Week 12 Turkey Day NFL Picks-Will It Be a Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood

Green Bay has pretty much wrapped up their division as they continue their quest for an undefeated season, unless they suffer an unexpected set back like the Idianapolis Colts. Detroit started the season off like gangbusters, but have faultered somewhat the past five games. Whether the Lions make it to the playoffs will be decided today against the Packers. Miami is gaining momentum each week they play and Dallas has shaken the early season cobb webs loose. Baltimore needs to stay a step ahead of Pittsburgh and San Fran is breezing along comfortably in their division.

Aaron Rodgers is on a record setting pace, but will be facing a tough on the quarterback Lion's defense. Rodgers rarely makes a mistake and that is what makes him unbeatable. The Lion's, if they are going to win this game, will need to score touchdown for touchdown. Rodgers has way more weapons in his arsonal than Matthew Stafford does, so the Detroit defense will have to come up with a game plan that will neutralize some of those weapons. The Packers task on defense is much simpler, take out Calvin Johnson and job won, but the Packers chink in their armor is the defensive secondary. If the Lions drive a wedge into that chink the Packers will become vulnerable to a possible fatal blow and bye, bye undefeated season.

Miami is a tale of two seasons. The turn around is due to Matt Moore and Reggie Bush. Bush will tear a defense up on screens and will burn the secondary once he gets into the open field. If Bush has an excellent day Miami will have a good chance of winning. The Dolphins front line will need to pay attention to where Demarcus Ware is at all times or Moore will be running for his life. Moore's use of play action and screens will be a plus in his favor at avoiding Ware. Tony Romo has been on fire as of late and avoiding "the wish I had a V8" moment that left one scratching their heads over what he was doing in the final moments of earlier games. The Cowboys are dealing with injuries in key offensive postions, so a win hinges on Romo's play. Avoiding the interception or fumble is paramount.

Baltimore has been floudering on offense since they took down Pittsburgh. They lost to what-will-they-do-this-week Seattle and barely escaped the newly revised Cincinnati Bengals, who are chomping at their heals. On top of it, the Ravens defense has been giving up points. Ray Lewis is questionable, which if he doesn't play, Baltimore will be weaker against the run, and against the 49ers that would be Frank Gore. Joe Flacco and Torrey Smith have been making connection since the Pittsburgh game. We will see if that continues. Baltimore thrives on the mistakes of their opponents and forced three interceptions out of the Bengal's Dalton last Sunday. This will be more difficult with Alex Smith. Smith has been making good decisions under center and his favorite target to score is Vernon Davis. San Fran has a defense that is equally as tough as Baltimore. So, this game may be decided by the field goal kickers.

THU, NOV 24                        TIME (ET)    TV     LOCATION
Green Bay at Detroit                12:30 PM    FOX    Ford Field
Miami at Dallas                        4:15 PM      CBS    Cowboys Stadium
San Francisco at Baltimore      8:20 PM      NFL    M&T Bank Stadium

Week 8 In The NFL Highlights Some Surprises And Follies

Denver got t-boned by Detroit. Pittsburgh stole the show from New England. Buffalo buffaloed Washington. Cincinnati clawed their way to victory over Seattle. Philadelphia soared over Dallas. Whoopsy San Diego made a late game mistake that cost them a victory. But, the shocker of all shockers was St Louis ramming New Orleans into the wall of shame.

The Rams going into their contest with the Saints were 0-6. The previous Sunday they were pummeled by inconsistent Dallas. Meanwhile. the Saints thoroughly embarrassed Manningless Indianapolis, scoring 62 points. So, what the heck happened to the Saints, who I would not have picked to lose in a million years against the Rams? The answer is quite obvious, Steve Jackson and a relentless defense. The Ram defense took Drew Brees out of his usual rhythm. While on the otherside of the ball, Jackson ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns. The rest of the NFL teams, take note.

Detroit rebounded in a big way. They needed to reaffirm their legitimacy. Sure, it was just Denver, but a win is a win. Matthew Stafford had a career day. He threw three touchdowns on a total of 267 yards with a rating of 130.8. Tim Whoop-tee-do Tebow didn't have a bad day, running for 63 yards and throwing for 172 yards and one touchdown. His one huge blunder was a pick that went for a hundred yards and a touchdown. Tebow runs out of necessity because he gets easily flustered and can't find the open man. Running quarterbacks just don't go to the Super Bowl.

Buffalo is one of the surprises of the year. They are staying on pace with New England. One of the reasons, Fred Jackson is having a great year. He didn't score a touchdown in this one, but he accumulated a total of 194 yards of offense. Ryan Fitzpatrick threw two touchdowns to Scott Chandler. Buffalo faces a tough, opportunistic Jet defense that raise havoc a a quarterback. Jackson will be their ticket to victory.

Their were alot of borderline penalty calls that went against the hard luck Chargers in the Monday Night Follies. It was raining yellow flags from the beginning to the end. Game altering official calls that took scores away from the Chargers. That been said, San Diego shot themselves in the foot on numerous occassions. They could only get the ball across the goal line once. All the other times they entered the red zone, penalties and mistakes forced them back. Kansas City didn't fair much better, but came away with the win on an overtime field goal. The Chargers are looking eerily like the Browns of old.

