Black Holes and Snowy Mountains

Happy Thanksgiving!

Green Bay Packers 28, Detroit Lions 24

Why are we forced to watch the Lions on Thanksgiving? Who is thankful for that?

Oakland Raiders 21, Dallas Cowboys 26

With the way the Cowboys are playing, the Raiders could make this competitive.

New York Giants 23, Denver Broncos 13

6 in a row for Denver?

Miami Dolphins 30, Buffalo Bills 14

New coach, same problems. The Bills are awful.

Indianapolis Colts 24, Houston Texans 21

Peyton Manning has made a career of slaughtering the Texans.

Cleveland Browns 12, Cincinnati Bengals 31

Losing to the Raiders is pretty sad, but it seems to be a trend against teams everyone thinks are “good.” Carson Palmer and company should destroy the Browns like pretty much every other team.

Carolina Panthers 20, New York Jets 21

Both these teams are headed in the wrong direction.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 6, Atlanta Falcons 38

The Falcons should be able to shrug off a tough loss to the Giants at home against the miserable Bucs.

Washington Redskins 17, Philadelphia Eagles 22

I don’t know why I think the Redskins will score more against the Eagles than they did against the Cowboys, but oh well.

Seattle Seahawks 16, St. Louis Rams 23

The Seahawks still aren’t a good team. I can see the Rams pulling through in this one.

Kansas City Chiefs 17, San Diego Chargers 35

The Chiefs managed to beat the Steelers (if anyone can explain that one, drop me an e-mail) and hope to carry that momentum into San Diego. The only problem is that the Chargers are the new division leaders and look like they have no intent of dropping a game to the lowly Chiefs.

Jacksonville Jaguars 17, San Francisco 49ers 20

San Francisco should load up against Maurice Jones Drew and force David Garrard to make plays.

Chicago Bears 18, Minnesota Vikings 28

The Bears woes should continue against the red-hot Vikings.

Arizona Cardinals 21, Tennessee Titans 31

Kurt Warner says he’ll play, but otherwise a Matt Leinart-Vince Young matchup would be kind of entertaining.

Pittsburgh Steelers 20, Baltimore Ravens 23

The Steelers have problems everywhere, starting with Ben Roethlisberger’s concussion and ending with their dismal special teams coverage. Both teams need a win to keep their postseason hopes alive.

New England Patriots 34, New Orleans Saints 38

This should be a MNF game for the ages as two of the best offenses in the league are on display. The Patriots have a chance to get a meaningful road win and spoil the Saints’ chances for a perfect season. Drew Brees and the Saints are as good in the Superdome as the Patriots are in Foxboro, but I wouldn’t expect this to be a defensive contest.

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Major upsets in Oakland and Kansas City keep the NFC North playoff race interesting. Not many surprises elsewhere, with the Browns claiming the title of 2009’s worst team by losing to the Lions in a surprising 38-37 “thriller.”

Miami Dolphins 24, Carolina Panthers 17 (predicted: Miami Dolphins 16, Carolina Panthers 27)

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Several important division games this week, Washington-Dallas, NYJ-NE, and Houston-Tennessee.

Miami Dolphins 16, Carolina Panthers 27

With Ronnie Brown placed on IR with a foot injury, the Wildcat loses its key player. I don’t think Ricky Williams and Pat White will be able to pick up the slack.

Pittsburgh Steelers 28, Kansas City Chiefs 13

After basically surrenduring the division to the Bengals, the Steelers need wins to stay in the wild card race.

Atlanta Falcons 27, New York Giants 31

Hopefully the Giants figured out their many problems during their bye. Matt Ryan has not looked sharp in recent weeks, and a dome team playing in New York in mid-November usually favors the home team.

New Orleans Saints 42, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24

Despite their first win and making the Dolphins kick a game winning field goal, the Bucs are still a bad team. The Saints know this.

San Francisco 49ers 21, Green Bay Packers 25

Aaron Rodgers is not Jay Cutler, and should be able to put up a respectable score against the 49ers.

Seattle Seahawks 20, Minnesota Vikings 31

Adrian Peterson and Brett Favre look to improve to 10-1 against another injury-wracked Seahawks team.

Cleveland Browns 13, Detroit Lions 20

FailBowl 2009.

Buffalo Bills 10, Jacksonville Jaguars 38

After firing their coach the Bills took a step in the right direction. Unfortunately firing Dick Jauron doesn’t give the Bills a run defense.

Washington Redskins 17, Dallas Cowboys 20

Maybe the Redskins can play spoiler to the Cowboys’ postseason chances again in Dallas.

Indianapolis Colts 31, Baltimore Ravens 28

Last season against Baltimore Peyton Manning led the Colts to a 31-3 victory. While weather might be a factor in Baltimore, the Ravens defense isn’t any better this time around while the Colts are hot.

Arizona Cardinals 33, St. Louis Rams 20

Arizona has been good on the road this year, and the Rams don’t exactly offer up a lot of resistance.

