Joey P’s Week 11 NFL Picks

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Each week I pick the winners of all the NFL games (or try to, anyway) without point spreads and without bias, either. Here are my picks for Week 11.


I keep getting hotter as the weather gets colder. Another scorching week (12-2) and a four-week run with 40 wins in 54 games brings my year-to-date straight-up record to 90-56 (.616). This week marks the final bye Sunday, as Carolina, Indianapolis, Miami, the New York Jets, San Francisco and Tampa Bay will be sidelined.

(All games are on Sunday afternoon unless otherwise noted)

Courtesy ESPN

Pittsburgh 27, Tennessee 23 (Thursday night): The Steelers barely escaped last week with a win at Indianapolis, but they will be at home this time around, where they have looked a lot sharper. The Titans will complete four straight games against the AFC North teams, during which they’ve been winning, but not that impressively.

Baltimore 17, Green Bay 16: This is the ultimate good news-bad news game; the Ravens are 14-7 after their bye week, but they have never won at Lambeau Field (0-3). Baltimore is facing yet another backup quarterback in Brett Hundley, but they are 2-2 against second-stringers this year. The deciding factor? The Ravens are getting healthier, while the Pack is not.

Jacksonville 33, Cleveland 13: The Jaguars had to sweat last week against the pesky Chargers. No such problem this time around, even on the road.

Detroit 23, Chicago 20: The Bears have shown how pesky they can be, especially at home–but they are still not good enough to win enough of these games to break into the league’s middle class. I’ll take Matthew Stafford over Mitch Trubisky every time.

Arizona 19, Houston 16: The Texans will be at home, but a season full of injuries and bad luck have stripped them of their most impactful players on both sides of the ball. The Cardinals haven’t been much better, but they have a little more to play for as the stretch run begins.

Minnesota 24, Los Angeles Rams 23: Even though this is hardly a playoff rematch from the 1970s, this is the week’s best matchup, and a possible postseason preview. Squaring off will be two great offenses led by two rising-star quarterbacks, but I’ll go with the home team, which has the better defense.

Courtesy UPI.Com

New Orleans 37, Washington 17: The fading Redskins should send the New York Giants a thank-you note for holding up the bottom of the NFC East. Washington should sink further into the morass on the road against the red-hot Saints, winners of seven straight.

Kansas City 30, New York Giants 10: This interconference battle looked very appealing back in April when the schedule was released. It looks anything like that now, with one team pointed towards the playoffs, and the other headed for a housecleaning.

Buffalo 20, Los Angeles Chargers 17: For some reason, this game has been cross-flexed from CBS to Fox in search of more viewers. Because the hard-luck Chargers will be playing at their soccer-stadium home, they might not get them in person or in front of the tube. The Bills had their souls ripped out at home by the Saints last week, but they rebound here.

Denver 27, Cincinnati 20: The Broncos have endured a nightmarish midseason stretch, but they will be at home against a Bengals squad that has seen their own campaign get away from them, not to mention some late leads.

New England 34, Oakland 23 (at Mexico City): The Azteca Stadium audience will be thoroughly entertained by their favorite team – the Raiders – against the NFL’s current gold standard. The Patriots’ defense has righted the ship after a horrid start, and the Tom Brady-led offense seems to be clicking now.

Dallas 30, Philadelphia 27 (Sunday night): The hunch play of the week. The bye may have come at the wrong time for the streaking Eagles, and if Dallas left tackle Tyron Smith can play, that will be huge. Smith’s absence was felt more acutely by the Cowboys than that of running back Ezekiel Elliott. The Eagles are very good, but I don’t see them holding steady at one loss the rest of the season.

Atlanta 26, Seattle 24 (Monday night): The Seahawks would usually be an automatic pick at home, but injuries to their vaunted defense have left them vulnerable. The Falcons will still find the going tough, but should have enough to pull out a win.

About Joe Platania

Veteran Ravens correspondent Joe Platania is in his 45th year in sports media (including two CFL seasons when Batlimore had a CFL team) in a career that extends across parts of six decades. Platania covers sports with insight, humor, and a highly prescient eye, and that is why he has made his mark on television, radio, print, online, and in the podcast world. He can be heard frequently on WJZ-FM’s “Vinny And Haynie” show, alongside ex-Washington general manager Vinny Cerrato and Bob Haynie. A former longtime member in good standing of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association and the Pro Football Writers of America, Platania manned the CFL Stallions beat for The Avenue Newspaper Group of Essex (1994 and ’95) and the Ravens beat since the team’s inception — one of only three local writers to do so — for PressBox, The Avenue, and other local publications and radio stations. A sought-after contributor and host on talk radio and TV, he made numerous appearances on “Inside PressBox” (10:30 a.m. Sundays), and he was heard weekly for eight seasons on the “Purple Pride Report,” WQLL-AM (1370). He has also appeared on WMAR-TV’s “Good Morning Maryland” (2009), Comcast SportsNet’s “Washington Post Live” (2004-06), and WJZ-TV’s “Football Talk” postgame show — with legend Marty Bass (2002-04). Platania is the only sports journalist in Maryland history to have been a finalist for both the annual Sportscaster of the Year award (1998, which he won) and Sportswriter of the Year (2010). He is also a four-time Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association award winner. Platania is a graduate of St. Joseph’s (Cockeysville), Calvert Hall College High School, and Towson University, where he earned a degree in Mass Communications. He lives in Cockeysville, MD.



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