Wellness

[gardenman]

And this week starts out with KC at Oakland. This should be an easy win for KC. It could be a trap game for them, but I suspect they'll just roll over Oakland. I'll take KC in another Thursday night blowout.

Cleveland goes to Atlanta. I'm going with the Browns here. Josh Gordon wants to make a big impact and I suspect he will. Atlanta's favored by three, but I just don't see them winning this week.

The Jets go to Buffalo. (Or maybe not depending on the weather.) Assuming Buffalo gets dug out and the game doesn't get moved, this could be an interesting game. The Jets have been able to practice, rehab and get ready for the game while the Bills have been largely isolated and trapped in their homes. How important is practice at this stage of the season? I'm not real sure, but I'm taking the rested Bills who may be ready to kill someone after being trapped in their houses all week. The Bills may start out a bit rusty, but the Jets aren't a very good team.

Tampa Bay goes to Chicago. Chicago's favored by five plus, but I've got a feeling the Bucs will win this one for Lovie Smith on his first trip back to Chicago after losing that job. The Bucs are a bad team, but they're only two games out of first place in the woeful NFC South and they did win last week. A win here and they could be fighting for a playoff spot. I think the Bucs will find a way to win. (Well, maybe the Bears will find a way to lose, but someone's got to win the game and I'll take the Bucs.)

Cincinnati goes to Houston. Oddly enough, Houston's favored. JJ Watt is a beast and I suspect he'll find a way to win this game. If just a few players on the Texans had even half of JJ Watt's heart that team would be a playoff contender. I don't care what they're paying JJ Watt, he's underpaid. I'll take the Texans. If they lose JJ Watt to injury that team will fold quickly, but as long as he stays on the field, I'll take the Texans.

Jacksonville goes to Indy. This should be an easy win for the Colts. I just don't see the Jags putting up much of a fight.

Green Bay goes to Minnesota. This should be a pretty easy game for Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers is on fire right now. They won't overlook the vikings and with no dome, the Vikings home field advantage is largely gone. I'll take the Packers big in this one.

Detroit goes to New England. Detroit needs to win and could win, but I'm picking the Patriots. A big game from Megatron could pull it out for the Lions, but I suspect Belicheck will do whatever's possible to keep Megatron in check.

Tennessee comes to Philly. The Eagles players are looking at this as a redemption game. They did not like the way they played last week and they want to get back to playing Eagle's football. Even giving Mark Sanchez a fumble and interception or two, I've still got the Eagles winning this one. They are not happy players this week and they will make the Titans suffer.

Saint Louis goes to San Diego. I have no idea who's going to win this game. If anyone had told me the Rams (or any team) would hold the Broncos to seven points with a healthy Peyton Manning, I'd have laughed. The Rams did it. Can they do it two weeks in a row? I don't know. We'll find out. I'll take the Chargers simply because they're playing at home.

Arizona goes to Seattle. Arizona's the better team right now, but they're playing in Seattle. How does that even out??? Seattle's nearly a touchdown favorite, but I've got a feeling the Cards find a way to win this one. They've got to know that if they win, the Seahawks are dead. I'm picking the Cards in an upset in Seattle and I almost never pick against Seattle in Seattle.

Miami goes to Denver. It might not be a good week to be Miami. I'm thinking Denver will be a bit testy after last week's game and here comes Miami. I'll take the Broncos in this one.

Washington goes to San Francisco. Oh, boy. At this time I'm not sure the Redskins would beat their cheerleaders. That's a team that's coming apart at the seams. RGIII criticized his teammates, then the coach comes out and rips RGIII, then the coach (apparently after a chat with the owner) apologizes to RGIII for telling the truth about how RGIII is playing. That's not how you want a team run. They've got some serious issues going on down there in Washington and probably can't beat anyone at this time. The Niners have some turmoil, but they look absolutely calm compared to the Redskins. The Redskins' franchise QB is playing miserably. The coach is apparently being forced to play him anyway. Neither seems especially happy. From an outsider's perspective, there's no way RGIII should be the starting QB when you've got two guys on the bench who are playing better. I'll take the Niners in a big win here. This could get ugly, well, uglier. We could see another coaching change in DC at the end of this season. I'm not sure who they'd get as a coach, but Gruden is not happy and the owner still seems infatuated with RGIII over the coach and one of those two is likely to have to go this off-season. If it's not RGIII then it'll likely be Gruden. Kudos to the Redskins for distracting everyone from the team name controversy. I guess no one cared what they'd named the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. The Redskins have now hit the iceberg. That team is listing badly and about to sink.

