Fuhbaw!

I LUV FUHBAW!

Seriously, I can't get enough of it. I feel blessed to have a teacher as cool as Phil Tuckett to bounce ideas back off when it comes to my thoughts on teams. For those who don't know, Phil Tuckett is more or less the man at Dixie State College when it comes to the film department. He worked at NFL Films for 30+ years and won 30 Emmy's during his time there so the guy knows his crap. I remember week 3, I asked him what his thoughts were on the Lions and he goes "I don't buy them because I don't buy their quarterback." Lo and behold, like unto a great prophecy on high, Matt Stafford has been obliterated the last couple of games. Defenses figured the guy out and yet again, he's proven to be brittle as he's got injuries piling up.

As I've kind of missed two weeks of predictions now, I'm not going to keep track of what's in the past and we'll just talk about next week.

PREDICTIONS WEEK 11

NYJ @ DEN:
I think this is a perplexing matchup. On paper, the Jets should crush. On paper, though. In actuality, I think Denver has a fair shot at winning this one. Jets defense hasn't played well on the road. The only game they won on the road all year is recently in Buffalo. Every other one, they've given up 30+ points. The Jets are coming off a loss on a short week against a team with an unorthodox offense. I am going out on a limb and I think Denver wins by 3. I don't buy either quarterback's arm, but I buy Tebow's legs at the very least.


CAR @ DET:
Again, I think this is an intriguing match-up. Carolina just can't seem to break the hump this year, while Detroit can't seem to break the hump as a franchise. Detroit HAS to win this game to stay in the playoff hunt and still have people consider them a contender. I'm making the emotional pick and saying Detroit wins by 7+. Luckily for me, it's also an intelligent pick simply because Detroit still has real weapons on both sides of the ball while Carolina is just high-powered offense.

OAK @ MIN:
Minnesota is so bad this year, and it's nonsensical. They still have fantastic weapons on the team, but can't seem to win a game. Oakland wins comfortably. The final score will be much closer than the actual game's spirit.

DAL @ WAS:
Geez, Dallas. Figure it out. One week, you get shut down completely by a bad team then you show up the following week with a QB performance of near perfection. It's so hard to pick Dallas games because the team is as Jekyll and Hyde as any in the last decade. Dallas should win this game. Should, being the key word. Washington looked good for a few weeks there early, then Shanahan did what he does best by micromanaging and bullying his own team to the point they quit on him.

BUF @ MIA:
Miami is streaking? Is that possible? The team has looked pretty decent since Matt Moore started. Give that guy some credit, people. He's played super well this year. It's revitalized Reggie Bush, who has looked pretty strong the last two weeks as well. And Buffalo is doing what Buffalo does well as a franchise, which is get too excited by a hot start and then quit playing well. I'm taking Miami in this one. Until Fitzpatrick can prove to me the early season win streak wasn't a fluke, I'm still not buying him as a QB.

JAC @ CLE:
Jacksonville has played the AFC North pretty well all year long. Cincinnati beat them in week 5 but the game was fairly close til the end from what I recall. The Steelers had an excellent first half against them but couldn't score again the second (luckily for me, it was still enough to win). They actually demolished Baltimore in what was the ugliest game all year. Now they are facing the worst team in the division. Jacksonville better win this one. Cleveland is awful. Prove you have the makings of at least a professional QB, Gabbert.

CIN @ BAL:
Baltimore only shows up during divisional games.  All 3 of their losses are to bad teams (Tennessee, Jacksonville and Seattle) and nearly lost the matchup against a 4th bad team in Arizona. Yet, they crushed the Jets, Texans and Steelers (and squeaked out a second one against them, those bastards.) This is another one of those on-paper matchups, Baltimore should win by a landslide. They've also got a couple bonus points from me for 1) being at home and 2) coming off a confusing loss. Baltimore has to win this game, right? Right? I'm still cheering for the Bengals though.

TB @ GB:
Thank god, an easy game to predict. Green Bay by a landslide. Do I even really need to explain it at this point? Aaron Rodgers and his bionic arm are unstoppable this year. Even if they give up 40 points, the team still wins. It's incredible.

SEA @ STL:
Oh man. This is tied with the Jacksonville/Cleveland game for Game of the Weak. Part of me doesn't even want to put in a pick for this game because, I mean, who cares? They are both so far out of first, it doesn't matter. If Seattle wins out the rest of the season and San Francisco loses the rest of the way, they still just barely win the division (and we all don't think that's going to happen.) I'm taking Seattle in this one just because why not.

ARI @ SF:
San Francisco just might be the best team in football this year and are returning home to a crowd who've been clamoring for a winning team since Jeff Garcia left. San Francisco wins by a bajillion. As much as I've been saying Arizona should have started Skelton as early as last year, that team isn't good enough to win this one.

TEN @ ATL:
Tennessee has the most overpaid athlete in the league this year. Period. Chris Johnson still hasn't got it going and it's time we all faced the fact he won't. Atlanta may have had some questionable playcalling this last week in overtime, but they are still playing decent football and have had the opportunity to win games against good teams. Atlanta controls the clock with a strong run game and therefore wins in a close one.

SD @ CHI:
Chicago is looking the best they have since Jay Cutler arrived, and they sort of made it to the NFC Championship game last year. If they keep up their current level of play, it's a scary team. They have the best linebacking core in the league. Chicago wins in a second-half come-from-behind victory. San Diego is going to look like a great team for about two quarters, then will choke. Phillip Rivers will still appear cheerful and unworried in post-game interviews. At some point, San Diego, relying mentally on past success late in the year is going to bite you in the ass. Oh wait, it already has.

PHI @ NYG:
The reason this matchup is interesting to me is because both these teams have this one Achilles' Heel. It's just bitten Philadelphia harder than New York this year. Both teams, when playing mistake-free football, are among the elitist of the elite. But they never just have a "kind of" bad game. It's always a total travesty of an effort, or it's a really awesome team we're watching. The Giants are going to win, as well as win the division. Eagles are just dysfunctional this year and with the whole fractured ribs thing Vick has yet again, it's just a bad situation for them. I say they should just go ahead and start Vince Young because I think they'll figure out some of their problems if they do that.

KC @ NE:
The thing a lot of people don't realize about this matchup is just how much of the Kansas City staff is made up of backroom personnel from the New England dynasty of the early 21st Century. If any bad team is going to make a surprising win against a good team, it's this game. Still, New England so rarely loses at home there's no way they lose to a bad team on Monday Night Football. Probably the second easiest pick of the week.