Last week: 6-8

Season: 62-61-6

Can't wipe the smile off her face

Last week was an embarrassment not only because of the sub .500 record, but also because the wife’s randoms picks went 7-7. I just told her about her win and she won’t stop cheering. Thursday night games start this week and thus the reason for posting the weekly pics a few days earlier this week. The confidence is at an all time low…FADE ME!

Oakland at San Diego -7

Pick: Chargers -7, this is a monster game for both teams, but maybe more so for the Chargers who have lost 3 in a row. Philip Rivers has been a picks machine this year, but I think he’s going to have a monster game this week against a very weak Raiders d. The Raiders will again be without their superstar running back Darren McFadden and their offence just isn’t the same without him. Carson Palmer won’t be able to keep up with the offensive onslaught from the Chargers this week. Desperation and home field…I’ll take the chargers

Jacksonville -3 at Indy

Pick: Colts +3, this matchup makes me a little nauseous and if there was a week where the Colts could win a game this would be it. I have about 2% confidence in this pick, two below average teams, I’ll take the home team if I had to choose.

Denver at KC -3.5

Pick: Chiefs -3.5, the Tebow show pulled it out last week against the Raiders while the Chiefs stunk up the joint against the previously winless Dolphins. These teams match up pretty evenly. My thinking may be whack here, but Id rather take the home team coming off an embarrassing loss rather than a team coming off a huge win on the road.

Pittsburgh -3 at Cincinnati

Pick: Steelers -3, a monster game for both teams this week. The Bengals have shocked the world so far with their 6-2 record, but their schedule has been very favourable the last 4 weeks. The Bengals defence has been their strong point this year, but again the only strong offence they’ve faced this year was the Bills. The Steelers avenge last weeks big loss to their mortal enemies and spank the cats in this one.

Buffalo at Dallas -5.5

Pick: Bills +5.5, the Bills were taken to town by their division rival Jets last week, while the Cowboys had a virtual bye week in a win versus the Seahawks. This will be a tough road game for the Bills, but I believe in Fitzpatrick and the beard more than I believe in Romo and his inconsistent play.

New Orleans -1 at Atlanta

Pick: Saints -1, another monster match up between division rivals. This should be a fun game to watch as it seems all games between these two teams comes down to the wire. Both defences will have trouble stopping the other team, but I feel the Falcons will have a tougher time of stopping Drew Brees an co. then vice versa.

St. Louis at Cleveland -2.5

Pick: Browns -2.5, the complete opposite of the above matchup, this game could potentially be the least watched game of the week. The Browns defence is actually serviceable while the Rams struggle on both sides of the ball. I see an ugly 13-6 type of outcome in this one.

Washington at Miami -4

Pick: Dolphins -4, The fish got off the snide last week with a big road win against the Chiefs. The Redskins continue to spiral down the NFC East losing 4 straight. The Dolphins seem to have figured it out on offence…feed the ball to Brandon Marshall and Reggie Bush. The ‘fins have been fairly steady on defence lately and they face an out of sorts ‘Skins offence without their top playmaker Santana Moss.

Houston -3.5 at Tampa Bay

Pick: Texans -3.5, the Texans are rolling right now and they’ve been doing it by pounding the rock with their two headed monster running attack with Arian Foster and Ben Tate. The Bucs have been inconsistent all year and I don’t see them having enough to keep up with the Texans offensive attack.

Tennessee at Carolina -3.5

Pick: Panthers -3.5, I think I’m too heavily biased in this one because Cam Newton is my fantasy QB and I am in a dogfight for one of the final playoff spots in my league. Numbers wise these teams match up fairly well on defence, but it’s on offence where the Panthers have a big advantage. I’ll take the rested Panthers at home.

Arizona at Philadelphia (no line out yet)

Pick: Eagles, the line will be monstrous, probably in the -14 range. The Cardinals may be without Kevin Kolb again this week and that does not bode well against one of the tougher pass defences in the league. The Eagles are coming off a big loss on Monday night and will be the more desperate team in this one.

