Each week I pick the winners of all the NFL games (or try to, anyway) without point spreads and without bias, either.
After a couple of tough weeks, I rebounded nicely with a 10-5 log in Week 7 to raise my cumulative record to 60-46 (.566). That’s a good thing, too, because the schedule is at its thinnest–with only 13 games thanks to bye weeks for Arizona, Green Bay, Jacksonville, Giants, Tennessee, and Rams.
NOTE: All games will be played on Sunday afternoon unless otherwise noted.
Miami 20, Baltimore 6 (Thursday night): The league’s two worst offenses get together in Charm City with ugly Color Rush uniforms and games that will bore a national-TV audience. Matt Moore provides an instant upgrade for the Dolphins by replacing Jay Cutler.
Minnesota 27, Cleveland 3 (in London, Sunday morning): All three London games have been blowouts this year — the final margins have averaged 30 points per game — and this one will be no exception. The Vikings’ offense is underachieving a bit, but not enough to give the Browns hope.
Buffalo 23, Oakland 20: This my hunch pick of the week. This year teams have gone to Buffalo and had problems. So in what I’ll call “The Marshawn Lynch Bowl” I like his former team to beat his current one.
Cincinnati 33, Indianapolis 6: The Bengals appear revived since changing their OC. Yeah, they stalled in Pittsburgh, but now return home to face the hapless Colts.
New England 30, Los Angeles Chargers 17: The Chargers have electrified fans with good play recently, but they travel west-to-east to face the defending champions. Worse yet for LA, the Pats’ defense has finally come to play.
New Orleans 24, Chicago 13: It’s the offense of the host Saints against the Bears’ opportunistic defense. Chicago has lived off turnovers the past two weeks, but this team will eventually need Mitch Trubisky to be as productive as … let’s say … Drew Brees. That’s not going to happen this week.
Atlanta 29, New York Jets 15: The Jets have been surprisingly spunky this year and they get the home field against the defending Super Bowl runners-up. But while Josh McCown has played well, we’ll go with Matt Ryan.
Philadelphia 37, San Francisco 10: This is the easiest pick of the week. SF–another west-to-east travel victim–gets to play against the NFC’s best team, too. But make no mistake about it: the Eagles will be handicapped without injured LT Jason Peters.
Tampa Bay 20, Carolina 16: The Buccaneers can put up points. They’ll be at home, too, against the Panthers. But Carolina has hit the skids (consecutive losses) since winning in Detroit.
Houston 27, Seattle 26: These teams don’t meet often, but it’s a good thing they’re playing now. The Seahawks are s l o w l y finding themselves. They’re usually tough at home defensively, but Houston brings a high-powered offense to town.
Dallas 30, Washington 20: It’s one of the league’s best archrivalries, but it just hasn’t been competitive over the last few years. Dallas has won 7 of its last 9 trips to Washington. That pattern will continue this week. Dallas has a superior running game and the Cowboys’ defense should be able to sack Kirk Cousins numerous times.
Pittsburgh 23, Detroit 17 (Sunday night): The Steelers won a Super Bowl at Ford Field and they return to the scene to play a Lions team that’s coming off a bye. Pittsburgh knows how to win in these situations. Lions don’t.
Kansas City 33, Denver 16 (Monday night): The host Chiefs get yet another turn in the prime-time spotlight. Denver, on the other hand, has suddenly lost its offense and is losing to bad teams. Despite two straight losses, KC doesn’t fit that description.
