffalo 20

Carolina @ Cleveland

Cleveland – 9.5

He's like an even worse Carson Palmer

The fact that the spread is this high leads me to believe I’ve been given some bad information. The depth chart I’m looking at shows that Jake Delhomme is going to start this game, and that guy is terrible. He’s like Carson Palmer without any of the talent that Carson Palmer still has. He’s almost bad enough to make me pick the Panthers except the Browns still have Peyton Hillis and that guy is an absolute stud. So hopefully they can just hand the ball off to him 30 or 40 times to avoid the eventual Jake Delhomme interception onslaught. Browns in an ugly one.

Browns 17

Panthers 10

Tennessee @ Houston

Texans – 6

The Titans seem to be absolutely falling apart at the seams. Vince Young is going on injured reserve and more than likely has played his last game as a Tennessee Titan. Randy Moss is an absolute cadaver on the field and he has 1 catch in two games as a Titan and 2 catches over his last 3 games.  With all of that happening I still had to think a good bit about who to pick in this game because the Texans pass defense is just so unbelievably bad that I could be tempted to pick Rusty Smith against them. However I can’t despite how bad they’ve been and the back to back heartbreaking losses they’ve suffered I have to think the Texans will score too much for Rusty Smith to keep up.

Texans 24

Titans 17

Jacksonville @ NY Giants

NY Giants – 7

Earlier in the year I had the feeling that the Giants were an elite team and now they sit here at 6-4 and looking at the teams they’ve beaten I don’t know if you can count an elite team among them. The closet to an elite team they’ve beaten is a 7-3 Bears team and despite that record I still just can’t quite believe in that team. The Jaguars are a lot more comparable to the Giants than would appear, and at least they have a victory against an elite team beating the Colts at home in week 4. The question it all comes down to is which David Garrard shows up. He’s been absolutely lights out in victories and not even an NFL quality quarterback in their losses. I think Mike Sims Walker comes back and David Garrard has another outstanding performance.

Jaguars 27

Giants 24

Minnesota @ Washington

Minnesota -1

The first game of the Leslie Frazier era and after watching the Cowboys come out and play hard for Jason Garrett these past few weeks I can’t help but expect the same from the Vikings especially since most of their players apparently like Frazier. I still don’t like much of what you get from the Redskins; their win over a listless Tennessee team didn't really tell me anything I didn’t know about them, they can beat teams that are in even more disarray than them. I think the firing of Childress took some of the madness out of the Minnesota locker room and hopefully they can translate that to a solid performance on the field.

Minnesota 24

Washington 20

Miami @ Oakland

Oakland – 2.5

Oakland got absolutely hammered last week in Pittsburgh and after it Tom Cable confirmed that the QB for the Miami game would be Jason Campbell. Now for the past few days all the news has been that Bruce Gradkowski will actually be the starter. It seems like the move a desperate team and that’s never a good sign. However as desperate as that move appears you would think the Dolphins would have to be even more desperate after that Thursday night disaster of a shut out at home against the Bears. I hope they try to at least run the football this week because if their game plan is to put it in the hands of Tyler Thigpen they can expect another loss, I sure do.

Raiders 17

Dolphins 10

Kansas City @ Seattle

Kansas City –2.5

Matt Hassleback as Brad Childress in Mustache: The Brad Childress Story

Seattle is the only team in the NFC West that’s at least at .500 and they play the AFC West leading Chiefs who just pasted the Cardinals at home. However this game is on the road and that’s where the Chiefs have struggled this year they've only managed to go 1-5 on the road with their only win coming against the Browns. Seattle on the other hand is 4-1 at home with their only loss being an absolute blow out to the Giants when they started Charlie Whitehurst. I think as long as they start the Bald Bomber known as Matt Hasselback the Seahawks will have a chance at Qwest field, I don’t know what it is but almost everyone struggles when they play there. Count the Chiefs in that category.

Seahawks 20

Chiefs 14

Tampa Bay @ Baltimore

Baltimore – 8

As said on a previous installment of Screen and Roll Out the Buccaneers are a team that beats the teams they’re supposed to beat and no one else. Well they’re not supposed to beat the Ravens.

Ravens 31

Bucs 24

Philadelphia @ Chicago

Philadelphia – 3

I’m sorry but week after week Chicago wins but I still feel the same way about them. I just can’t trust a team lead by Jay Cutler to be a legitimate threat for anything. If the Bears make the playoffs I can easily see Jay Cutler putting up a Jake Delhomme type 4 interception game in wild card weekend to the dismay of all the Chicago fans. The Chicago defense has been carrying this team all year, but I don’t think they’re good enough to carry them through the playoffs, however if they were able to shut down this Eagles attack I suppose I’d have to change my tune. I don’t count on having to do that though.

