Weekend Preview: Sorry I actually had a life for once edition.

Sorry I got back from an ugly sweater party at 3:30 so this is going to be pretty short. I wouldn't have felt right not doing a weekend picks article even if you don’t read it until the games are over.

New Orleans @ Baltimore

Baltimore – 2.5

After watching Matt Schaub rip apart a tired Baltimore defense in the second half of that Ravens Texans game I think New Orleans keep their streak of 30+ point games going and beat the Ravens.

Saints 33

Ravens 27

Arizona @ Carolina

Carolina –2.5

Arizona has had such weird hot and cold games this year but at this point I think the Panthers are playing for the first overall pick. Arizona goes on the road and gets a win.

Cardinals 17

You almost made it through the Year T.O. how could you

Panthers 10

Cleveland @ Cincinnati

Cincinnati – 1

What’s that you say? Terrell Owens lambasting is coaches and the owner? What a surprise.

Browns 23

Bengals 17

Washington @ Dallas

Dallas- 7

Everyone I’d like to reintroduce you to Rex Grossman. If theres one thing Mike Shanahan can’t resist it’s a white quarterback with a strong arm with a propensity to throw ridiculous interceptions. He fixed John Elway and he thinks he can fix everyone else. Someone please talk those Redskin fans off the ledge.

Cowboys 37

Redskins 10

Jacksonville @ Indianapolis

Indianapolis – 5

Sorry. As much as I want to after their gusty performance against my Raiders last week I can’t pick against the Peyton with the division on the line.

Colts 27

Jaguars 24

Buffalo @ Miami

Miami – 4.5

Miami wins this game and nobody outside of Miami cares.

Dolphins 17

One word

Bills 13

Philadelphia @ NY Giants

NY Giants – 3

The Giants rushing attack has been stupendous lately with the two headed monster of Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw but Philadelphia has even better two headed monster in Michael Vick and Desean Jackson.

Eagles 31

Giants 24

Kansas City @ St. Louis

St. Louis - 3

Matt Cassel’s a game time decision if he plays reverse the scores, because I have absolutely no faith in the Brodie Croyle Express.

Rams 23

Chiefs 10

Detroit @ Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay – 4

I'm sorry I'd like to pick against the almighty power of Josh Freeman and the other Mike Williams and a guy who's last name is blount........what a second no I don't.

Bucs 23

Lions 17

Houston @ Tennessee

Tennessee – 1

Tennessee had one of the most pointless late touchdowns in the NFL last week. A team that poorly coached will lose to a Texans team that’s only coached at a mediocre level.

Texans 24

Titans 21

Atlanta @ Seattle

Atlanta – 6.5

Atlanta goes on the road and has their 3^rd loss of the year at qwest field scaring every NFC team that could possibly play there in the first round.

Seahawks 24

Falcons 20

Denver @ Oakland

Bring on Friar Tuck

Oakland – 7.5

Tim Tebows first start is in the Black hole with a Raiders front four that leads the league in sacks?? This could get ugly

Raiders 31

Broncos 23

NY Jets @ Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh – 4.5

I don’t know how or why, but Rex Ryan will right the ship this week. Oh wait I know why, no Troy Polamalu.

Jets 16

Steelers 13

Green Bay @ New England

New England – 14

Patriots vs. the Packers with no Aaron Rodgers? Hide thine eyes.

Patriots 41

Packers 13

Chicago @ Minnesota

Chicago –7.5

It seems as though the career that wouldn’t die finally died. Brett Favres reign of terror is over. Good work America.

Bears 24

Vikings 10

Week 14 Preview: Sleepless in Screen and Roll Out

Cleveland @ Buffalo

Buffalo – 1

Cleveland enters this game on a 2 game win streak and with 5-7 record that doesn’t tell the story of how competitive a team they’ve been this year with victories over both the Patriots and Saints. Buffalo followed a heartbreaking loss to the Steelers at home by getting creamed by a Tavaris Jackson lead Minnesota Vikings team.  I don’t know if the Vikings have been inspired by Leslie Frazier, but that Vikings team hasn’t been good enough to blow out anybody this year. For the Bills to follow up such a tough outing against the Steelers with that egg tells me they’re not ready to play a team as tough as the Browns even at home.

Browns 23

Bills 20

Atlanta @ Carolina

Atlanta – 9

Atlanta just keeps winning. They may seem to get quite a few lucky breaks throughout the wins but at the end of the game the dirty birds are on top of the scoreboard. There’s absolutely no reason why that shouldn’t be the case against a dreadful Panthers team.

Falcons 31

Panthers 13

Green Bay @ Detroit

Green Bay – 7

Dear Aaron, See you soon. Love Ndamukong

The Packers put a hurt on the 49’ers last week with pretty much just Aaron Rodgers and nothing else. The Falcons exposed the Packers as a one dimensional team and the 49’ers lacked the talent to do the same. I think the Lions are in the same boat. While they have a borderline fantastic D line lead by Ndamukong Suh and Kyle Vanden Bosch I don’t think their offense will be able to sustain enough drives to keep Rodgers off the field. The Packers win this one but only because they have one of the top 5 Qb’s in football right now.

Aaron Rodgers 31

Lions 27

Oakland @ Jacksonville

Jacksonville – 4

Being a Raider fan has been a significantly better experience this year than it has been for the past 8 years of my life, and while I’m very happy that we’re at 6 wins for the first time in 8 years I’m incredibly frustrated by the Raiders lack of consistency. If the good Raiders show up they might be able to slow down Mojo while running over the Jaguars with their two headed running attack of D-Mac and Michael Bush. If the bad Raiders show up the Jaguars will run all over them and dominate the game. I hate to say this but looking at their last two east coast games I think the bad Raiders will show up.

