Wellness

[gardenman]

Week fourteen???? Yikes! Where did the season go?

We start out this week with the Cowboys going to Chicago. This is one of those awkward games to pick. The Cowboys are the better team, but they're coming off a loss and may be looking towards next week more than this week. The Cowboys are a speed team playing on whatever that greenish dirt/turf/sand stuff is that's on the field in Chicago this time of year. Traction will not be good and no traction tends to neutralize speed. Tony Romo looked injured last week. I really, really want the Bears to win, and my gut keeps telling me they can, but I don't think they will. I'm picking the Cowboys but I would not be at all surprised to see the Bears win.

Pittsburgh goes to Cincinnati. Cincy's favored and I'll take them. It should be a close game though. The Steelers are one of those Jekyll and Hyde teams. You never know which version will show up.

Indianapolis goes to Cleveland. The debut of Johnny Football is now delayed a bit as Hoyer is once again the starter for the Browns. I'm pretty sure he's not feeling overly confident right now though. I've got the Colts winning this one pretty easily with Hoyer struggling a bit. The Browns organization doesn't look like they support Hoyer and as a QB, it's kind of nice to have the organization behind you, especially when you've carried the team to the brink of the playoffs.

Tampa Bay goes to Detroit. This should be an easy win for Detroit.

Houston goes to Jacksonville. How do you pick against JJ Watt? About the only thing he hasn't done this year is kick field goals. I'm generally against human cloning, but a team full of JJ Watt's would be unstoppable. I'm taking Houston.

Baltimore goes to Miami. Miami's a slight favorite and I'll give them a slight edge here. I'll take Miami.

Carolina goes to New Orleans in a game that looked much better before the season. Both teams have been enormously disappointing this year though. The two teams combined have only eight wins. That's not good. I keep waiting for the Saints to come to life and it just doesn't happen. I don't think Cam Newton is physically right yet. I guess I'll take New Orleans, but I'm not real solid on the pick.

The Giants go to Tennessee. The Giants better win. Their fan base is a tick annoyed with their recent play. I'm going to assume they find a way to get a win and pick the Giants.

Saint Louis goes to Washington. The Rams have shown some heart this year and really only need a quarterback to be pretty good. The Redskins need pretty much everything, including a quarterback, to be pretty good. I'll take the Rams here.

Kansas City goes to Arizona. Andy's team has been down a bit lately, but Stanton's not exactly making people forget Carson Palmer. I'll take KC on the road in this one.

Buffalo goes to Denver. I've got to take the Broncos here. That Bills defensive line might be able to disrupt Manning and keep the Bills in the game, but ultimately Manning will find a way to win.

San Francisco goes to Oakland. Oakland seems determined to keep that first overall pick and the Niners should win pretty easily. It's not much of a road game going from SF to Oakland.

Seattle comes to Philadelphia. This should be a fun game. The Eagles are looking forward to seeing how they measure up against the NFC champs and are pretty confident and healthy. The Seahawks are planning to keep LeSean McCoy in check (easier said than done) which should open up some pretty big passing lanes for Sanchez to exploit. The Seahawk defenders will be gluing themselves to the Eagle receivers, but we've got some decent sized receivers and I expect to see them make some plays. West Coast teams coming east tend to have issues, but a 4:25 game tends to even that out. I'm expecting the Eagles to make a statement in this game. Two wins (Seahawks this week, Cowboys next) and the Eagles will wrap up the NFC East. I've got the Eagles winning this one. I wouldn't be shocked to see it be pretty one-sided.

New England goes to San Diego in the Sunday night game. It's hard to pick against the Patriots. The Chargers tend to play well at home in big games, but I've got the Patriots winning this one.

And the Monday night game is Atlanta at Green Bay. this one could get ugly quick. I've got to think the Packers will crush the Falcons. A dome team heading into Green Bay in December, at night, generally doesn't win. Aaron Rodgers is just playing insane football right now. I've got to take the Packers.

