The Weekly Muck: NFL Picks from the Black Lagoon Week 3
Alright a bit of a better week last time around than the first one. 3 out of 5, not the best work, but i'll take it. Week 3 is upon us and I've had my two warm-up rounds. Swamper is ready to go 5-0. Once again here we are only hours before kickoff so I will stop wasting your time and dive right in. Week 3, lets go!
***NEW ORLEANS SAINTS -10***
These boys have had a rough start to the season so far this year. Nobody saw 0-2 coming for Saints as even I had them circled as an early Super Bowl favorite. The thing here is with these guys is that they are a bit bipolar. Whether they play at home or away determines if they are Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. The first two weeks they played away; the first one was in ATL in a dome however, so they didnt look too bad at least on offense, and week 2 was in Cleveland and in the elements on some grass and guess what? The Brownies took it to em! This was one of my winning picks last week. I knew the House Cats, I mean Saints would fold when playing some smash mouth football with an AFC outdoorsy opponent in their house. This week WHODAT Nation is itching for a win and the Saints have the perfect foe coming into Nawleans to serve them one up on a silver platter. The Vikes are not going to go anywhere with Matt Cassel at the helm as we saw last week when they hosted NE. This was one of my losses and I saw first hand and was reminded just how bad Cassel can be most of the time and when matched up against Brees having to go point for point, I don't think he will stand a chance. No Adrian Peterson to establish a run game, no chance for the Vikings to keep up in this one, they just don't have an arm to do so.....The Saints will be rolling on all cylinders in front of their home fans looking like the Saints we know. Jimmy Graham will be unstoppable as usual and Rookie WR Brandin Cooks will make a statement as well as RB Khiry Robinson filling in for Mark Ingram. Khiry will show the world today who he is and that he plans to take advantage of this opportunity to make Saint fans say Ingram who? Don't be scared to lay the chalk here.....NAWLEANS -10
***BUFFALO BILLS -2.5***
Nobody circles the wagons like the Buffalo Bills!!! <-----Whatever this means, I'm not sure but I always hear it when the Bills are rolling and I like it. This defense is for real. The Bills have beaten some real deal squads in the first two weeks and I think they catch another one in a great spot for themselves as the San Diego Super Chargers are flying high after taking out the almighty Super Bowl Champ Seahawks last weekend and are flying to the East Coast now to play an early game against a gritty Bills team who is believing in themselves and have the weapons to compete with anybody. I am very high on the Chargers this year I also had them circled as a early Super Bowl Favorite as I loved how they finished last year and they seem to have picked up this season right where they left off. However as I mentioned numerous times I have realized that NFL games are all based on SPOTS and certain teams catching others in bad ones. For example here we have a Chargers team who is banged up after beating the best team in football in convincing fashion at home last weekend and it has been the talk amongst San Diego fans everywhere all week. All looking past the 2-0 Buffalo Bills patiently waiting their next foe. The Chargers travel all the way EAST to take on a very tough Bills defense. I also believe the Bills offense has something going here with their two dynamic RBs and Rookie WR Sammy Watkins that will just be too much for a banged up Charger defense to handle today. Mini Superbowl hangover in effect for the Bolts here today and the Bills bang them up to go 3-0. Bills -2.5
***CLEVELAND BROWNS +2***
The Cleveland Browns really impressed me during their last 6 quarters of football that they have played. They really took it to the Saints last weekend and established a bend but don't break mentality against Drew Brees allowing just enough points and the inevitable Jimmy Graham scores but always bouncing back with a touchdown themselves right back by running the rock with their two Rookie RBs and great mistake free football from QB Bryan Hoyer has been the key as well. Today their divisonal rival comes into the Dog Pound flying high after they beat up on another division rival the Pittsburgh Steelers last weekend on Prime Time Thursday Night football. They have had a long time to wait until today where the Browns are in a groove right now with the way they played the second half of week 1 on the road against the Steelers also, and all game home against New Orleans last weekend. Needless to say, I think today may be the best game on the board and being really overlooked by many as that. I also believe the Browns are better than the Ravens at this point in time, they are home, and they are an underdog and motivated to beat up on long time big brother of the division. The Ravens are still dealing with this Ray Rice scandal and Bernard Pierce is inactive, their run game will be weak today against this Brownie Defense which is full of grown ass men! These boys like to hit and Steve Smith Sr. will be locked up all game by Shutdown Corner Joe Haden. What I am trying to say is, take the Brownies here to beat big brother at home. Browns +2.
***ARIZONA CARDINALS +3***
This team is sneaky good. The way they took it to the GMen last weekend in their house with a backup QB really impressed me. I also noticed that Drew Stanton isn't that bad of a QB and not too far off from Palmer. He can definitely get the job done that needs to be done as the Cardinal QB. This is a formula of no mistakes and smart, short passes to WR Fitzgerald and Floyd. Andre Ellington is one hell of a RB and reminds me of Jamal Charles. I think he runs all over a banged up and hurting 49er defense. I knew the Bears would exploit them last weekend eventhough it took an entire half to do so. It eventually happened. Kapernick has not looked himself to me lately . All preseason he has looked off which was another reason I thought the Bears would give them a hard time. I am going to ride the solid and proven defense here against a wounded Niner team trying to work out some mental issues on their end right now. They are realizing that this season is not going to be as easy as the prior two with their roster and other teams have somewhat figured them out. Until they reinvent themselves, they will be in a dog fight every weekend. The Cowboys did them a favor week 1 by beating themselves and all it took was a half for the Bears to own them on Sunday Night Football in front of their home crowd during the Christening of their new stadium. Now they travel to the desert off of a terrible and embarassing loss, to take on an extremely tough Arizona Defense. I like the home dawgie here with the points. Zona +3
***MIAMI DOLPHINS -3.5***
Lastly, the Dolphins are coming back home after a hard fought battle in Buffalo last weekend where they juuuuust fell short and let up one special teams score too many to lose against their divison rival in their house. This weekend they return to Miami where they beat up on the Patriots week1, and will do the same to the lowly Kansas City Cheifs this weekend. The Cheifs are in big trouble so far this season going 0-2. They got beat up at home by a decent Titan team and then traveled to Denver to get their hearts broken last weekend. They played their hearts out this game against their rival Broncos and it wasn't close to enough. The score actually indicates that it was closer than it was because two Bronco scores got called back due to penalties. The Cheifs are hurt mentally, emotionally, and physically. They have an extrememly tough task in front of them today having to go into Miami and face another tough defense coming off of a loss and at home. The Chefs best players are banged up on offense and defense and I think that the Dolphins are focused and come to play and will exploit them today at home. Short and sweet: Phins for the win and cover!
Okay everybody that about does it for the Weekly Muck this week! Hopefully it is the best week yet which I am confident it will be. I had a lot of leans this week with a lot of enticing and tricky spreads but I feel these five are sure fire winna winna chicken dinnas! I will be back later to do a write-up on tonight's game hopefully to continue my Prime Time specials. You know, the terrible Bucs Pick that I did a write up for a few days ago, yea that one. I am leaning Pitt tonight big time to bounce back in a big way, but I will get to that later. I will also be rooting my Lions on hard today at home against the Pack Attack! I like them a lot but I am done picking my team from now on, too biased. Anyway enjoy the games everyone! Be back later.