Baltimore -7 at Seattle

Pick: Seahawks +7, this could be a huge letdown game for the Ravens after their huge win against the Steelers last week. It’s tough to pull the trigger on the ‘Hawks, but I’ll use evidence from earlier this year when the Ravens beat the Steelers and put up a stinker against the Titans the following week.

NYG at San Fran -3.5

Pick: 49ers -3.5, the Giants are coming off a monster win last week winning at New England…no one wins in New England other than Tom Brady. It’s tough to back them for back to back wins on the road. The 49ers are an amazing 7-0-1 against the spread this year. I’ll back the soon to be NFC West champs.

Detroit at Chicago -2.5

Pick: Bears -2.5, it looks like the Bears offensive line has figured out how to block and Cutler has shown if he has time he can be top tier material. This a revenge spot for the Bears as the Lions beat them 4 weeks ago in Detroit. I’ll back the home team in yet another monster rivalry game.

New England at NYJ -1

Pick: Jets -1, wow, this has to be the best week for match-ups so far this year. An endless assortment of games to drool over. Is it panic time in New England? Maybe. This game is too tough to call in my opinion, all the voices in my head scream Pats because they can’t lose 3 in a row right? However, maybe the lustre is fading with the Pats and the first ominous sign was last week’s home loss. The Jets on the other hand are on fire and would love to continue their arch rivals losing ways.

Minnesota at Green Bay -13

Pick: Packers -13, Can anyone stop the Packers offence? It is just ridiculous what they have been able to do week in and week out this year. The back door cover is always possible, but I don’t see the Aaron Rodgers train slowing down this week.

And here to show me up for the 2nd straight week is wifey with her wifey random picks for this week:

Raiders +7

Colts +3

Broncos +3.5

Steelers -3

Cowboys -5.5

Saints -1

Rams +2.5

Dolphins -4

Texans -3.5

Titans +3.5

Eagles -14 (made up line, no line available)

Ravens -7

Giants +3.5

Bears -2.5

Jets -1

Packers -13

Last Week: 7-6

Season: 50-47-5

Halloween is my 2nd favourite day of the year, next to Christmas of course. Halloween is on Monday this year, but the majority of the parties will be occurring today. This means most of you will likely miss the early games due to unbearable hangovers. The wife is sick and is trying hard to pass on her illness to me so I don’t think we’ll be able to last very long at all. Anyway, enjoy your shenanigans wherever they are and feel free to blast my picks below.

Jacksonville at Houston -10

Pick: Texans -10, this line is going up and up and up. Jacksonville is coming off a huge upset win against the Ravens last week and the Texans are coming off a huge win against the Titans. Andre Johnson is also back in this game and I see another monster game from the Texans at home in this one.

Arizona at Baltimore -13

Pick: Ravens -13, give me some more chalk baby! The Ravens have to be angry after Monday night’s stinker. Arizona’s defence can’t seem to stop anybody and I think Ray Rice tears them apart. I hope you don’t have Kevin Kolb as your fantasy starter because he is going to get pressured hard all game long.

New Orleans -14 at St. Louis

Pick: Saints -14, I really don’t like this pick, but it doesn’t look like the Rams can cover any number this year. This pick is scary because the Saints are coming off a video game score beat down against the Colts and there has to be some kind of let down after that. However, the Rams just cannot stop anyone and they can’t score even with teams taking their feet off the gas pedal. I wish I had someone on the Saints for fantasy this week.

Miami at NYG -10.5

Pick: Dolphins +10.5, huge spreads this week. Miami hasn’t been playing all that bad the last few weeks and it’s tough to trust the on and off Giants. Ill take the desperate winless team in this one.