Eagles 23

Bears 13

St. Louis @ Denver

Denver - 4

"Josh this is why I cut my sleeves, so people know i don't have anything up them"

I think Denver coach Josh McDaniel just put the last nail in his coffin with his transfer of the New England spy gate methods over to Denver. After getting blown out last week the last thing Denver needed was some news like this. St. Louis is fighting for their playoff lives and they desperately need a road win to keep themselves afloat in the mediocre NFC West. I think they beat a Broncos team I think will quit on their lame duck coach pretty soon if not this week.

Rams 17

Broncos 16

San Diego @ Indianapolis

Indianapolis – 3

A great Sunday night game between the Colts and Chargers and with the Chargers on a roll and the Colts coming in struggling with not only injuries but with their play in general this seems like another win as the Chargers charge into the playoffs. Then you look on the sideline and Peyton Manning is still there and he’s still great and it’s going to be at night so it would violate a rule that I stole from Bill Simmons. Never bet against Peyton Manning at night. As much as I’d like to break that rule I just can’t do it, I don’t think Peyton is going to have back to back bad games no matter who he’s throwing to. After that 3 interception travesty last week he’ll rebound against a team that for the most part has owned him throughout his career.

Colts 31

Chargers 27

San Francisco @ Arizona

Pick em

In one of the worst Monday night games we’ve had in a while it’s a battle to decide which NFC West team’s playoff hope’s remain on life support. If either of these teams makes it into the playoffs they’ll be a one and done and it won’t even be a competitive one, but hey ya never know what could happen right?  After running off two straight under Troy Smith the niners were brought back down to earth hard by the Bucs last week, but somehow at 3-7 they’re still alive in their division race.  The Cardinals have lost 5 straight after a 3-2 start. The winner of this game will be the team that makes fewer mistakes and while both have terrible turnover ratios the 49’ers have been better about in the past few games

49’ers 17

Cardinals 13

The NBA one month in.

The NBA is becoming a league that revolves around two things point guards and big men. A league where the wing players get all the attention but the teams that have championship aspirations don’t just have wing players they either have a fantastic floor general or a dominate big man. You look at how the Miami heat are struggling and you realize they don’t have either of those ingredients but we’ll get to them later. What we’re going to talk about is how a month into the season this is becoming undoubtedly the season of the big and the little. The resurgence of Shaq, CP3 reminding us why he was unquestionably titled the best point guard in the league, Rajon Rondo making a run for the all time season assist record there’s a lot of good stuff to go over with this NBA season still young but here are the things I’m burning on. (Insert Jim Rome impersonation)

Maybe we should ease off of that 72 win talk

"Did you really think you could beat us with Joel Anthony at Center??"

In a story line that not many would have predicted the Miami Heat have been just……average. They’re currently sitting at 8-7 and have only beaten one good team out of those 8 wins blowing out Orlando at home. Miami has beaten, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Phoenix, Toronto, and New Jersey so they're not really proving themselves against the NBA's elite. While the Heat have played a rather tough schedule they haven’t really won any of their tough games and to me you only get credit for a tough schedule if you do. Speaking of needing an elite point guard or an elite big man the heat have neither, they’re starting Carlos Arroyo at point and Joel Anthony at Center. Honestly both of those guys are borderline NBA players and the heat have them starting. People will talk about how the Celtics had the unproven Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins for their championship run but both of those guys were unproven high draft picks in their early years,  while Carlos Arroyo is a 31 year old veteran who has played his way out of the NBA two times. Joel Anthony is a 28 year old 6’9 center who has career averages of 2.6 and 3.2. Comparing those two guys to Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins is not only an insult to the Celtics it’s an insult to your basketball intelligence. However you pair a dynamic wing combo of Lebron and Dwayne Wade with a big man like Chris Bosh and they should still be more effective than they our except for the fact Chris Bosh really isn’t a big man. He’s 6’11 but only 235 and the majority of his shots come from outside of 15 feet. Lebron is averaging 2 less rebounds than he has the past few years while Bosh is averaging 3 less. As Pat Riley said “No rebounds no rings” and a team that rebounds the way the Heat do aren’t going to win an NBA title. However we’re only a month into the season so its too early  to write an obituary for a team with this much talent. While things may not look good now for the Miami Thrice now, maybe the addition of a 35 year old Erik Dampier that about 10 other teams turned down could be what they’ve been looking for all along.

Just a heads up but Chris Paul is ridiculously good.