Dallas goes to the Giants. This should be an easy win for the Cowboys. But, and this is a big but, NFC East games are never easy. The Giants are going to throw everything they have at the Cowboys. The Cowboys are coming off a bye and may be a tick rusty. Tiki Barber is calling for Coughlin to be fired. (Along with much of the NY media.) It's rally time for the Giants. They're going to rally around saving Tom Coughlin and my gut says they'll find a way to win this game. It'll be a close game, and a hard fought game, but I see the Giants coming out with the win. You're already hearing the Cowboys griping about having to play on Sunday night and then again Thursday. You get the impression they're looking past the Giants a bit. Byes can help a team, or hurt a team, and I suspect this late bye will end up hurting the Cowboys. I'll take the Giants here. (I'm picking a lot of upsets this week. It's either going to be a very good or a very bad week for my picks.)

And finally we have Baltimore at New Orleans. I don't know what's going on with the Saints. The Saints are three point favorites but I'll pick one more upset this week and take the Ravens. I keep waiting for the Saints to turn it on this year and they just haven't. They just keep sputtering along. I'll take the Ravens and hope for the best.

[Sweetbay magnolia]

Haha! Excellent insight on the situation here in DC. I am disgusted.

Go '9rs!!!

A local sports radio team is bringing a coffin to the bar they host their show from periodically, and inviting listeners to help them drive a few nails in Bob's coffin (even the analysts are now calling him that). Gruden has been hamstrung (stronger words apply, but I will refrain).

The 'Skins lose, and and the blame will fall on Haslett (or the O line). Those brave enough to speak out about the QB will be banished from the kingdom.

[teganslaw]

I hope you're right about Arizona winning. I don't care about Seattle and am not fond of Pete Carroll. Sherman's trash talk in past weeks has annoyed me. The Seattle games will be a test for the Cardinals.

I wouldn't be surprised if Washington came to life this week and won. (Yes, I said that!) They have issues, but San Francisco is too inconsistent. This time of year there are teams who want to play spoiler for those trying to reach the playoffs. I would be happy if Washington beat SF just because I want to see Arizona stay in first place.

The Rams are difficult to figure out. If they could play as well as they did last week, the NFC West would really get competitive.

I'm quite sure that Green Bay and New England play each other later this year. That is going to be good match up.

[acat]

I do not think tiki barber should be critical of anyone. He has always criticized Tom

Coughlin and his teammates. After he left the team they won 2 superbowls. Eli

has been off his game.

[gardenman]

teganslaw. I really like Arizona's chances this week. They've got to know that if they can beat Seattle in Seattle that they'll knock Seattle out of the playoffs. (In all likelihood anyway.) Arizona's playing very good football these days. Seattle's a good team and if you can beat them now, you don't have to worry about facing them later.

I would honestly be surprised if the Redskins won another game this year if they keep RGIII as the quarterback. In their final six games they play the Niners, Colts, Rams, Giants, Eagles, and Cowboys. The Giants and Rams aren't all that impressive, but at least they aren't imploding like the Redskins. Jay Gruden did something I've never seen a coach do before and that was dissect your starting quarterback's play in front of a live press conference. When you have the head coach showing tape of the quarterback messing up on play after play, you're essentially blaming the loss on him. As a general rule that's a sign that the coach/quarterback relationship isn't especially good. He sent a pretty clear message to RGIII, but he also sent a message to the team and I just don't see the Redskins rebounding. The team wasn't thrilled to see Colt McCoy get benched for RGIII and players had to speak out in RGIII's defense to rally the team around him when he got the starting job back. You haven't heard any of his teammates rally around him after Gruden's tongue lashing. What you're not hearing tends to tell you the team agrees with the coach. Now the Redskins' owner apparently has forced Gruden to apologize, which is something else you almost never see/hear in the NFL. That's a team in crisis right now.

The Niners have their own issues with everyone pretty much conceding that Harbaugh is out of there after this year, but the team seems to be viewing that more as a management/coach issue and less of a team issue. You're not hearing a lot of players calling for Kaepernick to be benched.