Indianapolis at Tennessee -10

Pick: Colts +10, losing 62-7 is ridiculous. Can the Colts bounce back from that loss? I say yes, but they will have to stop the run if they are going to keep this close. Chris Johnson might finally have a huge breakout game this week. There must be some pride in that Colts locker room…right?

Minnesota at Carolina -3

Pick: Panthers -3, battle of rookie QB’s in this one. Ponder looked pretty solid last week for the Vikes and we already know how good Cam Newton has been this season. A tough one to call, but I’ll give it to the home team. Only thing that scares me is AP vs the league’s 29th ranked rushing defence. Yikes…can I change my pick? Forget it, lets just roll with it.

Washington at Buffalo -4.5

Pick: Bills -4.5, this line was 6.5 so the public is on the Redskins in this one. Kind of strange in my opinion, the Bills have been solid all year and the ‘Skins have been struggling. The ‘Skins are a good pass rushing team so I see the Bills feeding Fred Jackson early and often. The Bills will have to stop the ‘Skins power running game, but I don’t have much faith in John Beck and the ‘Skins passing attack sans Santana Moss.

Detroit -3 at Denver

Pick: Broncos +3, I’m all over this Tebow bandwagon. I think I can throw the football better than him, but he seems to be able to pull wins out of nowhere. Looks like Matthew Stafford will be giving it a go, but I think Tebow pulls out another ridiculous 4th quarter comeback for the upset win.

New England -2 at Pittsburgh

Pick: Patriots -2, the game of the week by far. This is shaping up to be an aerial bombathon. The Pats secondary is swiss cheese and the Steelers D is still stout against the run. I’ll take Brady and Belichick coming off a bye almost every time.

Cleveland at San Francisco -8.5

Pick: 49′ers -8.5, the Browns’ passing game is non-existent and running room will be hard to come by against the 49′ers. The Browns barely squeaked by an awful Seahawks team last week and now are facing a much superior team this week. This could get ugly.

Cincinnati -1 at Seattle

Pick: Bengals -1, worst game of the week by far. I have no reason for this pick other than a pure guess.

Dallas at Philadelphia -3

Pick: Eagles -3, Andy Reid and the Eagles are 12-0 all-time after a bye week. The Eagles are slowly coming together and looking like the team everyone expected. Same can be said of the Cowboys. A huge rivalry game, will be fun to watch DeMarcus Ware chase Mike Vick all game long.

San Diego -3 at Kansas City

Pick: Chiefs +3, amazingly this game actually means something. It wasn’t looking pretty for the chiefs just a few weeks ago, but they have somehow turned it all around and have reeled off 3 straight wins. The Chargers are a frustrating team, world beaters one week and miserable another. Arrowhead is still a tough place to play for road teams and I think we may see the Chiefs shock the world and move into a first place tie with the Chargers after a Monday night upset.

Ok, it’s time for me to start getting my costume ready. So have fun tonight and get that Advil and Gatorade ready.

Last Week: 4-7-2

Season: 43-41-5

Freefalling back to .500

Last week was another stinker as I now fall closer and closer to .500. This week’s slate of games seems to lack any truly exciting match-ups. San Diego at NYJ may be the most interesting of the bunch while Seattle at Cleveland may make you vomit. Anyway, enough babble, onto the picks.

Houston at Tennessee – 3

Pick: Titans -3, Battle for 1st place in the AFC South. The Texans are struggling with key injuries to Andre Johnson, Mario Williams and DeMeco Ryans. LP is one of the tougher stadiums to play in for road teams and I see the Titans pulling this one out against a very banged up Texans team.

Chicago -1 at Tampa Bay

Pick: Bears -1, as we saw last week, if the Bears can give Cutler some time he has top tier talent. Here’s thinking that Mike Martz and co. have figured out the protection schemes from last week’s success and will employ them against the Bucs who are coming off a huge win against their rivals the Saints.

Atlanta at Detroit -3

Pick: Lions -3, hungry after the “hard handshake” loss, the Lions will air it out all day against one of the worst secondary’s in the league.

