Week 5 Predictions

Time to go with another week of predictions for the NFL season Week 5. Starting with tonight's game.

Arizona vs. St. Louis. This is a very interesting game tonight. The Cardinals struggled last week before finally beating the Dolphins in overtime. The Rams surprised the Seahawks last week and got their second win. St. Louis is very tough at home and are playing solid defense. Arizona is winning with defense and have taken advantage of being at home 3 of the first 4 weeks. Kevin Kolb has been surprisingly good since regaining his starting job. Both teams are struggling with running the ball and will continue to do so tonight as both teams will play solid defense and shut down Steven Jackson and Ryan Williams. So, this game will come down to Kolb vs. Bradford. I just think in the end Kolb has more weapons than Bradford and will get the Cardinals a hard fought victory 23-19.

Miami vs. Cincinnati. The Bengals are a hot team right now. The offense is hot and the defense is playing a little better even though they have been crippled by injuries in the secondary. Andy Dalton is keeping up with his impressive season from last year (and he should have been ROY). The Dolphins had an amazing game from their rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill last week against the Cardinals, but he made rookie mistakes in the end that cost his team the upset. The Dolphins should be able to move the ball against the Bengals, unfortunately so should the Dalton gang. Cincinnati moves to 4-1 with a 28-17 vicory.

Cleveland vs. NYG. The Giants are undefeated against teams that aren't in the NFC East. The Browns are struggling right now, but they are improving. The brutal schedule for the Browns is going to hurt their record this year, but it is going to be a learning experience for tis young team. The Giants are still recovering from injuries and are upset with losing to the Eagles. This one should be an easy win for the defending champs. Giants win 31-13.

Green Bay vs Indianapolis. The present vs. the future in this one. Aaron Rodgers vs. Andrew Luck. Rodgers is considered the best in the game right now, although he has struggled this season. Luck is considered to be the future best quarterback in the league. The Packers offense has not been as explosive as it had been last season, but it is still effective. The lingering injury to Greg Jennings is slowing down the whole offense. However, the Colts aren't good enough on defense right now to contain the Packers. Luck will be able to move the ball, which will make for an exciting game, but the Pack wins 34-21.

Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh. The battle for Pennsylvania, which happens once every 4 years will be a battle as the Steelers look to get back to their winning ways. After their bye week, the Steelers may have the services of James Harrison, Troy Polamalu, and Rashard Mendenhall. If the Steelers get these 3 back in time for Sunday, then the Steelers defense will be back and the Steelers may have found their running game again. The Eagles stopped turning the ball over long enough to upset the Giants last Sunday night, but the Steelers are going to come after Michael Vick. I wouldn't be surprised if Vick got knocked out of this game. I look for the Steelers to come back strong and put the Eagles down. Steelers 24-16.

Atlanta vs. Washington. Atlanta is the team to beat in the NFC. They are the most complete team in the conference and Matt Ryan is playing on an MVP level. RG3 has led the Redskins to a .500 record so far and that is an impressive feat. They are playing inspired football right now and that's always a good thing. However, they just don't have the bodies on defense to shut the Falcons down. Ryan will go with whoever is open in the offense, whether that is Roddy White, Julio Jones, Tony Gonzalez or even Michael Turner. The team isn't making mistakes and they are scoring almost at will. Washington will score some points, but they just won't be able to hold the Falcons down all day. Atlanta goes to 5-0 with a 38-24 victory.

Baltimore vs. Kansas City. The Chiefs have been surprising with their offense, but they are licking their chops after getting embarrassed by the Chargers last week. However, the Ravens are coming to town and know that they haev to keep winning to keep their division lead (right now they have the lead becasue they beat the Bengals). Joe Flacco has been very surprising this season pushing the ball dow the field especially to Torrey Smith. Ray Rice has been his consistent self, although his carries are a little down from the norm. The Ravens will be too much for the Chiefs as their defense will slow the Chiefs down. Ravens win 27-13.

Chicago vs. Jacksonville. This has trap game written all over it for the Bears. Chicago coming off an impressive Monday night victory and knowing their bye week is around the corner may get caught by a Jacksonville team that is starting to find some life. Blaine Gabbert as bad as he's been only has 1 INT this season and is starting to find his rookie receiver Justin Blackmon. Gabbert has the potential for some big plays in the passing game, if he can get some effective play action passing going, because the Bears will be looking to shut down MJD. If they put 8 in the box, Gabbert may have a couple opportunities to go over the top. I'm using this one as my upset special. Just a feeling but the Jags will get the upset 17-14.

