NFL Picks for Week 8

I hope everyone had a nice Halloween. Whether it was taking your kids Trick O Treating, or picking up a slutty nurse wearing fishnet stockings at a costume party, the only thing that counts is if you wake up this morning with a smile.

I am smiling today and do you know why? NFL Sunday is here, and we are offically starting to look at possibilites with teams contending for playoffs spots.

There are also another six or so teams staring at the possibility of the #1 Overall pick in the 2010 Draft. There is especially one game on the slate that will have major implications on that this week.

Without further ado, the Week 8 picks:

Chicago Bears 27, Cleveland Browns 13 - The Bears were not just beaten last week by the Bengals, they were flat out stomped on and embarassed. So what is the best remedy for a defense that could not stop an infant last week? An offense that even the infant could outplay. Mangini's misfits are awful, and led by a QB that would be proud to complete 45% of his passes. Pathetic.

Indianaoplis Colts 34, San Francisco 49ers 17 - Alex Smith last week was a great story, and he will be solid this week in a bad venue for any QB. Smith will not be the reason the Niners lose. This defense has been getting shredded by aerial offenses the past several week, and now head into Peyton Manning's house. That should be a House of Horrors.

Baltimore Ravens 23, Denver Broncos 20 - Junior Belichick has had the Broncos playing near flawless this year, but it is alot to ask a team to go into Baltimore, who should be in HGH mode after the Bye week and losing 3 close games in a row. Nothing against the Broncos, they play valiantly in defeat.

New York Jets 23, Miami Dolphins 16 - Rematch of the Monday Night game that went to the last second, with a ton of trash talking. This game will be on the shoulders of Chad Henne, who looked like a virgin seeing Ron Jeremy naked in the 2nd half against the Saints. The Meadowland will be hostile, and Henne forunately still has the diaper on from last week.

Houston Texans 24, Buffalo Bills 10 - Yes, I am falling for the trap again. As soon as I usually put faith into the Texans, they let me down. I just cannot see a team as awful as the Bills are on offense, score enough. Texans have too much artillery, and will probaly finally give Steve Slaton 20-25 carries this week.

Dallas Cowboys 34, Seattle Seahawks 20 - When did Miles Austin become this generation's verison of Willie "Flipper" Anderson? You remember Flipper right? The WR on the Rams in the late 80's, who's job basically was to run 20+ yard patterns. He still holds the NFL single game record for receiving yards. The way Austin is going, he may break that streak one week.

Speaking of teams that old Flipper tossed a dagger into...

Philadelphia Eagles 31, New York Giants 28 - Flipper killed the Giants in the playoffs one year in the Meadowlands. I bring this up because, the Eagles have someone similar to Flipper Anderson's skill set that will haunt the Giants this week. DeShaun Jackson will score 2 TD's, one of them on a bomb pass. Philly takes round 1 for the day...

New York Yankees 7, Philadelphia Phillies 2 - Is Charlie Manuel really going with Joe Blanton, who's ERA is over 7 in his career against the Yankees? This might be a bloodbath, especially if CC Sabathia bring his A-Game on 3 days rest. Round 2 for the better city!

Detroit Lions 27, St. Louis Rams 24 - The Toilet Bowl! With all these games with potential divison and playoffs implications this week, how did we get stuck with this masterpiece? Hopefully, we will see some things we have not seen yet this season. They are....

1. Steven Jackson finally scores a touchdown.

2. We see a beautiful 75 yard TD pass from Stafford to Megatron Johnson. The first like that of many.

3. Both GM's go onto the field and scout the halftime Punt/Pass/Kick entries.

4. The Rams win...... eh, three out of four is enough.

Arizona Cardinals 40, Carolina Panthers 13 - What a horrible matchup for such an incompetent team like the Panthers. Cardinals are #1 in the league against the run, the Panthers strength. The Cards have opportunistic defensive backs that have taken Int's to the house. Interesting, did anyone tell them that Jake Delhomme somehow still has a job? I swear he has some serious incriminating things about John Fox to still be on the field.

San Diego Chargers 52, Oakland Raiders 17 - The Chargers finally hit their stride last week. Now, they are dangerous until punched in the mouth again. Oakland does not punch teams in the mouth, they get curbstomped. Let's make the Over./Under on Doughboy Russell deer in the headlights stares into the camera at 6.5. He still swears that it was not his fault though...

Jacksonville Jaguars 34, Tennessee Titans 13 - The Titans are coming off bye from the single most embarrassing game of the year, the 59-0 nuking from the Pats. Jeff Fisher gets handcuffed into starting Vince Young, who looks about only one step ahead of our Raider Doughboy in terms of being completely lost in the pocket. I could make a Rush Limbaugh reference here, but I do not want Al Shaprton after my blog. We will leave it at that.

Finally....

Green Bay Packers 31, Minnesota Vikings 28 - The game everyone has marked on the calendar since Days of Our Favre signed with the Vikings. The Cheeseheads in the Lambeau will more resemble the LA Riots. I think the Pack comes up with a severe emotion and will a victory out of this. Aaron Rodgers NEEDS this win to get out of that shadow our soap opera star still casts there.

Before I go, I am still in amazement by the trucking Adrian Peterson put on the Steelers William Gay last week. He literally stepped on Gay after steamrolling him. If you were Gay, do you have no choice but to feel obligated to bow and thank AP everytime he sees him now that he let him live? That was one of those rare signatures moments in a legends career.

Barry Sanders had the run where he sent Rod Woodsen's kneecap into the 14th row. Earl Campbell had his with his jeresy literally exploding. Walter Payton jumping over both Lines, and Emmitt Smith's game against the Giants, where his shoulder was separated just to name a few. AP has his now. Unreal.

