Weekly NFL Related Humiliation: Week 1, The Picks

Trying something a bit different, first, the teams picked are the TV games in LA like before (most weeks there are 5 games, so I'm skipping SD at Oakland), but I'll just write a group encapsulation for my picks rather than individually. Here's a link to Bill Simmons column, his picks are the BS picks in parentheses next to mine. Home teams in ALL CAPS.

Dallas -6 over TAMPA BAY (BS: Dal -6)
Washington +6.5 over NY GIANTS (BS: Was +6.5)
TEXANS -4.5 over NY Jets (BS: NYJ +4.5)
Chicago +3.5 over GREEN BAY (BS: GB -3.5)
NEW ENGLAND -10.5 over Buffalo (BS: NE -10.5)

It's football time, if I can get a super cheap room for Saturday and Sunday night, I may run off to Sin City to have some legally sanctioned gaming action on these contests. As mentioned by BS, Tampa and Buffalo fired their offensive coordinators within the past 10 days. Not a good sign for them, Dallas would normally be a risky pick as a near TD favorite on the road, but the Bucs are in disarray. The Pats are going to want to prove that they are the team to beat, so expect them to wallop their division rival Bills on Monday night. I just don't trust the Giants, so I'm going with the Redskins, even though they have lots of question marks, too. The Jets are starting rookie Mark Sanchez against a formidable Texans defense, that game could get ugly for the Jets. That leaves the big game of the week that wasn't on a Thursday night. Sunday night's Bears at Packers contest should answer a lot of questions, or at least as many questions as can be answered in the first week. What's not to like about that Bears defense wedded to an offense with a legitimate QB? That's enough for me, but Green Bay might screw up this pick by being as good as they looked during the pre-season. Rodgers might be the best QB in the NFC, and if the Packers defense improves over last year's performance, they're a threat to do some damage when the games really count in January and February. I'm going with the Bears this week, but I wouldn't be surprised if Green Bay plays well.

That's it for week one picks, it's always fun to have the NFL back playing games that count. Thursday game was low scoring, but entertaining. Hopefully all this week's games will provide as much excitement.