This week has been wild, so the picks are going to be short and sweet, which doesn’t leave much for me to congratulate myself on a 8-7-1 start to the season.
This week has been wild, so the picks are going to be short and sweet, which doesn’t leave much for me to congratulate myself on an 8-7-1 start to the season. Week 2 is the hardest week of the entire season because everything you thought you knew about the league’s 32 teams was likely changed in Week 1 and now you only have one week of information to base your opinions and picks on.
(Home team in caps)
CLEVELAND -6 over Cincinnati If the Browns can blow out the Bengals at home on a short week then it’s going to be another long season for them.
NEW YORK GIANTS +5 over Chicago Can the Giants avoid 0-2 for the fourth straight season and the seventh time in the last nine? I doubt it. But I think they can keep the game close enough to possibly pull of an upset.
San Francisco -7 over NEW YORK JETS There will be a time this season when the line gets so high that I will have to pick the Jets to cover. We aren’t there yet.
Atlanta +5.5 over DALLAS We might see a 7-9 team could out of the NFC East this season. The Giants, Eagles and Cowboys all lost in Week 1 with only the Redskins winning. The Giants and Washington Football Team will likely lose in Week 2, the Eagles could lose and the Cowboys could as well. The Giants could be 0-2 and be a 1/2 game out of first. Go Falcons!
MINNESOTA +3.5 over Indianapolis Kirk Cousins is so unbelievably bad that he has to be the most overpaid athlete relative to performance. The Vikings’ window might have already close, but I’m willing to give them another week for me to find that out.
TAMPA BAY -8 over Carolina I would like to know how many times Tom Brady has lost back-to-back games. I could look it up, but I know it’s a low number. It might be even once. It’s not happening here.
Rams +1.5 over PHILADELPHIA The Eagles blew a 17-0 lead to Washington and cost me a four-team parlay. I still hadn’t learned that you can’t trust the Eagles, but now I know.
Buffalo -6.5 over MIAMI The Bills’ defense is enough for me to possibly not pick against them all season.
GREEN BAY -6.5 over Detroit The Lions blew yet another game under Matt Patricia and the Packers continued where they left off last season after going to the NFC Championship Game. Per usual, I have a hard time believing in the Lions.
PITTSBURGH -6.5 over Denver The Broncos aren’t good. That’s all.
TENNESSEE -7.5 over Jacksonville I really like the Titans. I would like them more if Ryan Tannehill weren’t their quarterback, but Mike Vrabel (my favorite head coach in the league) has turned him into an actual quarterback and an actual threat. The Titans’ defense against Gardner Minshew seems almost too easy.
Arizona -7 over WASHINGTON I like this Cardinals team and I like them even more after their upset win on the road over the 49ers. As for Washington, they cost me a monetary win last week, but they hand the Eagles an all-important divisional loss if the Giants are ever able to compete for a postseason berth this season.
Kansas City -8.5 over LOS ANGELES CHARGERS There will never be a day when I pick Tyrod Taylor to cover a spread against Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs could be -28 and I would take them and would be fine with losing the pick if they didn’t cover.
Baltimore -6.5 over HOUSTON I won’t be picking the Texans to cover against any even somewhat decent team this season. Against a Super Bowl contender? Nope.
New England +4 over SEATTLE It’s so weird to see Cam Newton in a Patriots uniform and not see Brady as their quarterback. It will never not be weird. It’s also weird to see the Patriots as much as four-point underdogs.
New Orleans -5.5 over LAS VEGAS I hate picking Saints games. I either pick them to cover and they screw me, or I go against them and they screw me. After last week’s win I don’t have a choice.
Since deciding to only root for the Giants to lose this season, the season has become much more enjoyable. There’s no getting upset or frustrated because there’s no expectation to win, just lose, and the
Since deciding to only root for the Giants to lose this season, the season has become much more enjoyable. There’s no getting upset or frustrated because there’s no expectation to win, just lose, and the Giants are as good at losing as any team in the league. Now with seven straight losses, the Giants currently hold the No. 3 pick in the 2020 draft. It’s about as good of a scenario as you can ask for for your team to be in when you know they aren’t going to the playoffs anyway and when they stopped playing meaningful games six weeks ago.
