Week Nine NFL Picks-The Upstarts Are Making Their Presense Known

The NFL season is headed into the back stretch. It is good to see some new upstarts leading the pack going towards the playoffs. Will these new presumptuous contenders be able to keep up their winning ways and if and when they finally reach that playoff pinnacle, be able to dislodge deeply entrenched playoff greats like Green Bay, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and New England, assuming they will acheive it? Detroit is on a bye this week. Buffalo faces defensively tough New York Jets. Cincinnati will be hosted by Tennessee.

Buffalo is riding high in the hotly contended AFC Division. They have been winning games with their offense. The Bills ace-in-the-hole is Fred Jackson. Jackson has been doing it all, running, catching, and scoring. I hope he continues putting up huge numbers because he is one of my fantasy players. Ryan Fitzpatrick has been steady with 14 passing touchdowns thus far this year. It is somewhat humorous he has five interceptions in the games he has won and only two in those he has lost. Go figure. He will be facing a Jets defense that goes after quarterbacks, so he will have to be on his toes and rely on the toes of Jackson. Keep you eye on the bouncing ball.

The Jets cannot afford to lose another game. The obvious key to preventing that from happening, their defense will have to control Jackson. Recently, a tire on my car has been annoyingly losing air and every morning it would be half flat. The only way to remove that annoyance was to plug the hole up.
When it comes to the run, the Jets defensive line have been like that leaky tire and the only way to stop Jackson is to plug the hole. Good luck with that one.

Shonn Greene will have to match Jackson yard for yard, score for score. Accomplish that, and then it will come down to Fitzpatrick verses Sanchez, Yosemite Sam verses Elmer Fudd. Which one is better at hitting their target?

Tennessee is neck and neck with Houston. Matt Hasselbeck has been carrying the Titans while Chris Johnson has not been playing up to potential. When Hasselbeck has a bad game, the Titans lose. That pretty much is an obvious conclusion. Johnson faces a tough front four of the Bengals defense. If he has a breakout game, it will be a surprise.

Andy Dalton and A.J. Green are building into a deadly combination. Green will be matched against a physical cornerback in Cortland Finnegan. Dalton may have to find an alternative target, but I am sure he will be looking for that one opportunity for the big play to Green. Like Tennessee, Cincinnati's running game has been a tade weak. Cincinnati's true test will come when they play divisional rivals Pittsburgh and Baltimore.

Two games to watch this weekend are Baltimore at Pittsburgh on Sunday vevening and Chicago at Philadelphia on Monday night. The Baltimore at Pittsburgh game will be defensively brutal. There will be alot of head banging in this one with Lewis and Polamalu. Roethlisberger and Wallace have become a formidable tandem. They seem to hook up at least one time each game for the big yard buster and touchdown.

Philadelphia is coming off a decisive win over Dallas. The Eagles offensive line opened up holes for LeSean McCoy and gave Vick the time to do his work of inflicting damage on the opponent's secondary. On the other side, Matt Forte has been putting up large numbers and Cutler has been avoiding the costly mistake. The Eagles surmounting task, take Forte out of the equation. Its anybody's guess.

Sunday November 6
Time (ET)	Visiting Team	Home Team	TV	Weather	Tickets
1:00 pm	New York Jets	Buffalo Bills	CBS		Buy Now
1:00 pm	Seattle Seahawks	Dallas Cowboys	FOX		Buy Now
1:00 pm	Cleveland Browns	Houston Texans	CBS		Buy Now
1:00 pm	Atlanta Falcons	Indianapolis Colts	FOX		Buy Now
1:00 pm	Miami Dolphins	Kansas City Chiefs	CBS		Buy Now
1:00 pm	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	New Orleans Saints	FOX		Buy Now
1:00 pm	San Francisco 49ers	Washington Redskins	FOX		Buy Now
4:05 pm	Denver Broncos	Oakland Raiders	CBS		Buy Now
4:05 pm	Cincinnati Bengals	Tennessee Titans	CBS		Buy Now
4:15 pm	St. Louis Rams	Arizona Cardinals	FOX		Buy Now
4:15 pm	New York Giants	New England Patriots	FOX
4:15 pm	Green Bay Packers	San Diego Chargers	FOX		Buy Now
8:20 pm	Baltimore Ravens	Pittsburgh Steelers	NBC		Buy Now

Monday November 7
Time (ET)	Visiting Team	Home Team	TV	Weather	Tickets
8:30 pm	Chicago Bears	Philadelphia Eagles	ESPN		Buy Now

