Weekly NFL Related Humiliation, Week 04, The Picks

Week 04, already, 6 teams have byes, most of the match-ups suck, and once again the Oakland Raiders on local air, at least the Rams aren't.

Green Bay (2-1) at Tampa Bay (2-1), my pick Green Bay +1.5
I don't trust Tampa to win this one at home. Green Bay's main weakness is a banged up secondary, and I don't think Griese is the QB to take advantage of that, so if you have a team with a glaring weakness being opposed by a team without strength in that same area, advantage to the team that otherwise doesn't have any big deficiencies.

San Diego (1-2) at Oakland (1-2), my pick San Diego -7.5
San Diego's defense has been pathetic, but their offense is fearsome. Oakland is Oakland, and they've played well the pst two weeks, but they just aren't that good while the Chargers still look like a serious playoff threat. San Diego ought to be able to run up the score on a young Raiders squad in Al Davis v Lane Kiffin induced turmoil.

Washington (2-1) at Dallas (3-0), my pick Washington +10.5
Dallas has been rolling, and while Washington is 2-1, they haven't been that impressive looking getting there. So why pick the Skins? 10 points is too much to give up, I think the Cowboys will win, but they won't run wild over Washington. I think this will be a more defense oriented game than expected and the Skins will keep the score low, I expect a 23-17 like game, nothing fancy, a W for Dallas in the standings and a W for Washington against the spread, everybody's happy (except for fantasy football freaks who were expecting Romo, Barber and Owens to put up huge numbers).

Philadelphia (2-1) at Chicago (1-2), my pick Chicago +3.0
I still think Philadelphia is the 2nd best team in the NFL at the moment, but being good doesn't always win games. The Bears defense matches up well with the Eagles offense, and even though Da Bears are toothless on offense, a few scores on defense will make up the difference. Also, Matt Forte is going to run wild in his first Sunday Night appearance (notice how I parsed that, I know Chicago played in the opener, but I still don't like the idea of the season starting on Thursdays, also, how is it that Chicago has already been on NBC's Primetime NFL schedule twice?)

Baltimore (2-0) at Pittsburgh (2-1), Baltimore +5.0
Baltimore got an unexpected early bye week due to Ike. If they beat Pittsburgh they'll already be 3-0 in the AFC North. I think after the beating they took in Philadelphia that the Steelers (and more importantly, Roethlisberger) haven't fully recovered and are going to take another big time beating from the big time Baltimore defense. It won't be pretty to watch, but Baltimore's defense will be effective, and their offense will keep from making any mistakes, that ought to be enough to swing this game the Ravens' way.

Other than Oakland, I'm betting on every underdog this week. We'll see how that goes for me. Might be a good Sunday to do something other than watch football all day, none of the four games on local TV Sunday look all that exciting, three probably be will be close, but I don't expect them to be entertaining. If you watch, enjoy, and if you don't watch, enjoy the first Sunday of Autumn, and for The Chosen amongst you, on Monday have a Happy New Year 5769!