(Home team in caps)
Chicago -3.5 over DETROIT The Bears did everything they could to lose to the Giants and they still won. That’s how bad these Giants are. The networks keep including the Bears in the “In the Hunt” graphic when displaying the current playoff picture, but they couldn’t be less in the hunt at three games out with five games to play. They might be able to pick up a game this week with a win over the Lions, who have lost seven of eight, and the Vikings in Seattle, but picking up another two over the last month is going to be nearly impossible. The Bears are finished. Now they have to figure out who is going to play quarterback for them in 2020.
DALLAS -6.5 over Buffalo The Cowboys had a chance to upset the Patriots in Week 12 and take a 1 1/2-game lead in the NFC East. Instead, they lost because they’re the Cowboys and the Patriots are the Patriots and now they are more than likely going to lose the NFC East given their schedule and the Eagles’ schedule. If the Giants have to suck, the next-best thing is the Cowboys sucking, and they do. They will get their Thanksgiving win, but then the downward spiral will begin.
ATLANTA -7 over New Orleans Last week, the Saints blew a two-touchdown lead to the Panthers and needed a missed chip shot to have a chance to win the game in the final seconds. Two weeks before that, they were blown out by a one-win Falcons team in the Superdome. The Saints are trending in the wrong direction like they were at this time last season. The Falcons might be awful and battling for draft position, but I’m sure they would also like to take away New Orleans’ first-round bye as one last hurrah before the entire Falcons’ coaching staff is fired.
BALTIMORE -6 over San Francisco I normally like to pick against the team that has to make the cross-country flight, but I don’t like to give six points in a game between two of the league’s top teams. In this game, I have to given how much the 49ers rely on their defense for offensive support and how little the Ravens’ offense cares about the opposing defense.
CAROLINA -10 over Washington Had the Panthers moved away from Cam Newton prior to the start of the season, they would still be in the playoff picture and battling for a wild-card berth. Instead, they will have to settle for a .500-ish season and experience and growth for their young quarterback.
New York Jets -3.5 over CINCINNATI The Bengals have a two-game lead on the No. 1 pick with five weeks to go. It would be a major upset if they were to pick anywhere other than first this spring and the only way that upset could happen is if they were to win a few games. The Jets, on the other hand, are in the middle of putting together an unnecessary winning streak which will only give their fans the idea that they can somehow win out and sneak into the playoffs at the No. 6 seed. All the Jets are doing is moving themselves down in the draft yet again. Mediocrity at its finest.
INDIANAPOLIS -2.5 over Tennessee The Texans will lose to the Patriots this week and that will be their fifth loss. The Colts and Titans both have five losses, so whichever teams win this game will be tied record-wise with the Texans for the division lead with four games to play.
JACKSONVILLE -1 over Tampa Bay Two 4-7 teams playing a meaningless game. Give me the home team and the better defense. The much better defense.
Philadelphia -9 over MIAMI The Cowboys’ expected loss to the Patriots kept the Eagles within one game of the Cowboys with five games to play. The Cowboys have the Bills, Bears, Rams, Eagles and Redskins remaining while the Eagles have the Dolphins, Giants, Redskins, Cowboys and Giants again. The Eagles are going to win the division if they can beat the Cowboys at home in Week 16 and they might win it anyway with this cupcake schedule. Then Jason Garrett will be fired, and I will have to spend the early days of 2020 worrying about the Giants hiring him.
Green Bay -6.5 over NEW YORK GIANTS This line is surprisingly low because of the Week 12 scores. But don’t let those scores fool you. The Packers are still a good team and the Giants are a joke.
Cleveland -2 over PITTSBURGH A three-game winning streak has the Browns back in the playoff picture, sitting one game out of the No. 6 seed. That 6-seed? The Steelers. Neither of these teams are any good and whichever AFC team wins the 6-seed and has to go to Arrowhead is going to get blown out anyway. But what I’m rooting for here is for the Browns to continue to their run and then fall short of the playoffs in the final week or two of the season.
