Week four? Yikes! By this time next Tuesday we'll be one quarter of the way through the regular season! It's mind-numbing how quickly the NFL season flies by.
We start out this week with the Bears at the Packers. This is a measuring stick game for the Bears. Are they good enough to compete with the Packers? Probably not, but those NFC Central rivalry games tend to be close. I'll take the Packers.
New Orleans goes to Miami. I don't know what happened to the Dolphins last week. They ruined the Jets perfect totally defeated season and now the Jets will have to scramble to lose enough games to get that first overall pick. I'll take the Dolphins to bounce back and win a game this week at home against the Saints.
Buffalo goes to Atlanta. The Falcons seem to have avoided that post-Super Bowl letdown and are playing good football. Buffalo's playing well also. I'll take Atlanta though. If the Bills can get a really big game from LeSean McCoy, they have a shot, but I suspect that's easier said than done.
Pittsburgh goes to Baltimore. I've got a bad feeling about this game for Baltimore. They just got spanked by Jacksonville in London, had to fly back across the Atlantic, and now face the Steelers. Vegas has the Ravens as a three point favorite, but I'm not so sure about that. I'm taking the Steelers in the upset this week.
Cincinnati goes to Cleveland in one of those epic battles between two winless teams to see which one gets the upper hand in getting that first overall pick next year. I suspect the Browns will disappoint their fans by winning this game and thus hurt their chances for that first overall pick. I think the Bengals have the more talented team, but there's just something wrong with that team. (Too many thugs? Bad coaching?) Anyway, for one of the few times this year, I'll pick Cleveland to get the win.
The Rams go to Dallas. I don't know if it's my natural anti-Dallas bias or not, but the Rams scoring 35+ points game, facing a Dallas defense that's patched together strikes me as a mismatch in favor of the Rams. The Rams are eight point underdogs as I type this, but that Ram defense (Aaron Donald in particular) are dominating and their offense is scoring points like they're going out of style. Dallas beat the Cards by going to a three man rush and dropping eight guys back into coverage to take away the passing game and ignored the Cards running game. If they try that with the Rams, Todd Gurley will be running wild. If they play a more conventional defense, Goff can pick them apart with his receiving corps. These aren't the old Rams. I'm picking the Rams in my big upset of the week. That Cowboy defense has shown they can stop the run or they can stop the pass, but I'm not so sure they can stop both and the Rams are a very balanced offense.
Tennessee goes to Houston in what promises to be a near must win game for the Texans. They don't want to drop to 1-3. The good news for the Texans is they've found their QB in DeShaun Watson. He just stood toe-to-toe with Tom Brady and nearly won. This should be a fun game and is largely a coin flip game for me. I'm going to assume that those two defensive ends of the Texans show up to play and play well this week and the Texans take this one, but it'll be a close game. (This is likely the best of the early games on Sunday.)
Detroit goes to Minnesota. The Vikings have been remarkably resilient as they've gone through quarterbacks the last couple of years. They need some stability in that position. Case Keenum played very well for them last week and with their stable of runningbacks they can compete pretty well every week. I'm going with the Vikings at home.
Carolina goes to New England. In theory, this should be a good bounce back week for the Panthers as they face one of the worst defenses statistically in the NFL this week. (Who'd have thought we'd be saying that about a Patriot defense?) The thing is though that Cam Newton isn't right yet, but Tom Brady is. I'll take the Patriots in this one.
Jacksonville goes to the Jets. The Jets need to get back on the ball and start losing games again or that first overall pick will slip through their fingers. After spending the whole offseason dismantling the team, they wasted all that effort by winning a game last week. I suspect they'll get back on track and lose to the Jags this week however. I'm taking the Jaguars to win this one.
The Niners go to the Cards this week. Not likely a great game. I'll take the Cards. The Cards aren't a mentally tough team, but they're better than the Niners. The Cards had the Cowboys on the ropes and then a missed field goal swung the momentum and the Cards were never able to take it back against the Cowboys. I don't think it'll be as hard getting the momentum back from the Niners should they lose it.
Philly goes out west to play the now LA Chargers. (By the way, one of the Philly sportswriters coined the name the San Angeles Ramgers for the Chargers. That sounds about right.) Expect there to be more Eagle fans in the stands than Charger fans. Eagle fans travel well, Charger fans, not so much. Injuries are the big question mark in this game. We were down six defensive starters by the third quarter of the Giants' game. (Which is largely how the Giants were able to score 24 points in the fourth quarter.) How many of those guys will be back and ready to play at something close to full strength? Darren Sproles is gone for the year, but the team just re-signed Kenjon Barner to replace him. Barner was with us for several years and was arguably our best runningback last year (4.9 yards per carry average) before being let go as a free agent in the offseason. He signed with the Chargers and was a late cut for them. He can returns kicks and punts well as well as run and catch, so he's a good Sproles replacement. If we're remotely healthy, I see the Eagles winning this game. If we're missing six defensive starters again, it'll be much more of a challenge. I'm picking the Eagles to eke this one out.
The Giants go to Tampa Bay in what's another must-win game for the Giants. Being 0-3 is bad, being 0-4 is worse. Sadly, I see 0-4 in their future. They only scored on the Eagles in the fourth quarter when six defensive starters were out of the game due to injuries. O'Dell Beckham Junior came alive late in that game and he and Eli should have gotten a confidence boost from that, but with no run game, poor offensive line play, and the Bucs having a week to see how they played against the Eagles, I have a feeling this will be a bad week for the Giants. DeSean Jackson was always a Giant killer with botht he Eagles and Redskins and I expect to see him do it again to the Giants this week with a big play or two to bury them. I'm taking the Bucs in this one.
Oakland goes to Denver in what should be a good later game. Netiher team can afford to lose and they're pretty evenly matched. I guess I'll take Denver since they're playing at home.
Indy goes to Seattle. Uh-oh! While both teams are 1-2, Seattle's 1-2 looks a lot better than Indy's. Jacoby Brissett has done a great job of rallying the Colts around him and they got the win last week, but winning in Seattle isn't all that easy. I've got the Seahawks in this one and it could get ugly.
And we close out with Washingon at KC. The Chiefs are a very, very good team. The Redskins, not so much. I'm going with the Chiefs here in KC. Kirk Cousins will need to really be on his game for the Redskins to get the win this week. He can do it, but will he? I'm just not sure he trusts his new receivers enough yet. I'm taking the Chiefs.
Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
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