NFL Week 9 Picks

It’s been three years since the Giants played a meaningful game after October. Sure, last season they weren’t mathematically eliminated as far as December, but it was going to take the biggest miracle of all miracles for them to reach the postseason and that miracle certainly didn’t happen.

The NFL season has become a one-month season at best for the Giants and Giants fans like me for all but one of the last seven years and it’s miserable. Combine the Giants’ losing ways with a 5-10 picks week like last week and I wonder why I even watch this sport. Maybe the young and exciting, but very inconsistent Rangers will give me something to do after the holidays to get through the dark days of winter until March Madness and Opening Day. because once again, it won’t be the Giants.

(Home team in caps)

San Francisco -10 over ARIZONA
A 10-point line to open the week isn’t the greatest when you’re coming off a five-win week and need to start putting together a lot of Ws to dig out of a 10-games-under-.500-hole. I know taking the points on the road on a short week goes against everything I know about the NFL, but I can’t talk myself into the Cardinals.

JACKSONVILLE -1 over Houston
Flip a coin. I’m going with the Jaguars in their second home of London against yet another overrated Texans team. (I hate this game.)

BUFFALO -10.5 over Washington
Dwayne Haskins’ first career start is coming on the road in Buffalo against the Bills’ defense. That’s all.

Minnesota -4.5 over KANSAS CITY
I trust Kirk Cousins as much as I trust Pat Shurmur to challenge a play worth challenging. So needing Cousins to cover four points at hostile Arrowhead isn’t exactly an ideal situation. I’m banking on the Vikings’ defense being able to shut down a Matt Moore-led offense, and if they can’t do that then the Vikings are even bigger frauds than I think they are with one of their six wins being even remotely close to solid.

New York Jets -3.5 over MIAMI
If the Jets can’t beat the Dolphins then Adam Gase needs to be fired immediately following the game. I mean immediately after the team leaves the field. No ride home with the team on the plane. Fired. In the same building he was fired from a year ago.

PHILADELPHIA -4.5 over Chicago
As long as Mitch Trubisky is starting games for the Bears, I will be picking against the Bears.

Indianapolis -1 over PITTSBURGH
For some reason I like this Colts team. I continue to pick them to cover and win, bet on them and put them in teasers. They’re not that good if they’re even any good at all, but for some unknown reason I continue to trust and back them. I can’t explain it, but there’s very little that can be explained with regards to anything in this league.

CAROLINA -3.5 over Tennessee
As long as Ryan Tannehill is starting games for the Titans, I will be picking against the Titans.

OAKLAND +2.5 over Detroit
I’m done picking against the Raiders. Even though they’re not “good”, they’re good enough to keep screwing me over in parlays and teasers, and the only answer is to now starting picking in favor of them.

SEATTLE -4.5 over Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay shocked everyone when they went across the country and beat the Rams earlier this season. There’s a difference between being play a road game against the Rams and their “fans” and one against the Seahawks and their fans.

Cleveland -4 over DENVER
Baker Mayfield has regressed in his second season in the league, which isn’t what you want from the No. 1 overall pick and your franchise quarterback. Between Mayfield, Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen, the supposed great quarterback draft class of 2018 is look anything but that. The Browns are bad and I enjoy watching them lose, but even these Browns should be able to win in Denver against a quarterback making his first NFL start.

LOS ANGELES CHARGERS +4 over Green Bay
I still think the Chargers are good. No, they’re not going to win a championship, but they’re good enough to be a playoff team and win a playoff game like they were last season. At some point though, they’re going to want to actually start putting wins together in order to be a playoff team and win a playoff game.

New England -3 over BALTIMORE
Two teams I hate and one of them has to win. The Patriots don’t usually play well against the Ravens, but it’s hard to pick against this Patriots defense right now, which looks the way it did in the early years of the dynasty.

Dallas -6.5 over NEW YORK GIANTS
When the Giants scored a touchdown on their first possession of the season against the Cowboys, I thought this season might amount to something. It didn’t. The Cowboys aren’t very good, but the Giants suck, and I can’t see a scenario where the Cowboys don’t convert third downs all game against the awful Giants defense.

Last week: 5-10-0
Season: 55-65-1