NFL Week 11 Picks

Hello readers! Another week of NFL regular season action has passed us by. The final 6 weeks of the season are upon us and there is still much up in the air in terms of playoff spots. Here are the current playoff spots as of right now:

NFC:

#1: Eagles (8-1)
#2: Vikings (7-2)
#3: Saints (7-2)
#4: Rams (7-2)
#5: Panthers (7-3)
#6: Seahawks (6-3)

Wild card:
Seahawks @ Saints
Panthers @ Rams

In the hunt: Atlanta (5-4), Detroit (5-4), Green Bay (5-4), Dallas (5-4), Washington (4-5), Arizona (4-5), Tampa Bay (3-6), Chicago (3-6), NY Giants (1-8), San Francisco (1-9)
AFC:

#1: Steelers (7-2)
#2: Patriots (7-2)
#3: Chiefs (6-3)
#4: Titans (6-3)
#5: Jaguars (6-3)
#6: Bills (5-4

Wild card:
Bills @ Chiefs
Jaguars @ Titans

In the hunt: Baltimore (4-5), Oakland (4-5), Miami (4-5), NY Jets (4-6), Houston (3-6), Cincinnati (3-6) LA Chargers (3-6), Denver (3-6), Indianapolis (3-7), Cleveland (0-9)

Not much has changed so far in the playoff picture, the Niners and Browns are still in the hunt so far. The Steelers play tonight and the Patriots play against the Raiders in Mexico City on Sunday so these two games could be the deciding factor on who gets the homefield advantage in the AFC playoffs.

Last week and same with every week past, present, and future I have been having my picks put to the test against Cardinal Viking, my roommate, who has been quite the picker in his own right. The margin has been very tight thus far this season as none of us have gotten the major edge. Despite this before last week's action I still held onto a lead. Let's see how well we did in last week's picks:

Me:

9-5 (Cardinals failed me and the Redskins laid an egg against the Vikings last week)

Cardinal Viking:

9-5 (Picked the Cards as well and he did pick the Falcons to beat the Cowboys).

Yesterday I celebrated my 29th birthday. It was mostly a great day as I get to survive another year on the planet Earth. So with that, this weeks cool video is probably one (if not my favorite song of all time) of the best songs ever made on to record. Of course I'm talking about "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen. Enjoy the eargasm!

Week 11 in the National Football League will have a Thursday night game, 8 early games, 3 late games (one of the late games will be played at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, Mexico), a Sunday night game, and a Monday night game. CBS will handle the doubleheader this week while FOX will have the single game. There will be 4 teams on bye week this week: San Francisco 49ers, Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts, and the New York Jets. Here are the picks!

Tennessee @ Pittsburgh: Steelers. Both teams come off wins last week as the Steelers beat the Colts and the Titans won against the Bengals. The week kicks off in the Steel City, and as long as the Killer B's have great games, the Steelers will roll on to another victory. Despite winning by 3 against the Colts, I feel safe with the Steelers. Titans could make it a game but its hard to stop the Steelers when they're on a run. 

Arizona @ Houston: Cardinals. Both teams come off a loss last week as the Cardinals lost to the Seahawks and the Texans lost to the Rams. The Texans come off certainly their worst loss of the season and Tom Savage didn't play spectacular last week so with the Cardinals looking for a win, I'd take the Cardinals, different story if Deshaun Watson was playing at QB for the Texans. 

Baltimore @ Green Bay: THE PACKERS! The Packers come off a win against the Bears, while the Ravens come off a bye week last week. The game doesn't have the same hype to it as it would normally to a casual fan, I mean Flacco vs Rodgers would be an ideal matchup, but life doesn't work like that. The Packers found a way to win against the Bears and I feel good with the Packers winning against a hapless Ravens team. 

Detroit @ Chicago: Bears. The Lions come off a win against the Browns while the Bears lost to the Packers last week. The game will be a good one in terms of division positioning. Either team could lose and get the division cellar while the other will get to play 3rd fiddle to the Packers. Personally the two teams don't seem that great on paper but I will go on a whim and pick the Bears to win, as the Lions will always do Lions things.

Jacksonville @ Cleveland: Jaguars. The Jaguars got a win last week against the Chargers while the Browns still haven't gotten a win, while losing to the Lions. The Jaguars seem to have more weapons than the Browns especially on offense. I feel safe with the Jaguars as of late so I'll take them again. Blake Bortles don't disappoint me.

Kansas City @ NY Giants: Chiefs. The Giants come off a loss to the 49ers while the Chiefs were on bye week last week. The Giants are in the midst of a terrible season despite having great expectations at the start of the season. The Chiefs while have been playing great this season, despite losing 3 of their last 4 games. Time to get off to the right foot by getting a win against the Giants.

