Game(s) I Love:
Denver Broncos. The injury to Willis Mcgahee (he was put in IR) isn’t as big of a blow as it sounds; if he didn’t get hurt I expect Ronnie Hillman to get more snaps and carries the rest of the year; it has taking me awhile to buy-in into the Broncos, but they’re an elite team and should smash the Chiefs
Upset Special(s):
St. Louis Rams. This has to do with how bad the Cardinals offense and Ryan Lindley looked last week; it’s not all Lindley’s fault, his offensive line stinks; if Danny Amendola doesn’t play my confidence in the Rams goes down, but all indications say he’s in like flynn;
Quick Hits:
Oakland at Cincinnati . Eight points is a lot of points for an average team like the Bengals; this is a game I would not touch because both of these teams are bi-polar; some weeks the Raiders defensive line looks like a top 10 defensive line or sometimes they get bulldozed over like the trees in our national forests; at the end of the day I believe Palmer throws an INT that costs them game
Pittsburgh at Cleveland. The Browns has played everyone tough this year; seriously, they really have; at the end of the day I trust Brandon Weeden and Trent Richardson more than Charlie Batch and the Steeler running backs;
Buffalo at Indianapolis. This game gave me a lot of pause but I came to my ultimate conclusion based upon which defense has looked the best recently; the Bills defense looked really good last week (prior to that they looked worse than the Colts defense) so based on that I gave the Bills the edge; if Fred Jackson was not playing I would have the Bills in my Upset Specials, but the more plays CJ Spiller is not on the field, the less likely the Bills will win
Tennessee at Jacksonville. This is purely a gut call on how well Chad Henne looked against the Texans last week; I don’t believe Henne is that good, but after watching the tape I couldn’t help but wonder how good the Jaguars could have been if they had a decent quarterback like Henne the entire season;
Minnesota at Chicago. Last week I hugely overrated the Bears; I believed there wouldn’t be that much of a drop off between Jay Cutler and Jason Campbell, but I was wrong; Campbell holds the ball for too long (at times) which causes him to get sacked; now this would be true with most teams, but since the Bears offensive line is really bad Campbell not getting the ball out quickly on exacerbates the situation; Briand Robison and Jared Allen have to be licking their chops after watching the Bears tape
Atlanta at Tampa Bay. I’m still not believer in Josh Freeman; the fact he’s behind a really good running back makes him look better than he really is; Matt Ryan has played poorly the past 4 weeks so Falcon fans should be a little worried;
Seattle at Miami. Most weeks I would bet against Seattle on the road, especially traveling to the East Coast for a 10 AM PST game; however, Seattle had a bye last week so the travel should be a moot point; at the end of the day I trust Seattle’s defense a lot more than Miami’s
Baltimore at San Diego. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chargers win here, but if I was betting on this game I wouldn’t feel confident in Philip Rivers; it seems like every week he finds a way to make a play that causes his team to lose
San Francisco at New Orleans. All signs are pointing to Colin Kapernick getting the start; if Kapernick does start I like this game a lot more; I am concerned how the 49er defense is going to stop Drew Brees; the biggest hole in the 49er defense is their pass defense; I forecast a heavy day of Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter to eat up as much clock as possible to keep the Saints offense on the bench
Green Bay at New York Giants. The Giants are at home, but I don’t know why they’re favored by this much; Eli Manning could still have shoulder problems, which could be the reason why he has played poorly the past 4 weeks; Jordy Nelson is not on the injury report and the Packers may have found their starting running in James Starks, who looked really good last week
Carolina at Philadelphia. Nick Foles looked awful again; I will say he didn’t get a lot of help from his supporting cast as there were a passes that should have been caught; some have said the Eagles defense quit last week, but I didn’t see that; I saw a defense that wasn’t very good; Cam Newton hasn’t looked very good the past two weeks, BUT the Panthers defense is showing signs of life and have played under the rader
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