I have to admit I was among the people who completely forgot about how ridiculously good Chris Paul is and predicted the same doom and gloom for the Hornets that enveloped them last year. When you look back at the team Chris Paul took to the Western Conference semi-finals 3 years ago and compare it to this team it isn’t really better any many significant ways. That 2008 team was lead by Paul, David West, Peja Stojakovic, Jannero Pargo, Tyson Chandler, Mo Peterson, Bobby Jackson, Bonzi Wells, and Julian Wright. I doubt anybody gets them confused with the 88 Lakers. How he took a team with that much talent to the western conference semi finals is anyone’s guess, and it seems will be left guessing again as to how he’ll take this team into the 2^nd month of the season with the best record in the NBA. The most significant addition the Hornets made in the offseason to me was adding Dell Demps as their GM. He comes from the Spurs tree of personnel men that has spawned everyones favorite NBA GM Sam Presti and Portland's new GM Rich Cho. His aggressive style of management has lead to multiple trades in both the off season and this young NBA season that have net them Marco Belinelli who has become a solid rotational player and shooter for them as well as Jarret Jack who's good friends with Chris Paul and who can back up both guard positions.  Chris Paul is putting up his normal 16 and 10 the difference being he’s doing it while shooting 47% from 3 which if form holds would be his season high by more than 10 percent. Even if the percentage drops over the season he’ll still more than likely be shooting at a career high to go along with a solid 4 to 1 assist to turnover ratio.  Despite all this talk of Chris Paul’s offensive numbers this Hornets team is doing it with their defense ranked 1^st in points allowed per game. The addition of Trevor Ariza at the wing has helped but the past two years when Chris Paul was healthy they were a top 5 defensive club, the Hornets always seem to be a good defensive team and when a team can count on their defense you can count on them being a contender.

 A battle of #1 Draft Picks for rookie of the year

This is why you watch Blake Griffin

This will probably be the most exciting rookie of the year battle since Lebron and Carmelo battled it out back in 2003 although it seems like ages now. Blake Griffin and John Wall both seem like legitimate franchise players, and I know that it’s only a month into the season but when someone has that special it factor that can change a team its apparent pretty early and both of these guys have it. If you haven’t watched at least 2 Blake Griffin games this year than #1 shame on you, #2 either get NBA League pass or steal some games off an internet stream but seriously watch this guy now or you’ll end up missing awesome stuff like this, and this, and then this, and probably some of this too. John Wall right now is averaging 18 points 9 assists 4 rebounds and 3 steals. He’s already compiled a triple double that was 4 steals away from being the first ever rookie quadruple double. Watching John Wall run a fast break it almost seems like he’s running downhill with the otherworldly speed he seems to possess on the break, he almost has a Lebron like quality in how he seems to have a gear that other players simply don’t possess. The most confusing part of this whole equation is that their respective teams are both horrible. It’s even more perplexing for the Clippers because they have so much talent you would think they would be a competitive team. They have one of the best young nuclei in basketball with Griffin, Eric Gordon, Eric Bledsoe, Al Farouq Aminu, and DeAndre Jordan. The oldest one of those guys is Gordon at 22 and he seems to be coming into his own after the team USA experience.  I look at that team and it all comes down to two things, #1 their two biggest contracts are two absolute bums in Chris Kaman and Baron Davis they should be arrested on the bench for stealing from the Clippers. #2 Vinny Del Negro is not an NBA coach he got the Bulls to the playoffs which people thought was an accomplishment but looking at the way the Bulls are playing right now with basically the same line up minus Ben Gordon and John Salmons and its clear to me he had that team underachieving. Its sad to say but despite all of the talent this Clippers team has it seems that the hex of the Clippers is still upon them. 

Lakers Celtics 3: This time it’s for keeps

Looking at both of our NBA finals competitors from the previous year I find it hard to predict anything other than a Finals rematch at this point in the season. A lot of people me included thought the Lakers would come out and sort of Boston Celtics this season and cruise to a 50 something win season probably not have home court throughout and just turn it on in the playoffs.  However so far this season they’ve come out like a team that not only got significantly better in the offseason with the additions of Matt Barnes and Steve Blake, but has also gotten internal improvement from players like Lamar Odom, Shannon Brown, and Pau Gasol which has pushed this team even further than the Champions from last year. All of this is without Andrew Bynum who on one leg was still absolutely crucial in their 2010 finals run. The Celtics are also without their anchor in the middle in Kendrick Perkins but they don’t have the luxury of sliding their 7 foot power forward over a position so instead they picked up 2 players I thought were absolutely washed up in Jermaine and Shaquille O’Neal. Well apparently I was only half right Jermaine O’Neal is an absolute corpse and him getting the mid level exception is a travesty beyond words, but so far Shaq has been a revelation at Center for the Celtics. While he’s missed 5 games for them he’s put up 12 and 7 in the games he’s played with a 25 and 11 in his past game against the Nets. Another revelation of sorts for them has been Kevin Garnett basically returning to 2008 form, after I saw this in last year’s NBA finals I thought that would be the nail in the coffin of KG’s career but so far this year he seems to be back to the defensive player of the year form he showed in 2008. Despite all this talk about Shaq and KG this is Rajon Rondo's team now, I joked a couple of weeks ago with my brother they should be called Rajon Rondo featuring the big 3. The way he orchestrates that team is a beauty to behold, not only on the fast break but in the half court as well. We've all talked about how dangerous Rondo would be if he ever got a jump shot but if he doesn't have one at this point I don't think he ever develops one, and the scary part is I don't think he needs one. If both of these teams can maintain their current form the first decade of 2000’s would truly compare to the 80’s as far as the Celtics vs. Lakers rivalry goes. 

