St. Louis at San Diego (-5)
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Phillip Rivers took a LICK in last week’s game that had him crawling around on the ground in severe pain. We know he’s a tough guy as he’s played through injury before, but the St. Louis Rams are the last team a beat up quarterback wants to play right now. They harassed Peyton Manning all last week on their way to an upset victory and are playing inspired football right now behind Shaun Hill and Jeff Fisher. Look for them to keep this one close or pull the upset as San Diego has shown us nothing the last month.
THE PICK: Rams (+5)
Miami at Denver (-7)
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Denver is banged up. Emmanuel Sanders and Julius Thomas have yet to practice this week and the interior of their offensive line is playing poorly. Miami has the pass rush and the running game to keep Peyton Manning off the field. Since Week 6, Miami hasn’t lost a football game by more than four points, home or away. They’ll stay within a touchdown as Ryan Tannehill has really elevated his play.
THE PICK: Dolphins (+7)
Washington at San Francisco (-9)
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Washington is dysfunctional. They are drama-filled and do not like one another. That is not the recipe to take with you on a West Coast trip to play a tough San Francisco 49ers team who play hard for their coach every week. Robert Griffin has regressed and it’s looking like his teammates don’t want to play for him. San Francisco will turn Washington one dimensional and that’s not what you want when RG3 is your quarterback.
THE PICK: 49ers (-9)
Dallas (-3.5) at N.Y. Giants
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It’s sort of amazing the Giants are on primetime football so much this year. They aren’t very good. But Dallas is and this rivalry always produces a good game. Giants were very close to upsetting the San Francisco 49ers last week, but were crippled by Eli Manning’s five interceptions. That’s what you get with Eli Manning, but in this rivalry and a week to forget about his dreadful game, we expect him to be better on Sunday night. Dallas is off their bye from their London victory so maybe a slow start leads us to a close game.
THE PICK: Giants (+3.5)
Baltimore at New Orleans (-3.5)
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New Orleans has won two home games in a row. That’s actually tough to type, but with losses to San Francisco and Cincinnati at home, it’s desperation time. Especially since the 4-6 Saints are still tied for first place! But they aren’t playing a slouch team. Baltimore is +80 in point differential, second-best in the AFC and the Saints are 0-2 against the AFC North so far in 2014. Saints may win this game, but 3.5 is too much to give a team like Baltimore, who needs to keep pace with the rest of the AFC North.
THE PICK: Ravens (+3.5)
Best of luck!