Los Angeles Rams -3 over ARIZONA A year after the Rams went to the Super Bowl thanks to a non-pass interference call and then proved they didn’t belong in the Super Bowl once there, they are going to miss the playoffs completely unless they’re able to run the table over the last five weeks or at worst go 4-1. Their schedule: at Arizona, Seattle, at Dallas, at San Francisco, Arizona. It’s going to be a difficult task, but it’s doable.
KANSAS CITY -10 over Oakland The Chiefs aren’t going to have home-field advantage in the second round of the playoffs or the AFC Championship Game, so they’re once again not going to the Super Bowl. Last season, they couldn’t win the AFC with home-field advantage in the AFC Championship Game and they had a much better team. But the Chiefs still have to win to hold on to their one-game division lead over the Raiders and at least keep their home game for Wild-Card Weekend.
Los Angeles Chargers -2.5 over DENVER All season I waited for the Chargers from last season to emerge and all season they just kept losing. Now with seven losses, it would take an absolute miracle for them to reach the postseason. Instead of the “Chargers are a contender” storyline from this time last season, the new narrative is “What should the Chargers do with Philip Rivers?”
New England -3 over HOUSTON The Patriots always beat the Texans. That’s not going to change anytime soon.
SEATTLE -3 over Minnesota I made the mistake last season of picking Kirk Cousins to lead the Vikings to a win in Seattle. I’m not going to make that same mistake again.
The regular season is more than halfway over and there’s not a lot of time to get the picks back on track. This week is all about simplifying things.
When I look back at my picks at the end of each week, I have no idea why I picked the way I did on multiple games. It’s a tradition like no other. No matter how much I try to simplify things, I’m still left questioning myself each week.
I shouldn’t have picked the 49ers to cover 10 on a short week on the road.
I should have listened to myself and my lack of trust for Kirk Cousins even if the Vikings were facing a backup quarterback.
I should have known the Jets would lose to Ryan Fitzpatrick and the winless Dolphins.
I should have recognized the Browns facing a rookie quarterback making his first NFL start wouldn’t suddenly make them not the Browns.
I should have followed my belief that the Chargers aren’t as bad their record and are the same team that went to the divisional round last year, especially at home.
I should have followed the easy storyline that the Patriots always struggle against the Ravens.
These were very avoidable mistakes, but they were mistakes nonetheless, and instead of starting to dig myself out of my under-.500 hole I dug further in the wrong direction. This week is about simplifying things. I need to treat each NFL week as the one-week season it should be treated as. I need to get back to the basics and put together a winning week. It’s already Week 10 and time is running is out to get back to respectability.
(Home team in caps)
Los Angeles -1 over OAKLAND I don’t think the Raiders are any good, no matter how many times they have screwed me this season. I do think the Chargers are good, no matter how many times they have screwed me this season. If the Chargers are going to return to the playoffs, they have to win this game. If they lose, they will be three games back in the loss column to the Chiefs for the division and three games back in the loss column for the second wild-card spot.
CHICAGO -2.5 over Detroit The Bears don’t deserve to make the playoffs, and they won’t. But it wouldn’t be a Bears season if they didn’t provide their fan base with an abundance of heartache. The four straight losses, 3-5 start and current last-place standing in the NFC North isn’t the type of heartache I’m talking about. I’m talking about doing enough to get back into the postseason picture in the NFC and then fall short in the final weeks of the season.
Baltimore -10 over CINCINNATI The Dolphins foolishly beating the Jets and going from having the first overall pick to the fourth at the end of the game led to a sideline celebration in Miami and Brian Flores getting drenched in Gatorade. But the real celebration was happening in Cincinnati where I like to think the Bengals front office was dumping Gatorade on each other following the Dolphins’ win. The Bengals are now the only remaining winless team in the league and control their own destiny to securing the first overall pick in the draft and having a chance to draft Tua Tagovailoa and change the future of their franchise. Let’s see how the Bengals handle their chance with the No. 1 pick.
