Wednesday, November 12, 2008

NFL Picks, Week 11

Bye weeks are history, and every team is playing every week from now until the end of the season. Here are 16 big ones:

Dallas at Washington: The Cowboys come off a much-needed bye week, but are thrown directly into the fire as they travel to D.C. to play the Redskins. Washington shocked the Cowboys in Irving in September. Dallas gets QB Tony Romo back from injury. Or, they hope so. Pick: Dallas

New England at New York Jets: The NFL Network gets a great matchup for Thursday night. Both teams are 6-3. This is where the Jets’ acquisition of Brett Favre pays off. Pick: Jets

New Orleans at Kansas City: Yuck. The Chiefs are improving, but don’t have anything to show for it in the win column, especially after losing a heartbreaker last week in San Diego. RB Larry Johnson returns this week after sitting out due to a plethora of personal issues. Chiefs get win #2 this week. Pick: KC

Philadelphia at Cincinnati: The Bengals are awful. Enough said. Pick: Philly

Baltimore at NY Giants: The Ravens will see how they stack up against a good team. The Giants keep rolling on. Pick: Giants

Minnesota at Tampa Bay: Both of these teams are bad on the road and good at home. The Bucs are at home. Pick: Tampa Bay

Chicago at Green Bay: Both teams are fighting for a playoff spot from the NFC North. This matchup is pretty even, so give the edge to the home team. Pick: Packers

Oakland at Miami: Senile owner Al Davis took play-calling responsibilities away from offensive coordinator Greg Knapp this week. Is Al going to call plays himself? Will the Raiders make the trip to South Florida? Pick: Miami

Detroit at Carolina: Daunte Culpepper makes his first start for the Lions. The Panthers are a good team. This might be ugly, but the Panthers will win. Pick: Carolina

Denver at Atlanta: Look out for the Falcons. They’re for real. Pick: Atlanta

Houston at Indianapolis: Last time these teams met, the Texans blew an 18 point lead in the last six minutes of the game. Indy is a lot better now. Pick: Colts

Arizona at Seattle: The Cardinals won a wild one on Monday night, and now travel to the Great Northwest. The Cardinals can’t let success go to their head. Pick: Arizona

St. Louis at San Francisco: The Suck Bowl. Both teams are bad. The Rams gave up 47 to the Jets last week, and it could have been worse. San Francisco should have won Monday night in Arizona. They win this week. Pick: 49ers

San Diego at Pittsburgh: The Chargers are underachieving in a big way. They now have to go to Pittsburgh, where the Steelers were upset last week by the Colts. Pittsburgh bounces back. Pick: Pittsburgh

Tennessee at Jacksonville: Titans roll on. Pick: Tennessee

Cleveland at Buffalo: Bragging rights to Erie, Pennsylvania are on the line here. Shoot, bragging rights to all of Lake Erie are on the line in this game. Pick: Buffalo

4 comments:

Zee said...

A tie? Seriously? What's the NFL coming to? Next thing you know they'll switch to a bowl system instead of playoffs!

John said...

First tie in six years. It's sad when neither team can score for an entire quarter with the game on the line.

They used to have ties all the time in the NFL before they introduced overtime. Of course, that was back in the day when the goalpost was on the goal line.

Maybe they should have a college or high school-style overtime after a scoreless overtime. It would be the football equivalent of a shootout. At least there would be a winner!

Philly has to be kicking themselves. They got tied by the sorry Bengals!

Zee said...

Ties are just wrong. Look what the NHL did. Of course, I think the sudden death stuff is wrong too. I think they should do like college does - it's a bit more fair, imho.

John said...

Maybe they should have a field goal kicking contest at the end of overtime? They could call it...penalty kicks!