Week 9 is here and boy am I glad. Last week was my worst week all year, I finished the weekend 0-4 with my picks and nothing seemed to be going the way that I had predicted. This week I am hoping that things go a little bit different; but with that said lets take a look at some things that happened last week;
- The Chargers lost to the Browns. Yes Cleveland won another game
- The Patriots absolutely demolished the Rams, not in New England but London England
- The Eagles fell to 3-5 and once again are looking like they might miss out on the playoffs. If they lose again this week there could be some major changes happening in the near future.
- The game that looked like the easiest one to predict last week once again turned out to be the closest. The Panthers walked into Chicago and everybody had them pinned to get blown out. It took a last second field goal for the Bears to get the win. Maybe Carolina isn’t quite that bad after all.
- I wish that the last second Dez Bryant catch in Dallas would have been good and put the Cowboys on top. I hate seeing the Giants win.
- Peyton Manning and the Broncos seem to be the real deal. He is starting to light up teams and New Orleans didn’t even come close to making this one a game. Look for this to continue as we head forward
This is week 9 of the NFL season and these are the games I like this weekend;
GAME 1 – NFC NORTH VS AFC SOUTH
DETROIT LIONS (-5.5) VS JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS
I like Detroit in this game to come into Jacksonville and win by at least a touchdown. Everybody knows that Detroit hasn’t played that well this year and had some more than formidable losses against the likes of Tennessee and Minnesota. This weekend is going to much different. Matthew Stafford is going to light it up and Calvin Johnson is going to be that reason. Jacksonville ranks 23rd in the league at pass defense and the Lions are that #2 passing offense in the league. There hasn’t been much of a connection between Stafford and Megatron all year, that is going to change in this game. I like them to really fire it up and for the Jags to struggle trying to cover Megatron and the beast he is all day long.
The other reason I really like this game is that even though Detroit ranks 18th in the league at stopping the rush, the Jags are without their best weapon Maurice Jones-Drew. This guy is the most pivotal part of this offense and allows them to get things going on the ground which opens up the passing game. This game we are going to see Jacksonville struggle and Detroit light it up. Lets take a look at some trends
DETROIT
- 3-0 against the spread in the last 3 weeks
JAGUARS
- 1-7 record this season
FINAL SCORE – DETROIT 34 – JACKSONVILLE 13
GAME 2 – AFC WEST VS AFC NORTH
DENVER BRONCOS (-5.5) VS CINCINNATI BENGALS
The second game I like this week is between Denver and Cincinnati. Denver has been one of the best teams in the NFL the last two weeks beating both the Chargers and the Saints. This is going to continue in week 9 when they come into Cincinnati and Peyton does his thing. Manning has been playing lights out and in turn is making Demaryius Thomas into the receiver everybody knew he could be. They hooked up for 4 touchdowns on the year and I like them to hook up for a 5th this sunday.
The Bengals rank 16th in the league at stopping the pass this year but will have to play much better than that if they are going to slow down the likes of Peyton. Look for them to be bringing the pressure all day and trying to force Manning into situations where he may turn the ball over. But I don’t see that happening. Peyton has played to many games, he has seen every single defensive front you could think about throwing at him and is too smart before the ball even gets snapped and easily recognizes the blitz. The Broncos season only gets easier from here on out, could this be the time when Peyton puts this Broncos offense on a streak and catapults them into the playoffs? I think so, here are some trends for this matchup;
DENVER
- 2-0 against the spread in their last 2 games
- 8-1 in their first of back-to-back road games
- 11/4 against the spread in Cincinnati
CINCINNATI
- 2-10 after the steelers
FINAL – BRONCOS 31 – BENGALS 21
GAME 3 – NFC NORTH VS NFC WEST
MINNESOTA VIKINGS (+5.5) VS SEATTLE SEAHAWKS
This game is going to be very defensive an I could see it being decided in the final seconds of the game clock. Minnesota has been the cinderella story this year starting 5-3 and in the thick of it to make the playoffs in the NFC North. Adrian Peterson hasn’t skipped a beat and has shown everybody that a little knee injury can’t slow him down. He has been playing at his usual level but for the first time in years he isn’t the most mentioned player on this offense, that man is Percy Harvin.
Percy Harvin has been lights out this year. He is making a good case to be the Most Valuable player and his averaging 1 TD and 92 yards receiving in his last 4 games. Nobody has been able to slow him down and I don’t think that the Seahawks will be the first ones to succeed at that. Seattle ranks 13th at stopping the pass in the league, and they will be relying heavily on their secondary to slow the pace of this game. Last week was the first time all season anybody has held the Vikings to less than 20 points. This isn’t going to happen again this week and unless Seattle can put up the points to compete I see them falling behind allowing for Minnesota’s rushing defense to shut down the beast mode. Here are some trends for this game;
VIKINGS
- 6-0 as dogs of more than 3 points after allowing more than 35 points
SEAHAWKS
- 4-0 against the spread in their last 4 games, they are due for a loss
FINAL SCORE – MINNESOTA 27 – SEAHAWKS 24
GAME 4
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (+3.5) VS NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
The final game I decided to go with this week is the Eagles and Saints. Both of these teams have been serious disappointments this season and out of the two I think that the Eagles have the best chance at turning their season around. The Eagles got owned last weekend at home against Atlanta but we need to remember that Atlanta has a much better defense than that of New Orleans.
The Saints rank worst in the league at defense allowing an average of 474 yards against; almost 40 yards more than the second worst Buffalo Bills. This game should be easy for the Eagles if they can get LeSean McCoy going and open up the secondary for DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin. All three of these guys can put up huge numbers on any given sunday and this weekend I think they will all finish with admirable stat totals when this game is over. The Saints can’t do anything to stop teams from scoring and relying on Drew Brees to put up those same numbers on their offense every game is unreasonable. They sure are missing Sean Payton more than what people had thought, even I thought they were better than this. The key to this game will be for the Saints to stop the Eagles from scoring and to force some turnovers. Everybody knows that the Eagles and Michael Vick especially are more than generous when it comes to turning the ball over this year. But I think that isn’t what we will see this monday night, they are going to take care of the ball and tear the Saints secondary a new one. Here are some trends I like for this matchup
PHILADELPHIA
- 4-0 away on monday night
- 13-4 on monday night road games since 1992
NEW ORLEANS
- 3-4 against the spread this season