The Sports Rumors

NFL Week 3 Predictions

Good Friday afternoon to you people. It’s almost 2pm now on the east coast which means we’re three hours away from the weekend. To entertain you as you wind down the week and go into weekend-mode, enjoy the NFL picks for week 3, including my picks stacked up against the ESPN “experts” at the bottom. My picks versus the spread will be up hopefully later today, or tomorrow at the latest. Enjoy!

Clarification: The picks below are just outright picks. These are NOT my picks versus the spread. Just wanted to clarify because a goofy friend of mine got confused.

San Diego (-5.5) @ Green Bay

Packer fans will go into euphoria if they can manage to pull this win out. The Chargers got embarrassed on national television by the Patriots, again. This time, they don’t have to wait an entire offseason to play again. Look for them to come out strong against the Packers and Merriman and Co. will harass Favre all day.

Pick: Chargers

Minnesota @ Kansas City (-3.0)

A bad team matched up against a worse team. The game within the game will be between Adrian Peterson and Larry Johnson. That’s about the only reason I’d even scan the game for a few minutes.

Pick: Chiefs

Buffalo @ New England (-16)

I just noticed how brutal the first three games have been for the Bills. Denver, at Pittsburgh, and then at New England?! I feel bad for them. In other news, Randy Moss has been thrown the ball 18 times and has caught 17 of them. The one miss was an interception thrown by Brady.

Pick: Patriots

Miami @ New York Jets (-3.0)

Before the season began, I had actually marked this match as a potential big game. Well, it’s anything but that. Two winless teams square off in a watered down AFC East rivalry. I bet this will be the game CBS decides to air on national tv, and to make things worse, they’ll have Phil Simms announce.

Pick: Jets

Detroit @ Philadelphia (-6.5)

I really have no idea what to expect from this game. I really don’t. Westbrook is having MRI’s done and looks banged up, McNabb has been miserable, and the Eagles defense is weaksauce. Detroit doesn’t have a great defense of their own but have been passing like no other. I don’t THINK that McNabb will let the Eagles lose this game and drop to 0-3 so I’ll side with them… skeptically.

Pick: Eagles

San Francisco @ Pittsburgh (-9.0)

NFL Network was hyping this game like it showcasing Montana and Bradshaw. Pittsburgh’s offense is balanced, their defense is beastly. San Fran is a nice team but they’re not ready to box with the Steelers just yet.

Pick: Steelers

St .Louis @ Tampa Bay (-3.5)

St. Louis had better win this game if they want any chance at making the playoffs because guess what? Only 5 teams have ever made the playoffs after starting 0-3.

Pick: Rams

Arizona @ Baltimore (-8.0)

See Spread Picks.

Indianapolis (-6.0) @ Houston

Houston is starting to look more and more like this years New Orleans Saints. They have a young team, a quarterback that is playing great, and a solid young wideout. But lets not kid ourselves. They’re not beating the Colts, and it won’t even be close.

Pick: Colts

Jacksonville @ Denver (-3.5)

I really don’t like these two teams at all. They are both underachievers and I hate underachievers more than I hate the Red Sox… well not quite that much but it’s pretty close. I’ll take the Jags in this one because of their defense and because Denver is having a tough time scoring.

Pick: Jags

Cleveland @ Oakland (-3.0)

A lot of people are going to wonder why I’m not using this game in my spread picks. Here’s why. I’m not an idiot and I’m not about to bet, or recommend betting, on two terrible and unpredictable teams. For all of you even thinking about including this game in your parlays, I highly advise you to stay away from it. My prediction on this game is just a coin toss. Heads says Raiders win and Tails says Cleveland wins. I’m serious, that’s how I’m picking this game. And the coin is up… the result is…

Pick: Raiders

Cincinnati @ Seattle (-3.0)

A lot of people are also going to wonder why I’m not using this game in my spread picks. Again, these two teams are too unpredictable and it’s not wise to throw money around on such games. However, the loser of this game is going to have a tough time making the playoffs. Seattle is coming off of a game which they should have won. They’ll have the home crowd involved and that should make it hard on the Bengals. Bengals are coming off their own disappointing loss and their high flying offense should be able to put up some points on the Seahawks. However, which Cinci defense is going to show up? That’s the question to which no one has the answer.

Pick: Bengals

Carolina (-4.0) @ Atlanta

See Spread Picks

New York Giants @ Washington (-4.0)

See Spread Picks

Dallas @ Chicago (-3.0)

See Spread Picks

Tennessee @ New Orleans (-4.5)

See Spread Picks