NFL Week 6 Predictions

Cincinnati to beat Houston

The Texans are a strange team that can put up big numbers but at the same time can let the opposition have a good day.  The Bengals are good enough and confident enough to have a great day on offence and should get win number 5 here.

Green Bay to beat Detroit

The Packers O-line is terrible but yet Rodgers still manages to put up decent numbers.  This tells you that if the Packers can sort out the 0-line they can be challengers for the NFC North title.  After having a bye week look for them to better but not that much better.

Jacksonville to beat St Louis

The Jaguars have problems but then so do the Rams.  Jaguars are at home so they should win but only if they pound the ball with Maurice Jones-Drew.

Baltimore to beat Minnesota

Ray Lewis and the Ravens are hurting after a couple of big losses and ones they feel were down more to the officials than them (not sure I agree with them mind), so look for them to get a huge win in Minnesota.  AP will have a decent day but not sure he’ll break the 100 yard mark.  Also look for Favre to be under a lot of pressure.

New Orleans to beat New York

The Saints have had a bye week to get healthy and the one thing the Giants aren’t is healthy especially in the secondary.  Yes the back ups have played well but not sure how long that can last.  Look for Brees to throw is usual ton of balls and to put up big numbers again.

Pittsburgh to beat Cleveland

The Steelers are so hot and cold it is frightening but they are playing the Browns so they should win easily.  Big Ben and Mendanhall to both have big games.

Tampa Bay to beat Carolina

Yes the Panthers won last week but it was only against the Redskins.  Yes the Bucs can’t beat anyone but somehow I think this is their week to surprise everyone.

Washington to beat Kansas City

Surely my beloved Redskins can beat the Chiefs surely!  I’m going to say yes but don’t be shocked to see the Chiefs picking up their first win here.

Philadelphia to beat Oakland

The Raiders are glad that the Rams, Browns and Bills are in the league since it keeps attention away from them and just how bad they are.  Sorry to see Russell struggling so badly but then again he shouldn’t have been so greedy and ruined his rookie year.  Eagles will win be 30 this week.

Seattle to beat Arizona

Who knows who will win this game since both teams are hot and cold.  So going to pick the Seahawks since they are at home.

Tennessee to beat the Patriots

I think this is the shock of the week and it better be for Jeff Fishers sake or he is going to make a tough decision about the QB position really soon.  Patriots will lose 2 in a row for the first time in ages or at least it feels like ages.

New York to beat Buffalo

Does anyone think that the Bills will win this one?  Nope didn’t think so.  Easy win for the Jets.

Atlanta to beat Chicago

The Bears to lose a close one and this make the NFC North really interesting.  Plus this lose might get rid of the silly talk about Jay Cutler for MVP.  Falcons should continue on from were they left off last week.

Denver to beat San Diego

The Broncos to win again and this will surely annoy all the so-called experts who wrote they off during the off-season.  The Chargers continue to show that they talk a good game but more often than not fail to show up when really needed.

Predictions for NFL week 5

Ravens to beat the Bengals

Baltimore is playing well but so are the Bengals but I just think the Ravens will have too much for them.  Look for the Ravens defence to play much better after last week.

Panthers to beat the Redskins

Is anyone interested in this game?  Really two bad teams and I fancy the Panthers to win because they are at home.

Bills to beat the Browns

The Browns can’t score on offence and to make things worse they have traded Edwards to the Jets.  Guess they have already written off the season.  The Bills aren’t much better but are at home at least.

Steelers to beat the Lions

Detroit has won one game this season but they aren’t going to get win number 2 this weekend.

Cowboys to beat the Chiefs

Chiefs need to get a win soon but I can’t see it happening this weekend versus the Cowboys.  Look for the Dallas defence to play well and for Romo to have a slightly better game than he has been having.  Though it is nice to see Romo getting found out for what he really is a decent QB rather than this superstar people were making him out to be.

Vikings to beat the Rams

Peterson to get over 200 yards? Wouldn’t put it past him or for Favre to have a big game.  The Rams are probably the worse team in the NFL at the moment.