LA Rams @ Minnesota: Vikings. Both teams come off wins last week as the Vikings beat the Redskins and the Rams beat the Texans. I like the Vikings in the matchup, I feel they have a better defense than the Rams. As far as offense goes it depends on which offense shows up, if the Rams offense makes the Vikings defense look like the Vikings in the Battle of Stamford Bridge (didn't end well for the Vikings, apparently), I'd say the Rams have an edge, but I'm going on a whim and take the Vikes.

Tampa Bay @ Miami: Dolphins. Both teams come off losses last week as the Buccaneers lost to the Jets while the Dolphins lost to the Panthers. This game was originally planned to be played in Week 1 but due to Hurricane Irma the game would be moved to week 11. The two teams certainly are different than what they were in Week 1 and I don't like both teams but if I had to choose one, I'd take the Dolphins at home.

Washington @ New Orleans: Saints. The Redskins come off a loss against the Vikings while the Saints won against the Bills last week respectively. The Redskins look like the team that we figured would be, a team that likes to be a show off but doesn't back it up, still the Redskins are still in the hunt for a playoff spot, however they take on an improved Saints squad that has won 7 straight games after going 0-2 to start the year. Drew Brees seemed to tap into the fountain of youth again and is having a good year. I'll take the Saints as a safe bet.

Buffalo @ LA Chargers: Chargers. Both teams come off losses last week as the Bills lost to the Saints, and the Chargers lost to the Jaguars. The Bills will be going with a different QB this week in Nathan Peterman, the rookie from Pitt, and the distractions of Tyrod Taylor will have an affect on the Bills in the game, I like the Chargers as they are at home and they still have Phillip Rivers at QB, that's more than enough.

Cincinnati @ Denver: Bengals. Both teams come off a lost week as the Bengals lost to the Titans and the Broncos lost to the Patriots. The two teams haven't been spectacular this season as the Broncos were off to a good start but have fallen off the high horse (pun intended) while the Bengals are missing a spot (another pun intended, god I'm funny) on offense this season, being ranked last in total offense. Probably a throwaway pick but I can't trust the Broncos anymore.

New England @ Oakland: Patriots. The Patriots won against the Broncos and the Raiders were on bye week last week. The game won't be in Oakland but in Mexico City as CBS will have the call. The Raiders are just like the Packers, if they don't have their franchise QB healthy, they suck, and while the Patriots have been playing lights out so far, with the defense being suspect at times. I like the Patriots because they don't let me down in picks, *cough* Raiders *cough*.

Philadelphia @ Dallas: Eagles. The Eagles were on a bye week last week while the Cowboys lost to the Falcons. It'll be Prescott vs Wentz in the Sunday night game. I figured last week the Cowboys had capable running backs in Alfred Morris, despite the absence of Ezekiel Elliot due to suspension. The Cowboys will be biting their lips at this matchup as this will be a close one. However I feel the Eagles will find a way to win and put the division race out of reach.

Atlanta @ Seattle: Seahawks. Both teams come off wins last week as the Falcons beat the Cowboys while the Seahawks won against the Cardinals. The week finishes up with the Falcons traveling to Seattle to take on the Seahawks. The Seahawks won't have Richard Sherman in the lineup as he will be out for the season. Despite the big injury on defense I like the Seahawks to win the game. The 12th man in CenturyLink Stadium will be loud. As they usually are.

Local TV Schedule (via 506sports.com):

CBS Early:
Baltimore @ Green Bay
Kevin Harlan, Rich Gannon

CBS Late:
New England @ Oakland
Jim Nantz, Tony Romo

FOX Single:
LA Rams @ Minnesota
Kevin Burkhardt, Charles Davis, Greg Olson

For more info on which game(s) will be shown in your area check out: NFL Week 11 Maps

Record:

Week 1: 10-5

Week 2: 10-6

Week 3: 8-8

Week 4: 11-5

Week 5: 7-7

Week 6: 7-7

Week 7: 8-7

Week 8: 12-1

Week 9: 6-7

Week 10: 9-5

Overall: 88-58

Cardinal Viking, my roommates record:

Week 1: 7-8

Week 2: 13-3

Week 3: 8-8

Week 4: 11-5

Week 5: 4-10

Week 6: 7-7

Week 7: 10-5

Week 8: 11-2

Week 9: 7-6

Week 10: 9-5

Overall: 87-59

See you guys next week!

-Tom

NFL Week 10 Picks

Hello readers! It is that time of the week again. Time to salivate at the prospect of football. Salivate at the chance to watch your team go on to victory or go down in defeat. Once the regular season reaches at the double digits in weeks it is certainly time to start looking at the playoff picture (normally I'd look at it the week of Thanksgiving but why not).

