Welcome to Week 7

Sorry for not writing a column last week, I had a lot of work to do. Also, I'm lazy. It's too bad, because I went 11-2 with my picks last week. I know it's difficult to believe, but it happened. Anyways, here are your picks for Week 7 of the NFL.
LIONS OVER FALCONS I believe in the Lions almost as much as I still don't believe in the Falcons ( a win over the Panthers really did nothing to change my point of view). The Lions, for the first time since their Week 1 win over Tampa, did not play a complete game and they still almost beat the third best team in the NFC. That's an essential trait that a playoff team needs to have, the ability to win without playing their best. It's a skill that the Falcons obviously don't have (and might not develop for the rest of the season). Lions win 30-17.
BEARS OVER BUCS Ladies and Gentlemen, it's the NFL in London! I always love the International series for a variety of reasons. The fans never quite know how to react to two teams they don't care about, the turf is a mess and slows the games down, and most of the time it's rainy. Actually, on second thought, I hate the International Series (at least in London). The Bears fixed a lot of their issues in a dominating win in Minnesota last week, and I wouldn't be surprised of the Bucs suffer a hangover after a big win against New Orleans. I'm picking the Bears in an upset.
BROWNS OVER SEAHAWKS Do I have any confidence at all in Charlie Whitehurst? Uh, no. Any confidence in him being better than Tarvaris Jackson? It's a tough call. I guess my point in all of this is that if the QB you're starting this week has no value over T-Jax, things have gone horribly wrong for you. I think the Browns crawl back to .500 as Peyton Hillis guts out his injury to rush for his first 100 yard game of the season.
DOLPHINS OVER BRONCOS It's TEBOOOOOOW!!!!! Geez, for all the antipathy towards Tebow in the offseason (they made him seem like a cross between Ryan Leaf and JaBustus Russell), things have  certainly changed. I was on the bus home talking about fantasy football with Ray, and he spent 10 minutes trying to sell me on Tim Tebow being his starting fantasy quarterback for the rest of the year. No, seriously. That conversation happened. I couldn't believe it. The guy can't pass, and his biggest strength, according to NFL Scouts, is salvaging busted plays. Essentially, he needs the called play to fail for him to succeed. HE NEEDS THE PLAY TO FAIL FOR HIM TO SUCCEED. Does that sound like a quality starting QB to you? Throw in the fact that the Dolphins' D (who can still overperform against struggling offenses) can still get after the quarterback (as long as the O-Line sucks, in which case Denver is a godsend) and you have an underdog. Overall, this is just about as interesting as a Week Seven matchup between two teams with a combined one win is going to get. Dolphins win 23-14.
TITANS OVER TEXANS I'm going with another upset pick this week. The Titans. Never underestimate the power of a team coming off the bye. They have a full two weeks to get healthy and work out any kinks that might still be causing problems. In the Titans' case, that means improving a porous secondary that surrendered five touchdowns to Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers' receiving corps. The Titans also have to work on getting the running game rolling. The offensive line has not lived up to pre-season expectations, and Chris Johnson is having an anti-contract year (a self-invented term for when somebody signs a big contract and then "suffers" (cough, cough) a "dip in effort, I mean, production"). Without Andre Johnson, the Texans' offense is forced to run through Arian Foster to some extent, and the Ravens made them pay for it. The Titans take definitive control of the division with a big win in this one.
JETS VS CHARGERS The Jets, like the Bears, fixed a few of their issues in a 24-6 win over the tanking Miami Dolphins (Suck for Luck is really up in the air between the Dolphins, Rams, and Colts). However, many issues still remain. The chief problem that still needs to be fixed is a lack of discipline on defense. Missed tackles and overpursuing was a huge problem for the Jets all night. They will need to be ironed out before facing the Explosive Chargers' Offense. Really, I don't have a lot of confidence in the Chargers. Their four wins came against teams that, combined, have just as many wins as the Chargers. In those games, dumb turnovers and red zone issues were huge problems for San Diego, and I don't expect them to get better. Jets win 17-14.
