The Sports Rumors

NFL Week 8 Picks

Picks Versus the Spread

Went 7 for 7 last week… Lets see if I can do as well on the spreads as I am with the outright picks

Cleveland @ St. Louis (+3)

Detroit @ Chicago (-5)

Indianapolis @ Carolina (+7)

New York Giants (-9.5) @ Miami

Oakland @ Tennessee (-7)

Philadelphia (-1) @ Minnesota

Pittsburgh (-3.5) @ Cincinnati

Buffalo @ New York Jets (-3)

Houston @ San Diego (-9.5)

Jacksonville @ Tampa Bay (-3.5)

New Orleans (-2.5) @ San Francisco

Washington (+16.5) @ New England

Green Bay (+3) @ Denver

NFL Week 7 Picks

My Spread Picks are as follows:

Minnesota (+9) @ Dallas

Baltimore (-3) @ Buffalo

NY Jets @ Cincinnati (-6.5)

Tampa Bay (+2.5) @ Detroit

New England (-16) @ Miami

Atlanta (+8.5) @ New Orleans

San Fran @ NY Giants (-9)

Kansas City (+2.5) @ Oakland

Chicago (+5.5) @ Philadelphia

St.Louis (+8.5) @ Seattle

Tennessee @ Houston (+1.5)

Arizona @ Washington (-8.5)

Pittsburgh (-3.5) @ Denver

NFL Week 5 Picks

Jacksonville (-2.5) @ Kansas City

The Chiefs have a surprising little win streak going and are going to come into this game with a bounce in their step. They’ll be hoping to get even better once Larry Johnson gets back on track and starts bruising defensive lines. However, this is the wrong week to play the Jaguars who take pride in doing their own bruising. Look for a low scoring game, but the Jags winning.

Pick: Jags

Detroit @ Washington (-3.5)

Detroit has never won a road game against the Redskins… ever. Could this be the week? Doubt it. The Redskins are coming off of a bye and had two weeks to think about how they blew a win against the Giants at home. They have three pivotal games coming up against the Lions, @ Packers, and Arizona before they go into the brutal middle stretch of their season. They’ll be playing teams like Dallas and the Pats so the Lions game is an early “must win” if the Skins want to have a decent shot at the playoffs.

Pick: Skins

Atlanta @ Tennessee (-8.0)

Atlanta came off of a surprising home win over the Texans but don’t look for them to repeat against the Titans. Tennessee is quietly becoming a very strong AFC team and should easily become 3-1 after this week.

Pick: Titans

Arizona (-3.5) @ St. Louis

This is a scary game to pick and I’d definitely stay away from betting on it. Here’s why. The Rams are a wounded team who could very easily just fold in this game and not really give two cents about it. OR, the flipside, Gus Frerotte comes in and absolutely lights up the Cardinals who haven’t been able to prepare for him well enough and the Rams get their first win of the season. Stay away from this game. I’m going to take Arizona but I’m very, very skeptical in doing so.

Pick: Arizona

New York Jets @ New York Giants (-3.5)

Jets are slumping and Giants are gaining momentum. The Giants defense found a spark, courtesy of the Redskins, and now seem to be playing with the fire and intensity that was missing early on. Look for continued pass rush and blitzes along with Eli spreading the field.

Pick: Giants

San Diego @ Denver (Pick em)

Apparently, Vegas isn’t sure what to do with this game or the line. Well I am. The Broncos are not as good as their record and the Chargers are the most talented team in the league. However, Denver has two shut down corners and the Chargers have zero wideouts of significance. I guess I don’t really know about this game either. But I’ll tell you one thing…it’s hard for me to believe that the Chargers will lose yet another game. Because of that, I’m going to roll the dice and take the Chargers in this one and I predict a little run from them too.

Pick: Chargers

Baltimore (-3.5) @ San Francisco

Underachieving team versus an overhyped team. I’ll take Baltimore ONLY because Alex Smith is hurt. Otherwise I’d pick against the lousy, so-boring-to-watch-that-I’d-rather-listen-to-Kenny-G Ravens.

Pick: Ravens

NFL Week 4 Expert Picks

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

NFL Week 2 Picks

Week two is already here people.  Here’s what I see happening, along with my picks stacked up against the experts.

Cincinnati (-7.0) @ Cleveland

This should be the last game that Cleveland starts a quarterback that isn’t named Brady Quinn.  Cincinnati is coming off of a thrilling win against division rival Baltimore and should put up at least 28 on the Browns.  I’m excited to see what Chad Johnson does if he scores a touchdown.  God I love that guy.

