NFL Week 9 Predictions

by JASmius



LAST WEEK STRAIGHT UP: 9-6
LAST WEEK vs. SPREAD: 8-7

SEASON STRAIGHT UP: 77-43-1
SEASON vs. SPREAD: 57-64

All you have to do to stop the Dallas Cowboys is deliver a stiff knee drop to the small of Tony Romo's back?  Wow, why couldn't Pete Carroll have thought of that?  The last few weeks might have unfolded very differently.

Of course, if you can't even get within half the field of Tony Romo in the first place, you'd need awfully knobby knees to carry out this strategy.

But, credit where credit is due: against Carolina, the Champs' special teams tightened up their coverage to its former suffocating level (at least for a week, anyway), and the Legion of Boom (a reference to the entire 'hawks defense, not just the decidedly mortal secondary) finally rediscovered a pass rush once Bruce Irvin was moved from outside linebacker back to defensive end, providing both fresh blood, taking the pressure off of Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett, and allowing the latter to rush more from the inside, shoving the line right back into Cam Newton's face.  They bagged the first three sack day since the opener against the Packers, which is fortunate, because my Jumbo Jack deficiency was growing critical.

No, last week it was the offense's turn to drop the ball - literally, with two fumbles (one of them lost in the Panthers' red zone at the end of the third quarter, leading to a Panthers field goal drive that only Russell Wilson's late-game heroics prevented from being the game-winner), a pick that, as usual, wasn't RW3's fault, as what would have been a touchdown pass bobbled right through the ordinarily sure hands of Marshawn Lynch (who once again struggled to a very pedestrian 62 yards rushing), and an uncharacteristically bad pass to a wide-open receiver that would have gone for another score.  That's at least seventeen points that Seattle left off the scoreboard that would and should have made this game a three-touchdown laugher.

Yes, an ugly win is still a win.  But ugly wins foreshadow the sort of ugly losses that preceded this one-week reprieve, and which will resume after the next two home games' breather (Oakland and the New York Giants) if these systematic breakdowns aren't somehow arrested.

A 6-10 record, in other words, is a very realistic outcome for the erstwhile Lombardi trophy-holders.  I don't know that I would predict it now, but I can see predicting it later very easily.

[Straight up picks indicated by asterisk (*); picks against the spread in parentheses (x).]

Baltimore* (+1)
Pittsburgh

Denver*
New England (+3.5)

Jacksonville
Cincinnati* (-11.5)

N.Y. Jets
Kansas City* (-9.5)

Oakland
Seattle* (-15)

Philadelphia* (-2)
Houston

Arizona (+3.5)
Dallas*

St. Louis
San Francisco* (-9.5)

San Diego
Miami* (-1.5)

Tampa
Cleveland* (-6.5)

Washington
Minnesota* (-1.5)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Indianapolis* (-3)
N.Y. Giants