Buffalo +2.5 over CLEVELAND The Browns are favored. The 2-6 Browns are favored to beat the 6-2 Bills. I had to check the line three times to make sure I was reading it right, and I am. The Browns are the favorites. It’s been very enjoyable watching the Browns be every bit as bad as the Giants and watching Odell Beckham once again be part of a losing team in a lost season. Beckham has become an afterthought in Cleveland with 575 yards and one touchdown through eight games. And while he might still eclipse the 1,000-yard mark, 1,000 yards for him was always a given. Like a band that once sold out stadiums and areanas and has been resigned to playing college campuses and small clubs, Beckham is no longer who he was a Giant. The non-performance stories like him wearing a watch during games or needing to change his cleats at halftime are now all anyone talks about with him because there’s no on-field performance or moments worth talking about.
NEW ORLEANS -12.5 over Atlanta There’s going to be a lot of cardboard boxes being packed in the Falcons’ offices in a few weeks. It should have happened the second the team blew the 25-point, second-half lead in the Super Bowl, and because it didn’t, it’s hard to feel sorry for the Falcons for their performance these last three seasons.
New York Giants -2 over NEW YORK JETS The Embarrassment Bowl. If the Giants win, they improve to 3-7 and the Jets fall to 1-8. If the Jets win, they improve to 2-7 and the Giants fall to 2-8. Even though there’s going to be a winner (though a tie would be a perfect result for this game), there’s no winner in this team. Both teams are losers, led by losers.
TAMPA BAY -4 over Arizona The Buccaneers are the best 2-6 team in the league. I don’t know that a 2-6 team can be the best anything, but I do feel like the Buccaneers are better than their record, even if Bill Parcells would disagree. The Cardinals franchise is historically bad when it leaves its time zone and dome and has to play on the East Coast and outside, even if that outside is in sunny Florida. This logic led me to pick against the Cardinals when they played at MetLife against the Giants even though it didn’t work out. Bruce Arians isn’t Shurmur and it will work out in this instance.
Kansas City -5.5 over TENNESSEE I’m picking the Chiefs under the assumption that Patrick Mahomes is going to play. If Mahomes weren’t going to play, I would still pick the Chiefs.
INDIANAPOLIS -10.5 over Miami The Dolphins did everyone who wants to tease the Colts this week a favor by beating the Jets last week. Had the Dolphins lost again, this line would have probably been at least two touchdowns. Instead, it’s a reasonable six- or seven-point tease.
Carolina +5 over GREEN BAY I think the quarterback controversy in Carolina was over before there ever got to be one. Cam Newton seems to be done for the season, and even if he he weren’t, how could the Panthers start him over Kyle Allen? Newton has most certainly played his final game for the Panthers, and that idea will become more and more real if the Panthers keep on winning.
Los Angeles Rams -3.5 over PITTSBURGH The Rams have gotten back on track after their unexpected three-game losing streak. Even if they got back on track at the expense against a bad Falcons team and a league-worst Bengals team, they still got back on track. With a congested NFC playoff picture, the Rams can’t afford another letdown against a truly inferior opponent like the one they had against the Buccaneers, and I don’t think they will have another one.
Minnesota +3 over DALLAS There isn’t a combination of two “good” teams I trust less. The only “good” win either of these teams has is over the Eagles and that’s not saying much given how the Eagles have performed in the first half of the season. I fully expect Kirk Cousins to screw this game up the way he screws up nearly every game for the Vikings, but the Vikings are the better, more complete team in this matchup and when the better, more complete team is getting three points, you take them.
Seattle +6 over SAN FRANCISCO It’s the head coach who OK’d a pass on the goal line in the Super Bowl despite having the best running back in the league on his team against the now-head coach who was the offensive coordinator for a 25-point blown lead in the Super Bowl. If only Dan Quinn could somehow be part of this game. He probably will have the chance to be next season when he’s looking for a coordinator job after he’s finally fired by the Falcons. Six points in a divisional matchup with the division essentially on the line is way too many.
