Here’s The Week 5 NFL Thursday Night & Survivor Pick

National TV games are really taking a nose dive in the NFL. Last Monday we had Seattle vs. Detroit, who clearly isn’t as good as last year. The night before featured Dallas, without Tony Romo and Dez Bryant, against a battered Drew Brees. This week we have Andrew Luck missing Thursday night football. The Giants host San Francisco, a true dumpster fire, on Sunday night. And finally the Michael Vick led Steelers head to San Diego on Monday night. I’m sure these media companies really think they’re getting their money’s worth. Sad thing is ratings are still high across the board. Oh well. Let’s dive in to the usual Thursday write-up.

Survivor Pick of the Week:

KANSAS CITY over Chicago
The Chiefs have had a tough schedule so far this season. After a Week 1 win over Houston, Kansas City had to play Denver on short rest before going down to Green Bay and Cincinnati as well. Those last three teams are all playoff bound. Thankfully the Chiefs get a break in Week 5 with the Bears coming to town. Jay Cutler adds some life to the Bears offense, but their defense is miserable. The Chiefs should see success both running and throwing the football. They’ll be able to control the tempo of the game and execute at will. Jay Cutler is also prone to a turnover or two, so this is a good situation for the Chiefs to pull away.

There are a few other spots to look at this weekend. New England shouldn’t have any trouble beating Dallas coming off the bye. Bill Bellichick always makes quarterbacks like Brandon Weeden look terrible, but I generally prefer home teams. Atlanta should handle Washington pretty easily this weekend, but the Redskins run offense and defense should keep the margin smaller than you’d think. I don’t trust Baltimore with regular season Joe Flacco and no wide receivers in a division match-up against Cleveland. Jeff Fischer is great as an underdog, which makes the Packers less likely to blow out St. Louis. I never trust the Giants as a big home favorite. We’ve seen too many meltdowns in the past. Finally, if you can trust Philadelphia after what they’ve shown offensively this season then you need to reevaluate your life choices.

Thursday Night Pick:

HOUSTON -4 over Indianapolis

This is exactly what the NFL was looking for, right? Matt Hasselbeck against J.J. Watt on Thursday Night Football? Sign me up…not. The Colts are smart to give Andrew Luck another 10 days to rest his shoulder even if it means coming up short in a nationally televised game. The Colts looked bad offensively with Luck to start the season and looked even more mediocre with Hasselbeck playing in front of a home crowd last weekend. Now he has the flu that kept him in the hospital until 2 a.m. on Tuesday morning. There’s no way this ends well for Indianapolis offensively.

It gets worse on the defensive side of the ball. The Colts allow 119.5 rushing yards per game, ranking them 25th in the league in that category. Arian Foster, despite his numbers, looked fine last week and the game got away from Houston early, so they rested him for this spot. He’ll abuse the Colts defense. It also looks as if Vontae Davis might miss the game as he didn’t practice and was in a walking boot this week. That means DeAndre Hopkins will have a field day in the Colts secondary and the Texans might look like a real offense regardless of who’s playing quarterback. With edges on both sides of the ball, it’s Houston’s game to dominate.

J.Camm’s Pick: Houston

Last Week: 9-5-1
Season: 36-26-2
Locks: 10-2
Survivor: 3-1

J.Camm: 34-28-2 (Uh oh, Bitch! Someone rose from the ashes like a goddamn Phoenix and is now above .500. It’s on, Mr. T.)