Chris J. Nelson's 2009 Week Five NFL Game Predictions

I'm coming off one of my better weeks, having gotten 11 of 14 games correctly. In retrospect, I should have done a little better, but I let some bias seep in (mostly the kind that hates Brett Favre). Oh well, I'll try and do better this week.

Last week's record: 11—3
Season record: 43—19 (69%)

Bills over Browns — Neither one of these teams has been very good at all this season, but I like more of Buffalo's pieces than Cleveland's, It's a toss-up, but I'll go with the Bills.

Steelers over Lions — Ummm, yeah.

Cowboys over Chiefs — The Cowboys certainly haven't played up to their potential so far this season, but I like Tony Romo's chances against one of the NFL's worst pass defenses.

Vikings over Rams — When is Marc Bulger going to just give up playing NFL football? I don't know, but I do know the Rams won't be beating the Vikings today.

Giants over Raiders — I don't care how injured Eli Manning is, I'd still pick New York if David Carr was starting today. JaMarcus Russell is just a joke, and now he's without his most explosive weapon on offense in Darren McFadden.

Eagles over Buccaneers — There just isn't much to like about Tampa Bay, and the high-powered Eagles shouldn't a problem with them.

Panthers over Redskins — A battle between two underachieving teams, I'm going to go with the team that has the better tools on offense in Carolina.

Ravens over Bengals — I almost want to pick an upset here, but Baltimore is just too good to pick against right now. The Bengals will certainly give them a fight, but the Ravens are the more complete team.

Falcons over 49ers — It's a bit of an upset, but I think this will be one of those games where the team's even out, with the Falcons playing better than they have and the Niners playing worse than they have.

Patriots over Broncos — Denver might be undefeated, but they've gotten some luck and played some bad teams. I think the master Bill Belichick wins this one in the battle with his apprentice Josh McDaniels.

Cardinals over Texans — In this battle that should be a high-scoring affair, I like the Cardinals to get back on track a bit and pull out a win.

Jaguars over Seahawks — Seattle is one of those teams that doesn't impress me, and I can't ever really justify picking them any week unless they are playing another bad team. Jacksonville's playing well and I like them here.

Colts over Titans — It's hard to imagine Tennessee starting 0-5, but it's also hard to pick a good Colts team against a team that's doing so poorly. An upset's obviously possible, but I can't justify picking it.

Dolphins over Jets — I don't know if it's the really impressive Dolphins ground game, the teams' performances last week, Miami's orange jerseys, or a combination of all those things. I'm a little biased, but I feel like Miami has a good shot to win this game at home.

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Chris J. Nelson is a journalism major at Georgia State University.  He operates his own Miami Dolphins web site, The Miami Dolphins Spotlight, and can be followed on Twitter here.