Giants to beat the Raiders

Oakland just isn’t that good and won’t be when they have a thug has head coach or a nut job as an owner. Manning and the Giants look good and should make it 5 – 0.

Eagles to beat the Buccaneers

McNabb is back and they defence is playing well whereas noone is playing all that well for the Bucs.

49ers to beat the Falcons

San Fran is playing well and I thing they will have enough to beat the Falcons on Sunday.

Cardinals to beat the Texans

I can see both teams putting up a lot of points this weekend and also look for Fitzgerald and Johnson to have big games.  Fancy the Cardinals since they are home.

Broncos to beat the Patriots

Broncos are playing well which isn’t good news for all the McDaniels haters but something I’m personally not shocked about.  Orton is playing well enough to win games and the defence is finally showing how good it can be.

Jaguars to beat the Seahawks

Just not sure about this game since both teams aren’t that great but the Jags are slightly better.

Colts to beat the Titans

When you are winless the last team you want to play is the Colts on fire and Manning playing as well as he has for a few years.  Peyton is already MVP favourite and quite rightly since without this team would be average at best.

Jets to beat the Dolphins

Two young inexperience QBs in this game but the difference is Sanchez has a great defence to get him the ball back a lot.

MVP favourite

New York Jets the 27th Best team in the NFL

The Jets have made properly the best coaching appointment of the summer and this was due to the fact that they were the first team to hire a coach in 2009.  In Rex Ryan they have a defensive guru who in time will be held as one of the best of all time but now he needs to show that he can take the next step and become a great head coach.

Ryan is one of the lucky coaches who actually inherited a decent team but has the problem of replacing last years starting QB.  But I think that getting rid of Brett Favre is a good thing since he was such a distraction to the team last year and choked at the end of the season.  Though when you look at the replacements they have on offer, Clemens and Sanchez, there can only be one winner and that is Mark Sanchez.  Sanchez turned out to be the most wanted QB in the 2009 draft with the Redskins, Jets, Broncos and a few other teams looking at him.  In the end the Jets jumped up the draft board and gave up a lot to get him and only time will tell if it was the right thing to do.

 Other plus points for the Jets this season are the presence of a decent running game in the form of Thomas Jones who in my opinion is one of the most underrated running backs in the NFL.  Let’s not forget that the Bears fell apart when they got rid of Jones to the Jets but then they did try and replace him with Cedric Benson.  The Jets also have a decent defence and should hold there own during most games this season but I think the lack of an experience QB will affect them this season and will mean the team with a losing record.  It actually surprised me that they never made a move for someone like Leftwich or Garcia but they obviously believe in Clemens and Sanchez.

For this reason I think that the Jets will end with a record of 5 – 11.

Cleveland Browns the 28th best team in the NFL

Before I begin off on holiday tomorrow so I’ll have a week off from these and will get on the 27th best team a week on Monday.

Yet another team who have a new head coach this season though at least they managed to get someone with some NFL experience in Eric Mangini.  I was in fact looking through all the NFL teams and there are 11 teams that have new head coaches that is pretty scary since it is showing you how little time a NFL coach is getting to bring a winning formula to a team.

I actually like the appoint of Mangini since this is a coach who did ok with the Jets especially when you consider the fact that he had the unstoppable Patriots to deal with one season.  The main reason he got fired is the same reason Childress will get fired from the Vikings at the end of this up coming season, the Brett Favre experiment.  Mangini and the Jets decided to hang everything they had on Favre being better than Pennington and it just didn’t work.  It might have been ok if Pennington and the Dolphins had been poor again but the fact they won the division and the Jets throw it away spelt the end for Mangini in New York.  The other good thing the Jets did with Mangini was to get him on board early, which allowed him to assess players before free agency really got going and for him to create a draft board.  

Although Browns fans and the majority of the media weren’t very impressed with the Browns moving down the draft so much I actually quite liked it.  Mangini got more draft picks, 3 in round 2, and he also got alot of players he knew that he could trust.  Another team stockpiled round 2 picks, New England, and they have a decent draft record to say the least.  Look out for the three second round picks to get a bit of playing time in Cleveland and do well.

