NFL Week 10 Picks: Will Peyton Hillis Continue His Roll Against New York Jets?
The NFL Week 10 picks are here as the Week 0 games have concluded and everyone waits to see how the Donovan McNabb drama will unfold in Washington.
The re-energized Browns, led by the bruising Peyton Hillis take on the New York Jets and Mark Sanchez, anything can happen.
Meanwhile, Randy Moss will make his first appearance with the Tennessee Titans.
We have our first Thursday night game of the week, and there's a battle Sunday night between New England and Pittsburgh.
Last Week: 8-5
Overall: 87-43
Baltimore Ravens Vs. Atlanta Falcons
1 of 14
The Ravens and the Falcons both look like locks for the playoffs, and both teams have Super Bowl potential at the halfway point in the year. So to say this could be a Super Bowl preview is not outside the realm of possibility.
While the Ravens pass defense showed up last week, it hasn't been as overpowering in year's past. The Falcons pass defense isn't very good, so Joe Flacco could have a very good day.
The Ravens can shut down Michael Turner, but with Matt Ryan having Roddy White to throw to, that opens up the field.
On the flipside, Flacco has dual running threats Ray Rice and Willis McGahee in addition to Anquan Boldin as a deep threat.
This is a tough game to call, but I'm going with homefield advantage.
Falcons 24 Ravens 21
Detroit Lions Vs. Buffalo Bills
2 of 14
The Lions have lost Matthew Stafford again, but Shaun Hill did just fine in relief.
The Buffalo Bills keep putting scares into teams, but they haven't found a way to play all four (or five) quarters yet.
The dirty word in this matchup is "playoffs." As hard as it is to believe, there is an outside chance that if the Lions can finish the season 8-8, they can earn a Wildcard berth. While you can pretty much chalk up losses to New England and Green Bay later in the season, this is a very winnable game for Detroit.
The Bills have nothing to play for already but pride, so the Lions come out with the chip on their shoulder and take this game.
Lions 35 Bills 30
Minnesota Vikings Vs. Chicago Bears
3 of 14
Brett Favre versus Jay Cutler . . . not as epic a matchup as it would've been a few years ago, everything else being equal.
The Vikings are a mess and barely pulled out a win versus an Arizona Cardinals team with a lousy defense and giant questions at quarterback.
The Bears keep winning games they're supposed to lose, or barely beat opponents they should be blowing out, so this creates an intriguing matchup on Sunday.
Both Cutler and Favre are interception machines, but the Vikings have Adrian Peterson to fall back on, but he'll be running against the league's third-ranked rushing defense.
The difference here is the Bear's offensive line, which is awful, to put it nicely. The Vikings can get penetration and make Cutler's day another one to forget.
Plus there's the "nobody believes in us" factor for the Vikings at this point, so I'm going with that.
Vikings 28 Bears 17
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New York Jets Vs. Cleveland Browns
4 of 14
Along with Arian Foster and Darren McFadden, Peyton Hillis has become one of the league's success stories at the running back position that no one really expected to see at the beginning of the year.
The Cleveland Browns, while not an elite team, now are playing the role of spoiler, having upset the Saints and the Patriots this season and nearly beating the Chiefs and the Buccaneers the first two weeks of the season.
The Jets had a five-game win streak before being shut out against the Green Bay Packers, but Mark Sanchez had a great game against Detroit last week, and they have this guy on defense named Darrelle Revis.
You might have heard of the guy, they say he's good.
The Browns absolutely don't care about Revis because this team runs the ball and they run it hard. The Jets run defense, ranked fourth, means nothing after what Hillis has done throughout the league already, so he could get another 150 yards without that prediction being too wild.
Rookie quarterback Colt McCoy already has shown he has caught up to the speed of the game and reads defenses well. He takes what the defenses give him, and while that isn't great for his fantasy numbers, he hasn't made mistakes and he isn't turning the ball over three or four times a game.
The Jets are good, but vulnerable because Sanchez hasn't shown he's consistent yet, and the Browns UFO defense isn't something he's faced yet.
Browns upset again.
Browns 21 Jets 14
Cincinnati Bengals Vs. Indianapolis Colts
5 of 14
This is a dangerous game to assume the Colts will win because the Bengals are scuffling. The Bengals show great spirit, and they almost came back and beat the Steelers on Monday night.
Carson Palmer is the model of an inconsistent quarterback who isn't playing as well as he did before knee and elbow injuries took their toll on his abilities.
Peyton Manning has been short-handed almost the entire season, and Austin Collie won't be playing Sunday because of a concussion.
The Bengals still are an offensive threat, but the Colts have a good pass defense.
The Colts lost a close one to Philadelphia, and the Eagles are better than the Bengals.
Colts 35 Bengals 24
Houston Texans Vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
6 of 14
The Texans are not in a very good mood this week after almost coming back for a win against the Chargers and coming up short.