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

week 11 preview: Saturday Night Fever

There's been a lot going on with Screen and Roll Out in the past week or so. We're back working full time so the posts will be just as frequent but not quite as timely. As such I couldn't update before that dreadful Thursday night game but I don't think I missed all that much. However Look out for a NBA commentary in the season after the 1st month or so which should be happening the next week. Now with that bit of book keeping out of the way lets get into the Week 11 picks. 

Baltimore @ Carolina

Baltimore -10.5

The early games this week aren't very inspiring to say the least. Baltimore @ Carolina should be an easy bounce back game for Baltimore after their disappointing loss to the Falcons last week. Carolina just got waxed by the Bucs and things don’t get any easier against this Ravens team. It looks like another loss in what will probably be John Fox’s last year in Carolina.

Ravens 27

Carolina 10

Buffalo @ Cincinnati

Cincinnati -6

I doubt they're still this happy

A game between two teams whose season’s are already over. Buffalo can try to hang their hat on the fact they’ve been a competitive team but at the end of the day they’re still 1-8 with 1 win over the Lions. The Bengals came into this year with high expectations after the playoffs last year and seemingly improving in the offseason. All those expectations have come crashing down with 6 consecutive losses after a 2-1 start to the season. At this point I can see this Cincinnati team beginning to implode especially with the personalities of Ocho and T.O. in the fold. Carson Palmer continues his spiral to irrelevance with a loss to the Bills at home.

Buffalo 17

Cincinnati 13

Detroit @ Dallas

Dallas -6.5

*Gasp* Could the Dallas Cowboys not be the worst team in the NFL anymore? After finally showing signs of life after ditching Wade Phillips with a win over the Giants on the road they might have finally escaped NFL purgatory. In their place might be the Detroit Lions, they seemed to be finally putting it together with young emerging pieces on both offense and defense however with the reinjury of Matthew Stafford their franchise QB seems to be of the glass variety. Not only is this his 3^rd major injury in two NFL seasons it’s his second separation of his shoulder which seems like a bad omen for the future especially at the QB position. I think both back up QB’s are mediocre guys surrounded by a solid nucleus of talent however I like the Dallas defense I saw last week against the Giants; since they were actually there against the Giants for the first time in weeks.

Dallas 24

Detroit 20

Cleveland @ Jacksonville

Jacksonville -1.5

The battle of the two surprisingly competitive teams, every year it seems Jacksonville ends up being 9-7 10-6ish and makes it into the playoffs to everyone’s chagrin. They’re a team that nobody really wants to watch yet they manage to be competitive more often than not.  Quick question, who has the second highest QB rating in the NFL? That’s right David Garrard. On the other side of the field you have Colt McCoy who is 2-2 as a starter with his only losses being to the Jets and the Steelers. He’s definitely more of a legit NFL quarterback than I thought he would be, but despite those two wins his game hasn’t traveled all that well.

Jaguars 17

Browns 13

Arizona @ Kansas City

Kansas City -8

Todd Haley might still be a little steamed about the blowout loss last week to the Broncos but he has to move on in a hurry because the Chiefs can’t afford to lose a game like this in a tight division race. This is a Haley’s first game against his previous team the Cardinals since he’s became a head coach. However this Cardinals team is without Kurt Warner or Matt Leinhart instead being lead by Derek Anderson. Arizona got handled fairly easily at home last week against the Seahawks, but I think they match up much better with the Chiefs than they did the Seahawks. The problem is the Cardinals passing game isn’t quite good enough to expose the Chiefs, especially on the road.

Chiefs 24

Cardinals 17

Green Bay @ Minnesota

Green Bay -3.5

This is what ESPN does to you when you're 3-6

Perhaps the final meeting between Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers, sadly it won’t be the big game we expected prior to the season as the Vikings are pretty much out of the playoff race at this point with a 3-6 record. The Packers had their bye last week and come into this game needing a win to keep pace with the still surprising Bears who pushed themselves to 7-3 with a win in an absolutely terrible Thursday night football game. I see Aaron Rodgers going 2-0 against Favre this year and officially putting the stake through the heart of the Vikings season and hopefully the tenure of Brad Childress.

Green Bay 23

Vikings 17

Houston @ NY Jets

NY Jets -7

Houston can’t stop anybody through the air; they're the worst pass defense in the NFL by almost 20 yards giving up over 300 per game. Combine that with a Jets defense that hasn’t given up more than 23 points all season and I don’t think Houston will be able to keep up with the amount of points their defense will give up. I think this is the week that Shonn Green overtakes L.T. as their starting running back and Dustin Keller gets back into his early season form.

