Friday, October 21, 2011

NFL Game Predictions Week 7

Week 6 of the NFL season was a pretty good week for me.  Well, as far as the predictions go.  Still a bit sore over the way my Bills lost that game to the Giants.  You have a tie ball game with 3 minutes left and you're on the other teams 26 yard line, RUN THE BALL.  But they threw a pass and Fitzpatrick was picked off.  Hardly can blame a team that's been a doormat for years to try and go for the jugular but, man oh man, what could've been.

Last week I wound up picking 10 of 13 games correctly, bringing my season prediction record up to 63-27.  Pretty good. But picking the exact score of the Oakland-Cleveland game, that's just plain awesome.  The 3 games I lost were:

The Bills-Giants game I touched upon in the intro.  Two key interceptions and not causing any turnovers of your own, which has been a huge key to the 4 victories this year, is a recipe for losing, and I could complain about a few pass interference calls that Webster was let off the hook for, but I won't, the Bills lost because of the 2 interceptions, Drayton Florence deciding to interfere on Nicks all day and the costly play-calling late.  Both Buffalo and NYG have bye weeks in week 7.

Detroit losing to San Francisco was a bit of a shocker.  I had the feeling that SF would play it close, they do have an above average defense, but Never did I think they'd actually pull it off.  The post game antics between Schwartz and Harbaugh was an added bonus to a really good game.

Tampa Bay, in another stunner, beat NO, and that's without all that much production from Mike Williams.  Anyhow, another fun game to watch, but a surprise nonetheless.  This was another game where an oddity surrounding a coach happened.  NO TE Jimmy Graham ran into HC Sean Payton on the sideline and I believe he fractured Payton's MCL.  He coached the remainder of the 1st half on the bench and then the 2nd half from the booth.

On to Week 7.

Denver @ Miami

Miami's been horrible.  Reggie Bush has been a major disappointment.  Matt Moore was abused on Revis Island last week and now Tim Tebow, Floridas golden boy returns.  I'm a big advocate of Tebow and believe he'll get it done at the NFL level.  Sure he has some wrinkles to iron out but I'm expecting him to do just that.  What a perfect game to start.  Miami's defense isn't terrible by any means though and while I think Denver will win, it should be a close game.  Denver 24 Miami 17


Houston @ Tennessee


Still without Andre Johnson Houston and Tennessee battle for first place in the AFC South.  I'm half tempted to pick the Texans, as they are an offensively potent team, but without Johnson to give the opposing secondary that extra threat to worry about, well, they've seen pedestrian.  Tennessee has had two weeks to prep for this game and they've been another of the surprises this year.  I'm going to hedge the odds here and take the home team.  Tennessee 30 Houston 28


San Diego @ New York Jets


NY isn't an easy place to play and traveling from coast to coast makes it that much harder.  Some are claiming they Jets got right on Monday Night.  I'm not ready to join in that conversation just yet, after all it was a pitiful Dolphins team they beat.  But sometimes the opponent doesn't matter and it's the quality of victory that matters.  I do think that win will inspire some confidence in the troops in Rex World but I still think Sanchez is terrible and will ultimately cost them this game.  San Diego's a pretty good team on both sides of the wall and should hang in there until Sanchez costs NY the game.  SD 21  NYJ 17


Atlanta @ Detroit


The big question here is how will these Lions respond from their first loss.  To make matters a bit murkier, they also will be without their star RB Best and will go with Mo Morris in the backfield.  That all said, it's also interesting to see if Atlanta can parlay a decent performance into two in a row.  In the end here I think Detroit will have enough firepower to get this done.  Detroit 35 Atlanta 28


Washington @ Carolina


I may actually watch this game.  I've yet to have the chance to watch a full game from Newton and am kind of looking forward to seeing him do what he does.  John Beck gets the reins for the skins offense this week, replacing a highly ineffective Rex Grossman.  I think he'll provide a bit of a spark, but he's just a seat warmer until they draft or trade for their QB next year, if he even lasts the rest of the year.  Washington has as good a chance to win this game as Carolina does, I truly feel it's a coin flip.  It'll be up to the Redskin defense to shut Newton down, they are good but in the end Cam will win out. Carolina 21 Washington 15


Chicago @ Tampa Bay in London


Not thrilled about either of these teams.  But that said both had impressive victories last week.  These games in London have been mightily sloppy and I'm not expecting anything fun about this matchup. To be fair I probably wouldn't have expected much if it was played on American soil either though.  I'll take Chicago 14 TB 10


Seattle @ Cleveland


Looks like Charlie Whitehurst will play QB for the Seahawks this week for an injured Tarvaris Jackson, which is yet another QB switch, albeit for injury here, this week.  This game will go one of two ways, it'll either be a case where neither team is very good and will struggle all game or because of ineptitude it could be a high scoring affair.  I'll take the safer bet and go with Cleveland 14 Seattle 13


Pittsburgh @ Arizona


This'll probably be that game that you never saw coming.  But in any case I can't see the Steelers losing against the Cardinals who have looked anything but special this year.  Pittsburgh 33 Arizona 18


Kansas City @ Oakland


Newly acquired Carson Palmer seems to be getting the start for Oakland.  There's no way he's completely ready yet, not a chance, which tells me what they think about KC.  And I agree with them. Palmer throws for about 190 yards with a TD to DHB, but Run DMC runs all over the yard. Oakland 28 KC 13


Green Bay @ Minnesota


It doesn't matter where this game is played, who starts at QB for Minnesota or any other factor outside of Aaron Rodgers coming down with a last minute case of the flu.  But that said even Matt Flynn could scorch the Vikings with Christian Ponder getting his first NFL start against Clay Matthews and the Pack.  GB 35 Minnesota 10


St. Louis @ Dallas


Another blowout.  Dallas has to be fuming over the Aaron Hernandez from Tom Brady TD with 27 seconds on the clock last week.  They had the Patriots and let it slip away.  Bradford's not 100% and they aren't the Patriots even when he is.  Dallas 38 St. Louis 20


Indianapolis @ New Orleans on Sunday Night Football


Another blowout.  I bet NBC wishes the flex games started up this week.  New Orleans 42 Indy 13


Baltimore @ Jacksonville on Monday Night Football


Jacksonville's defense has been pretty good so far.  Joe Flacco, for the most part hasn't looked all that great.  But he doesn't have to, Ray Rice is a beast, week in and week out.  Baltimore ends week 7 with a nice win in Florida.  Baltimore 24 Jacksonville 12




Have an enjoyable weekend of football.




No comments:

Post a Comment