3-3, 3-3, 3-3…3-3 AND 3-3. Thats my record for each week to start the season. It wouldn’t be consistent without going yet again 3-3 in week five right? The Bills, Lions and Browns handed me my three losses on the week; while Seattle, Miami and Baltimore earned me three victories. Lets see if week six is finally the straw that breaks the camels back and my record turns towards anything other than 3-3. Here we go, there is some big point spreads this weekend, and this is who I’m favouring.
SILVER PREDICTIONS
PITTSBURGH STEELERS (+4.5) KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
Kansas City is piping hot and the Steelers have looked nothing like what I expected this season. If you told me before the season began that in week six the Chiefs would be leading the league in scoring with an average of 32 points per game, and Pittsburgh would be 20th scoring less than 20 per game; I would have laughed. Pittsburgh is in a serious funk; with that being said I think this weekend they break that slump. Kansas City has been untouchable all season but the Steelers have the weapons to contend, and the Chiefs have been terrible at stopping the pass. Since losing Eric Berry for the season with a ruptured achilles their secondary has be allowing 13.6 yards per passing completion, earning them worst in the league at covering pass catchers. All that tells me is Pittsburgh has a very good opportunity to keep this well within 4-points and that Antonio Brown is in for yet another monster game. Look for the Steelers to snap the Chiefs unbeaten streak.
FINAL SCORE – STEELERS 29 – CHIEFS 27
MIAMI DOLPHINS VS ATLANTA FALCONS (-12.5)
Big spread here, the biggest of the weekend, and I’ll be laying those points. Miami has looked downright disgusting this season. I actually thought their offense would look alright under Jay Cutler, boy was I wrong. He hasn’t thrown more than 1 touchdown in a game all season long and in his last two starts has an average quarterback rating below 10. I just don’t see a situation where Miami keeps this game close. Atlanta should blow the roof off the stadium with their offense. The Falcons are coming off their bye week and a tough loss against the Buffalo Bills. I’m expecting a big bounce back game from everyone on the offense and for the Falcons to score at least 30. Which means Miami has to put up 17 to cover, a total they have reach only once in four games this year.
FINAL SCORE – DOLPHINS 13 – FALCONS 34
GOLD PREDICTIONS
CLEVELAND BROWNS VS HOUSTON TEXANS (-9.5)
Cleveland is in shambles, but what else is new. It was announced this week that DeShone Kiser has been relived of his starting duties in favour of Kevin Hogan… continuing the Browns quarterback carousel. To be honest it doesn’t matter who starts in this game. Cleveland is going to have their hands full with the Texans even if Houston is without J.J Watt for the remainder of the season. DeShaun Watson officially looks like the complete package and has formed a solid bond with DeAndre Hopkins. In the last two games they have connected for 4 touchdowns. They look like an unstoppable tandem at this point and I don’t see how Cleveland contains them. Houston has scored 30 or more points in each game since Watson took over signal calling, while Cleveland has failed to score more than 20 points in four of five outings this season. Lay the points with Houston this weekend.
FINAL SCORE – CLEVELAND 13 – TEXANS 27
TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS (-1.5) VS ARIZONA CARDINALS
Newly acquired Adrian Peterson should give the Cardinals backfield a go-to runner on first down, but I don’t expect he makes much of an impact in his first game. Tampa Bay has underachieved to this point in the season and much of that blame can be placed on Jameis Winston. He has been middle of the pack at best when discussing quarterbacks in the league and that is simply unacceptable given the talent he is surrounded with. With that, I’m looking for him to have a breakout performance in Arizona this weekend. The Cardinals secondary has been getting torched this season and are allowing the 6th most yards to wide receivers. DeShaun Jackson and Mike Evans should both have good games in this one.
FINAL SCORE – BUCCANEERS 26 – CARDINALS 23
PLATINIUM PREDICTIONS
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (-9) VS NEW YORK JETS
The Jets are winning games and causing bettors everywhere that picked them to win less than 5 games this season sweat in only week six. If you told me pre-season that entering week six one New York team would be 0-5, who would you have picked? I’m gonna go ahead and assume about 95% of you say Jets. With that, the Patriots are going to walk up and down the field in this game. They have offensive line issues and that has yet to be addressed, but New England has had the Jets number for years and we haven’t seen a decisive victory out of the Pats all season long. If New York somehow keeps this game close into the 4th quarter I’ll be flabbergasted. Rob Gronkowski should be back in the lineup which should help, while the Jets defense is allowing an average of 354 yards per game this season (25th) and are one of the worst at stopping the run giving up 143 yards per game this year (30th). The Patriots offense should score on nearly every possession this weekend and be up by double digits entering halftime.
FINAL SCORE – PATRIOTS 42 – JETS 23
NEW YORK GIANTS VS DENVER BRONCOS (-11.5)
No Sterling Sheppard, no Brandon Marshall, no Odell Beckham, no run game. How are the New York Giants supposed to survive this weekend. Eli Manning has clearly not been at his best this season and is now surrounded by scrubs. I’m gonna go ahead and throw this out there, Ben McAdoo doesn’t have a job by week 10 and the Giants offense struggles to reach double digits in this game. Denver is coming off two weeks of rest with their bye and Trevor Siemian has been a great surprise this season. It was easy to ignore that much of the Giants success last season came off the laurels of their defense and secondary, which I should point out has not been nearly as effective this season. They enter 26th in the league giving up an average of 363 total yards per game and 29th with nearly 140 of those yards coming on the ground. This is a recipe for disaster for the Giants. The Broncos love running the ball and enter this game 3rd in the league averaging 143 per game. Look for Denver to win big and force multiple turnovers on defense.