Well, week 9 of the NFL season is upon us and there are not that many exciting games this weekend, basically 3 that catch my attention besides the Thursday night game that features my horrible Chargers.
Norv logic – #FireNorv
The Monday night game featuring the Eagles going into the Big Easy to take on the Saints is really intriguing for many reasons. Mainly, both teams have been pretty big busts this season, the Saints at 2-5 and the Eagles at 3-4; while the record would make you think the Saints are a worse team I think it actually is Philly who is in more trouble.
I expected New Orleans to be a couple of steps lower than last season due to all the offseason mess and the loss of Sean Payton, so a losing season is not that much of a surprise. The Eagles I expected to be much better as they would finally put the pieces together and make the so-called All Star team work, that has not been the case. Vick has been his usual horrible self, with a ton of turnovers, the defense has been horrible, they have no running game even with McCoy -who should be the most important part of the offense- being a non factor, add to this mix a coach that has lost control of the team and is in his 14th year with the team, and you have a recipe for disaster. It is a interesting game since both teams have a lot of talent and are in desperate need for a win, sports books are a 3.5 point favorites and I expect them to cover it. My pick: New Orleans, 31-17.
The second game that catches my eye is the Steelers at the Giants. At 6-2 the Giants are one of the strongest teams in the league while the Steelers started out slow but have been picking up steam the last couple of games. Pittsburgh has been getting healthy and I’m looking for them to go on one of those 7-1 runs in their remaining 8 games since they have a not to hard schedule. The Giants are one of those teams that always flies under the radar even with a couple of titles in the recent past.
The home team is a 3 point favorite and this is a hard one to call. NY showed lots of weaknesses last sunday vs Dallas by letting the Cowboys come back from down 0-23 to almost win the game; sure it was just one week but you can see they have some holes. The Steelers are rolling and will continue to play great football. My wildcard for this game is how G-Men react to the Hurricane thing in the East Coast, I believe lots of them were affected, maybe practices were disrupted, I also believe that the emotion at Met Life Stadium will be a big factor come Sunday afternoon since it will be one of the 1st events since the hurricane hit; thus I got the Giants taking it. My pick: Giants 24-21
The game of the week is without a doubt the Cowboys traveling to Atlanta to take on the undefeated Falcons. The Cowboys usually put on pretty entertaining games, in some cases entertaining due to the fact that Tony Romo finds new and cool ways to mess up, in others -like last weekends second half- because they have an explosive and dynamic offense. On the other hand the Falcons are back home after spanking the Eagles in Philly in what probably was their best game of the year; Matt Ryan -or the Mattural as @RichEisen now calls him- is your 1st half offensive MVP, he is just playing head and shoulders above everyone else. Yes he may be 3rd in TDs and Passer Rating, 8th in Yards thrown but his game management and leadership have been superb.
So we have the Falcons a 4 point favorite with a 47 point over/under line. The over I’m not totally sold on it since I’m not sure which Romo will show up on Sunday, but I expect the Falcons to take it by at least a touchdown. My pick: Atlanta 30-21
The rest of the games are (bold for the winner taking in account the spread):
- Chiefs at Chargers -8
- Broncos -3 at Bengals
- Ravens -3.5 at Browns
- Cardinals at Packers -11
- Bears -3.5 at Titans
- Dolphins at Colts +2.5
- Panthers +3 at Redskins
- Lions -3.5 at Jaguars
- Bills at Texans -10
- Bucs +1.5 at Raiders
- Vikings +5 at Seahawks
The Playpen 