Jaguars 24

Raiders 13

New York Giants @ Minnesota

New York Giants - 3

Well this game has been reschedule to Monday because of the insane snow storm in Minneapolis, and that could have an effect on both teams but honestly I have no idea what that might be. This game is more or less the Giants playoff hopes. They’re 8-4 with games against Green Bay and Philadelphia left. This game is basically a must win with those two coming up. As good as the Vikings looked last week I think they bring Brett Favre back to preserve his starting record and it ends up costing them the game.

Giants 26

Vikings 17

Cincinnati @ Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh – 9

Pittsburgh vs. Baltimore was an absolutely fantastic game Sunday Night. Watching that game in comparison to the games from earlier Sunday it seemed like the Steelers and Ravens were playing at a different speed than the rest of the NFL. A lot of people think this will be a letdown game but I don’t think the Steelers can afford to let up knowing the Ravens are still right on their tail and the 2^nd seed isn’t guaranteed.

Steelers 31

Bengals 20

Tampa Bay @ Washington

Tampa Bay – 2

It sucks but I think the Buccaneers season ended last week against the Falcons. As good as the NFC is I think the two wildcard teams will probably be two of the following 3: New Orleans, New York, and Green Bay. I just don’t think Tampa Bay will elbow its way into that conversation but they can keep their hopes alive with a win this week over a listless Washington team that has seemingly given up on their season. 

Bucs 20

Redskins 13

St. Louis @ New Orleans

New Orleans – 10

The offensive rookie of the year trophy will be going to a Qb for the 2^nd time in history and the first time since Big Ben won it while leading the Steelers to the playoffs, can Sam Bradford pull of a similar feat? Hmmm I’ll say this somebody has to make it out of the NFC West and at this point I have to ask myself why not the Rams? Are they any more flawed than the Seahawks…….enh not really. This line seems a bit high when looking at the early year home performances of the Saints except for the fact that current Saints are on a 5 game winning streak putting up 30 in 4 of them. Well make it 6 straight with 30 in 5 of them.

Saints 34

Rams 20

Seattle @ San Francisco

San Francisco – 5.5

This is how bad the NFC west is. The 49’ers lost by 18 points in a game that wasn’t even that close last week and are 5 ½ point favorites over the Seahawks who won by 17. The reason being pretty much everyone knows that the Seahawks are a team that will just no show on the road.  Yes the Seahawks have been bad on the road this year but their road record is 2-3 which is just mediocre and they’ve beaten a tough Saints team in the superdome. I don’t think the Hawks have been given enough credit for the mediocre quality of road team they are. Mediocre will be enough to beat the 49’ers.

Seahawks 23

49’ers 20

New England @ Chicago

New England – 2.5

Solemn American Heads

I can’t pick against the Pats after that performance on Monday night football last week. At the same time I spent a quick hit last week finally admitting that the Bears were for real. The truth is I still believe both of those things I just think that the Pats are on a different level than the Bears. I think the Pats are at this point are the easy super bowl favorite while the Bears are a strong contender to make it to the NFC championship game at best. I think Tom Brady makes an example of the Bears cover 2 defense using short and intermediate passes as he leads the solemn american heads to victory.

Patriots 27

Bears 20

Denver @ Arizona

Denver – 4.5

In the 3^rd debut of a new head coach this NFL season we begin the 4 game season for Eric Studesville who prior to becoming the interim head coach had been a running backs coach his entire NFL coaching career. I doubt he’ll make much of an impression with this 4 game stint but so far the two interim coaches we’ve had this year have more or less knocked it out of the park in the 5 games they’ve coached.  The thing that was most confusing about the McDaniel’s firing is that the Broncos played hard for their coach in the loss against the Chiefs last week; if they can put together another effort like that they’ll beat a much worse Cardinals team starting John Skelton a rookie QB from Fordham.

Broncos 17

Cardinals 9

Miami @ New York Jets

New York Jets – 5

Wow just wow did New York get smashed last week. The Patriots absolutely went 1990’s Mike Tyson on them beating them relentlessly and not stopping until the bell rung. If the Jets are half the team we thought they were before that game last week they’ll beat this Dolphins team. They’re lead by an incredibly turnover prone QB in Chad Henne who should be just what the Dr. ordered to begin to rebuild the confidence of a Jets defense that has to be questioning itself after Tom Brady just dissected them. However what was more troubling than their defense was the absolute egg their offense laid. I don’t know if that’s as fixable as the defense however.

Jets 19

Dolphins 10

Kansas City @ San Diego

Pick Em

I have two words for you. Brodie Croyle. If San Diego doesn’t absolutely cream the Chiefs in this one they have no one to blame but themselves.

Chargers 23

Chiefs 10

I expect to see this next year with a 12 on it

Philadelphia @ Dallas

Philadelphia – 3.5

It just came down from the king of the NFL scoop Adam Schefter that both Winston Justice and Asante Samuel won’t be playing in the game against the Cowboys. As well as the Cowboys are playing I think that changes this game from a blowout to a close one. The Eagles with Michael Vick are too dynamic for a Cowboys team without Dez Bryant to keep up.

Eagles 34

Cowboys 27

Baltimore @ Houston

Baltimore – 2.5

Baltimore lost a game to the Steelers that will probably come back to bite them in the ass at the end of the year when it’s time for playoff seeding. That game could be the difference between the 2^nd seed and the 5^th or 6^th seed. Houston on the other hand probably had their season ended last week with that loss to the Eagles, doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see who I’m gonna pick here. Expect Joe Flacco to get back on track against that dreadful Texans pass defense.

Ravens 27

Texans 20

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.