NFL Week Eight Pick'em

With seven weeks in the books, we are reaching the midpoint of the 2009 NFL Season. The big winner this week is going to be the fans as the 1-6 Kansas City Chiefs, 0-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and 2-5 Washington Redskins will be on bye. That means that NFL fans will not have to watch these teams ruin their Sunday afternoon. This week also features two very intense division rivalry games with playoff implications (New York Giants at Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons at New Orleans Saints), not to mention a reunion between Brett Favre and the 70,000 fans that used to cheer his every move.

My record for the season is 66-37.

1) Denver Broncos (6-0) at Baltimore Ravens (3-3) - I refuse to say that this is a statement game for the Broncos, saying so would infer that they did not make one when they started 6-0 with home wins against Dallas and New England and road wins in Cincinnati and San Diego. This is just another chance for the Broncos to beat a potential playoff team and continue to convince people that they are a Super Bowl threat. The game is much more important for the Ravens, they are now 3-3 after starting the season 3-0. Two of those three wins were against Kansas City and Cleveland at home. Their most impressive win was at 3-3 San Diego.

Baltimore is much more in need of a statement win than the Denver Broncos are, but I am still picking Denver in this game. Their defense is going to be able to stop the Raven's offense and put the pressure on Baltimore's pass defense to step up and win this game, not cost them the game. The Ravens are ranked 23rd against the pass, mainly because their cornerbacks cannot cover anyone. I think QB Kyle Orton will be able to take advantage of that and make smart decisions that will allow the Broncos to score enough points to lead them to yet another win. In a month the Ravens are going to have gone from arguably the best team in the NFL to a team with a losing record. Winner: Denver

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