The Jaguars are coming off of a bye after beating the Dallas Cowboys. While their record is 4-4, they've been inconsistent and their defense is terrible.
The Texans have too many offensive threats for the Jaguars to counter at this point, and this would qualify as a huge upset to me if the Jaguars were to win.
Texans 30 Jaguars 10
Tennessee Titans Vs. Miami Dolphins
7 of 14
The Titans are ranked first in the league in points scored, so you know there's going to be points put on the board.
The Dolphins, inconsistent at best, have yet to win at home, so the desire to say "they're due" is strong. But the Dolphins are being exposed as a team with a lot of holes, and they show no signs of fixing them this week.
Randy Moss is on the Titans roster now, but the chances of him having any kind of real impact this week are slim, unless he pulls coverage away from Nate Washington.
The Dolphins have two good running backs in Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown, plus there's always Brandon Marshall.
But it hasn't been enough, and it still won't be as the Dolphins home woes continue.
Titans 28 Dolphins 20
Carolina Panthers Vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
8 of 14
There's not much to analyze here. The Panthers are terrible, only slightly better than the Buffalo Bills in the sense the Panthers have won one game this season.
The Buccaneers have playoff potential even though they lost a tough game to the Falcons last week.
The Panthers have no chance and there's not much else to say except a Panthers win would be the equivalent of Appalachian State over Michigan a few years ago.
Bucs 42 Panthers 10 (Garbage time touchdown)
Kansas City Chiefs Vs. Denver Broncos
9 of 14
The Chiefs lost a close one to the Raiders and they don't want to lose another divisional game.
The Broncos are scuffling, to put it mildly, but Kyle Orton can move the offense and put points on the board.
The Chiefs have a great running game and Matt Cassel has been good but not great. But Cassel won't be much of a factor in the offense because the Broncos can't stop the run and the Chiefs have two rushers who can get 100 yards in Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones.
Orton can score against the Chiefs, so this game has real potential to be high scoring, but the Chiefs get the edge because of their ground game, and Denver has none.
Chiefs 42 Broncos 30
Seattle Seahawks Vs. Arizona Cardinals
10 of 14
It's unknown as of this writing if Matt Hasselbeck is going to start for the Seahawks on Sunday, but really, does it matter?
Both of these teams are terrible, and this division could crown a winner with an 8-8 record.
Expect lots of turnovers, a few benchings, and maybe even some thrilling catches by Larry Fitzgerald, assuming of course any of the quarterbacks on the Cardinals roster can find him.
The Seahawks are decimated by injuries and the Cardinals rank near the bottom in just about every major category.
Going to go with homefield advantage again on this one.
Arizona 25 Seahawks 15
Dallas Cowboys Vs. New York Giants
11 of 14
While Dallas may start to turn things around under new Head Coach Jason Garrett, it's just not going to happen this week.
It's going to be ugly and Jerry Jones will continue to make sad faces.
Giants 42 Dallas 14
St. Louis Rams Vs. San Francisco 49ers
12 of 14
Another game with a lot of potential for craziness.
The Rams have Sam Bradford, who can take this team to the playoffs since the NFC West is so bad.
The 49ers will be starting Troy Smith, who has shown more energy than Alex Smith and gave the team a spark versus Denver in London.
Like the Lions game, this comes down to a young team with an outside chance at the playoffs against an embattled team that pretty much is done for the year.
The Rams at the moment have a better organization in place and this team is hungry.
The Niners are scrambling for an identity and need this win to avoid a lot of bad things happening.
While I like Troy Smith, I like Bradford and the Rams defense better than I like the Niners chances of putting it all together.
Going to go with the Rams on this one, but I'm not feeling good about it.
Rams 24 Niners 20
New England Patriots Vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
13 of 14
The Steelers can't be in a good mood this week as this will be the second time this year they've had to face a team upset by the Cleveland Browns.
That didn't go so well for the Steelers against the Saints two weeks ago.
Even worse, Bill Belichick typically doesn't lose two weeks in a row when Tom Brady is his quarterback. I don't have the stats on that, but I'm sure they're in my favor.
The Steelers defense is a bit banged up at the moment, but the Patriots defense looked soft last week, especially against the run. Now the question is if the Steelers will be smart and run Rashard Mendenhall through that line until it folds, or if Ben Roethlisberger will try and take over the game.
I'm betting on the latter because Bruce Arians loves Ben's arm, and it will backfire.
Patriots 20 Steelers 17
Philadelphia Eagles Vs. Washington Redskins
14 of 14
Let's just go ahead and make this official: The Redskins are in a rebuilding year.
Okay, that being said, Donovan McNabb could surprise everyone, he's done it before. But he's about as inconsistent as it gets and Mike "Benchy McBench Bench" Shanahan is blowing everything up.
The Eagles are on a roll, and Michael Vick is still playing with something to prove.
This is going to be an Eagles win unless something really strange happens.
Eagles 35 Redskins 10
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