Jets 27

Texans 17

Oakland @ Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh -7

The Raiders are 4-1 in their past 5 games shaking off a 2-4 start to their year to get to 5-4 and into first place in the AFC West with the Chiefs loss last week. However in order to maintain that first place spot their going to have to win some tough games in their last 6 with games against the Steelers, Colts, and Chargers still remaining. The Steelers were seemingly exposed last week by the Patriots as a team that’s extremely vulnerable to the short passing game, and as a team whose offensive line is in shambles. While the Raiders lack the personnel to attack with the short passing game, their defense is 2^nd in the league in sacks which should bode well for them against a banged up Steelers O-line. Where this game will be decided is in the secondary of both teams, if Oakland can slow down the Pittsburgh passing attack with their pass rush and back 7 they’ll have a chance on the road, but if Mike Wallace gets behind them the Steelers will pull out a close one. Right now the Raiders give up the second fewest passing yards per game, and the second lowest completion percentage and I don’t see Big Ben getting enough time to get the deep ball off in this one. Raiders win a close one.

Raiders 17

Steelers 13

Washington @ Tennessee

Tennessee -7

After the debacle that was the Monday night game for Washington I don’t know what to say about this Redskins team. I do know what to say about Randy Moss however, I think he’s done. After watching him play Miami at half speed pretty much the entire way I think he’s finally decided to stop playing hard period. Even with no Laron Landry I still don’t think he makes the big plays we used to expect from him. Tennessee will win this game but it will be on the legs of Chris Johnson and by the other players in the passing game who get more room because of the space Randy Moss opens up.

Titans 20

Redskins 17

Seattle @ New Orleans

New Orleans -12

"Don't worry Reggie your game checks will be even bigger in the pros"

Seattle finally got back on the winning track after consecutive blow out losses handing the Cardinals a rare home loss. Matt Hasselbeck and Mike Williams are probably the best QB/WR tandem in the NFC West which says a lot about the state of the NFC West but also a lot about how far Mike Williams has come. However they still haven’t come far enough to beat the Saints at home coming off a bye week. Especially when they’ll get back arguably their second most important offensive player back this week in Reggie Bush.

Saints 27

Seahawks 17

Tampa Bay @ San Francisco

Tampa Bay -3.5

Troy Smith has reinvigorated the 49’ers offense with his ability to throw the deep ball combined with his general competence at the position. The 49’ers have put together back to back wins and if they were to win this week they’d be seemingly back in the NFC West race. Josh Freeman doesn't think thats going to happen. Tampa Bay is the classic team who beats the teams you expect them to beat and pretty much no one else, and at this point in the season I expect them to beat the 49'ers and I don't think they'll disappoint. 

Bucs 13

49'ers 10

Atlanta @ St. Louis

Atlanta -3.5

After a sterling performance on Thursday night against the Ravens at home the dirty birds hit the road to face the Rams. The Rams lost a disappointing game to the 49’ers in overtime but would be right back at .500 if they were to beat this Falcons team. Unfortunately for them it’s not going to happen, even though the Falcons are a better home team than road team, they’re only road losses were to the Eagles and the Steelers. The Falcons have been on fire offensively having scored over 30 points in their past 3 games, I think that streak ends but I think they keep on winning. 

Falcons 20

Rams 13

Indianapolis @ New England

New England -3.5

Outside of Michael Vick there aren’t any QB’s I love watching more than Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. Both of these guys are absolute masters of the craft and orchestrate their offense no matter who they have lining up next to them. Tom Brady took Jabar Gaffney and a number of castoffs to the AFC Championship a few years back while Peyton is turning Jacob Tamme and Mike Hart into household names this year. These guys show you how important the position of QB is in football, if you  have a great QB you can piecemeal a lot of other things around them and still be a good team. However I think that’s exactly the problem for the Colts, they’re just a good team. They’re too banged up on offense and their defense has a lot of trouble stopping any real potent scoring threat. I think Tom Brady puts a stop to the recent trend of Peyton dominating this matchup. Also as jacked up as Brady seemed last week I can’t imagine him being any less amped for this game.

Pats 31

Colts 27

NY Giants @ Philadelphia

Philadelphia -3

The Sunday Night platter this weekend is absolutely fantastic with this NFC East showdown between the Philadelphia Vicks and the Giants. Michael Vick put up the performance of a lifetime last week while the Giants had a performance I’m sure they’d rather forget against the Cowboys. I honestly don’t know who’s going to stop Michael Vick at this point, part of me thinks he has to come up short sometime but I don’t think it will be this week at home against a Giants defense that was exposed by Jon Kitna. The Michael Vick experience continues its rapid ascension towards the MVP summit.

