Weekly Picks

A playoff disaster that may be hard to recover from struck last week as Peyton Manning and his merry men choked again. Last week we had a bunch of close games that were tough to call and in several cases the better team was on the road. This week the big boys come out to play and the spreads are bigger.

TENNESSEE -3 baltimore
This is a counter-intuitive play. It seems to me every time I make the popular pick I lose. So even though it looks like the Ravens are a dominant defense again I’m going to guess that Kerry Collins can do what he did twice already this year (against the Bears and Jaguars) when the running game was shut down, and throw over the top of the defense.

CAROLINA -9 ½ arizona
I won’t go with two against the grain picks. I think the Cardinals performance last week (running and stopping the run) was a fluke. I think the Panthers can run right over them and by virtue of a ball-control offense, keep it away from Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald.

san diego +6 PITTSBURGH
I wanted one underdog here and I think the Chargers are the underdog most likely to win (after the Ravens who I’m not picking for reasons discussed above). I know the Steelers have a great defense and are very tough to be at home but the Chargers are playing great right now. Philip Rivers continues to play like one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL (he was the top-rated QB this year) and it turns out the Chargers may not need LaDanian Tomlinson as much as we thought they did. My only fear is that Darren Sproles will get hit hard by either James Harrison or Troy Polamalu and get knocked out of the game.

BEST BET
NEW YORK GIANTS -4 ½ philadelphia
I’m not giving up on the Giants just yet. They are the Super Bowl Champions and they were the best team through ¾ of the season. They haven’t brought their A game for a few weeks now but I think they will be able to get their running game going against the Eagles which will open things up for Eli Manning. But I guess there is always the possibility that Eli Manning is a choker like his brother, both of whom had just one lucky year. But I also worry about the Eagles, and Donovan McNabb, because of their tendency to come up small in big games. Plus Papa Poop and Master Bates are going to this game and I don’t want to have to root against them.

Last Week: 1-3 (0 points)
Season: 45-44 (49 points)
Best Bets: 0-1 (11-7)
Home Favorites: 0-0 (10-16)
Home Underdogs: 0-1 (4-2)
Road Favorites: 1-1 (20-9)
Road Underdogs: 0-1 (10-16)
Road Pickems: 0-0 (1-1)