Pittsburgh handled the Brady Bunch quite nicely. New England fought right down to the final seconds of the game when their final possession ended up sailing in the wrong direction and out the back of the end zone, courtesy Polamalu, after a Brady fumble. The result was a safety. The offense can't advance the ball on a fumble, but there is nothing ruling against the ball going backwards 25 yards after being slapped. Roethlisberger and Company controlled the ball twice as long as the Brady Bunch. Ouch. Now Pittsburgh faces a gauntlet of AFC North teams in the back stretch. Though, I don't think they need to worry too much about the touchdownless Browns. Unless, the Browns coaching staff gets their heads out of their keisters about the wide receiver dilemma. And that's another story.

Week 5 NFL Picks-Will Detroit Lions Remain Undefeated

The Steelers got drubbed in a game where the final score should have been worse than it was if it wasn't for Houston mistakes. The Lions overcame a deficit in the fourth quarter against the Cowboys to remain undefeated. Trying-to-figure-out Cincinnati handed Buffalo its first loss. Baltimore defense manhandled the Jets and Sanchez. Green Bay, New england, New Orleans, and New York Giants all won their games. Last but not least, surprise Tennessee easily took the Browns down. I was 10-6 in Week Four. This is a bye week for some teams, which includes the Browns. There are only 10 games scheduled.

Tennessee at Pittsburgh will be interesting. First, Ben Roethlisberger is going to play despite the foot injury and Mendenhall is out, but that is of no consequence. The big problem with the Steelers last week, Wallace, their go to guy, did not figure into the passing attack. It seemed Roethlisberger favored Brown throughout the game. Now, whether that mistake was by design or Wallace was flat out covered, in order to win against the Titans, the Steelers will have to find a way to get the ball to Wallace. Tennessee's defense is tough and they will be going after Roethlisberger, who is lacking protection. Matt Hasselbeck will be tested in this game by a Steeler blitz attack, and if he overcomes it, I will be a believer.

Cincinnati will be at Jacksonville. Jacksonville is a one dimentional offense and the Bengals have a steady defense. Cincinnati's defense needs only to control Maurice Jones-Drew and the rest will be up to their offense. Blaine Gabbert will have to avoid the big mistake when the game comes to rest on his arm if they should fall behind in the score, which probably will be the case. Andy Dalton has proven he can win, Gabbert has yet to notch number one.

Green Bay has been cruising along and will be hosted by Atlanta. Green Bay just has too many weapons with a quarterback and receiving core that run like a well oiled turbo charged engine. Atlanta's defense will need to step it up a notch by putting pressure on Aaron Rodgers and hope their offense can match whatever Rodgers puts up. The Packers defensive secondary is vulnerable and if the offensive line gives Matt Ryan the time, that could be a possibility. The Falcons will have the home crowd behind them, which should help out alittle, hopefully.

The big game will be Chicago at Detroit. Detroit has proven their legitimacy as a contender and their win against Dallas substantiated that. After years of losing, this is a welcomed change for the steady Detroit fan. Monday night, Detroit and its fans will be in the spotlight. Stafford and Johnson are a deadly combo. Eight of Stafford's 11 touchdowns have been to Calvin Johnson. Chicago's task will be to break that combo up. It is their only hope. They are in a division with two undefeated teams and a must win stuation. Matt Forte and Devon Hester are Chicago's impact players, but if Detroit stuffs the run Jay Cutler, who has only 5 touchdown passes for the season, will have to win it, unless the defense scores some touchdowns.

The playoff picture is beginning to take some shape. There are a few teams who need to win this weekend or they will fall seriously behind with little hope of recovery. The only division that is still wide open is the AFC North. Baltimore and Cleveland are on a bye week.

SUN, OCT 9                          TIME (ET) TV  LOCATION
Tennessee at Pittsburgh L          1:00 PM CBS  Heinz Field
Seattle at NY Giants L               1:00 PM FOX  MetLife Stadium
Cincinnati at Jacksonville W     1:00 PM CBS  EverBank Field
New Orleans at Carolina W       1:00 PM FOX  Bank of America Stadium
Oakland at Houston L                1:00 PM CBS  Reliant Stadium
Philadelphia at Buffalo W          1:00 PM FOX  Ralph Wilson Stadium
Kansas City at Indianapolis L    1:00 PM CBS  Lucas Oil Stadium
Arizona at Minnesota W            1:00 PM FOX  Mall of America Field
Tampa Bay at San Francisco L  4:05 PM FOX  Candlestick Park
NY Jets at New England W       4:15 PM CBS  Gillette Stadium
San Diego at Denver W             4:15 PM CBS  Sports Authority Field at Mile High
Green Bay at Atlanta W             8:20 PM NBC  Georgia Dome

MON, OCT 10                      TIME (ET) TV  LOCATION
Chicago at Detroit W                 8:30 PM ESPN Ford Field