Superbowl XLV-Green Bay Packers Take The Trophy

Green Bay looked as though they were going to coast through this game, jumping out to a big lead in the first half 21-10. A dropped pass by Jones on the first set of plays starting the second half and a bad facemask call on the ensuing punt turned the tide of the game in favor of the Steelers, who scored shortly after on a Mendenhall run. Then a fumble by Mendenhall took the steam out of the Steelers surge and the Packers scored a touchdown on a Rodgers to Jennings hookup in the end zone. The Steelers made a quick recovery capping off a drive with Wallace taking in a reception for a touchdown and a successful execution of a two point conversion making it only a three point deficit. Green Bay converted a crucial third down play to extend their next drive that ended with a Crosby field goal. Pittsburgh fell short on their last ditch effort and Green Bay walked away with a 31 to 25 victory and the trophy.

The Steelers played their usual type of game, falling behind early, but never out of it. Considering the Steelers committed three turnovers, they still made it hard on the Packers to walk away with the victory. Ben Roethlisberger committed the majority of the mistakes, throwing two picks. One of them returned for a touchdown. Rashard Mendenhall had some decent runs and scored a touchdown. Mike Wallace was controlled for most of the game, but still managed to take the top spot with 89 yards and a touchdown. Hines Ward was next with 78 yards and one touchdown.

From beginning to end the Packers were committed to the pass. The Steeler defense roughed up Aaron Rodgers, but he prevailed through the adversity with some good numbers. Rodgers threw for 304 yards and was 24-39. Three of his passes were for touchdowns, two of them to Greg Jennings and one to Jordy Nelson. Rodgers numbers would've been even better if it wasn't for the fact that his receivers were plagued with a case of the muffs. Jordy Nelson was Rodgers prime target gathering in 9 catches for 140 yards. Greg Jennings had 4 catches for 64 yards and James Jones had 5 for 50 yards. Green Bay's offense was mistake free and their defense was opportunistic, taking advantage of Roethlisberger's mistakes and forcing a fumble.

Overall it was an entertaining Superbowl. The Green Bay Packers were a sixth seed team that looked like a number one seed and prevailed over everyone else week to week through the playoffs. Either team was worthy of winning, but it was the Packers time and they were not going to be denied their rightful place. By the way, the unforseen occurrence played a significant part and it was wearing the green and gold colors in this one.

Steelers Steal the Show At Cleveland Browns Stadium-Obliterate Browns 41-9

When Roethlisberger hooked up with Mike Wallace for a 56 yard touchdown on their very first play on offense, it was all over. Did you expect it to end any differently? The Steelers just flat out annihilated the Browns. Before the pizza was done and you could pop the tab on another beer it was 31-3. If Roethlisberger would have played a full second half, the final score could have ended much worse than 41-9. By then a fair number of fans had long left the house, except for the yellow and black jerseys. The Steelers took the division and the No. 2 Seed position with a bye going into this week.

Colt McCoy had to feel like he was hit by a freight train. Sacked four times and picked off three times, it was his worse outing of his short season. He completed 20 passes out of 41 attempts for a total of 209 yards. McCoy did have more rushing yards than his partner Peyton Hillis, but that is nothing to brag on. Hillis could only eek out a total of 13 yards on 6 carries. Mike Bell accounted for another 14 yards on 5 carries. That's pretty much it with the offense, a total of 225 yards. Joshua cribbs was for the most part missing from the action. Certainly not the way Dawson wanted to make his exit seeing it was his last game as a Brown.

On the otherhand, the Steelers came out firing. The Ben Roethlisberger and Mike Wallace tandem is a deadly combination going into the playoffs and their next opponents will have to reckon with it. Wallace accumulated 105 yards in receptions, a 56 yard catch for a touchdown was the highlight. Roethlisberger spread the wealth around to his receivers very effectively while he was on the field completing 15 passes for 280 yards. Rashard Mendenhall didn't have a major impact with 36 yards on 14 carries, but still accounted for two of the Steelers four touchdowns.

The Browns ended the season with alot of questions lingering. More than likely Man-Hougini will not return. The offense still lacks the ability to go vertical with a quick strike potential. The running game literally lost its steam. The missing-from-the-offense Joshua Cribbs remains a mystery. Who will be their next place kicker? Finally and not least of all, when will the Browns finally put it all together and set a winner on the field once again? Should I dare say it? The two words Brown's fans have pinned all their hopes on losing year after losing year? Okay, I will say it, "Next year." Let's enjoy the playoffs in the mean time.