Steelers 23 - Titans 26:
- I didn't watch the whole game here but Pittsburgh was really missing their key players on defense and based on some metrics I had read about last week they were soft up the middle. I wasn't sure if Chris Johnson and the Titans would be able to take advantage of it but certainly they were ripe for the picking. Johnson got 91 yards on 19 carries and Hasselbeck played pretty well and distributed the targets pretty evenly.
- The Steelers just had wayy too many injuries at offensive line and running back and couldn't get over them. Big Ben is agile in the pocket but they were down to their last thread on the line.
Cowboys 29 - Ravens 31:
- I'm not a Dez Bryant apologist but it seems like the Cowboys went into this game with a concerted effort to get him going and he responded in a big way. He definitely should've caught that 2-pt conversion, however. Mental mistakes have always been his achilles heel.
- Ravens losing Ray Lewis and Ladarius Webb is a huge blow - Webb more so than Lewis as far as on-field play is concerned. Lewis brought amazing leadership to the table but his play, especially against the run, had been slipping so far this season anyways. Webb, on the other hand, was playing pro-bowl ball before the injury - that will be tough to get over given how bad Cary Williams has been. Jimmy Smith will have to step up.
Bengals 24 - Browns 34:
- I had a feeling that the Browns were going to pull this one out despite their atrocious division record. Joe Haden helped this defense out big time and Weeden is developing nice chemistry with Josh Gordon. If Gordon can become a more consistent route runner, it will go a long way in developing Weeden as a passer.
Lions 26 - Eagles 23:
- Vick is too inconsistent a quarterback to hang your hat on as a franchise guy. He's extremely talented, which has always been the allure with him, but when it comes down to it he simply is not the type of player that can consistently put your offense in a position to win. When he does well, he's unstoppable. But there are probably more ugly games than you can stomach and I think the wheels are falling off this wagon quick. I wouldn't be surprised if Nick Foles finishes out the season as their starter.
Colts 9 - Jets 35:
- Wow, where was the Colts offense? And is that the Jets running game that decided to show up to the stadium? Say what you want about Rex Ryan, the man knows how to handle a defense. He dialed up the perfect plays to counter Luck and the Colts and the Jets' offensive explosion was really just their defense putting them in a great position to score. I don't buy that Sanchez, all of a sudden, learned how to become a consistent passer.
Chiefs 10 - Bucs 38:
- I called it! Lock of the week. Brady Quinn is terrible and without at least a mediocre threat at quarterback (such as Matt Cassel) defenses can easily key on Jamal Charles and shut him down. Plus I like teams coming off a bye and the Bucs did not disappoint.
Raiders 20 - Falcons 23:
- I was shocked at how well the Raiders defense played, on the road, against the previously on-fire Falcons offense. This was another team coming off a bye so I guess having the extra week to game plan should've tipped me off. This type of win can go on to define the season and the Falcons are showing early on that they can blow teams out or win the close ones. They should go deep in the playoffs this year.
Bills 19 - Cardinals 16:
- The Bills defense finally woke up in this game and the pass rush took full advantage of the weak Arizona offensive line. Both offenses looked fairly putrid through the air and pretty solid on the ground - Bills' running game looked better. Buffalo must continue to feature the running game because its clear that their best two weapons on offense are Fred Jackson and CJ Spiller. Plus their run blocking is very good. Asking Fitzpatrick to do anything more than managing the game, right now, is playing with fire.
- Chan Gailey made some terrible calls towards the end of this game but the defense bailed him out. This was probably as exciting a game you can have with only two touchdowns in it.
- The Cardinals, ironically enough, remind me of the 2011 Bills - as in their 4-1 record coming into this game was a mirage. I see them as an average team with major questions at quarterback and offensive line and a pretty good defense. I wouldn't be surprised if this team ultimately ends up with only 6-7 wins this season.
Patriots 23 - Seahawks 24:
- I didn't watch much of this game at all, but I have to give the Seahawks props for taking on this vaunted New England team and pulling out a last-minute victory.