The season has become a one-month season at best for the Giants for all but one of the last seven years. Combine the Giants’ losing with a 5-10 picks week like last week and I wonder why I even watch this sport.
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.
Unfortunately, it’s going to be a long, uneventful, meaningless final two-plus months of the season once again.
The Yankees’ season is over and the Giants certainly aren’t going to carry me through the holidays. That means the Rangers, who have lost five straight since back-to-back wins to open the season, are going to have to pick up the slack of the Giants yet again to make the winter less miserable. It’s not exactly a great position to be in as a sports fan.
Things could be worse. There are plenty of fans who don’t have the luxury of being a fan of the most successful franchise in the history of professional sports, and who have losers across the board in all of the major sports. Thankfully, I have the Yankees because with the Rangers in the middle of a rebuild, though one with a lot of promise, it’s still a rebuild, and with the Giants looking like they are several years away from competing, let alone contending, the Yankees at least provide winning regular seasons and lengthy postseasons even when they fall short of a championship.
The Giants are headed for another losing season and what will be their sixth in the last seven years. They’re most likely a five-win team for the second straight year and headed for a Top 6 pick in the draft for a third straight year. Forget trying to reach the postseason this year, changing the losing culture that has grown on this franchise over the last seven years should be the goal. And the only way that goal can be achieved is by Daniel Jones getting game experience, the young defense showing progress and Pat Shurmur not being the head coach after this season. That’s all that’s left in this Giants season. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a long, uneventful, meaningless final two-plus months of the season once again.
***
(Home team in caps)
MINNESOTA -16.5 over Washington You’re never supposed to take the side of needing to cover a three-score game in the NFL. But I think that old rule goes out the window when you’re dealing with some of the teams we’re dealing with in 2019 like these Redskins and the Dolphins. Maybe the Vikings don’t go cover and I start the week with a loss. I’d rather accept that than taking the Redskins only to see them have trouble moving the ball over the 50 once again.
LOS ANGELES RAMS -13 over Cincinnati Last week I wrote: What’s the best cure for a three-game losing streak? A game against the Falcons. It was indeed the best cure for the Rams’ rough patch. The Rams won by 27 points on the road to get back in the win column for the first time since Week 3 and now they welcome a winless Bengals team before their bye week. This one is going to get out of hand.
ATLANTA +6.5 over Seattle I don’t believe in these Seahawks and I certainly don’t trust them. Sure, I trust the Falcons even less than the Seahawks and less than any team not from Miami, Washington D.C. or Cincinnati, but with the Falcons on the brink of tearing their entire franchise apart and starting over, I feel like they will finally deliver an adequate performance. If they can’t … start the demolition, and start it with Dan Quinn, even if it’s nearly three years late.
BUFFALO -1.5 over Philadelphia The Eagles suck. Congratulations, they overcame an early 17-point deficit to beat the Redskins in Week 1, beat the Jets with their third-string quarterback and somehow pulled off a win on the road against the Packers. Their losses, a loss in Atlanta, which is the Falcons’ only win, a loss at home to the Lions, an 18-point rout at the hands of the Vikings and an embarrassing 37-10 blowout in Dallas far outweigh their one good win, and while they might make the playoffs because they play in the worst division in the league, it doesn’t change the fact that they suck, and teams that suck generally lose to good teams.
LOS ANGELES CHARGERS -3.5 over Chicago Like the Eagles, the Bears suck. Two franchises who went into the season with Super Bowl aspirations couldn’t be farther from looking like contenders as we near the halfway point. I don’t know what it will take for the Bears to realize Mitch Trubisky isn’t a starting quarterback, but unfortunately, it’s most likely going to take a mediocre season and a free-agent signing or trade. The Bears’ defense might be the best in football, but when it’s on the field for the majority of games, only getting a break on the Bears’ three-and-outs, it won’t be able to sustain its performance all season.