The Packers play the Patriots in Green Bay on November 30th. That's the late afternoon game and should be a fun game to watch. It could be a Super Bowl preview.

[luvmyteddy4]

I would hate to see the KC Chiefs loose with the worst team out there, that would be bad. They think it will be a low scoring game which doesn't make sense to me.

[Spurt]

Well my picks are as bad as Washington's QB but here goes nothing---

Chiefs/Raiders-CHIEFS, CHIEFS, CHIEFS,.....although Howie Long is predicting the Raiders will win one or two games this year it won't be against the Chiefs.

Browns/Falcons---who wants to win the NFC South, it appears no one.....I think the BROWNS will rebound and win (even though the Cavs failed to do that against my Spurs in Cleveland--GO SPURS GO!)....

Bills/Jets---when and where will this game be played....there was talk about moving the game to another site but with the snow as bad as it is how would the Bills be able to leave town......if and when they play I'm going with the BILLS the Jets aren't a very good team and could use a serious influx of talent....

Bucs/Bears----The Bucs got a win against my pathetic Washington team, but you know what they say about waking up a bear and I think the media and critics did just that so I'm going with DA BEARS!

Bengals/Texans--my cat Figgy is very very disappointed in her Bengals...Andy Dalton and the offense have not performed well.....and the Texans went with a different QB and seemed to come to life---I'm going with JJ and the TEXANS

Jags/Colts---I think the Colts were embarrassed against the Pats last week and will take it out on the hapless Jaguars....going with the COLTS and a big win!

Packers/Vikes---one wonders what the weather will be like since they are playing outdoors.....either way I'm going with Aaron Rodgers who seems to be one of the top candidates for NFL MVP....PACKERS!

Lions/Pats----you can't trust the Lions and the Pats seemed to have found their groove and a running back and of course Brady and Gronk are in rhythm....going with the PATS

Titans/Eagles---Eagles want to wipe away the memory of that wipe out last week and I'm sure Chip Kelly will put in a good game plan to prevent another fiasco, the Titans are not very good so I'm going with the EAGLES!

Rams/Chargers---oh those surprising Rams who upset Peyton and the Broncos....many are talking about the Rams stifling defense....and Rivers has a chest injury although he was listed as a full participant in Wednesday's....the Chargers got back some of their defense guys back from injury.....for some reason I'm going with the RAMS

Cards/Seahawks--Cards have a great opportunistic defense and have to go with a backup QB and Fitzgerald is banged up too.....still sometimes this year the Seahawks have been uninpressive....I'm going with the CARDS who seem to be on a mission to get to the playoffs and beyond...Arians is an EXCELLENT coach!!!

Dolphins/Broncos....I don't think Peyton will be in a very good mood after that horrible performance last weekend and I think he will take it out on the Dolphins....weather could be an issue in Denver ..... going with the BRONCOS!

Washington/49ers---Bob says he's focused on San Francisco....I did not find it funny to imitate Belichick after Bob's and the rest of the team's dismal performance.....I think Jay should have stuck to his guns and not re-canted on his calling out of Bob earlier in the week.....I no longer have any hope for my team since the GM/Owner seems adamant that Bob stays in at QB so they can see if they should stick with him or start planning on another option next year.....the defense was pathetic too.....going with the 49ers who must win to stay in the playoff picture.....another wasted season for us Washington fans....

Cowboys/Giants---Coughlin appears to be on the hot seat and some have put Eli on it with him......this team is as bad as Washington and that's bad.....even though the Cowboys have a QB who is questionable with a back injury I will take them over the Giants who are destined to be tied for last place in the NFC Least....COWBOYS! (it hurt to type that).....

Ravens/Saints---gotta go with the SAINTS!

[luvmyteddy4]

Wow what a game between KC and Oakland. I thought for sure we would lose this game. Now 20-17. It's still anyone's game.

[sunshine45]

WOW......the RAIDERS FINALLY won a game! .....and they made it exciting to watch! congratulations to charles woodson! he became the first player in NFL history to get 50 interceptions (he has 58) AND 20 sacks in a career. he is a 17 year player.

sorry for the chiefs luvmyteddy.....

[qvcfreak]

It was a good game sunshine45, Congratulations to the Raiders.