Packers 42 - Texans 24:
- There's the Packer offense. This game was vintage Aaron Rodgers. He carved up that great Houston defense like a surgeon, and this was without Greg Jennings, Cedric Benson, and a banged up Finley. He's amazing to watch when he's on fire like this (which is most of the time for him).
- I'm afraid that the Houston offense has become so run-dependent that it forgot how to move the ball through the air. Matt Schaub had trouble finding Andre Johnson, and the offense as a whole lacks explosiveness outside the running game which was bottled up this whole game.
Broncos 35 - Chargers 24:
- What an incredible game this was. It was truly a tale of two halves. The Broncos turned the ball over several times in the first half which resulted in 17 points for the Chargers. In the 2nd half, the Chargers were shut down on offense and they turned the ball over several times giving Peyton Manning a chance to pull the Broncos back into this game and put it away.
- There were several bad calls by the officials in this game. The most interesting ones were the false start penalties against Philip Rivers in the first half. They called this a couple times on Rivers for essentially having a good hard count (their explanation was his hand and head movement while trying to get the defense to jump offsides). I have never seen this call before and I understand the rule but I saw nothing that Peyton Manning or any other quarterback doesn't do on a regular basis to try and get the defense to jump offsides. These bad calls actually hurt the Chargers offense more than just the 10 yard penalty because on all of these plays the defense actually did jump off-sides and so that would've been a 5 yard penalty going the other way plus a free play. So that's at least 15 yards and a free play which, arguably, could've resulted in more yards.
- The refs also called a phantom pass interference call on the Broncos offense at one point. Overall a very weird but incredible game.
Thursday Night Football Prediction:
Seahawks 13 - 49ers 17:
I expect this game to be low scoring given the defenses and the fact that it's Thursday night which has generally produced lower scoring games. After such an embarrassing loss at home, I expect the Niners to be angry and ready for this one. On the other side, I think the Seahawks are still on their week 6 high and will not be completely ready for the motivated 49ers. Neither team has the weapons to truly attack the other defense and so I expect a lot of punts and/or turnovers in this game.
- I didn't watch the whole game here but Pittsburgh was really missing their key players on defense and based on some metrics I had read about last week they were soft up the middle. I wasn't sure if Chris Johnson and the Titans would be able to take advantage of it but certainly they were ripe for the picking. Johnson got 91 yards on 19 carries and Hasselbeck played pretty well and distributed the targets pretty evenly.
- The Steelers just had wayy too many injuries at offensive line and running back and couldn't get over them. Big Ben is agile in the pocket but they were down to their last thread on the line.
Cowboys 29 - Ravens 31:
- I'm not a Dez Bryant apologist but it seems like the Cowboys went into this game with a concerted effort to get him going and he responded in a big way. He definitely should've caught that 2-pt conversion, however. Mental mistakes have always been his achilles heel.
- Ravens losing Ray Lewis and Ladarius Webb is a huge blow - Webb more so than Lewis as far as on-field play is concerned. Lewis brought amazing leadership to the table but his play, especially against the run, had been slipping so far this season anyways. Webb, on the other hand, was playing pro-bowl ball before the injury - that will be tough to get over given how bad Cary Williams has been. Jimmy Smith will have to step up.
Bengals 24 - Browns 34:
- I had a feeling that the Browns were going to pull this one out despite their atrocious division record. Joe Haden helped this defense out big time and Weeden is developing nice chemistry with Josh Gordon. If Gordon can become a more consistent route runner, it will go a long way in developing Weeden as a passer.
Lions 26 - Eagles 23:
- Vick is too inconsistent a quarterback to hang your hat on as a franchise guy. He's extremely talented, which has always been the allure with him, but when it comes down to it he simply is not the type of player that can consistently put your offense in a position to win. When he does well, he's unstoppable. But there are probably more ugly games than you can stomach and I think the wheels are falling off this wagon quick. I wouldn't be surprised if Nick Foles finishes out the season as their starter.