DETROIT -6.5 over New York Giants I’m done picking the Giants to cover for the rest of the season aside from their games against the Dolphins and Redskins. What I watched last week was the worst Giants performance of the Pat Shurmur era and one of the worst I have seen in my life, and when you lose as much as the Giants have in recent years, that’s saying something. This team will continue to lose as long as Shurmur is head coach and against the league’s better teams, like the Lions, they will lose big.
New York Jets +6.5 over JACKSONVILLE The Jets are a joke. J-O-K-E, JOKE, JOKE, JOKE! I thought they could cover against the Patriots last week, keep the score close and possibly even pull off an upset win. What a fool I was. Sam Darnold played what better be the worst game of his career as he completed just 11 of 32 passes for 86 yards with four interceptions and one lost fumble in the 33-0 loss and the Jets never had a chance. For as bad as the Jets were last week, I still think they will rebound, go on a run and reel their fans back in. If they can upset the Jaguars, they have the Dolphins, Giants, Redskins, Raiders, Bengals and Dolphins again to follow. The Jets will be part of the postseason picture at the beginning of December. Then they will inevitably let their fans down again.
NEW ORLEANS -10.5 over Arizona The Saints are 5-0 with Teddy Bridgewater as their starting quarterback. 5-0! And that’s not an empty 5-0, that’s five wins against the Seahawks, Cowboys, Buccaneers, Jaguars and Bears. There’s been no cupcake games against the Giants, Redskins, Bengals or Dolphins. Bridgewater continues to add to his future earnings when he gets a chance to be full-time starter in the league and the Saints continue to let Drew Brees sit out and get completely healthy for the second half of the season. A Saints-Patriots Super Bowl is going to happen.
Tampa Bay +2.5 over TENNESSEE A Ryan Tannehill-led Titans team pulled off a nice home win against the Chargers last week after the Chargers couldn’t get into the end zone in the final minute from the 1. Even with the Titans’ defense being as good as it is, the Titans are still starting Tannehill. One miracle win isn’t going to rewrite his career.
INDIANAPOLIS -5.5 over Denver I have been a Colts believer all season. I still have no idea what happened at home against the Raiders in Week 4, but I’m going to count that as an anomaly and just a weird game in a league built on weird games. Since that unacceptable loss, the Colts have gone on to win at Arrowhead, where no team wins, and beat the Texans at home by a touchdown. The Colts are for real. Not “for real” as in they can win the AFC since the Patriots are going to win the AFC, but “for real” as in they can reach the playoffs for a second straight year even though their franchise quarterback retired and then lose in the first or second round.
Carolina +5.5 over SAN FRANCISCO I’m a Kyle Allen fan because I love quarterback controversies and I especially love a quarterback controversy that leads to Cam Newton not being a starting quarterback. Newton can sit out as long as he wants and the Panthers can keep his injury status unclear for as long as they want, but everyone knows it’s only a stalling tactic, so that their once-franchise quarterback isn’t benched even though he deserves to be.
NEW ENGLAND -12.5 over Cleveland I’m sure the Browns think they were able to tread water at 2-4 prior to their bye week and now that they’re well rested they can go on a run and live up to the hype that was wrongfully created for them prior to the season. The only problem with that is you never want to come out of your bye needing to desperately win a game and have to go to New England to do so. The Browns will be 2-5 after Sunday and then have to go to Denver and then play the Bills. Their season is over.
Oakland +7 over HOUSTON I can’t believe I’m picking the Raiders to cover. But in a battle of teams, and mostly coaches, who can’t be trusted, taking a touchdown with a team coming out of their bye is the smart thing to do.
Green Bay -3.5 over KANSAS CITY If Patrick Mahomes were playing, this game would be a lot more interesting and give people a reason to stay up for Sunday Night Football and be tired for work on Monday morning. Unfortunately, he’s not.
PITTSBURGH -13.5 over Miami I won’t be picking the Dolphins to cover for the rest of this season. Well, maybe against the Giants in Week 15, but that’s it.