PANTHERS OVER REDSKINS The weekly edition of "Game that there is nothing interesting to comment on". Well, except for one thing. If you're substituting John Beck in for Rex Grossman, something has gone terribly horribly wrong. I'm picking the Panthers to finally win.
CHIEFS OVER RAIDERS Who assigns the values to NFL Players in trades? I've always wanted to know this. Who on Earth thought that Carson Palmer was still worth one, possibly two first round picks? Who? Not only that, but reports are starting to leak that Palmer might not even start this week. Nice job, Mark Davis. The apple fell about three inches from the tree on that one. I'm picking the Raiders to win this game just because I think the Chiefs are much closer to what we saw in Week One than what we saw in their past two wins. The Raiders get a win, but their playoff hopes as far as I'm concerned were dropped in to a pit as soon as Jason Campbell went down.
STEELERS OVER CARDINALS The Cardinals' season has been both encouraging and depressing. We've seen some good things from Kolb and Fitzgerald, but not as much as we thought we would. The Cards have shown signs of being an OK team (going up big on the Giants), but they haven't been able to produce any wins (1-4, including a fourth quarter collapse to the Giants). On the other hand, the Steelers look like they're regaining their swagger after beating Jacksonville and reclaiming their position as one of the AFC's elite. The Steelers only have one or two tough games left on their schedule, so it's entirely plausible that they could finish 13-3 with the AFC's top seed. Steelers easily beat the Cardinals after a four pick day from Kolb.
COWBOYS OVER RAMS It's happening again. The annual talk about "Hey, what's up with the Cowboys?" is in full swing, sure to be led on NFL Gameday Morning by Michael Irvin.
Irvin: " (imagine in a loud, annoyingly raspy voice)THE COWBOYS NEED TO PLAY PHYSICAL TODAY! THE COWBOYS NEED TO MAKE BIG PLAYS IN BIG SITUATIONS!!!!! (Rest of speech unintelligible. Might be coughing up sandpaper stuck in throat)"
Every single year, it seems like every analyst in America has a new opinion on the Cowboys. Personally, I lost interest in about every Cowboys angle after 2008. Romo's a choke artist, they're never properly rated (either so much talk about being overrated that they become underrated or vice versa), they win games that they should win, and they never fail to disappoint in big games. The Cowboys mop up the Rams, and then disappear next week against Philly.
PACKERS VS VIKINGS Remember back in my NFL Preview when I said that the NFL is set against repeat Super Bowl Champions and that a team would have to be way ahead of everyone else to win again? I'm beginning to feel that the Packers are way ahead of everyone else. They're closest competition in the NFC right now (statistically speaking) are the Niners and the Lions. As much as it's fun to watch two likable surprise teams, the reality is they don't hold a candle to the Packers. Their offense is amazing, Aaron Rodgers might be the best QB of the next decade (unless Andrew Luck is as good as advertised), and the Packers might just go undefeated. I don't think they will (too many things need to go right, you can't have any significant injuries, and you have to be pretty lucky along the way) but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. At this point, there's not that much to be said for their opponent, the Vikings. McNabb is washed up and it's time to look towards the future. It's Ponder time in Minnesota, and I don't think he'll forget his first NFL start after the Packers cover the spread twice or thrice over against the Vikes.
SAINTS OVER COLTS If only I were around in Eliminator challenge still (Sigh). What is there to be said for this game? The Colts have been self-destructing for weeks, and there's no point in stopping it now, not with Andrew Luck waiting in the next draft.  The Saints win big over the Tanking Indianapolis Colts and regain the lead in the NFC South.
RAVENS OVER JAGUARS This is quite possibly the worst situation that Blaine Gabbert could be thrust in to right now. A decomposing offense playing on a national stage against one of the best defenses in the league that also likes to use lots of confusing formations? That's slaughter. That's the perfect storm of sacks, mistakes, and blank stares on the bench as the ESPN crew shows discouraging stats. I'm looking forward to it. Ravens win big.