Eagles 27

Giants 20

Denver @ San Diego

San Diego -10

Denver not only upset Kansas City on Sunday they Oakland Raider’d them going off for some 49 points getting redemption on the wrong team for their home blow out a few weeks ago. They also created a little more AFC West rivalry with the Chiefs by not easing up at all in the 4^th and being a little too jovial on the sidelines for the taste of Todd Haley. San Diego seems to be doing what they do every year have everyone write them off before they get on a 6 or 7 game winning streak that puts them right back in the playoffs and right back on everyone’s list of teams they don’t want to play. I hate to say it but I see it happening again this year. In a QB dual between Phillip Rivers and Kyle Orton I take Phillip Rivers and I don’t even think about it.

Chargers 31

Broncos 24

Tuesday Night Week 10 Recap.

Week 10 Predictions Heads up: 7-7

Never Count out Peyton Manning

Week 10 Predictions against the Spread: 5-9

Record so far: 70-57

Every week things are supposed to become a bit clearer, but this year nothing is really clear except we don’t know much. 3 of the teams I would have put in my top 5 lost last week, the Ravens and Steelers losing tough games to other elite teams while the Giants lost to the Cowboys. I don’t know if Jason Garrett has really inspired the Cowboys or if this is one of those fluky new coach one week of excitement type wins. Normally a win against the Browns doesn’t impress anyone, but Cleveland is playing everyone tough this year so for New York to go in there and steal one in overtime was impressive to me. When I think of the top of the league 6 teams jump to my mind, Falcons, Eagles, Giants, Pats, Steelers, and the Jets. I don't know the exact order but if the 2 super bowl finalists don't come from the those 6 teams you can color me surprised. Well unless its the Colts because here at Screen and Roll out we never count out Peyton Manning. 

Michael Vick turned on God Mode

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything more insane than what Vick did to the Redskins on Monday night football, the closest I’ve probably seen was when Adrian Peterson broke the all time rushing record and Bo Jackson in pretty much any Tecmo Bowl. The first play of the game he throws one of the most beautiful deep passes you’ll ever see to Desean Jackson that travels 60 yards in the air before landing perfectly in Jackson's outstretched arms for 6. It would be one thing if he just put on a passing clinic, but he did it all in a way that only a player of Michael Vicks speed, agility, and overall explosiveness could. He ran for 80 yards on 8 carries most of them the “darting away from a defender at the last second to demoralize a defense variety”. The only bad thing about this game was that it was a blowout which means we were treated to blowout commentary by the Monday night football crew, and when  a crew doesn’t have a good game to talk about they typically drone on about everything and anything which takes away from some of the awesomeness of the performance. The fact that this all happened on the night Donovan Mcnabb christened his new 78 million dollar contract had to be especially stinging to the Redskins and especially rewarding for Vick, because if Mcnabb is worth 78 million over 5 years how much am I worth at 5 years younger and better than he has ever been?

Tom Brady doesn’t like the Steelers

Pure Precision

In another QB tour de force performance Tom Brady put an absolute clinic on in Pennsylvania dissecting the Steelers every which way while being about as pumped as I’d seen him in a while. Part of me wanted to believe he was just pumped because it was a big game, except he’s played in more playoff games and super bowls than most people have seen so he knows big games. Then after seeing him spike that ball after his QB sneak I thought he might dislocate his shoulder. I don’t think I’ve seen Tom Tremendous try to stick it to a team this bad since………..the Steelers during the Patriots date with regular season perfection. Except this time there was no trash talk by a mediocre safety coming into the game it was just a matchup of AFC powerhouses trying to establish a pecking order, and the Patriots made it clear however the pecking order stacks up they’re on top of the Steelers.  350 yards, 3 touchdowns, and a 117.4 QB rating which doesn’t do his performance justice. The first touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski couldn’t have been throwing a millisecond later or an inch in another direction it was like it teleported off his hand onto Gronkowski's fingertips, truly a masterful performance by one of the game’s best.

Have the Falcons been the best team all along?

The Atlanta Falcons beat the Ravens on Thursday night in probably the best and most exciting game of the week. Matt Ryan lived up to the Matty Ice moniker making a tremendous sideline throw with the game on the line in the 2 minute drill before sealing it with a touchdown to Roddy White. In last week’s preview I picked the Ravens in part because I didn’t believe Roddy White would be himself on an injured knee well count my suspicions as invalid because he was absolutely spectacular as he did what he wanted against a Ravens secondary that had been surprisingly stout up to that point. The fact that their passing offense was that effective when they’re normally solid run game was nowhere to be found makes it even more impressive. Michael Turner who was coming off consecutive hundred yard games was held to a mere 39 yards and they had less than 60 rushing yards total. On the defensive side of the ball the Falcons rely on the pressure generated by sack master John Abraham who is two sacks of the league lead with 8 this year. The Falcons only two losses this year have been at Pittsburgh and at Philadelphia both of whom seem like elite teams in the league. However if the Falcons keep playing the way they’re playing they may not have to travel until they make a road trip to Dallas in February. 

