We are watching Green Bay/Arizona, Kansas City/Seattle, Atlanta/Cincinnati, San Diego/St. Louis, Denver/Indianapolis, New England/Minnesota.

One of our bigger weeks. I'm confident in my picks. I hope you are too.

I updated my other blog.

josh

San Francisco at Chicago
Wow. About as tough as "St. Louis Cardinals" against "those chicks from A league of their own."
Atlanta at Cincinatti
Much more difficult decision, but I'd have to take Cincinatti. I may regret this.
Arizona at Green Bay
I don't know why i - or others - believe in the Cards, but I do.
Seattle at Kansas City
Huard's hurt. Casey Printers isn't going to win them a game.
Baltimore at New Orleans
Saints in the dome. They're playing way too well and Baltimore is eating it.
Tampa Bay at New York Giants
They won it last week...
Jacksonville at Philadelphia
Eagles. After seeing the Jags get tooled last week, I can't even take the bait.
Houston at Tennessee
I'll go with some (former) Bronco pride here.
St. Louis at San Diego
I am the only person in the world not convinced by St. Louis and San Diego is currently embarassed. The fans will be on them early and I think they're too good to drop the ball two weeks in a row.
NY Jets at Cleveland
The Browns are named that because they're so phenominally shitty.
Indianapolis at Denver
Bring it on. Can Peyton play at Mile high?
Pittsburgh at Oakland
As much as those teams had off weeks lately (Pit losing, oak winning), im not that stupid.
Dallas at Carolina
The Panthers are finally playing like they should, despite the close loss.
New England at Minnesota
Pats. I wonder if Pat agrees. This could be an interesting and (very) volatile week.

So this week, I'm not overthinking things. My instincts have been better than my record this year, and I'm banking on it. Some games had me doubting myself last week, but this week, this is what is going to happen. 10 wins at least. Oh yeah.

Matt Leinart isn't Favre yet. Packers still have some life left.
Vick and the Falcons won a shootout against a great defense last week and Cincy isn't the same team this year.
Baltimore, sans McNair, is no match for the Saints in the Superdome.
Houston is on the road and Tenessee is rested, but the Texans are on a high after spanking the Jags.
Jacksonville and Philly are both needing to bounce back, but the Eagles are a better squad and are at home. McNabb has too much pride.
Seattle is wounded and Kansas City is somehow getting wins out of some kid named Huard. Chiefs in a blowout.
The 49ers are at home to the Bears.
Tampa drained the emotional pool last week and won't have the same jump against the Giants in New York.
St. Louis is an underrated team. San Diego is an overrated (just see Josh's KC/SD comment last week)team and the Rams defense will eat Phillip Rivers for an early supper.
Indianapolis and Denver will be a damn good game, but Manning, at least in the regular season, finds ways to win. The Colts win another 'too-close-for-comfort' game.
The hapless Browns host the Jets, who have an outside shot at a wild card spot.
The Steelers has a lot to prove if they want a shot at a repeat. The Raiders are a good place to start.
Dallas' QB issues show up on Sunday night and the Panthers are behind a number of teams for that wild card spot. They'll come to play.
New England will lose by a field goal and Chester Taylor will continue his assault on Tiki Barber and the rushing title. Vikings defense will force Brady to make too many plays out of nothing.

I may be going down under, but you, my friend, are the one going down.

Well, Patrick is behind for the first time, and this week officially was the week of the upset. Where did Jacksonville go?

In other news, I was punished for not sticking with the Vikings.

Patrick: This week ~4-9~ (ow...) Overall ~66-34~

Josh: This week ~5-8~ Overall ~67-33~

One hundred games exactly and we're hitting two thirds of the time. Although that was a higher fraction until this week. Picks tonight. Go colts.

On the fifth play, it was over. I'm up one.

It comes down to the Monday night game for the lead... You excited?

Pittsburgh at Atlanta
Big Ben is back and Troy Polamalu is Kryptonite to Vick. He won't outrun this D, so the Falcons won't win.
New England at Buffalo
Toughest game of the week to call. The Patriots will swarm, the Bills will swarm. I think it will come down to running or passing and in rainy fall Buffalo weather, I like the Patriots advantages down the middle.
Carolina at Cincinnati
I am a fan of teams that lose their first game then win four in a row...
Jacksonville at Houston
Jags had a bye and slaughtered the Jets in their last game. Houston is... houston. After releasing Buchanon, they're already looking to next year. Sad.
San Diego at Kansas City
Chargers are just in another league right now. Scary.
Green Bay at Miami
Even the Dolphins aren't that bad.
Detroit at NY Jets
When you don't care, pick the home team.
Philadelphia at Tampa
Philadelphia has quietly put together the second-most points scored in the league, while Tampa has let in more points than offense-first Indy. Easy call.
Denver at Cleveland
Best defence in the league, something like 74 running backs, playing the browns. This could get ugly.
Washington at Indianapolis
MacFarlane in the middle and the offence is running, this will be close but not as close as some may think.
Arizona at Oakland
Let's just say Oakland isn't the AFC West team the Broncos should be worried about.
Minnesota at Seattle
Bring it on.
NY Giants at Dallas
Toughest call of the week. I like the chances of Barber and Manning though to hand Dallas their first home loss. Owens is too much of a distraction on a team that struggled with the Texans.

