NFL Picks Week 9: Overrated Teams That Will Fall

Week 9 signals the midway point of the NFL season, and at this point, most teams—not all—are showing their true colors.

For slow-starters like the Philadelphia Eagles, the past few weeks have been telling, while for teams like the San Diego Chargers, the past few weeks have raised concerning questions.

By Week 9, preseason opinion and expectations have shifted to reality and teams are simply given too much or too little credit, overrated or underrated.

Rest assured there are some overrated teams out there, some more obvious than others, but here are three that will fall in Week 9:

San Diego Chargers

The 4-3 Bolts have lost two straight games to the Jets and Chiefs on the road. Their latest loss at the hands of Kansas City on Halloween dropped them into a tie atop the AFC West division with KC and the Oakland Raiders.

Experts tell us time and again that San Diego has the talent to win it all, and year after year someone on ESPN predicts they will win the Super Bowl before the season starts.

They host the unbeaten Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers on Sunday, who definitely have more talent than the Chargers.

The Bolts will lose at home and drop to .500 on the season just eight games in. The playoffs just got a whole lot cloudier.

New York Giants

Big Blue has been beating up on lesser competition all season long, and that's exactly why they are overrated headed into their Week 9 matchup against the Patriots.

Of course, no one expects New York to beat Tom Brady and the Pats at Foxboro just one week after New England was embarrassed at Pittsburgh, but then again no one expected New York to beat Tom Brady in Super Bowl XLII.

The Pats will be fired up after last week's performance and will have the support of the home crowd behind them to help expose the Giants and to shine some light on their flawed 5-2 record.

New York Jets

Like their NFC counterparts, the Jets are lucky to have their current record of 4-3.

Rex Ryan's ballclub has been riding the talent of Darrelle Revis for far too long this season, and it can't keep them afloat forever.

New York is winless on the road in 2011 and will visit division-rival Buffalo in Week 9, attempting to gain some ground on the Bills and Pats in the rugged AFC East.

A loss on Sunday would drop the Jets to 4-4 at the season's midway point and require them to play near-perfect football the rest of the way to salvage a third consecutive wild-card berth.

Follow Bleacher Report Featured Columnist Patrick Clarke on Twitter @_Pat_Clarke