Last Week: 7-6

Season: 63-39

Weekend Wrap-Up

Is it just me, or does meaningful games in the last weekend of Major League baseball's regular season make it a much better sports weekend?

The Twins, needing to give the Royals the broom over the weekend, which included beating the future CY Award winner Zack Greinke, did so to force a play-in game against the reeling Detroit Tigers. Thanks to the Vikings, and the Days of Our Favre, the game will be Tuesday, which gives the Tigers a bit of an advantage, considering how hot the Twins bats are. We will be watching that one for sure.

Of course, the Tigers would be alot happier if star slugger Miguel Cabrera was not coming home drunk in the middle of a pennant race at 5am in the morning, fighting with his wife until 6 am, escorted out of his house by the police, then have to be picked up by Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski at 7:30am. Cabrera is lucky, if his coach was Tom Cable, he would have alot more than just scratches on his face.

Since the end of the baseball season is here, the Awards goes to:

AL MVP - Twins C Joe Mauer- Imagine what his stats would of been if he did not miss a month?

AL CY -  Royals Zack Greinke- Felix Hernandez made it close, but 2.16 ERA and 240 strikeouts on that team is just absurd.

AL Manager of the Year - Twins Ron Gardenhire- About two weeks ago, this pick would of been Rangers Ron Washington, but this stretch run the Twins have put up tipped me over to the other side.

AL Rookie of the Year -  Oakland Closer Andrew Bailey - I know relief pitchers do not get much love from this vote, but Bailey was by far the most dominant rookie of this class. The numbers back that up. Beats out Rick Porcello in my eyes, although the media are total victims for the spotlight.

NL MVP - Cardinals 1B Albert Pujols - Do I really need to go into this one? Thank you.

NL CY - Cardinals Adam Wainwright - Alot of good candidates for this one, but Wainwright has the horse that survived the stretch run. Tim Lincecum could not finish strong, same with teammate Matt Cain. Wainwright's teammate Chris Carpenter had a great year, but even he would admit that Wainwright is the man here.

NL Manager of the Year - Rockies Jim Tracy - Took over a cellar dweller mid season, and turned them into a playoff team. When you go 74-40, you are doing something special.

NL Rookie of the Year - Phillies SP JA Happ - This was the toughest decison for me, as Tommy Hanson is unbelieveable, and I hate the Phillies. Overall though, Happ does deserve the award. A sub 3 ERA in that sandbox is pretty damn good.

Finally getting off of baseball, and before we get into the football weekend, just how pathetic is it that NBA TV is showing PRACTICES of NBA teams??? That is right, PRACTICES! The NBA is dull enough until the last quarter, and they are telling me that there is a market for televised practices? Allen Iverson is now wants to go to practice.
It is not fair when Peyton Manning is in Arcade Mode. Watching the Seahawks-Colts game yesterday, it just seemed like before going out in the field, someone would pop a quarter into Manning, and it was like some 12 year old kid running up the score with a joystick. Unreal.

Steve Smith leads the NFL in Receptions and Receiving Yards. He even did it without punching a teammate. Wait a second, wrong Steve Smith. The loudmouth lunatic is not even the best WR with his own name anymore. How the mighty how fallen.

With all the press the New Orleans Saints offense gets, their defense is pretty damn good. They just destroyed one of the better OLines in football against the Jets. They did it with a ton of blitzing. Are you hearing that out in Tennessee? Paging Mr. Cecil!!! Bring more than four men at a time, otherwise, it is your ass.

I still dunno what is the bigger shock to me. The Titans 0-4, or the Broncos 4-0. I think someone put some acid in my Spam.

After getting humiliated by Virginia Tech, the Miami Hurricanes redeemed themselves with a huge win at home against Oklahoma. After those first 4 grueling game, 3-1 is a nice place to be for a program trying to reclaim their old glory.

Congrats to California and Houston. Both programs are the co-winners of the biggest fraud award for this season so far. Cal was suppose to be a powerhouse, and has been pummeled like chopmeat by Oregon and USC in consecutive weeks. Houston was ranked too high for their bridges, but 58 points to UTEP??? The same UTEP team that got hammered by Texas the week before? At least we will not hear the press crying that they are getting overlooked now.

What a catch by Georgia WR AJ Green in the 4th quarter of that great game between LSU. The offical that tossed that excessive celebration penalty should never officate another college football game again. That was one case where an offical played God, and dictated the outcome of a game. SEC, do the right thing.

Speaking of shady nonsense in college football, the Polls have Iowa moving up after 1 spot in the AP and 3 in the Coaches Poll after barely beating Arkansas St. Nice work, I would harp on that even more, if not for the fact that Virginia Tech somehow mysteriously leapfrogged Boise St. in the Polls after struggling against Duke.  Now, I am a Rutger's football fan, can I cut a check to some of these pollsters and see Rutgers #22 next week? This is not a joke, I think I really could.

Last thing on college football before the Monday Night pick. Is there anymore important game for the Heisman this year than Notre Dame against USC in a few weeks? That is the make or break game for Jimmy Clausen. With a great game, he can become to frontrunner in a star-studded year.

Monday Night Pick of the Week:

The only thing the schedule makers messed up was that this game should of been in Lambeau. Cut the tension with a knife tonight, as The Days of Our Favre finally get a crack at his old franchise, the Packers.

The storyline will be Favre against Aaron Rodgers, but this game will more about if the Packers can stop Adrian Peterson. I do not think they can, but the Packers will be smart to just air it out, and let their best playmaker Greg Jennings try to take over. This has shootout written all over it. Last one with the ball wins.

Packers 31, Vikings 28.