I even like the way he got rid of Winslow since it was obvious he overrated himself and was also obvious he didn’t want to be anywhere near Cleveland so we hang onto a guy who has been a huge disappointment from the word go.  This guy couldn’t hold onto a motorbike so how is he going to hold onto the ball!

The issues facing Cleveland this season is sorting out the wide receiver position, Edwards wants traded (they shouldn’t do this), Stallworth is banned and Cribbs is close to a holdout.  This is why I think the two wide receivers picked in round 2, Robiskie and Massaquoi, could have decent seasons.  Though the Browns need to hold onto Edwards since he needs to put up a really big year for them to get decent trade value or for him to get a big contract.  Plus they need to get Cribbs into camp since he is easily one of the top 3 return specialists in the NFL at present.  They struggle enough without starting every drive 15 yards further down the field.

Then we come to the QB position, Anderson and Quinn, are both decent QB’s but you can’t afford to have them both on the roster for the money they are costing.  Personally I think it is time to give Quinn a full season but not sure Mangini agrees.

For all of these reasons I fell the Cleveland Browns will go 4 – 12 and have the number 5 pick in the draft for 2010.

NFL Predictions week 12

Ravens to beat the Eagles – Philly lose this one and their season is all over.  The fans will boo McNabb and demand Reid out on talk radio but both of these guys will be around next year.

Bears to beat the Rams – Yes the Bears were shocking last week but this is the Rams they are playing.

Titans to beat the Jets – Jets better hope Favre gets out of here in once piece.

Dolphins to beat the Pats - just when Cassel looks good the Pats will lose another game and their playoff dream will also be over.

Browns to beat the Texans – Quinn is playing well and looking the part.

Bucs to beat the Lions - Bucs will easily win this one.

Jaguars to beat the Vikings – Vikings will somehow manage to lose this one but AP will probably still have a big day.

Bills to beat the Chiefs – This could a pretty tight game but I fancy the Bills.

Cowboys to beat the 49ers - Dallas to sneak a close one.

Broncos to beat the Raiders – How many people will even watch this game?  Really about 2.

Falcons to beat the Panthers – This could be a great match but I fancy the Falcons to sneak it.

Giants to beat the Cards – Yes Arizona is playing well but then so are those Giants

Redskins to beat the Seahawks – Seattle is so poor I have no idea who is even playing QB for them this week.

Colts to beat the Chargers – You can’t defend the pass and you face Manning then you have problems.  Though look for both QBs to have big numbers.

Packers to beat the Saints – Green Bay looked good last week and they will continue that into this week.

NFL Preview Week 10

Well I totally forgot to do my predictions last week so I’ll try this week for my 80%. 

 

Week 10 features the first Thursday night game, great if you live in Scotland like me and get this free with Sky not so great if you live in America and don’t have the NFL network.  This seems totally strange to me but hey since I can get it I’m happy.

 

So here goes:

Browns to beat the Broncos – The Brady Quinn era starts in Cleveland tonight and luckily for him he is facing a terrible defence which is missing its best player, Champ Bailey.  The more interesting part to the Quinn starting is where Anderson ends up.  There is plenty of teams in need of a decent QB and I would say he is a decent QB so good luck to him when he moves.

 

Falcons to beat the Saints – Turner will have fun running all over the Saints defence.

 

Titans to beat the Bears – So good old fashioned football going to be played here.  Both teams like to run the ball but for me the Titans have the better running backs in Johnson and White.  Look for the Titans to play 8 and 9 man fronts since they know that Grossman shouldn’t beat them.

 

Lions to beat the Jags – Jacksonville are a team with no confidence and no running game plus they have shown that they an lose games to poor teams.  Look for Detroit to win their first game of the season.

 

Texans to beat the Ravens – I like the look of the Ravens but for some reason I really fancy the Texans to win this one.

 

Dolphins to beat the Seahawks – The Seahawks have real problems at he moment and the Fins are playing well.  Look for Pennington to guide them to another victory on Sunday.  By the way Miami have a real chance of winning this division.

 

Packers to beat the Vikings – Still not sold on the Vikings and so I think that Rodgers and the Packers get back to winning ways in the dome.

