The NFL Week 8 Preview and Picks Season 09/10
Another week has gone by and some teams like the Chiefs, Browns, Lions, Redskins, Seahawks and others have barely gotten out of the starting gate, whereas teams like the Broncos, Saints, Colts and Vikings are so far ahead of the rest of the pack, it would take a miracle now at mid season to stop them. And then of course there are those team like the Rams, Buccaneers and Titans that haven’t even gotten out of the starting gate with their winless records. How ironic it is to see the Rams and Titans in the raise for the # 1 draft pick of 2010 on their 10th anniversary of their trip to the Super Bowl against each other.
But I digress, let’s see what we are in store for in week eight of this NFL season.
Giants at Eagles - This will be a busy Sunday in sports with the World Series going on along with the battle between the first and second place teams battling it out for first in the NFL East. And the Giants are carrying a little bit of a grudge against the Eagles since they are the ones that stopped them last year from achieving their dream of returning to the Super Bowl.It should prove to be an interesting battle between Manning who is 4-0 as a starter against the Eagles, and McNabb who was impossible to be drug down by the Giants defense last year. One disadvantage that the Eagles might have, is the loss of their running back Brian Westbrook with a concussion. This could give the Giants the edge.
Prediction: Giants 28 - Eagles 21
Dolphins at Jets - The Dolphins come limping into New York scraping the bottom of the barrel of their division at 2-4 where as the Jets are coming off a blowout win against 38-0, against the Raiders, ending their three game losing streak.
The Dolphins will be facing a team that’s extremely fired up and rightfully so, they finally have a quarterback they can rely on. Rookie Mark Sanchez is the real deal and has been proving that all season long. Sure he’s made some rookie mistakes but overall he’s played quite well. But the key to this game won’t be the passing game, it will be the rushing game with rookie Shonn Greene racking up 144 yards and Thomas Jones with 122 yards.
The Jets shouldn’t take the Dolphins lightly, they could be like a wounded animal backed into a corner.
Prediction: Jets 30 - Dolphins 21
49ers at Colts - Well coming into Indianapolis with the Colts sitting at 6-0 for the fourth year out of five can’t be a very inviting feeling for the 49ers. Peyton Manning is again at the top of his game averaging 313.3 yards per game and he’s had no Marvin Harrison to help him reach those numbers, nor has he had his #2 or #3 receivers for that matter. It would look like the 49ers have a big job to handle trying to stop Manning who seems to be able to find anyone on the field to catch the ball.
Mike Singletary, head coach of the 49ers, has been slowly and methodically rebuilding the 49ers and announced on Monday that Alex Smith will get the nod to start over Shaun Hill who was relieved of duties last week when the 49ers found themselves in a 21-0 hole against the Texans. Although Smith was not able to get the comeback win, Singletary saw enough that it helped him decide to start him. Along with Smith returning to the line up, Frank Gore will be returning at running back. But that still won’t be enough to overcome the powerhouse of Manning and the Colts.
Prediction: Colts 38 - 49ers 21
Rams at Lions - The Rams go to Detroit with their worst losing streak in franchise history. At 0-7 with a 19 game losing streak, they have the opportunity to break that streak against the 1-6 Lions who earlier this year broke their 19 game losing streak. Out of the three winless teams, unfortunately for the Rams, they could be the worst. With no receiving corp, a quarterback the coach doesn’t seem to want to bench no matter how bad he plays, that leaves only Steven Jackson as a legitimate threat, and one man can’t do it all.
The Rams have been more competitive and have had more fire than last year, but that’s not going to win football games, playing with less mistakes and more polished fundamentals is the only way the Rams will be able to win a game. This could be the week though that even just a little bit of polished fundamentals could give them a win, otherwise they could be headed towards breaking the all time losing streak of 26 held by the 1976 Buccaneers.
Prediction: Rams 17 Lions 14
Seattle at Dallas - The Seahawks are struggling right along with the 49ers this year and having been playing very sound football. They’ll be going into Dallas with the Cowboys waiting for them with their newly found receiving target Miles Austin. He has become Romo’s top target. Austin’s first start opened eyes wide when he had 250 yards receiving on 10 catches and two touchdowns. And Romo has been on fire his last two games, passing for 662 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions.
On the flip side, Seattle has been struggling all season to get the ball to their highly paid wide receiver Houshmanzadeh and their run game isn’t much to talk about either.
Last year against Dallas the Seahawks didn’t fare well with Hasslebeck being sacked seven times and Romo passing all over the place with over 300 yards. The outlook for this year doesn’t look much brighter.
