| Fav | Spread | Dog | Final | Dre | Jay | |
| Thu. Nite | ||||||
| Ind (5-3) | 3 | JACK (1-7) | Ind 27-10 | Ind | Ind | |
| Sunday | ||||||
| Den (5-3) | 4 | CAR (2-6) | Car | Den | ||
| TB (4-4) | 3 | SD (4-4) | SD | TB | ||
| MIA (4-4) | 6 | Tenn (3-6) | Mia | Mia | ||
| NE (5-3) | 13 | Buf (3-5) | Buf | Buf | ||
| BAL (6-2) | 9½ | Oak (3-5) | Bal | Oak | ||
| NYG (6-3) | 4 | CIN (3-5) | Cin | NY | ||
| Atl (8-0) | 1 | NO (3-5) | Atl | Atl | ||
| Det (4-4) | 3 | MIN (5-4) | Det | Det | ||
| SEA (5-4) | 6 | NYJ (3-5) | Sea | Sea | ||
| Dal (3-5) | 1 | PHI (3-5) | Dal | Dal | ||
| SF (6-2) | 12½ | StL (3-5) | SF | SF | ||
| Sun. Nite | ||||||
| CHI (7-1) | 1 | Hou (7-1) | Chi | Hou | ||
| Mon. Nite | ||||||
| PIT (5-3) | 11½ | KC (1-7) | Pit | Pit | ||
Some of our thoughts and observations included:
- I'm going with a straight hunch in taking Carolina over Denver. Comparing stats, you'd have to take Peyton Manning and the Broncos over Cam Newton and the Panthers every time, but I think Cam's broken out of his spell and he'll be able to propel Carolina to an upset win. Jason thinks it's a slam dunk to go with the hot team in Denver, and I don't blame him, but I'm siding with the moody phenom. Wait, not clear enough...the black moody phenom. There, that's better.
- Tampa Bay's pretty hot themselves. Josh Freeman's found something, observes the president of the Josh Freeman Fan Club, JTG, and the Bucs are on a roll. Jay's happy to pick Freeman and Doug "Muscle Hamster" Martin over the Bolts. He even calls 3 TD receptions against his old team for the former Charger Vincent Jackson. I definitely don't see San Diego letting that happen. I'll take the Chargers in a squeaker because if it's going to be a shootout, I'm still trusting the experience of Philip Rivers over Freeman. It's all about Rivers for me. If he performs, they win, if not, Tampa will romp.
- We both are queasy about giving six points and picking the up-and-down Miami Dolphins, but my fucking God, Tennessee is a terrible team in need of a new coach and philosophy. My guy Jake Locker returns to the lineup for the Titans. His gift is a welcome from Cameron Wake. Someone get the blotter.
- New England opened up a can of whoop-ass in the 4th quarter at Buffalo earlier this season, and we're just not feeling the Pats coughing up another period quite like that. That's a lot of points, and very few teams rely on being in a rhythm like New England and their precision offense. I'm hoping that their bye week will throw them off long enough for the Bills to score a couple of times and build an insurmountable point-spread lead, so when NE comes back again, at least Buffalo still wins with the points.
- Jason thinks Baltimore's offense falls into that old category with other teams who couldn't score to save their lives. He says the Ravens will have trouble covering 10 points because they will have trouble scoring 10 points. He correctly pointed out all of the tight games in which the Ravens have been involved this season. All fine and good. But I am not picking Interception Santa going West to East playing at 1P Eastern without Darren McFadden running the ball for him. And Baltimore's offense isn't bad, it's thoroughly mediocre. They're 16th rushing and 15th passing, and that should be good enough to beat a beat-up Raiders squad by two TDs.
- Here's a situation where someone thinks they've scouted something and now it's up to us, the general public, to decide what to believe. You know the crappy throws Eli Manning has been making over the last few games for the Giants? NFL Films' Greg Cosell said that he watched film with Ron Jaworski and has diagnosed Manning with a dead arm, like a major league pitcher halfway through the baseball season. You know what? Sounds like as good an explanation as any to me. All I know is, I'm going to have a hard time picking the G-Men until I see better consistency on the deep throw from Eli. Jason will back New York against the fizzling Bengals.
- I didn't ask Jason, but I thought for sure I'd be backing the Saints in this battle when it came up on the schedule. And with the Falcons undefeated? It will be rockin' in the Superdome, and Atlanta will have a very hard time combating that. Well, they've fucking combated every other challenge so far this year, so why not? Drew Brees will have to throw for over 500 yards to build a lead big enough to hold off a Falcons comeback, and that's unlikely, so we have to back the Dirty Birds. In a very fun gunfight, which defense do you trust more to make the big play to win the game? Hint: NOT NEW ORLEANS.
- That starts a string of picks where we're seeing eye-to-eye. The Vikings are falling fast, so we're backing the Lions in a road division tussle. Detroit will struggle to stop Adrian Peterson, like everyone else, and then they'll look at Minnesota try to execute a passing attack without their only WR, Percy Harvin, and they'll laugh and sack Christian Ponder multiple times and romp in the Twin Cities.
- Seattle. Meat Grinder. Total Fraud. Check, please.
- Dallas visiting the completely untrustworthy Michael Vick. The Eagles are just pitiful.
- I'm skeptical of giving all those points and backing such a one-dimensional offense like San Francisco, and so is Jay. But it's all about the 49ers defense. Jay did the stat work for this one: Last four SF wins, they've allowed 0, then 3, then 6, then 3. Sam Bradford and your #24 pass offense, best wishes.
- Jason's backing the Texans in a huge road tilt at Chicago because he thinks they're going to be very motivated to show better than they did the first time they played a Sunday night game, which resulted in their only loss of the season to Green Bay. I remember typing that I don't think Houston is very good based on their showing, and I still don't think Houston is very good. I think the Bears are hella motivated after that piece of performance art in Nashville. I know I'd want to get after the next opponent ASAP to prove that the Titans game wasn't a fluke. In fact, I think that Titans game is the type of game a team builds off for the next several games. I'm taking the Bears here, and I can already tell you that I'll be happy to take them next Monday in San Fran. Write that shit down.
- Kansas City? The team that can't take a lead? On the road at a surging Pittsburgh team? In prime time? Come on. When we see a reason to pick the Chiefs, we'll let you know. I think I got KC getting all the way to 13, of course after letting the Steelers get to 34. Jason's predicting the ol' blanking. Either way, squoosh.
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