Denver at Miami (pick)

Pick: Broncos (pick), the Tebow show is now in full effect and this will be a homecoming of sorts for Tebow as he heads back to the state where he was a worshipped god during his college years. The Dolphins are pushing hard (or maybe not pushing at all) to win the Andrew Luck sweepstakes.

Washington at Carolina -1

Pick: Panthers -1, John Beck makes his first start in the NFL since 2007, replacing the struggling Rex Grossman. The Panthers on the other hand have no QB issues as Cam Newton has turned the Panthers offence into one of the more dangerous offences in the league. The Panthers have had troubles holding onto leads this season, but they turn this around tomorrow and win comfortably.

Seattle at Cleveland -2.5

Pick: Browns -2.5, the Hawks are historically not a good eastern travelling squad. Yes, they did win earlier this year against the G-men, but asking for 2 wins in the east is asking a lot.

San Diego at NYJ (pick)

Pick: Chargers (pick), Rex Ryan gave some bulletin board material to the Chargers on Wednesday when he stated if he was the coach of the Chargers in the past few seasons he would have had a couple Super Bowl rings by now. This will be a tough road game for the Chargers, but they are the superior team and should be motivated to back up their coach in this one and show up Rex Ryan and his boys.

KC at Oakland – 4

Pick: Chiefs +4 , the Raiders made a splash at the trade deadline trading a bunch of draft picks for Carson Palmer. It looks like Palmer may not start tomorrow, but it doesn’t really matter because whoever is in at QB will just be feeding the rock to Mr. Darren McFadden. The Chiefs have won 2 games in a row and are coming off a bye week. The public is all over the Raiders at a whopping 72% clip according to covers.com. I think the Chiefs make this exciting and break the hearts of Raidernation.

Pittsburgh -4 at Arizona

Pick: Cardinals +4, the Steelers are a tough team to figure out this year. After their demolishment of the Titans I thought maybe the Steelers of old were back and they were going to start rolling teams. However, they follow up the Titans win with a blah effort against the Jags. I think we see another blah effort against a non-conference team on the road.

St. Louis at Dallas – 14

Pick: Rams +14, the Rams had plenty of opportunities last week to get garbage points against the Pack to cover the number, but they just could not get anything going. So I’m going to take a flier with them again getting a backdoor cover this week. My least favourite pick this week by far.

Green Bay -10.5 at Minnesota

Pick: Vikings +10.5, the Vikings were embarrassed last week against a division rival and this has forced a QB change to occur. What a first start for Ponder to have, just going against the defending champs…no worries. 10.5 is a lot of points for a road team let alone a division rival. I still think the Pack win, but the Vikes give a spirited effort keeping things decent.

Indianapolis at New Orleans -13.5

Pick: Saints -13.5, would the Colts trade Manning if they won the Andrew Luck sweepstakes? I would have provided the link to the article that debated this subject, but I can’t find the page anymore. The Saints offence will obliterate the Colts porous defence. For greedy fantasy purposes I’m hoping Mark Ingram gets his first 100 yard, multi-TD game.

Baltimore -8 at Jacksonville

Pick: Ravens -8, poor Blaine Gabbert. Last week he had to face the brutal Steeler defence and this week he gets Ray Lewis and co. Punishment is on it’s way for a second week in a row for the Jag rook. Ravens in a cake walk.

Favourite Pick: Titans -3

Least Favourite Pick: Rams +14

Last week: 6-7

Season: 39-34-3

I thought I was going to have another winning week when I started out 6-2 after the early games. However 5 straight losses with the remaining games dropped me below .500 for the week. I also got bounced from my survivor pool when I stubbornly sided with the Giants instead of listening to my gut and choosing the Pack.

