Just another week in the NFL with guys getting arrested for sexual assault and guys being fined improperly for religious celebrations in the end zone. But hey, at least the Oakland Raiders fired their coach. At least that made sense. Now if only they had the brains to can the GM too. And just because they’re not playing this week doesn’t mean I can’t rag on them. How a general manager keeps his job after bringing in all these mediocre quarterbacks and overpaid veterans in the last few years is beyond me.
Survivor Pick of the Week:
NEW ORLEANS over Tampa Bay
Week 5 features many good choices for survivor pools. You might want to look ahead to see if you’ll need to use a team later on. Personally, I just roll with the best this week and figure the rest out later. The Saints have their backs against the wall with a 1-3 record. Thankfully, they come home against a Buccaneers team riding high after last week’s upset of the Steelers. Complacency may set in a little for Tampa Bay, but most importantly New Orleans feels very comfortable at home. It helps that last week was such a disaster that there likely was a lot of practice time put in this week to improve the offense. Let the good times roll.
Outside of New Orleans, you have seven (count em, seven) choices that I’ve listed in my order of preference. Green Bay looks like a great choice if Christian Ponder has to start tonight and isn’t a bad choice if Teddy Bridgewater is indeed healthy enough to play. Detroit’s defense has looked great this year, so Buffalo’s transition to Kyle Orton should be meaningless in this one. San Diego gets to take advantage of the potential dumpster fire of a Jets’ offense with a quarterback controversy looming. Philadelphia has had back-to-back sluggish weeks, but St. Louis’ run defense is third-worst in the league and should help things. San Francisco should smell blood in the water against a Kansas City team that could be riding too high after their Monday Night Football blowout of New England. You also have two road teams in Pittsburgh and Seattle that are interesting, but I hate going with road teams.
Teams already used: Philadelphia, Green Bay, and New England, San Diego
Thursday Night Pick:
GREEN BAY -7.5 over Minnesota
All signs point to Teddy Bridgewater missing out on this game despite the fact that the Vikings claim no decision has been made yet. There’s nothing worse than throwing a rookie into a game off of a short week with no practice reps. It’s bad enough they’ve struggled to get the ball to Cordarelle Patterson, their former first round pick, who still hasn’t touched the ball more than six times a game. To Minnesota’s credit, their secondary has done a pretty decent job this year, but they were helped a lot last week by Atlanta’s revolving door of an offensive line.
The Packers’ meanwhile are back healthy on the offensive line. They’re running game needs work, but playing a slightly below average Vikings’ run-stopping unit will ease the woes. Thunderstorms are possible, but don’t seem to last all night. That should leave the Packers good footing to move things around in their usual fashion. The only two teams that held the Packers down this year were two teams with great defenses. Minnesota’s defense is far from great, so the Pack should jump above .500 and win easily in this one.
I will say that if Teddy Bridgewater was healthy enough to play, the line would look a lot better for Minnesota.
Kyle’s Pick: Green Bay
Last Week: 7-6
Season: 34-27
Survivor: 4-0
Locks: 6-6
Kyle: 29-32