Sunday morning picks

Please note that my picks are who’s going to win, not who is going to cover the spread. The lines are just there to help us get a feel for how the teams match up. My picks are in bold.

• Arizona at Dallas (-9.5) – Nine and a half? Sounds about right to me. Julius is out again this week, but does Arizona even have a running back? I’m still pissed that my fantasy sleeper pick JJ Arrington was a total bust. Go Boys.
• Chicago at Detroit (-3) – Battle of the bads. There’s so much wasted talent on the Lions, and only a little wasted talent on the Bears, since they actually use Thomas Jones. I’d like to say that Jeff Garcia will lead the team to 8-8 but not get them into the playoffs, but 8-8 is dominant in the NFC North. I’m taking the Lions.
• Cleveland at Houston (-1.5) – This will be the best game of the week. You have to be real bad to only get 1.5 at home over Cleveland. Houston goes 0-8 this week.
• Green Bay at Cincinnati (-10) – Carson Palmer is good. The Packers are not. I picked the Bengals to win last week at Pittsburgh, and they let me down. Maybe I should become a Bengals fan when the Saints move out of New Orleans. They have a history of of hey-we’re-almost-not-crappy-this-year too.
• Jacksonville (-4.5) at St. Louis – I still think Dave overrates the Jags, but they can beat St. Louis. Heck, the Rams needed help from the referees to beat the Saints.
• Minnesota at Carolina (-7.5) – The Vikes will do better than they have done now that Burleson is back, but it won’t be enough. They don’t have enough defense to stop Steve Smith. Also, the over/under in this game is 45. The over is my lock of the week.
• Oakland (-1) at Tennessee – Lamont finally had his big game last week. He will have another this week.
• Washington at N.Y. Giants (-1.5) – Big game for the NFC East. Eli is good, but Washington, as a team, is better. Plaxico is a wuss.
• Kansas City at San Diego (-6) – Think the Chiefs can stop LaDainian like the Eagles did last week? Me either.

I have to do two picks for the next game.

• Heart pick: Miami at New Orleans (-2.5) – Nick Saban returns to Tiger Stadium and gets booed. The Saints are determined to beat the refs and play solid, penalty-free, turnover-free football and blow the Dolphins out.
• Head pick: Miami at New Orleans (-2.5) – see the my comments above on the line in the Cleveland/Houston game.

Stupid Saints.

• Philadelphia at Denver (-3.5) – Denver is good. With no running game in Philly, the Denver defense will shutdown TO. This will be the best game of the week (besides the Browns/Texans game, of course).
• Tampa Bay (-11) at San Francisco – Here’s my upset pick of the week. Tampa Bay is overrated. I don’t think the football genes run in the Simms family like they do in the Manning family. Will the 49ers beat the line? No. Will they win? Yes.
• Buffalo at New England (-9) – The Bills are getting better since Holcomb came in, but this is New England they are playing.