New York Jets 13, New England Patriots 37

Think Tom Brady is pissed that the Patriots lost? I think so too. At home against division rivals the Patriots will be looking to take out their frustrations on a fluondering Jets squad.

Cincinnati Bengals 21, Oakland Raiders 9

The Bengals defense came up big against Pittsburgh, and now they get to deal with the challenge of stopping Bruce Gradkowski. Hmmm…

San Diego Chargers 24, Denver Broncos 23

The AFC West is more or less decided in this one, and these teams are going in opposite directions. The Broncos still have a decent defense but are clearly sliding into mediocrity as everyone expected them to before the season started.

Philadelphia Eagles 20, Chicago Bears 23

Brian Westbrook is out again, this time probably for longer than two weeks. The Eagles lost on the road to the Chargers, and something tells me that the Bears are going to actually try this time.

Tennessee Titans 34, Houston Texans 31

Chris Johnson is putting up MVP-like numbers even though he won’t get it, and even though the Titans started 0-7. The Texans have trouble stopping the run, but this game should be a shootout.

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The Colts pulled off yet another victory against the Patriots, mildly reminiscent of the 2006 AFC Championship when the Colts came back from a huge deficit at the half. Other noteworthy performances included the San Diego Chargers beating the ever-underachieving Eagles and the St. Louis Rams playing competitively with the New Orleans Saints. Read how the rest of the league did below.

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The start of Thursday night games on NFL Network means I have to write earlier in the week.  Here are my meaningless predictions for week 10.

Chicago Bears 31, San Francisco 49ers 24

Both teams are on short weeks coming off of bad losses.  While the Bears defense is hardly what it was in 2006, it should be able to hold off Alex Smith long enough for Jay Cutler to rack up some points.

Detroit Lions 9, Minnesota Vikings 44

Matt Stafford can’t afford to throw any picks against one of the league’s best offenses.

Denver Broncos 20, Washington Redskins 17

It’s almost too easy to predict the Redskins’ score.  In a battle of incompetent offenses, I give the edge to Kyle Orton and co.

Atlanta Falcons 28, Carolina Panthers 31

Will the Panthers figure out that as long as Jake Delhomme doesn’t have the ball, they’ll be fine?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17, Miami Dolphins 24

It’s back to reality for Tampa Bay.

Jacksonville Jaguars 23, New York Jets 28

Despite a few recent wins, the Jaguars won’t be able to compete with the Jets coming off their bye.

New Orleans Saints 52, St. Louis Rams 20

The Rams have a defense?

Buffalo Bills 16, Tennessee Titans 38

The Titans are coming off two big wins while the Bills are still floundering in anonymity.

Cincinnati Bengals 23, Pittsburgh Steelers 20

The Bengals can all but seal up the NFC North with a win over Pittsburgh.

Kansas City Chiefs 17, Oakland Raiders 21

If I have to pick a winner…

Dallas Cowboys 27, Green Bay Packers 23

Demarcus Ware has to be excited about going against the worst offensive line in the league in terms of sacks allowed.

Seattle Seahawks 10, Arizona Cardinals 35

The injury-ridden Seahawks are a great way to follow up a blowout victory on the road in Chicago.

Philadelphia Eagles 24, San Diego Chargers 30

Which Eagles team will show up in week 10?

New England Patriots 23, Indianapolis Colts 21

Tom Brady and Peyton Manning lead their respective offenses against each other for the first time the two of them have played each other since Manning handed off to Rosevelt Colvin to seal the Patriots’ victory in 2007.

Baltimore Ravens 38, Cleveland Browns 6

Not sure why Cleveland gets a Monday Night game, but they’re sure to underwhelm us.

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The 2008 Lions’ record is safe after a Tampa Bay win over Green Bay. The Dolphins don’t live up to their talk, while the Colts and Saints remain perfect. How did your team do?
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A bit pressed for time again this week, but last week’s disaster hopefully will be avoided.

Baltimore Ravens 24, Cincinnati Bengals 33

Houston Texans 21, Indianapolis Colts 35

Green Bay Packers 42, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9

Arizona Cardinals 23, Chicago Bears 30

Kansas City Chiefs 13, Jacksonville Jaguars 28

Miami Dolphins 20, New England Patriots 37

Washington Redskins 17, Atlanta Falcons 31

Carolina Panthers 21, New Orleans Saints 44

Detroit Lions 14, Seattle Seahawks 21

Tennessee Titans 27, San Francisco 49ers 30

San Diego Chargers 34, New York Giants 38

Dallas Cowboys 23, Philadelphia Eagles 27

Pittsburgh Steelers 24, Denver Broncos 27

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Tampa Bay managed to avoid a loss during their bye week while I called practically every game wrong. Oh well.

Seattle Seahawks 17, Dallas Cowboys 38 (predicted: Seattle Seahawks 21, Dallas Cowboys 28)

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