 

Pats to beat the Bills – New England will be hurting after losing to the Colts but look for them to win a crucial divisional game versus the Bills.

 

Jets to beat the Rams – The Rams have been improving but I think that Favre and the Jets will win comfortable at home.

 

Panthers to beat the Raiders – Things don’t get any easier for the Raiders and Russell.  After a poor performance last week they get a better team with a better defence to play.  Look for Peppers to cause chaos in this game.

 

Steelers to beat the Colts – The Colts will lose this game because the Steelers can run the ball and their defence is looking great again.

 

Chargers to beat the Chiefs – The Chiefs look good but the Chargers should come back from the bye week hungry for a victory that could see them become joint top of the division again.

 

Eagles to beat the Giants – I can see the Giants losing this one because of how important a game it is for the Eagles.  If they lose this one then they are pretty much out of the NFC East.

 

Cards to beat the 49ers – What a terrible Monday night game this will be.  The Cards and Warner will throw for thousands of yards versus this very poor San Fran team.

Preview of week 8.

After forgeting to make any predictions last week I’ll have another go this week. So here goes:

Ravens to beat the Raiders – Yes the Raiders won last week but the Ravens defence should be good enough to win this one.

Panthers to beat the Cardinals – This all comes down to Panthers being at home.  It’s that simple with both of these teams.

Bucs to beat the Cowboys – When you are struggling on offence one of the last teams in the world you want to play is the Bucs with their excellent Kiffin lead defence.  The Cowboys have issues all over the park and this wll result in another defeat this week.

Redskins to beat the Lions – Detroit wil remain winless this week with the Redskins winning this on the back of their running game.  Portis is teh MVP through the first 7 weeks of the season for me.

Bills to beat the Dolphins – Trent Edwards and the Bills to continue winning and looking good.  Some grab by Evans last week!

Pats to beat the Rams – Yes the Rams have been great recently but they need a full strength Jackson to have any chance of winning.  On the injury front the Pats must be worried about Brady.

Saints to beat the Chargers – The Saints to win the London Bowl this year.

Jets to beat the Chiefs – The Chiefs can’t win without Johnson in the back field so suspending hm rules out any chance of them beating the Jets.  The Jets and Favre will be happy they are playing the Chiefs to get back into the winning feeling.

Eagles to beat the Falcons – Matt Ryan and the Falcons will seem some intersting blitzs from Johnson this week.  This is when the rookie Ryan needs to really step up if the Falcons are to be taken seriously.  The Eagles are good but not as good as some people think since they are still the worse team in the NFC East.

Jags to beat the Browns – Browns are improving but the Jags should be too strong for them in Jacksonville.

Texans to beat the Bengals – Bengals are getting better slowly but the Texans are improving again and should win this game.  Look for Williams to have a big game.

Steelers to beat the Giants – The Steelers and Big Ben will hand the Giants their first defeat of the season.  To do this they need to have excelent ball control.

49ers to beat the Seahawks – Nice first game to have for the new 49ers coach.  Should be a easy win for them since the Seahawks have massive problems.

Titans to beat the Colts – The Colts can’t defend the run and the Titans love to run the ball.  Simple really and Chris Johnson and White will run all day.  Manning looked shocking last week and must improve if the Colts have any chance to win this season.

Week 4 – NFL Predictions

Last week my predictions went horribly wrong, with me getting 9 right and 6 wrong. Though if anyone seen the Dolphins hammering the Pats then I am impressed.

 

So here goes this weeks attempt and hopefully I’ll do better than last week.

 

Saints to beat the 49ers:- Yes the Saints have no pass defence but surely they have to put the Saints away if they want to be taken seriously this season.

 

Packers to beat the Bucs: – The Packers lost last week against a good Cowboys team and the Bucs won versus a decent Bears team but I fancy the Packers to get back on track with a win down in Florida.

 

Jags to beat the Texans: – Jags got the win they needed last week and should manage another victory this weekend versus a defence which doesn’t stop the run well.

 

Browns to beat the Bengals: – Bengals were unlucky to lose last week but I still believe that the Browns are a better team than them.  Lewis might have saved his skin for the time being but losing this weekend will put the pressure on him again.

