2007 NFL Week Nine Predictions
| 16
|
by Napoleon15
Again, this post was cross-published from my blog napoleon15.blogspot.com. The big story this week was again about the New England Patriots. For several weeks now, some people have been whining about them running up the score on their opponents. It came to a head this week when the Patriots handed the Washington Redskins a 52-7 drubbing. First, let me say that if I were the Patriots' coach I would probably not have had Tom Brady continue to throw downfield after taking a 38-0 lead. That being said, this whole "scandal" is totally ridiculous. These guys can't win with some people. They win close games and people call them boring; they win blowouts and people think they're classless. Fortunately, winning on the football field is all that matters, and the Pats do that extremely well.
Also, I want to point out that the Patriots have been blowing out every opponent they've played this year. What are they supposed to do? Take out their starters after three quarters in every game? Their guys need the playing time to stay sharp. In addition, their job isn't to uphold the honor of other teams; it's to win football games. If other teams are made to look bad, maybe they need to start playing better football. One more point: where were all these whiners a couple of years ago when the Colts were blowing everybody out?
I posted a record of 10-3 last week, raising my season total to 75-41. Here are my picks for this week.
Atlanta Falcons 23, San Francisco 49ers 21. The Falcons will be desperate for this one.
Cincinnati Bengals 29, Buffalo Bills 23. Both of these teams are bad, but Cincy has enough offense to pull this one out.
Detroit Lions 27, Denver Broncos 20. Whoever the Broncos' offensive coordinator is needs to be fired. NOW. I don't know what he's coordinating, but it certainly isn't the offense. Open the offense up and let Jay Cutler take shots downfield, for Pete's sake. There is no excuse for putting up less than twenty points a game.
Green Bay Packers 24, Kansas City Chiefs 21. I'm betting on Brett Favre beating the Chiefs for the first time in his career.
San Diego Chargers 34, Minnesota Vikings 13. The Chargers are rapidly becoming my least favorite team (even more than the Raiders and Chiefs), but that unfortunately doesn't affect the outcome of this game
Jacksonville Jaguars 27, New Orleans Saints 17. The Saints need to try to scare up some magic, because they're going to need it.
Washington Redskins 27, New York Jets 20. Losing to the Jets would be almost as embarrassing as getting steamrolled 52-7 by the Patriots.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23, Arizona Cardinals 20. The Bucs are good again. At least for the NFC.
Carolina Panthers 27, Tennessee Titans 24. I'm taking another chance here, but I think the Panthers want to prove something after being embarrassed by Indy last week.
Cleveland Browns 23, Seattle Seahawks 20. The Browns would probably be a good team in the NFC.
New England Patriots 41, Indianapolis Colts 38. Ah, the long-anticipated, breathlessly-awaited Game of the Millennium. Or something like that. I don't think it will be that good, because neither team wants to tip its hand too much, but it's still an interesting matchup. Don't count on anything stopping Tom Brady and his offense. Or Peyton Manning and his offense, for that matter.
Houston Texans 21, Oakland Raiders 20. The Texans are slowly becoming somewhat respectable, thanks to Gary Kubiak. I wish he would come back to Denver.
Dallas Cowboys 34, Philadelphia Eagles 20. For no particular reason, I dislike the Eagles. The Cowboys will win this one without too much trouble.
Baltimore Ravens 31, Pittsburgh Steelers 24. The Steelers are clearly better, but this is a big rivalry game and the Ravens will be prepared for it. If the Broncos and the Cardinals could beat the Steelers, then the Ravens definitely can.
