Week 6 game predictions

After my 14-0 success in my predictions last week, I’m feeling stirred into action and in the “other” weeks when I don’t write a full column, I will still grace you with my prediction prowess. So here goes for week 6…

Buffalo Bills vs Detroit Lions

This is one of the trickier predictions of the week. On the one hand the Lions only lost by 9 to a solid if unspectacular Minnesota and have put up some big points so far this season, but, at the end of the day, they’re still 5-0. On the other, Buffalo- who were 2-2 have just come off the back of being absolutely mauled by the Bears (no pun intended) and losing 41-7… and despite being on the road I have a feeling that the Bills will bounce back and give a performance more akin to running the Pats close and beating Minnesota and Miami. It’ll be close, but the Bills much-improved (it couldn’t be much worse, right?) performance won’t be enough to keep out the Lions who will play a safe game and get their first win.

Carolina Panthers vs Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens were far from great in Denver on Monday night, and despite a win over the Chargers in week 4 I really don’t find much from their other wins over the likes of Oakland and an out-of-sorts Tampa Bay to suggest that they’re going to turn over the Panthers. The Panthers, on the other hand, have 3 wins on the bounce and –while they’re yet to put up huge numbers on the scoreboard- they’ll do what they need to break down the Baltimore defence and get the win.

Cincinnati Bengals vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers

After once again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory over New Orleans, a game they might have thought would be the perfect way to get their season under way, the Bucs are still winless. Heading into a tough 3-game schedule before they face the Saints in Tampa that includes the Giants and the Eagles after this week’s game against Cincy, the Bucs won’t want to even entertain the notion that when NO come to visit in week 9 they could still be winless. Meaning? They HAVE to get something out of this game. The Bengals on the other hand, will be thinking a game against struggling Tampa and their rookie back-up QB Gradkowski is the perfect way to get over their pre-bye defeat to New England. Gradkowski will give it a good shot, and aside from one fumble had a decent game against the Saints, but this battle with Carson Palmer is too soon for him and 0-6 looms.

Houston Texans vs Dallas Cowboys

T.O., it would seem, threw a tantrum over not getting enough of the ball in the wake of the ‘Boys loss to Philly this past weekend, but Dallas will be unlikely to let his hissy fits sway them and they’ll have another high-scoring week over the sieve-like Texans defence. And in T.Os defence on this one, he’s said his frustration is as much that he feels the Cowboys should be better than 2-2 at this stage, and Bledsoe has jumped to Owens’ defence… saying any receiver worth his salt wants the ball more. From the point of view of the other quarterback in the game, David Carr will most likely get a TD or two and a decent number in the yards column, but short of some kind of unforeseeable disaster, the Terrell Owens Travelling Circus will get their third win of the season in comfortable fashion, most likely with Terry Glenn again being the beneficiary of the tight coverage on Owens.

New York Giants vs Atlanta Falcons

I’ve changed my mind once on this already as I’m really not sure which way it could go, but in the end I’ve given it to the Falcons because they’ve got a better record, are at home, and on their day are capable of beating anybody. The Giants, on the other hand, have been somewhat of an enigma so far this season. A mostly poor O-line that hasn’t stopped some big passing numbers for Eli Manning, and a terrible defence that has often balanced out their offensive endeavours. I think the Falcons could have a good day against the Giants in their own backyard, even though I like the Giants I’m not entirely willing to believe just on the basis of the performance against the ‘Skins that they’ve got their problems sorted. Atlanta, on the other hand, will be fresh off their bye week and will have had two weeks to prepare for this game and will no doubt have studied videos of how the Giants D went wrong against the Eagles and Seahawks.

***Game of the Week***
Philadelphia Eagles vs New Orleans Saints

I think this has all the hallmarks of a top-quality game. Philedelphia Eagles, coming from a hugely satisfying win over Terrell Owens’ Cowboys in the best game of the year thus far and with a 4-1 record. The Saints on the other hand are on top of the world. A 4-1 record of their own, two wins out of two at home since their emotional return to the Superdome and a new hero in Reggie Bush. This is by no means a dead cert for me, I think the Eagles should and will win, but at the same time I wouldn’t be overly shocked if the Saints pulled something out of the bag and somehow walked away with the win… but I really don’t see it, I think Donovan McNabb will continue to do his thing and that the Eagles will spoil the party by topping the best efforts of Brees, Bush, McAllister and Co.