In spite of the flaws of the current playoff system, it is still a rather unique playoff system. Even if a 12-4 team gets in the playoff, there's still a chance that you would still have to play on the road (2013 San Francisco 49ers for example). For this system to be better it needs to go to a system based off record, not based on division. Such examples of this is the NBA system, where it is based off record (#1 seed has best record, #8th seed has lowest). Here is the current playoff picture:

AFC:
#1: Steelers
#2: Patriots
#3: Chiefs
#4: Titans
#5: Jaguars
#6: Bills

Wild card:

Jaguars @ Titans
Bills @ Chiefs

In the hunt: Miami (4-4), Baltimore (4-5), Oakland (4-5), NY Jets (4-5), Houston (3-5), Cincinnati (3-5), Los Angeles Chargers (3-5), Denver (3-5), Indianapolis (3-6), Cleveland (0-8).

NFC:
#1: Eagles
#2: Saints
#3: Vikings
#4: Rams
#5: Panthers
#6: Cowboys

Wild card:
Panthers @ Rams
Cowboys @ Vikings

In the hunt: Seattle (5-3), Atlanta (4-4), Detroit (4-4), Washington (4-4), Green Bay (4-4), Arizona (4-4), Chicago (3-5), Tampa Bay (2-6), NY Giants (1-7), San Francisco (0-9)

Certainly some of the bottom teams in the hunt won't likely get in come January, but it is worthwhile to keep an eye on the teams in the top/middle of the hunt. Momentum is key in playoff races. As far as I'm concerned this picture will look very different come the end of Week 17.

What will certainly be impactful in the playoff picture is the Ezekiel Elliot drama. Much like any other season in the NFL there will always be players in civil/criminal cases. What happens in the real world can be a different story in the football world. What I mean is that the NFL can suspend you despite the fact that you haven't been prosecuted or indicted. In Ezekiel Elliot's case, it can be very impactful. If he starts his suspension this week he would be eligible to play in the Week 16 game at home against Seattle. Had he decided to take the suspension in Week 1 he would've already been playing right now. Here's Dallas' next 6 games: @ Atlanta, home against Philadelphia, home against LA Chargers, home against Washington, @ Giants, @ Oakland. Despite the back and forth battle between him and the NFL, I would've taken the suspension earlier, in my opinion.

Where I live in Fargo, North Dakota there is no snow. As much as I would rather have 70 degree weather days right now, the denial is real. To me, its 3-4 months of depression and overall hate anything that is white on the ground. So the cool video of the week is something to hopefully keep you warm if you share the same opinion as me:

This week as the same with weeks past and weeks future, I have done picks with my roommate, Cardinal Viking, we had pretty similar picks last week but let's look at the results:

Me:

6-7 (fail falcons, and the Packers need to get a high draft pick as most of our team without Aaron Rodgers is terrible)

Cardinal Viking:

7-6 (he made the right call in picking the Cardinals over the Niners and well he picked the Lions too). 

Week 10 in the NFL regular season will begin in Glendale, Arizona and will end in Charlotte, North Carolina. There will be a Thursday night game, 8 early games, 3 late games, a Sunday night game, and a Monday night game. There will be 4 teams on bye week: Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, and Oakland Raiders. FOX will have the double header and CBS will have the single game this week. Here are the picks:

Seattle @ Arizona: Cardinals. The Seahawks come off a loss last week to the Redskins, and the Cardinals won against the Niners. The game will be on NBC and NFL Network. The game could be a huge factor in the NFC West as the winner will likely play in the second place marker in the division. While the loser will have to look at being at home come January. Both teams don't like each other, and I'll take the Cardinals at home as their defense will get it done for them, and the offense will put up enough to win. 

Cincinnati @ Tennessee: Bengals. The Titans won last week against the Ravens and the Bengals lost to the Jaguars. The Mariota bandwagon will lose a rider as I tend to like the Bengals in this matchup. Why? Mostly the weapons that the Bengals have and certainly the Titans have weapons too, but I can't go wrong with AJ Green. 

Cleveland @ Detroit: Lions. The Browns got a win last week and a loss as they had their bye this week (I don't know if its a win-win) and the Lions won against the Packers last week. The Browns glimmer of hope is Josh Gordon is back (at least as of 5:02 pm) and should play in the game. However one team has to win in this game and the Lions are certainly leagues ahead of the Browns. Sorry but you get a loss again. 

Green Bay @ Chicago: Packers. The Packers lost to the Lions last week, and the Bears were on bye last week. The oldest rivalry in the NFL will be renewed again at Chicago. The Packers have let me down for two straight games since going 4-2 and hopefully they won't let me down this week, otherwise that all-time record in the rivalry will go back to a tie. Fuck you Dom Capers!