[teganslaw]

I'm glad that Hoyer is starting this Sunday, just because of the media circus there would be with Manziel. I think they'll win, but if by chance, Indy lost the game with Manziel at quarterback, I might have to go into hiding for awhile. There would be no end to the publicity.

The Arizona-KC game is a toss up. I picked Arizona, but might change that later. I really have no idea who will win.

This may sound strange, but the team that concerns me is Dallas, who we play in a couple weeks. Romo usually falls apart in December, but they have enough talent to pull out a win. If everything goes their way, and Romo is on his game, watch out.

If San Francisco loses this game, they are out of the playoffs. I think it would be funny if Oakland played spoiler and won their second game of the season. I'd like to see it happen, just for the fall out that would occur.

I'm still trying to figure out how Pittsburgh scored over 50 points on Indy, yet fell flat against losing teams. It must have been the uniforms.

[gardenman]

teganslaw. If things play out right and the Eagles win the next two games then the Cowboys will only be playing for pride when they play the Colts. I'm not even sure the Cowboys will beat the Bears tonight. I've been back and forth on that pick all week. My gut says the Cowboys lose tonight. There's a real good chance the Cowboys will be in full retreat mode by the time they play the Colts and the Colts will just roll over them. These next two weeks will tell us a lot about the Cowboys. Two wins and they'll be a big threat. Two losses and they're out of the playoffs and possibly looking for a new head coach. A split and they'll be hanging onto a wild card slot for dear life. We'll learn a bit tonight by how they play against the Bears. Tony Romo did not look healthy last week. If he looks the same this week with seven days rest, then the Cowboys could be in big trouble.

[yellowrose]

Dallas wins on the road, so that's one positive. Not so good when Indy comes to town though.

I'm going to ignore what my gut is telling me, drown out any Debbie Downer thoughts and just say.......

GOOOOO COWBOYS!!!!!. I'm wearing my Cowboy shirt and accessories today, but I just can't take it. Think I may watch Peter Pan tonight.

[Topaz13]

Gardenman, as a Steelers fan your description is right on the money! Jekyll and Hyde is perfect. it has been so hard watching them this season, so I don't, I usually watch Redzone! I agree this will be a close game and we usually play hard against division teams and with the playoffs still a possibility it should be a good one. As with every week I hope the good team shows up and wins but then if they don't it won't surprise me. I expect them to split with Cincy.

[ValuSkr]

The Bills have a tough remaining schedule: Denver (9-3), Green Bay (9-3), New England (9-3), and Oakland (1-11). Well, they should be able to beat the Raiders and finish 8-8.

[gardenman]

Yellowrose. We'll learn a lot about the Cowboys tonight. This is a big game for them. A big win tonight would do wonders for the psyche of that team. It should be a fun game to watch.

[qvcfreak]

On 12/4/2014 yellowrose said:

Dallas wins on the road, so that's one positive. Not so good when Indy comes to town though.

I'm going to ignore what my gut is telling me, drown out any Debbie Downer thoughts and just say.......

GOOOOO COWBOYS!!!!!. I'm wearing my Cowboy shirt and accessories today, but I just can't take it. Think I may watch Peter Pan tonight.

I'm thinking positive too and so far the boys are playing well.

[Sweetbay magnolia]

Oh the Cowboys are playing? As a Redskins atheist, now, I hadn't noticed.

[gardenman]

Kudos to the Cowboys for the big victory. That was a huge win for them. A loss there would have been disastrous. Now they've got ten days to prep for the rematch with the Eagles. I'm betting their defensive practices will be at a significantly faster pace than the last time. The Cowboy defenders were gassed in the first quarter of the last Eagles game. Those defensive coaches will likely run them into the ground to get them ready for that rematch. That could be an epic game. I'm pretty sure that the Cowboys will be breathing fire for that rematch.