Click images for desktop size: "Wolf and Moon" by Unknown This is generally considered the half way point of the season. Its interesting to see the super powers that have died and the new blood pushing its way into the elite. The Colts aren't quite dead but fading fast. The Patriots are being dinged and beaten into submission. Jerry Jones hopes of making the Cowboys into the 90's New York Yankees is an experiment failing.
The "dominance" of the NFC East is a joke. The AFC and NFC West
Click image: "Dark Girl" by Unknown continue to be humorous aberrations. In fact the NFC is looking might peeked, while the AFC keeps bringing the slam.
Tennessee is looking past its over hyped QB and has become dominant. They're playing old fashioned football too perfection and proving it still has a place in the aerial world. Buffalo has learned how to win and does it by scrapping, scratching and fighting.
The only NFC team in the equation looks to be Tampa Bat, who are using a stifling defense and a ball management O to look a lot like an AFC team . . .
Last week I was 10-4. Pretty reasonable but not great. As usual I find myself cheering against myself on game day. The NFL is just entertainment. I still have no emotional connection to any of these teams. I just enjoy the pinnacle of athletic perfections.

Click images for desktop size: "Computer Game Girl" by Unknown My picks are in bold.

Buffalo at Miami - The Bills are looking stronger and stronger. Its still hard but not impossible to see them in the SuperBowl. They have the champions talent of always being able to do just enough. That's hard to do doing an entire season but look at how the Giants parlayed that ability in the playoffs last year. The Dolphins look better and better each week, win or lose, but the Bills should still be too much for them.

Oakland at Baltimore - At home the Raiders looked just good enough to upset the Jets. They did not look good. In fact the Jets looked terrible and only part of that was due to the Raiders. The Ravens are banged up but seem to be taking some sort of strange team bonding attitude after the recent "Bounty" scandal (Where Tyrell Suggs made comments that the NFL is taking as threats to reward Ravens for injuring Steelers). Joe Flacco has faced better D's then the Raiders can muster. Raven pride will decimate the Raiders Offense. I look for McFadden to not have a great game.

Arizona at Carolina - The Panthers are overwhelming favorites in this one. I don't understand why. They have been, at best, inconsistent. Two of their wins have been blindly lucky and created by bad officiating. The Cardinals on the other hand have been punching up big numbers and are playing with an intensity and fire I didn't know they were capable of. Their division is so pokey that they have a chance to win it. They're taking that chance seriously.

Tampa Bay at Dallas - Loading up on convicts, malcontents and fringe attitude players has caught up to the Cowboys. Its not helped by having an older laid back coach who is forced to defer to a
Click images for desktop size: "Knave of Hearts" by Maxfield Parrish young hot headed OC. Romo, who is not a great QB, just a well trained one, going down should not cause a team to blow up like this. If you think about it they were blowing up before last week. Terrell Owens is making the situation unendurable. Who would have thought that in a week you'd see TO cursing out his QB while across the country Randy Moss was throwing blocks for his running backs! The Buccaneers are playing solid defense. Too bad Jon Gruden has to much ego to let someone else run their offense. Jeff Garcia has always given the Cowboys fits. This game is vital for both teams, more so for the Cowboys maybe, but I see the Buc's as being more capable of rising to the challenge.

Atlanta at Philadelphia - Matt Ryan of the falcons, looked amazing against the Bears. He should look good against the Eagles too. But the Eagles O and Donavan McNabb are much more of a threat than the Bears O. Its unsure if Brian Westbrook will be able to go, and if he does how well he'll be able to play, But picking against the Eagles at home against this kind of team is more than reckless.

Kansas City - New York Jets - The Chiefs have no running back, no quarterback and very little defense. The Jets are embarrassed after the defeat in Oakland. This has cruddy game of the week waiting to happen unless the Jets go crazy and Brett Favre decides to show that last weeks dismal performance was a one off.

San Diego at New Orleans - Game of the week and not just because its being played in London England. The Saints are this years hard luck team. Even Jeremy Shockey has started to show the strange attitude that made the Giants happy to get rid of this talented gutsy player. They've lost Reggie Bush, theirs an impending steroids scandal and all of that must seem 5000 miles away for them. The Chargers remain inconsistent and just rather daffy at times. I'm taking Dru Brees in front of Philip Rivers but it should still be a royal barn burner shoot-out!

St Louis at New England - The Rams have won two in a row! Who'd have thought. They should be feeling confident. The Patriots have lost Tom Brady and have now watched the end of Rodney Harrison's career. I think they'll pull together even harder and tougher. They may not make the playoffs this year. Still hard to say, but I don't expect them to lose to the Rams, even though the Rams do have the tools to exploit the Patriots defense.

Washington at Detroit - As pathetic as the Lions are and as bad as the front office wants to make
Click images for desktop size: "RanDB" by Richard Mohler them I'm still tempted to pick them over this yo-yo Redskin squad. But the Lions are pathetic. This is the runner up cruddy game of the week.

Cleveland at Jacksonville - This is probably the roughest pick of the week. The Browns still seem to be struggling with their identity this season. The only chance they have for the play-offs is to win out. The Jaguars are almost a mirror image of the Browns. These are two teams squandering their talent and I can see no real reason why. I'm taking the Jaguars because of home field advantage. I have little confidence in that.

Cincinnati at Houston - Another, who cares, cruddy game. The Bengals have probably lost Carson Palmer for the season. The Texans are boring. This game will be torturous to watch.

Seattle at San Francisco - Cruddy game of the week. The SeaHawks with no QB, defense or running game. The 49ers fired Mike Nolan for not winning with no talent and cruddy draft picks. But the 49er's bought in Mike Singletary to HC, which is strangely exciting. You know that a game is boring when you're looking forward to seeing somebody coach . . .

Indianapolis at Tennessee - The Past meets the Future. I don't think the Titans will go undefeated this season but I also don't think that its the Colts who'll beat them. The match-ups are too stacked in the Titan's favor. The Colts don't have the front 7 to stop the Tennessee running game and when they start to commit the secondary can't play man well enough to shut out Kerry Collins. Tennessee also has just enough D to harry Manning and to humble the Colts running attack. It might be closer than I'd expect but probably not. A good Monday Night game, at least on paper. This is a change for the strange games the NFL has given ESPN this year. If they reach the saturation level they want for the NFL Neywork I expect TV games to become a litany of cruddy games of the week.

New York Giants at Pittsburgh - As much as I dislike the Steelers I dislike the Giants even more. Too over rated teams that do nothing but win. The Steelers have the juice to humble the Giants. The Giants are slumping right now. The NFC East is slumping right now so I can't see them juicing up for this one.

As usual these picks are only for reading and then pointing at me and laughing.