Week 10 preview. Thursday Edition

The Weekly previews are going to be coming out a little earlier now because of Thursday night football. So enjoy a little weekly preview action Thursday as opposed to our normal Friday affair. 

Baltimore @ Atlanta

Pick EM

How this game goes to me depends on the health of Roddy White, it comes out this morning that he’ll probably play but how well he plays will determine how the Falcons do. Without him putting forth something comparable to his normal effort I don’t see how the Falcons can beat a really balanced Ravens team, however with him putting up his regular Roddy White numbers I think Matt Ryan extends his ridiculous home record to 18-1. Roddy White could either have a soft tissue bruise or a bone bruise, a bone bruise obviously being the more serious of the two, I honestly just don’t like betting on guys with knee injuries who aren’t Kobe Bryant so I’ve got the Ravens going into the Georgia Dome and heating up Matty Ice.

Ravens 24

Falcons 20

Detroit @ Buffalo

Buffalo -3

A battle of two teams that don’t quite know how to win yet. The Bills were up by 5 in the 4^th quarter before eventually giving the game away because of their inability to hold on to the ball. The Lions loss was even more inexcusable as they were up by 10 on the Jets in the 4^th quarter with a few minutes left. They had a 3^rd down with the Jets having no timeouts and instead of running the ball and taking 40+ seconds off the clock they pass and get an incompletion. This would be partially excusable if their franchise Matthew Stafford was in the game, because you want to show confidence in your young players, however he wasn’t. Decisions like that make me think the Bills will finally get off the schnide this week even with no Stafford.

Bills 23

Lions 19

Minnesota @ Chicago

Minnesota -1

Has Brett Favre finally turned the corner? Did anybody expect 446 yards to be his career high? That completely blew me away, as long and storied as Favre’s career has been I would have expected him to have thrown for 500 yards at least a few times but apparently he’s never even crossed the 450 mark.  The Bears barely beat the Bills with Jay Cutler throwing no interceptions and the Bills turning the ball over 3 times. I have to say they can’t count on luck so good against a Vikings team still fighting for a playoff wildcard berth. Brett Favre strings two wins together for the first time this year.

Vikings 27

Bears 17

NY Jets @ Cleveland

Jets - 3

Fun Fact. Rex Ryan has multiple wigs always at the ready

 In his press conference this week Rex Ryan put on a blonde wig and put a pillow under his shirt to become his brother Rob who’s the defensive coordinator for the Browns. Rob is looking a lot better than Rex would have you think as the Browns are coming off 2 straight wins over the Saints and the Pats lead primarily by Rob Ryan’s defense. The Jets just scrapped out a win against the Lions in a game they had no business winning without the Lions absolutely handing it to them. I think the Browns don’t hand the Jets anything except the upset loss they should have gotten last week.

Browns 17

Jets 13

Cincinnati @ Indianapolis

Indianapolis -7.5

The Bengals showed some life at the end of their loss to the Steelers last week the question to me is whether that was too little too late. I don’t think they have much shoot at the playoffs at anymore so I wonder whether guys like T.O. and Chad Ochocinco can be counted on to still play as hard as they have been, or in Chad’s case complain as much as he has been. Who would have thought T.O. would be the better receiver of the two of these guys be a mile, as much attention as Chad draws he still just isn’t getting it done. Sure T.O. doesn’t have coverage rolling to his side but he soon will the way Chad isn’t producing and I doubt that will slow him as much as it’s slowed Mr. Ochocinco. The Colts just couldn’t stop Michael Vick although nobody has been able to this year so there’s no shame in that, there would be some shame in losing to the Bengals at home, but they won’t do that.

Colts 31

Bengals 23

Houston @ Jacksonville

Jacksonville – 1.5

Looking at this game I don’t really know what to say. The last time the Jaguars played a pass defense as bad as the Texans David Garrard threw 4 touchdown passes, rushed for one more, and then cured world hunger.  The Texans just got obliterated by the angriest QB around Phillip Rivers to the tune of 293 and 4 touchdowns while he was throwing to junior college rec team. Houston is just a middle of the road team now and on the road I don’t think they’re good enough to beat another mediocre team in the Jaguars.

Jaguars 24

Houston 20

Tennessee @ Miami

Tennessee – 2

Randy Moss= Dolphin destroyer

Apparently somebody on the Ravens spit on Channing Crowder which has him rightfully very upset. The NFL is investigating this but we all know nothing is going to come of it because nothing can be proven. I highly doubt Crowder would make something up, and I have a feeling the Ravens don’t feel bad about it especially with all the trash they talked after the game. I tell that story because that’s the only interesting thing I can that comes to my mind when I see the Dolphins. The Titans on the other hand premiere Randy Moss this week against a secondary he obliterated many times during his Patriot days, after watching him lay an absolute egg against said Patriots my confidence in Moss is shaken. However the Titans don’t need him to be anything more than a decoy to beat the Dolphins.