Ok, so I may be on a little tilt right now…so fade these picks if you’re smart

San Fran at Detroit -4

Pick: Lions -4, The Lions seem to win every time I pick against them so lets see how they fare when I’m on their side for the first time this year. The Lions offence looks unstoppable and their defence is even looking stellar (although any d looks stellar against that Bears O-line). San Fran also looks for real after they demolished Tampa last week. Fine, I’m on the wagon of both of these teams now…I’ll give the edge to the home team in this exciting match-up (weird saying that with a Lions and 49′ers game…wow how things change quick in this league). The public is on the Niners by the way…the line was -5.

Indy at Cincy -7

Pick: Colts +7, I just can’t lay 7 points with Cincy. I know the Colts are bad, but are they this bad? I think the Colts win this one outright.

Buffalo at NYG -3

Pick: Giants -3, You’d think I’d be on the Bills after my heartbreak from last week, but I think the G-men bounce back this week after last week’s embarrassment. It’ll be some kind of sick joke by the universe…telling me I should have waited a week to pick the G-men in survivor…no, I swear I’m over it…Ok maybe not.

Philly -1 at Washington

Pick: Eagles -1, So much for my lock of the week last week when I picked the Eagles to beat Buffalo. I’m not going to label this as a lock, but seriously can the Eagles lose another? If last week was desperation mode, I’m not even sure what you can call this week. Heads will roll this week with another loss.

Jacksonville at Pittsburgh -12

Pick: Steelers -12, I think after last weeks big win over the Titans the Steelers will go on a bit of a roll. Big Ben has his mojo back and the defence is tightening. Good night Blaine Gabbert.

St Louis at Green Bay -14.5

Pick: Rams +14.5, I’m hoping for a back door cover here by the lowly Rams. I see the Pack getting up by 28+ early and then take the foot off the gas big time letting the Rams score some garbage points enough to cover the number

Carolina at Atlanta -4

Pick: Falcons -4, I love Cam Newton right now (he’s my fantasy starter), but the Falcons are always tough at home. The Falcons are also coming off a home loss and will be extra motivated this week to make amends.

Houston at Baltimore -9

Pick: Texans +9, The Texans are in tough in this one facing a rested Ravens team coming off a bye week. They will also be without their top WR in Andre Johnson and also their best defender in Mario Williams. However, good teams step up in the face of adversity and I think the Texans are for real and give a big effort this week after their upset home loss to the Raiders last week.

Cleveland at Oakland -7

Pick: Browns +7, Huge emotional win for the Raiders last week. I see a letdown spot here coming back home facing a not so intimidating Browns team. This could be an outright upset.

Dallas at New England -7

Pick: Pats -7, this should be an exciting display of aerial supremacy. Tony Romo has had a week to rest his ailing ribs and it looks like he’ll have his full complement of weapons back for this one. Dallas is stout agains the run so look for Mr. Brady to launch an all out aerial assault. I see Romo throwing a game ending pick 6 to seal it for the Pats in this one.

New Orleans -4.5 at Tampa Bay

Pick: Bucs +4.5, What happened to the Bucs last week? Absolutely destroyed by the Niners, I see the Bucs coming out hard against their division rival. Measuring stick game for the young Bucs, they’ll want this one bad.

Minny at Chicago -3

Pick: Vikings +3, I’m surprised Jay Cutler is still standing at this point. His receivers cannot get open and his line can’t block…not a good combination. The Vikings have a solid pass rush and I see lots of headaches for Mr. Cutler in this one. The Bears d will be furious after being embarrassed by Detroit, but AP is doesn’t care about that…he’ll go beast mode again in this one.

Miami at NYJ -7

Pick: Jets -7, It’s time for the Jets to air the ball out. The ground and pound just isn’t working out. Matt Moore starts for the Dolphins…yikes. Big bounce back game for the Jets after losing to their arch rivals last week. Public is all over the Dolphins as the line was -9 to start.

I really like the looks of my picks this week. Good luck to the gamblers out there. For those of you still alive in my survivor pool…I hate you.