Colts 9 - Jets 35:
- Wow, where was the Colts offense? And is that the Jets running game that decided to show up to the stadium? Say what you want about Rex Ryan, the man knows how to handle a defense. He dialed up the perfect plays to counter Luck and the Colts and the Jets' offensive explosion was really just their defense putting them in a great position to score. I don't buy that Sanchez, all of a sudden, learned how to become a consistent passer.
Chiefs 10 - Bucs 38:
- I called it! Lock of the week. Brady Quinn is terrible and without at least a mediocre threat at quarterback (such as Matt Cassel) defenses can easily key on Jamal Charles and shut him down. Plus I like teams coming off a bye and the Bucs did not disappoint.
Raiders 20 - Falcons 23:
- I was shocked at how well the Raiders defense played, on the road, against the previously on-fire Falcons offense. This was another team coming off a bye so I guess having the extra week to game plan should've tipped me off. This type of win can go on to define the season and the Falcons are showing early on that they can blow teams out or win the close ones. They should go deep in the playoffs this year.
Bills 19 - Cardinals 16:
- The Bills defense finally woke up in this game and the pass rush took full advantage of the weak Arizona offensive line. Both offenses looked fairly putrid through the air and pretty solid on the ground - Bills' running game looked better. Buffalo must continue to feature the running game because its clear that their best two weapons on offense are Fred Jackson and CJ Spiller. Plus their run blocking is very good. Asking Fitzpatrick to do anything more than managing the game, right now, is playing with fire.
- Chan Gailey made some terrible calls towards the end of this game but the defense bailed him out. This was probably as exciting a game you can have with only two touchdowns in it.
- The Cardinals, ironically enough, remind me of the 2011 Bills - as in their 4-1 record coming into this game was a mirage. I see them as an average team with major questions at quarterback and offensive line and a pretty good defense. I wouldn't be surprised if this team ultimately ends up with only 6-7 wins this season.
Patriots 23 - Seahawks 24:
- I didn't watch much of this game at all, but I have to give the Seahawks props for taking on this vaunted New England team and pulling out a last-minute victory.
Packers 42 - Texans 24:
- There's the Packer offense. This game was vintage Aaron Rodgers. He carved up that great Houston defense like a surgeon, and this was without Greg Jennings, Cedric Benson, and a banged up Finley. He's amazing to watch when he's on fire like this (which is most of the time for him).
- I'm afraid that the Houston offense has become so run-dependent that it forgot how to move the ball through the air. Matt Schaub had trouble finding Andre Johnson, and the offense as a whole lacks explosiveness outside the running game which was bottled up this whole game.
Broncos 35 - Chargers 24:
- What an incredible game this was. It was truly a tale of two halves. The Broncos turned the ball over several times in the first half which resulted in 17 points for the Chargers. In the 2nd half, the Chargers were shut down on offense and they turned the ball over several times giving Peyton Manning a chance to pull the Broncos back into this game and put it away.
- There were several bad calls by the officials in this game. The most interesting ones were the false start penalties against Philip Rivers in the first half. They called this a couple times on Rivers for essentially having a good hard count (their explanation was his hand and head movement while trying to get the defense to jump offsides). I have never seen this call before and I understand the rule but I saw nothing that Peyton Manning or any other quarterback doesn't do on a regular basis to try and get the defense to jump offsides. These bad calls actually hurt the Chargers offense more than just the 10 yard penalty because on all of these plays the defense actually did jump off-sides and so that would've been a 5 yard penalty going the other way plus a free play. So that's at least 15 yards and a free play which, arguably, could've resulted in more yards.
- The refs also called a phantom pass interference call on the Broncos offense at one point. Overall a very weird but incredible game.
Thursday Night Football Prediction:
Seahawks 13 - 49ers 17:
I expect this game to be low scoring given the defenses and the fact that it's Thursday night which has generally produced lower scoring games. After such an embarrassing loss at home, I expect the Niners to be angry and ready for this one. On the other side, I think the Seahawks are still on their week 6 high and will not be completely ready for the motivated 49ers. Neither team has the weapons to truly attack the other defense and so I expect a lot of punts and/or turnovers in this game.
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