Week 7 NFL Picks: Carolina Panthers and This Week's Slam-Dunk Survivor Picks

In just a few weeks there is a solid chance you are going to walk away with your survivor pool, so it's imperative that you don't botch this week's pick with victory right around the corner.

You avoided the temptation of picking the Browns over the Bengals in Week 1 and the pick that resulted in an epic number of survivor pool casualties, the Giants over the Seahawks in Week 5. Now it's time to avoid the other trap games and let the poor saps you are playing with oust themselves with boneheaded picks.

Just as the winless Vikings were a lock against the Cardinals last week, there are less-than-stellar teams guaranteed to win this week. Rifling through the elite teams early on makes it more difficult on you now, but all is not lost.

Here are this week's slam-dunk survivor picks.

Carolina Panthers

The Redskins have moved away from Rex Grossman and are giving John Beck the start. After one botched game, they pulled the plug on Grossman and in doing so, made Carolina a lock to win this week.

Cam Newton is coming off the toughest performance of his young career, but don't let one blown game scare you. His three picks and no touchdowns may lead some to believe that he's going to make a pattern of the errors, but you can expect him to come back strong this week, even though the Redskins have a top-10 defense.

Beck is going to force the already struggling Redskins offense to implode. Ryan Torain was their leading rusher last week with 22 yards against a miserable Eagles run defense. Beck has to take it upon himself to win and his one touchdown against nine turnovers in his career don't speak well of his ability to command a football team to victory.

Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens kept Arian Foster below 50 yards last week and will do the same to Maurice Jones-Drew this week. The Ravens have the third-best run defense in the NFL and the Jaguars can't hope to get their last-ranked passing game going this week.

The Jaguars are one dimensional and they match up miserably against the Ravens. This is going to be yet another Monday Night Football nightmare of a game to watch. The Jaguars allow 115 YPG on the ground, and Ray Rice knows how to attack a wounded run defense.

New Orleans Saints

The Saints have a late Week 11 bye this season, but they get to rest for a couple of weeks while they take on the winless Colts and Rams in consecutive weeks. This is probably going to be the biggest blowout of the week and the game being played in New Orleans just adds salt to Indy's wound.

The Colts have a heinous run defense. Mark Ingram happens to have a rushing touchdown in three of his past four games. The Colts allow 136.7 rushing YPG and if Drew Brees fails to take down Curtis Painter in a shootout, the Saints can rely on the run game to bring it home.

Fortunately for the Saints, they don't have to worry about that. Brees commands the second-best passing attack in the league and the Colts have no shot at stopping the Saints' ridiculous array of weapons. The Colts won't finish this season winless, but they aren't going to taste victory against the Super Bowl-contending Saints on the road.