 

Panthers to beat the Falcons: – This is a much closer game than people anticipated at the start of the season.  Turner looks good and Matt Ryan has impressed so far in his NFL career but the Panthers should have enough ability to beat the Falcons.

 

Cardinals to beat the Jets: – Having watched the Jets three times I fail to see what all the hype was about after the Dolphins game.  This is a team which is lucky to not be 0-3 and yet people seemed to think that they would win the AFC East.  Don’t be confused Favre doesn’t instantly make this average team super and it is showing up already this season.  On the Favre subject, another couple of games like he had last week and the Jets will wish they hadn’t wasted those draft picks on him.

 

Titans to beat the Vikings: – Titans have surprised people this season but they have a solid team which is better with Collins at QB.  Young is just the new Vick and needs to seriously upgrade his passing when or should that be if he gets back to starting for the Titans.  Early front runner for Defensive MVP surely has to be Bullocks who looks superb.

 

Broncos to beat the Chiefs: – Let’s not waste anytime talking about the Chiefs they are simply that bad.  The Broncos have looked brilliant this season and there is no reason for them to not continuing to look good this week.  Early front runner for league MVP Jay Cutler must love the way the Broncos are playing at the moment.

 

Chargers to beat the Raiders: – The Raiders are improving but just not that quickly.  Will be interesting to see how they react to the late lost last week.  Chargers are getting healthy again and are looking good at the same time.

 

Bills to beat the Rams: – Anyone on the planet think that the Bills will lose this game?  No really anyone?  The Rams have a great chance to go the season 0 – 16 they are simply that bad.

 

Cowboys to beat the Redskins: – The only way Washington can win this game is if they defend the deep pass better than they usually do versus Dallas.  They hopefully will but still think that the Cowboys will win this one.

 

Eagles to beat the Bears: – This one might not be very pretty but it will have some big hits in it. The Eagles should have enough offensive quality to win this one but all bets are off if Westbrook and McNabb don’t play.

 

Steelers to beat the Ravens: – Pittsburgh had a chance to show they were the best team in the AFC last week and blow versus the Eagles.  They must get better protection for Big Ben or there season will be over when Roethlisberger gets in juried.  Flacco is doing better than I thought but he will need to play well to beat a defence coached by LeBeau.

 

NFL Week 3

It is week 3 of the NFL this weekend and we are already in some must win situations for teams.  The usual craziness has occurred the first two weeks with some hot favourites to win the Super Bowl this season starting 2-0 and some unexpected teams starting 2-0.   The team with the biggest problem right now is the Vikings, not only have they started 0-2 but the other two main teams in the division (Chicago and Green Bay) have started well.  Chicago in particular has looked good in both their games and was unlucky to lose to the Panthers last week.  To add to the Vikings problems they have decided to ditch Jackson (which really isn’t a surprise) and go with Gus Ferrotte.  This seems like a sensible move but if the Vikings don’t beat Carolina on Sunday then questions will be asked.

Here are my tips for this weekend.

Falcons to beat the Chiefs (not that hard to predict)
Bills to beat the Raiders (Oakland have had a solid start but the Bills look better)
Bears to beat the Bucs (Orton is managing to keep Chicago going in the right direction)
Panthers to beat the Vikings (new QB or not Carolina should be good enough)
Pats to beat the Dolphins (Cassel and that defence are still to good for the Fins)
Giants to beat the Bengals (How much longer can Lewis hang onto his job?)
Titans to beat the Texans (Home advantage should see the Titans through this one)
Redskins to beat the Cardinals (Campbell looked much better last weekend versus the Saints)
Broncos to beat the Saints (Denver looked exceptional versus a good secondary last week so against the Saints secondary they might put 50 points)
49ers to beat the Lions (unsure about this one but feel the 49ers will sneak it after their emotional win last week)
Seahawks to beat the Rams (Seahawks are playing badly but not quite badly enough to lose to the Rams)
Browns to beat the Ravens (Ravens might be well rested but Cleveland know they must kick start their season soon)
Colts to beat the Jaguars (The Jags season could almost be over if they lose this one since that means they will have lost two divisional games)
Steelers to beat the Eagles (Philly were unlucky on Monday night but the Steelers won’t be showing them much sympathy)
Packers to beat the Cowboys (The best game of the weekend in my opinion and I think Aaron Rodgers will take another huge step in helping the Green Bay faithful forget about Brett)