Titans 17

Dolphins 12

Carolina @ Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay -7

Raheem Morris should probably refrain from calling his team the best in the NFC after that horrendous end of game goal line call he made against the Falcons last week. The Panthers just got spanked by the Saints 34-3 last week and I don’t think things are going to get much better this week. Josh Freeman has been pretty good, but even better have been his two rookie receivers.  Arrelious Benn and the other Mike Williams have been revelations for the Bucs combined with the excellent special team’s play of Michael Spurlock have made this Bucs team a serious playoff threat. The Panthers on the other hand are now down not just DeAngelo Williams, but Jonathan Stewart and Tyrell Sutton. So the Panthers are going to be going on the road with Mike Goodson at starting running back and Jimmy Clausen. Yeah Bucs win big

Bucs 27

Panthers 10

Kansas City @ Denver

Kansas City – 1.5

After a disappointing loss in Oakland Kansas City looks to rebound against a poor Broncos team. Last week the Chiefs had an opportunity to create some distance between them and the rest of the AFC West however with the loss now all of the teams in the AFC West are within 1 ½ games of each other. Looking at Denver I don’t know how many weeks Josh McDaniel has left if the Broncos continue to play the way they have, combine that with his trade of Peyton Hillis for Brady Quinn which is looking even worse and worse by the day for the Broncos. As good as Dwayne Bowe can look he still has huge problems with drops dropping what would have been a game sealing catch against the Raiders last week. The once place the Chiefs do struggle is in the passing game and that’s the one place where the Broncos excel. I think the Broncos spring an upset and keep McDaniel’s job safe for another week.

Broncos 24

Chiefs 20

Seattle @ Arizona

Arizona -3.5

After a promising start to the year the Seahawks have lost the past two games by a combined score of 10-74. I think the Seahawks might have seen enough of Charlie Whitehurst to realize he’s not the QB of the future or even the present. Luckily for Seahawk fans they’ll get everyone’s favorite bald QB back against the Cardinals who sport a solid 2-1 home record with their only loss being a very close 35-38 loss to a good Bucs team. Derek Anderson is pretty bad but he’s NFL bad, he belongs in the league except as a backup QB. However against a Seahawks team that can’t stop anybody running or passing I think the Cardinals finally have an explosive day at home.

Cardinals 31

Seahawks 24

Dallas @ NY Giants

Composite drawing of every Cowboys fan

NY Giants -14

Seriously I don’t know if they could make a line high enough for me to not bet on the Giants in this game. The Giants won their last game 41-7 while the Cowboys lost their last game 45-7. I do think the firing of Wade Phillips will make some difference with the Cowboys, but the fact remains they’re just an awful awful team.

Giants 34

Cowboys 14

St. Louis @ San Francisco

San Francisco -6

Frisco finally got their second win of the year over an even more inept Broncos team in England. As  much as Roger Goodell wants to expand the league giving them games like 49’ers vs. Broncos won’t have them begging for more NFL action. St. Louis’ last game was a tough last second loss to the Bucs, but now they’ve had a bye week to get Steven Jackson healthy or at least healthier which should be huge against the 49’ers. However Troy Smith did inject some life into the niners like I thought he would and I think this is the beginning of his run to get them back into the NFC West division race.

49ers 20

Rams 17

New England @ Pittsburgh

Steelers -5

It seemed like a classic trap game for the Pats last week and it was as the Browns demolished them by 20 points on the road. Pittsburgh barely held off a more than game Cincinnati team stopping a last second drive on the goal line to hold on to a slim victory. Both of these teams are trying to stake their claim as the best in the AFC and possibly the league. Big Ben will be without his starting left tackle Max Starks not just for this game but for the rest of the season as was placed on IR. Big Ben is probably  one of the few QB’s who could take a blow like that and still manage to be as good if not better, Roethlisberger has the best QB rating after contact in the NFL and he’ll have plenty of opportunities to improve starting this week against the Pats. Looking at this Steelers team I think while they may not be as tough running the football as we give them credit for their tough enough to pound a Pats team that struggles against the run.

Steelers 24

Pats 20

Philadelphia @ Washington

Philadelphia -3

Vick vs. Mcnabb II this time it’s for blood. The last time these two teams faced off against each other Michael Vick was knocked early in the game with a rib injury that allowed the Redskins to come away with the victory. I don’t think the skins will be as lucky this week with Vick not missing a beat last week dismantling the Colts I think he’ll want revenge on the team that knocked him out these past weeks. Looking at Washington it’s a team in disarray, people talk about the coaching issues in Minnesota but their seem to be just as many in Washington and when your starting QB and your head coach don’t trust each other it spells doom for your franchise. I think the Redskins get 4 full quarters of the Michael Vick experience.

Eagles 31

Redskins 23