Patrick's Picks

Carolina at Cincinnati
Detroit at New York Jets
Green Bay at Miami
Jacksonville at Houston
New England at Buffalo
Philadelphia at Tampa Bay
Pittsburgh at Atlanta
San Diego at Kansas City
Denver at Cleveland
Arizona at Oakland
Minnesota at Seattle
Washington at Indianapolis
New York Giants at Dallas

Sorry, Minnesota, but IN Seattle? I doubt it. Go prove me wrong. Dallas makes me nervous, as does Pittsburgh. Otherwise, I'm confident.

I was ready to call this 'The Week of the Upset' but then the Bears came up with something. Poor Matt Leinart. But there were more than a couple upsets this week, and the records (which, of course, remained identical) reflect that. The numbers stack up like so:

Patrick: This week ~8-5~ Overall ~62-25~

Josh: This week ~8-5~ Overall ~62-25~

Upsets included Detroit, Tampa Bay and Tennessee picking up their first wins, New Orleans edging the Eagles and Steve McNair getting injured.

Better luck next week.

Week 6 picks (Patrick)

Buffalo at Detroit
Carolina at Baltimore
Cincinnati at Tampa Bay
Houston at Dallas
New York Giants at Atlanta
Philadelphia at New Orleans
Seattle at St. Louis
Tenessee at Washington
Kansas City at Pittsburgh
Miami at New York Jets
San Diego at San Francisco
Oakland at Denver
Chicago at Arizona

Bit of a stall on: Giants, Eagles, Ravens.

Ha.

Ok, ok.

It's officially a tie. And yes, the Broncs look good. The Vikings win ugly. Thank God Favre fumbled. The official stats are:

Patrick: This week ~11-3~ Overall ~54-20~

Josh: This week ~13-1~ Overall ~54-20~

So it's not so much that I had an off week, Josh just stepped it up to have the best week of either of us yet. And I am proud to say that I'm still even with a guy that went 13-1. So with 11 weeks left, we are back where we started. Congrats.

Picks to follow.

well I believe that ties us... A 3-1 week (shouldn't have gambled on Favre) capped by a Bronco win? what more could I ask for.

Sorry for the drunken phone calls. I was pretty whasssssssssted.

josh

A Bronco win tonight ties us.... oh, and my Broncos win. And they would be tied atop the AFC West trailing only INdy in the AFC. Right. So if they win, I'll pretty much suffer a seizure with excitement.

The Vikings fan at my Thanksgiving dinner last night said his team/your team will win a lot of games in the last 10 minutes. I reckon he's correct.

Cleveland at Carolina
Buffalo at Chicago
St. Louis at Green Bay
Tennessee at Indianapolis
Detroit at Minnesota
Miami at New England
Tampa Bay at New Orleans
Washington at NY Giants
Kansas City at Arizona
NY Jets at Jacksonville
Oakland at San Francisco
Dallas at Philadelphia
Pittsburgh at San Diego
Baltimore at Denver

Meaning Baltimore, Dallas, Washington and St. Louis are all Patrick's team. I'm left with Denver, Green Bay, Philadelphia and the NY Giants. Could be fun! (I really, really hope Denver wins... another heart before brain pick)

Patrick's week-5 picks:

Buffalo at Chicago

Cleveland at Carolina

Detroit at Minnesota

Miami at New England

St. Louis at Green Bay

Tampa Bay at New Orleans

Tennessee at Indianapolis

Washington at New York Giants

Kansas City at Arizona

New York Jets at Jacksonville

Oakland at San Fransisco

Dallas at Philadelphia

Pittsburgh at San Diego

Baltimore at Denver

A lot of thinkers on that list. I'll guess at three different this week.

We split the two games that mattered and both got hustled by the Patriots, Bills and Redskins (Wow, what a good game that was). The numbers stack up as follows:

Patrick: This week ~10-4~ Overall ~43-17~

Josh: This week ~10-4~ Overall ~41-19~

Schultzie: This week ~7-7~ Overall ~27-34~

Gearing up for week 5, the following games are looking like they could be difference-makers:

Washington in New York against the Giants
Kansas City going into Arizona
Dallas and T.O. in Philly
Pittsburgh in San Diego
Baltimore is in Denver

Tennessee is in Indy. That could get a little ugly.

All the games that matter are now completed. Josh is +39 this week and goes 1-1. Apparently Kansas City covered the spread.