Weekly NFL Related Humiliation, Week 02, The Picks

It's week two, we've gotten to see each team play against real competition, and a few teams have come out well, others look a lot worse than expected. Once again, picking the five games scheduled to be shown in the Los Angeles TV market, so that way I can watch as my humiliation unfolds. This week, it really sucks to be in the Los Angeles Market. CBS is showing nothing but AFC West teams, and the lone FOX game isn't much better. At least Monday night's game ought to be good.

Oakland at Kansas City (-3.5), my pick Kansas City -3.5
What vile nonsense is this? Can someone please explain to CBS that the Raiders are no longer in Los Angeles, and other than a few pockets of criminally insane folks (or just plain criminals), nobody wants to see the truly awful 2008 vintage Raiders stink up their TV screens. The Chiefs aren't much better, but they're at least a TD at home better than the Raiders at the moment, so this should be an easy victory for a lousy Chiefs team.

NY Giants at St. Louis (+8.5), my pick NYG -8.5
What vile nonsense is this? Can someone please explain to FOX that the Rams are no longer in Los Angeles, and other than, wait, I can't copy the rest of the above rant, cause I doubt there are any Rams fans left in Los Angeles, the Raiders still have a few fans, if only cause they like to play dress up and wear black, but the Rams are hopeless, and can't imagine anyone outside of St. Louis caring about them this season. I suppose this game is being televised cause it's got the defending Superbowl champs in it, but they still look like chumps to me this season, but they're not as big of a bunch of chumps as the Rams, so they should be able to cover, even against a big 8.5 point spread on the road.

San Diego at Denver (Even), my pick San Diego Even
Denver looked great on the road, and San Diego stumbled at home in their openers, but that was then, this is now. Denver gets a short week, with travel, while San Diego missed a bunch of scoring opportunities and should play better against a division rival. San Diego ought to be able to win this prett easily, Denver's defense is vulnerable, they just didn't look like it since Oakland failed to take advantage. Denver's offense also isn't very good if you can pressure Cutler, and even with Merriman out, San Diego's defense ought to be able to cause him trouble. Not a complete rout, but I don't expect this to be too close, either.

Pittsburgh at Cleveland (+6.0), my pick Cleveland +6.0
Cleveland are nearly a TD underdog at home against a Pittsburgh team that looked very good opening week. The smart play is to expect Cleveland to lose big again at home two weeks in a row, but luckily I'm not smart (when it comes to football picks). I have a feeling that Pittsburgh will have a bit of a letdown, Cleveland will pick things up, and bounce back from being manhandled by Dallas. Pittsburgh is a good team, but not as good as Dallas, and Cleveland isn't a bad team, so I expect them to make this a contest. Not sure that they'll win, but I don't see them losing by more than a field goal, so I'm going with the home team in Sunday night's contest.

Philadelphia at Dallas (-7.0), my pick Dallas -7.0
It'd be easy to go with the Eagles given the lopsided spread. The Eagles are too good of a team to be TD underdogs, even on the road. But Dallas looks really good, and even though Philly does, too, I think Dallas will be in control of this game, and this won't end up being a particularly close game. Dallas will have something to prove in this game and want to send a message, so I expect them to keep up the pressure on both sides of the ball. The Eagles have plenty of talent on offense and defense as well, but I think they'll still get overpowered by Dallas.

So, if I were in charge of NFL programming for CBS and FOX in the Los Angeles market, I'd have picked three different games. For CBS I'd have gone with Buffalo at Jacksonville in the early game, and New England at NY Jets for the late game. Those look more compelling than the AFC West matchups they're scheduling instead, and should be more competitive, plus the Brady-less Pats versus the Favre-ful Jets will be the dominate story line on ESPN Sunday night, so it'd have been nice to have that game televised instead of a ho-hum division game between SD and Denver. As far as Fox goes, New Orleans at Washington looks like a much more watchable pairing than NYG at St. Louis, but instead of seeing if the Saints can keep things going, or if the Skins can get their offense going after sucking against the NYG, we get to watch the Giants pound a very weak Rams team. I'd rather watch a competitive game instead of a slaughter, even if it's the Superbowl champs doing the slaughtering. I don't care what you did last year, I want to see the closest, best played games each week, not the games that happen to have a team that was good last year, or used to play in Los Angeles, or happen to play their home game in Southern California.

Unfortunately, CBS and Fox don't see things my way, so we get the matchups we get, and can either watch or not watch (I'll be in the not-watching category during the day Sunday).