LA Chargers @ Jacksonville: Jaguars. The Jaguars won against the Bengals and the Chargers were on bye week last week. The Chargers/Jaguars game will certainly be an exciting one. Two playoff contending teams. It may come down to whoever makes the most plays and scores the most points (obviously). The Chargers could win the game but I feel good with the Jaguars. 

Minnesota @ Washington: Redskins. The Vikings were on bye week last week and the Redskins won against the Seahawks last week. The game will be quite interesting. The QB carousel in Minnesota will be coming to a head. The Redskins have their QB in Kirk Cousins and I feel the Redskins weapons on offense will give them an edge against the powerful Vikings defense, which is no slouch. Vikings are due for a loss as this is a trap game. 

New Orleans @ Buffalo: Saints. The Bills lost to the Jets last week and the Saints won against the Buccaneers. I hopped on the Bills bandwagon to see them lose to the Jets at New Jersey last week. I feel good with the Saints in the game as Drew Brees still can throw a ball or two deep. Sorry Buffalo but you lost my trust (and that's important) and my confidence in you. Enjoy 2nd place in AFC East. 

NY Jets @ Tampa Bay: J-E-T-S. The Jets won against the Bills last week while the Buccaneers lost to the Saints last week. The game will be in sunny Florida and I've lost most if not all of my confidence and trust in the Buccaneers. The Jets are a confusing team, they can play well one game and then play like awful the next one. Still better than that 0-16 finish that most experts were expecting. 

Pittsburgh @ Indianapolis: Steelers. The Steelers were on bye week last week and the Colts won against the Texans last week (big whoop). The Steelers seem to be back to form with the triplets of Roethlisberger, Brown, and Bell at the helm, but you have to remember that this team lost to the Jaguars at home earlier this season. The Colts are bad but they shouldn't be taken lightly. Still I feel good about the Steel City. 

Houston @ LA Rams: Rams. The Texans lost last week to the Colts and the Rams won against the Giants (rather soundly). The Rams have been the darling story of the NFL season so far as the team plays solid defense, runs the ball well and Jared Goff has had a great sophomore season (a rather different story most times). The Texans lost their franchise QB Deshaun Watson to injury a few weeks ago and the loss will be the biggest difference in this game. 

Dallas @ Atlanta: Cowboys. The Cowboys won against the Chiefs last week and the Falcons lost to the Panthers. Earlier today the Ezekiel Elliot story took a turn as the suspension has been upheld (for the 1000th time) and will begin this suspension this week. The Cowboys have other weapons at running back but I can't trust the Falcons this season. Especially when their defense is awful and Julio Jones hasn't had a breakout game this season. 

NY Giants @ San Francisco: 49ers. Both teams come off losses last week as the Giants lost to the Rams and the Niners lost to the Cardinals. I picked the Niners to win against the Cardinals and guessed it wrong. However the Giants are terrible as well as the Niners. I'll be on their bandwagon for at least one week. They can't possibly go 0-16. 

New England @ Denver: Patriots. The Broncos lost to the Eagles last week while the Patriots were on bye week. The Sunday night game will be an interesting one as Tom Brady has had a losing record against the Broncos, especially at Mile High. The Patriots have been off so far this season and had one great game against the Falcons while the week after almost lose to the Chargers. The Broncos are bad, but I feel safe with the Pats. 

Miami @ Carolina: Panthers. The Dolphins lost to the Raiders last week while the Panthers won against the Falcons. The week wraps up with the Dolphins/Panthers game on Monday night. Both teams have let me down in picking them but the Panthers seem to be the hot hand in this one. I can't trust Jay Cutler holding a football. 

Local TV Schedule: 

CBS Single:
Pittsburgh @ Indianapolis

Greg Gumbel, Trent Green

FOX Early:
Minnesota @ Washington

Kevin Burkhardt, Charles Davis

FOX Late:
Dallas @ Atlanta

Joe Buck, Troy Aikman

For more info on which game is on in your area go to NFL Week 10 Maps

Record:

Week 1: 10-5

Week 2: 10-6

Week 3: 8-8

Week 4: 11-5

Week 5: 7-7

Week 6: 7-7

Week 7: 8-7

Week 8: 12-1

Week 9: 6-7

Overall: 79-53

Cardinal Viking, my roommates record:

Week 1: 7-8

Week 2: 13-3

Week 3: 8-8

Week 4: 11-5

Week 5: 4-10

Week 6: 7-7

Week 7: 10-5

Week 8: 11-2

Week 9: 7-6

Overall: 78-54

See you guys next week!

-Tom