Last week (3-5) was ugly. I’m no longer allowed to refer to them as locks until I get back up to .500.
The Vikings are on a bye week. Good news. They can’t lose. Let’s move on…
Starting with the Thursday night game, the Giants travel to Philadelphia to play the Eagles. Both teams are bad, their division is awful, and it’s a Thursday nighter. All the elements for an awful game that I won’t be watching. The Eagles are underachieving once again, just like the last two years, but they’ll get a few victories here and there and be fighting for first in the worst division in football again at season’s end. They may only have 5 or 6 wins going into the last couple weeks. How are they going to get those wins? By beating the teams everyone should. Teams like the Giants, the Washington’s, etc. Their coach still plays the right way when it comes to aggressiveness and analytics. Their Defensive Coordinator has been nothing but egomaniacal his entire coaching career. The stubborn, boyish, king-of-the-hill traits both these coaches possess have been known to burn them. They’ve also produced a win in the super bowl against the game’s most dominant franchise of the past 20 years. I look for that bully mentality to net them a couple of turnovers, against a quarterback who has never really shown anything except for exactly who he is, tonight. I’ll take the Eagles -4.5.
The Cowboys are in the EXACT same situation as the Eagles, minus the coaching staff comparisons. Their coaches are awful, but it’s Washington and it’s 1 point. Give me the Cowboys -1 this week.
The Raiders play the Bucs Sunday night, In a Gruden vs Gruden vs Gruden. I’d like to say I like Gruden’s team here but I don’t. I don’t like the Bucs either. I like that neither one of these defenses are good and both teams like to score. Give me over 52 points Bucs vs Raiders Sunday night.
The Falcons defense thinks they found their identity last week. They didn’t. They just played Kirk Cousins and the Vikings. That’ll cure anyone’s illness on the right week. The lions, despite all their shortcomings for 60 years, have a real NFL quarterback on their roster who can dart it out with anyone. I like a ton of points in this game. Give me the Falcons-Lions going over 55.5 total points.
I’ll take the Panthers to hang in there against the Saints and cover the 7.5
I’ll take the Chiefs to bury the Broncos (-9.5)
And I’ll take the Chargers–Jaguars game to go over 49 total points. (Maybe by halftime)
Bonus Picks: Browns -3 over the Bengals and Rams (-6.0) over the Bears.
***SEASON RECORD***: 12-14 (2-5 on Viking’s picks)