Sunday night
Chargers to beat the Jets (Jets are still a fairly ordinary team and although San Diego have started 0-2 they still have way too much talent not to be beating teams like New York)

 

NFL Preview 2008/09

The beginning of the NFL season is nearly upon us so I thought I would preview the season and have my say about each division.  I’m going to do one division each day but that might not happen since I’m so lazy.

 

Starting us off this year will be the easiest division in the NFL yes you guessed it the NFC North.

 

Chicago Bears   

The Bears are a very strange team they have one of the leagues best defences, the best special teams in the league and one of the worst offensive, if not the worst.  Although the defence was average last season you need to remember that this defence took the team all the way to the Superbowl only two years ago.   Like a lot of teams though they have an excellent set of starters (Urlacher, Briggs, Vasher and Harris) but have a lack of talent in reserve.

 

The whole season for the Bears hinges on how well the QB and RB play.  This will be a run first football team and they must surely be regretting letting Jones go to the Jets last season.  Benson was never going to cut it being the main back and was rightly cut this off season.  Will players like Wolfe and Forte be able to produce big numbers this season remains to be seen especially against the Packers and Vikings have.  Lovie Smith must keep faith with Orton for the whole season and not chop and change the QB like he did last season.

 

Overall I think that the Bears will have a disappointing season and may only win 2 or 3 games and Hester might need to win these games himself with returns.  Division Position: 4th

 

Detroit Lions  

Its been a quiet off season for the Lions this year with no wild predictions from veteran Jon Kitna.  Detroit have little chance in my opinion of having a 8 – 8 season with a .250 season much more likely.  The lucky thing for the Lions is the fact that they should win 3 of their first 4 games.  The Falcons, 49ers and Bears are unlikely to put up much of fight.

 

The thing to watch in Detroit will be how the offence since it will no longer be the throwing made offence of last season, Mike Martz having left to run the 49ers offence.  Though the team will still be looking for a big season from Calvin Johnston and Mike Furrey.

 

Overall I think the Lions will head up with a record of 4 -12 which will earn them another high draft choice next year which they will probably waste on a wide receiver again!  Division Position: 3^rd

 

Green Bay Packers

On Monday the 8^th of September the Aaron Rodgers era finally gets under way for real against the Vikings.  This Monday night game might end up deciding which of these teams ends up winning the NFC North, it is that tight between the Packers and the Vikings.  In some ways it is a great starter for Rodgers since the Vikings traditional don’t have a great pass defence but in other ways it is a nightmare start for him.  The Vikings having one of the best run defences in the league which means if the Packers are going to win the game Rodgers is going to have to do it himself.

 

Aaron Rodgers will be under pressure from the fans, himself and the organisation to produce at this level.  From what I have seen of him in preseason games and the odd occasion he has came in for Favre in the past he looks like he will.

 

The Packers defence is an elite unit and this will allow Rodgers to have plenty of opportunities with the ball.  Overall the Packers are still the team to beat in the NFC North and I expect them to win the division again.  Division Prediction: 1^st.

 

Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings are this season’s hip team to tip for great things.  Hopefully this they won’t be as bad as the last two hip teams, Cardinals and 49ers.  I do think that they will be a good team again this year and the defence has gotten better with a pass rush presence in Jared Allen.

 

The big issues for this team will be the form of Adrian Peterson and Travis Jackson.  Peterson had a decent season but should never have been given rookie of the year ahead of Joe Thomas.  When you take the two huge games AP had against the Bears out of the equation you can see he just has average figures. Jackson on the other hand is a real worry for this team and it is easy to see why they courted Favre so much.

 

Overall the Vikings will be do well to get over .500 with games against Colts, Jaguars, Saints and Giants on their schedule.  Division Prediction: 2^nd.