Pick: Cincinnati

San Francisco @ St.Louis (-3.0)

Not really a “must win” game for St.Louis but they certainly won’t be feeling good about themselves with an 0-2 record and a loss at home to an up and coming division rival like the Niners.  Stephen Jackson should have a better game than last week and get over 100 yards rushing, leading to a win. 

Pick: St.Louis

Buffalo @ Pittsburgh (-9.5)

Then 9.5 spread should give the Bills some motivation.  They played their butts off last week against Denver and shouldn’t have been underdogs by more than 7.  People are getting too high on Pittsburgh after one win, forgetting that it was against the Browns.

Pick: Pittsburgh

New Orleans (-3.5) @ Tampa Bay

Saints have had 9 days to prepare for a rebound after the miserable performance on national television against the Colts.  Tampa Bay will lose and lose by a lot.  I still don’t understand why people are in love with Cadillac Williams and picked him so high in fantasy drafts.  He sucks.

Pick: New Orleans

Houston @ Carolina (-6.5)

The Panthers looked nasty against the Rams last week.  Defense looked on point and Delhomme looked like he did two years ago.  Steve Smith will dominate Dunta Robinson this week and the Panthers will win big.  The Panthers were my pick to win the NFC South and I’m sticking to it.  12-4.  Watch.

Pick: Carolina

Atlanta @ Jacksonville (-10.5)

The Jags offense looked anemic last week and had better rebound strong if they want a shot at the playoffs this season.  As for Atlanta, 15 more games till they get the number one pick in the draft.

Pick: Jacksonville

Dallas (-4.0) @ Miami

This year looks like the return of the battle between Moss and Owens as the best wide receiver in the league, and of course Steve Smith is in the conversation also.  Owens has promised to get 100+ catches and 20 touchdowns.  He got two last week, and he’ll get one more this week. 

Pick: Dallas

Seattle (-3.0) @ Arizona

Surprisingly, big week two divisional matchup between the two west coast clubs.  Seattle didn’t look too strong against the Bucs and the Cardinals gave up a win in San Francisco.  If Arizona is going to have a good season, they cannot afford to lose two games to start the season to two divisional opponents. 

Pick: Seattle

Kansas City @ Chicago (-12.0)

Chicago’s offense can be really explosive at times, and can be worse than Kansas City’s at times.  Bears are lucky they have a terrible team coming into town this week.  I have to say, I’m a little surprised that the Chiefs are this bad though. 

Pick: Chicago

Oakland @ Denver (-10.0)

Josh McCown looked good against the Lions last week but he’s out for week two.  Denver looked lousy last week but here’s all you need to know:  The Raiders have not won a division game in three years.

Pick: Denver

New York Jets @ Baltimore (-10.0)

Rookie quarterback Kellen Clemens will get his first start this week for the Jets while Pennington sits out with an injury.  He gets to play against an angry Baltimore defense.  Good luck.

Pick: Baltimore

Response to a Hater

Dear “Frank the Tank”,

I read, and enjoyed, your comment about how my football picks showed that I know less than an iota about football. You also pointed out that I made “popular picks”. If by popular, you mean picks that make sense to the vast majority of people making the selections, then yes… I am making popular picks. You’re not going to find me picking the Jets to blowout the Pats. You’re not going to find me picking Tampa Bay to go into Seattle and rock the Seahawks. You’re not going to find me picking the Raiders to make the playoffs and you’re not going to find me making absurd upset picks. That’s just not going to happen. I’m not going to go against the grain just for the sake of it, just like I don’t paint my nails black to stand out from the rest of society. Picks are popular because most sensible people look at the matchups and other relevant factors, then lean towards the favorite unless they have some other information that would lead them to choose otherwise.

Also, if you are expecting me to breakdown each an every game with a one page thesis like I’m Ron Jaworski or something, you’re checking the wrong site buddy. I said I would break down five games a week, and provide my outright picks for the rest. I have a career and a life that isn’t based on writing about sports 24/7. If you are willing to pay me a salary to do research and analysis, I will find every bit of information down to what a certain player ate for breakfast. But until then, I write whatever I want to write because its on my free time. I work on this site as much as possible but if you’re looking for the best analysis of every aspect of every game, hit up a site like, I don’t know, ESPN.COM or YahooSports.

In closing, Frank the Tank, I would love for you to go into more detail about which of my popular picks you disagree with. If you look below at the ESPN “Expert Picks”, you’ll see that I’m the only person who picked the Panthers, and one of two people who picked the Bengals. And I’d also challenge you to go week for week, pick for pick with me for the entire season and see who comes out ahead when it’s all said and done.

Regards,

The Sports Rumors