Seattle Seahawks vs St. Louis Rams

The Rams will enter this game with four wins secured, but aside from an off-colour Denver team in the opening week there’s really not been an awful lot to write home about. Seattle had 3 and then had a bye week to think about the 31 point hammering handed to them by Chicago. You know Mike Holmgren will have thought about that game and scrutinised every minute detail with his coaching staff with one goal: Don’t let it happen again. And they won’t. I’m not holding it against the Rams that they’ve only beaten one team that could make any claim to be a top level team, they don’t choose the schedule and I’m a great believer in the fact that you can only beat the teams you’re playing, and there’s no point listening to people criticising you for having had a relatively easy run of fixtures. That said, however, the Seahawks are hurting and I think whoever they’d been facing this week that after that pummelling from Chicago they’d come out all guns blazing, and that’s exactly what they’ll do with or without Alexander (it looks like without at the moment,) and the Rams won’t handle it.

Tennessee Titans vs Washington Redskins

The ‘Skins are another team out to put a poor defeat behind them, having lost 19-3 to the Giants last week and seemingly having little to take from the game. The Titans, however, have plenty to take from their last game as they went to Indianapolis and forced the Colts to beat them by just a single point, even though they got a poor yards total, so they can deduce one of two things from that. Either they can decide they managed to stifle the Colts enough that the points they got were enough to nearly get the job done, or that the Colts had a poor game and Tennessee were lucky not to lose by more. I’d imagine that the Titans will be taking a lot from Travis Henry’s 123 rushing yards against the Colts, but he’s not the first player to rack up big yards on the ground against Indy this year, and the Redskins will surely bargain him into their gameplay, meaning more pressure will fall on the shoulders of Vince Young as the ‘Skins have conceded half the rush yards this season that the Colts have. All of these factors combined means it’s a little too soon for young Vince (see what I did there?) and the Redskins will even out their win-loss record for the second time this season.

Kansas City Chiefs vs Pittsburgh Steelers

So I have a dilemma. On the one hand, I genuinely thought the Steelers would lose last week, and I was right (and not just because I wanted to pick a surprise for the hell of it). Now, I think they will win this week through sheer force of will. BUT. On the other hand… Kansas are one of those teams that even without their star quarterback I always feel are capable of piling up the numbers. And the Steelers haven’t really performed yet. But hey, the likes of Porter and Polamalu have to get their heads back in gear at some point and find the form they showed last season on defence at some point, right? And it’s just a matter of time before Big Ben gets on the same page with his offence as he continues his recovery, right? Right. And if they’re going to do it, then it can be done at home against a Kansas team that was run very close by Leinart’s new-look Arizona last week.

Miami Dolphins vs New York Jets

It would’ve been easy to look at the Dolphins schedule before this year got under way and said, “Oh well, New England and Pittsburgh they shouldn’t be ashamed if they lose, and Buffalo could be tricky but they’ll get by Tennessee and Houston.” Oho, but didn’t take No-show Culpepper into account did you! Now, Joey Harrington should be a safer bet just now, and Chad Pennington being listed as probable might give the Dolphins hope they can steal this game away from the Jets, but I think not. Pennington’s calf won’t bother him, he’ll put up big numbers again, the ‘Fins will mis-fire and the Jets will get a win to console themselves with after being flattened by Jacksonville.

San Diego Chargers vs San Francisco 49ers

So the 49ers will begin the game with a 41-0 hangover against Kans-… What? They played Oakland last? Does that count as a game right now? Oh ok then, I’ll start again.

Ahem.

The San Francisco 49ers come into this week 6 game after a thunderous two touchdown win over the Raiders in week 5, and this tremendous victory will stir them to give the Chargers a run for their money.

Did you buy that? Oh well, I’m not that good a liar. The 49ers do have things to take into this game though, not least an early win over St. Louis and the fact that two of their losses came to Philly and Kansas, but they won’t much fancy this game, not with San Diego having just last week got a win over the champs that will give them and young Philip Rivers a massive boost going into a game that the over-confident among them might see as a warm-up before a divisional visit to Kansas. Over-confident or not though, The Chargers will get a good win out of this one, leaving the 49ers beautiful win over Oakland just a sweet memory.

Oakland Raiders vs Denver Broncos

I’m going to get this out right now, for those of you who either haven’t read anything by me before or just don’t notice much. I am a Denver fan. Ok? Ok.

I really don’t see Oakland pulling a surprise here. No sir. Welcome to five-and-oh-ville, boys.

Chicago Bears vs Arizona Cardinals

I like Matt Leinart. He came into a game with the pressure of having to do a better job than veteran Kurt Warner, but did a fine job and almost took Arizona to a win over Kansas. The Bears won’t be so lenient though. They’ll rush him, force mistakes out of him, make him feel uncomfortable in the pocket and generally give him a torrid time. On the other side. Chicago will continue to put the hurt on opposition defence, with Cardinals next in line. I think Leinart will make a good showing again with or without Larry Fitzgerald but, alas, young Matt’s efforts will be in vain as the Bears will stay at the top end of people’s power rankings with their 6th consecutive win.