Prediction: Cowboys 28 Seahawks 14
Browns at Bears - The Bears are reeling and steaming mad after last week’s humiliation handed down to them by the Bengals who demolished the Bears defense with 448 total yards of offense and Cedric Benson ripped them apart with his 198 yards rushing and the score ending at 49-7, the worst defeat for the Bears in six years. But the Browns are coming to town and that could be the ticket for the Bears to put last weeks embarrassment behind them.
Although the Bears sit at 3-3, they are 2-0 at home and have a good chance of getting back on track when they play the Browns who have the 31st ranked offense in the NFL.
Prediction: Bears 35 Browns 7
Texans at Bills - The Texans visit the Bills with both teams trying to work on a three game winning streak. But it’s bad news on the receiving end for the Texans with the loss of their Pro Bowl receiver Andre Johnson. On the other side of the ball, the Bills have lost their starting quarterback Edwards and replaced him with Ryan Fitzpatrick who has helped the Bills win two of their last three.
This should be a pretty evenly matched game. So it should be a close one.
Prediction: Bills 23 Texans 20
Broncos at Ravens - The Broncos come to town sporting a 6-0 start while the Ravens, who had a 3-0 start now find themselves sitting at 3-3 after a three game losing streak. It’s obvious that Jay Cutler is not missed in Denver with the exceptional play of Kyle Orton, who by the way was not so good in Chicago, where Cutler is now. Orton actually has a higher passer rating of 100.1 than Tom Brady, Phillip Rivers and Donovan McNabb. Stands to reason the Broncos are cruising at the top of the AFC West.
Baltimore’s best chance would be to catch Denver’s speedy defense off guard and maybe to get the ball to Ray Rice, who’s averaging 6.0 yards per carry and has a team-high 33 receptions. He caught a career-high 10 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown in the loss to the Vikings, and his 766 yards from scrimmage are fourth-most in the NFL.
Prediction: Broncos 38 Ravens 28
Jaguars at Titans- With the Jaguars stumbling into town to face a hapless and winless Titans team, the future looks very dim for the Titans and a little bit brighter for the Jaguars. This might be just the ticket for the Jaguars to face a team that just can’t seem to get their motor started. The Titan are playing so poorly that Kerry Collins, Titans quarterback, may be looking at the clipboard real soon.
Jaguars have already faced the Titans earlier this year and proved that they could pull off a convincing win with a 37-17 final. The Titans are still reeling from losing 12 of their starters from a more powerful team in 2008, to free agency, so it’s unlikely that the Titans will go much farther than they already are, the AFC Central basement.
Prediction: Jaguars 38 Titans 14
Raiders at Chargers - The Chargers just squeaked out a victory over the Raiders in Oakland this year, but the Chargers seem to have the Raiders number since they have not lost to them since 2003. With the Chargers coming off of a dominate victory over the Chiefs, 37-7, last week and the Raiders with their tails between their legs coming off a 38-0 beating in Oakland by the Jets, this game could go either way. That is if the Raiders had enough talent to pull it off.
Angry and crushed as they might be from last weeks beating, the Raiders in San Diego probably won’t have enough to overcome a fired up Chargers team.
Prediction: Chargers 37 Raiders 14
Panthers at Cardinals - The Cardinals stand at 1st place in the NFC West and rightfully so with their 4-2 record. With Kurt Warner still firing bullets to all his receivers and with a team confident that they can win behind Warner, the chances for another win for the Cardinals could be good.
If the Panthers, who are struggling, lose another game, this could be the end of Delhomme’s career in Carolina. He will have to have a stellar performance against a Cardinals defense that forced four turnovers against a very tough Giants team in New York last week.
Prediction: Cardinals 35 Panthers 28
Vikings at Packers - After 16 years in Green Bay, the unsung hero of many games, Brett Favre will return to his old hometown to probably a mixture of cheers and boos. But the unwavering Favre will hold his head high behind a 6-1 Vikings team of which they’ve already beat the Vikings earlier this season.
The Packers will have to play a lot sharper against the Vikings than they have against other teams so far. The Vikings defense is finally beginning to click solidly under their new defensive coordinator Dom Capers.
Although the Packers sit at 4-2, one needs to realize that two of those wins came by beating two teams with the combined record of 2-11.
Prediction: Vikings 40 Packers 35
Falcons at Saints - It’s a battle between the two teams of the NFC South, Falcons 4-2 and the Saints 6-0. With a Saints win against the Falcons would tie the Saints with their 7-0 best start in 1991 With a team rallying behind a hot Drew Brees it’s easy to see how they can be 6-0. But that’s not all of what their success has been based on this year. It’s been defense, they probably have the best defense the franchise has ever seen.
The Falcons are going to find this game a tough one to try and win especially being in New Orleans and against a team whose main challenge right now might just be about learning how to handle all of their success up to this point.
Predictions: Saints 38 Falcons 30
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