Sunday, December 26, 2010

Week 16 Picks

Here's my line for week 16...

Pittsburgh, Dallas, New England, NY Jets, Baltimore, Kansas City, San Francisco, Jacksonville, Miami, Indianapolis, Houston, San Diego, NY Giants, Tampa Bay, New Orleans

Biggest question mark games to watch in my mind is the Jets @ Chicago, Indy @ Oakland, and of course New Orleans @ Atlanta.

Jets (10-4) @ Chicago (10-4)
Should be a pretty good battle between two 10-4 teams looking to gain momentum towards the playoffs. I don't know about all of you, but I am just not sold on Chicago as a contender, let alone making it out of the NFC playoffs. Take a look at their schedule. If you were to give Chicago a marquee win, it would have to be the game they stole from the Eagles, a home game in which they escaped with a 5 point victory after playing their first (and I believe only) game this season which they didnt commit a turnover. Lance Briggs was quoted as saying the win over the Eagles was their "statement game". Yea, I would hope so because they have beat up on some very poor teams for the rest of their wins. And, if it werent for a late James Jones fumble on Monday Night Football, the Bears wouldnt even have another win over a team with a winning record, for THE WHOLE YEAR. Doesnt sound right does it? Well believe it. The Bears have wins over only 2 teams with winning records. And in addition to that, two of their four losses came from a 5-9 Washington team and a 6-8 Seattle team, where both games were played at Soldier Field. Super Bowl contender? I don't see it. For that reason alone, I'm taking the Jets in this game even though Chicago will be playing at home. You simply can't lose two games at home to terrible teams and still be considered a favorite.

Indy (8-6) @ Oakland (7-7)
I was so tempted to pick Oakland in this AFC matchup. I feel like the timing is right for Oakland to pull of an upset: home game, still alive in the division, coming off a big come from behind win last week. Unfortunately for the Raiders, they have this other little thing going against them. They're the Raiders. That fact alone convinces me that there is no way they pull an upset of Peyton Manning and Co. as they work the kinks out of their offense. The Colts are in an interesting spot this year. Much different feeling around that team considering they have cruised into the playoffs the last, what 10 years? Usually this is the time the media is hounding them for resting their starters and not going for an undefeated season. Will playing a full regular season come back to bite the Colts in the long-run? I'm not so sure. I am sure that it won't happen this week, because lets us not all forget, it is the Raiders.

New Orleans (10-4) @ Atlanta (12-2)
Hands down game of the week. It's a perfect storm.

  • division rivals
  • Monday Night Football prime time
  • defending super bowl champions on verge of losing their own division
  • the Saints are arguably playing the better football, but the line has moved from -1.5 for Atlanta to -3.5

I give the edge to the Saints, high scoring game, 34 - 20.

Going to be an awesome weekend in the NFL and haven't even mentioned the Eagles yet. Bring on the snow.

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