Seattle vs. Carolina. Carolina almost pulled off the upset over Atlanta last week, but in the end Hello Kitty fumbled on a 3rd and 1 play and forced his team to punt and his defense failed in the biggest moment. Atlanta was pinned down at the 1 yard line with 1:09 left and no timeouts and the Panthers let Ryan hit Roddy White for a 59 yard pass on their first play. Now, Seattle doesn't have the offense that Atlanta does, but they perhaps have a betther defense and their athletes will come after the Kitty Cam. Marshawn Lynch will have a big game running the ball over a weak defense and will lead the Seahawks to victory. Seahawks win 27-17.

Buffalo vs. San Francisco. The Bills had a chance to be 3-1 and could've knocked the Patriots down to 1-3 in the division. They were up by 14 halfway in the 3rd quarter, then the Pats got pissed off and ran off 35 points in going on a 45-7 run to end the game and beat down the Bills 52-28. Now the Bills have to go to San Francisco, who just made the Jets look like amatuers, for a rough game. San Francisco on top of having an extremely solid defense has a balanced offense. The Bills have 2 good running backs, however, both are still hurting and are being forced into action prematurely because of each other's injuries. The 49ers will pound on quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and shut down the Bills offense. The 49ers win 31-7.

Denver vs. New England. Perhaps the game of the day, featuring perhaps the greatest quarterback rivalery with Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady. Both are hitting the twilights of their hall of fame careers (although Brady still has a few more years than Manning). Manning looked impressive last week against the Raiders, but I have a feeling that Manning will have those kind of games every now and again and for the most part will struggle. He just doesn't look like the Manning of old, he looks like old Manning. The Patriots had their back against the wall last week and that's what it took for them to wake up and start playing like they normally do. The Pats found a running game last week as well as their normal passing game and if this continues, look out NFL. The Broncos have struggled away from Denver and will struggle in Foxborough. Brady 38 Manning 27.

Tennessee vs. Minnesota. The surprising 3-1 Vikings get to head to Tennessee who will most likely have to play Matt Hasselbeck for the injured Jake Locker. The Vikings are winning with all phases of the game. Their Special teams and defense is playing well and allowing the offense to be very conservative. The Vikings are pounding teams with AP and letting Christian Ponder make plays when needed instead of forcing things for the second year quarterback. The Titans are just a mess right now, although the did get a 100 yard game out of CJ2K, who before that was running like a Reliant K car. Sadly, for the Titans they are outmatched in this one and will be soundly defeated by the Vikings, although the game won't be as close as the score. Vikings win 24-10.

San Diego vs. New Orleans. Oh no, we get the Saints on Sunday night. Has the flex scheduling started yet? The Saints are just bad right now. The offense is still potent. The problem is the defense is excremental. The Chargers are coming in at 3-1, but are the kind of team that could give the Saints a win. The Chargers lone loss was a beatdown by the Falcons. The question will be if the Chargers defense can shut down the Saints at all, because the Chargers will be able to score on the Saints. I look for Phillip Rivers to have a big game going against his old mentor Drew Brees, but in the end I got a feeling that the Saints will get their first win at home. Saints get just enough defense to win this one 38-35.

NYJ vs Houston. It's a good thing that CBS haas excellent Monday night TV shows, because this game is almost not worth watching. The Jets have no running game and no NFL quality wide receivers and they are going against the league's #1 overall defense. Good luck Mark Tebow, Tim Sanchez, cause you both are going to get smashed in this one. The Texans are playing on a higher level and are definitely thinking postseason already. They need to start taking some carries away from Arian Foster though as he is on pace for over 400 touches. J.J. Watt is looking like the Defensive Player of the Year and may break the single season sack record as he has 7.5 in 4 games. He may add 3 or 4 in this one. This game will be over by halftime and will be a low rating for ESPN. 2 Broke Girls on CBS may have higher ratings and be more entertaining although that show would be hard pressed to be funnier than this laugher game. Texans win 38-0.

Another week's projections done. Gotta do better than 9-6, from last week, but being over .500 for the season so far is a good feeling. I'm doing better than some of the high-paid analysts out there in the world, so that's a plus. Enjoy my loyal readers.