NFL Week 5 Predictions

October 2, 2007, 10:09 PM | 5 Comments

In every NFL season there always seems to be one or two weeks during the year that just make you scratch your head. Last week was one of those weeks. I was only able to make par by going 7-7 with my picks to bring my total to 40-22.

They only thing that makes me feel a little bit better about all this is that no one else was able to predict the craziness that happened last week. Week 4 was one of those weeks that really makes you question the assessments you’ve started to make about certain teams. Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and (of course) San Diego are all making me think twice about how good (or bad) I initially thought they would be.

After blowing out the Lions in week 3, the Eagles fell completely flat against the Giants last Sunday, and are in serious jeopardy as long as Brian Westbrook is out. Every time I talk to someone about Philly I always say the same thing: their offense relies too heavily on Westbrook and without him in the lineup they just don’t have much of a chance. Unfortunately for me, Westbrook wasn’t listed as ‘out’ on the official injury report, so my conditional pick last week ended up being wrong.

Also, I just thought I’d apologize about the slowness of my site lately, some things are going on with my host which will hopefully be resolved soon. Until then, thanks for your patience!

Game of the Week: Bears at Packers

Green Bay’s 4-0 start has gotten many Packers fans extremely excited about this season, myself included and this week’s game against the Bears is a huge match for them. Win this one, and they’re basically in the driver’s seat in the NFC North. The Bears are a huge rival for Green Bay and the games between these two teams are always exciting to watch. Unfortunately, I might have to miss this game (at least, live) as I’ll be heading to Boston for a few days for the new job.

Watching Brett Favre break the all time touchdowns record on Sunday was awesome, and he did it in the perfect way by calling an audible right before the snap and hitting Greg Jennings on a quick slant route. Vintage Favre. I think the Packers have a really good chance at getting to 5-0 this week against a very depleted Bears defense that’s missing 5 or 6 starters. It won’t be easy by any stretch, but Favre should have an easier time with the Bears defense than he normally does.

Chicago’s offense looked good for the first quarter last week, but Brian Griese threw too many interceptions to give Chicago a chance of winning. Green Bay’s defense is also a lot better than Detroit’s, so Griese might find things a little more difficult this week as well.

All in all, this is shaping up to be a very intriguing match-up, even if you’re not a Packers or Bears fan.

Here are my picks for Week 5:

Away	Home	Comments	Pick	Result
Falcons (1-4)	Titans (3-1)	Last week the Falcons went and ruined their bid for a winless season. They should get back to their losing ways this week when they face the Titans.
Dolphins (0-5)	Texans (3-2)	Matt Schaub didn’t have a very good homecoming last week in Atlanta, but now that they’re back in Houston, Schaub and the Texans should be able to send the Dolphins back to Miami with an 0-5 record.
Lions (3-2)	Redskins (3-1)	It’s really hard to believe that the Lions are in 2nd place in the NFC North, but they are. Unfortunately, they’re a pretty one-dimensional team that relies on their offense to score a LOT of points to win. This is a tough game to call, but I think I’m going to pick Washington.
Jets (1-4)	Giants (3-2)	The Battle of New York will probably be an interesting game. The Jets haven’t really played up to expectations this season, and the Giants – after a rough start – have been playing better on both sides of the ball the past couple of weeks. I’ll take the Giants to continue their momentum.
Browns (2-3)	Patriots (5-0)	Last week the Browns got themselves another surprising victory by beating the Ravens. While that might be a great divisional win for them, I don’t see any way they’ll be able to knock off the Patriots this week in New England.
Seahawks (3-2)	Steelers (4-1)	After a disappointing loss last week against the Cardinals, Pittsburgh has to come home and face a tough Seahawks team that (save for 1 game) has looked pretty good this season.
Jaguars (3-1)	Chiefs (2-3)	The Jaguars look like they could be a solid competitor for one of the wild card spots this year in the AFC. After 2 weeks to prepare themselves for the Chiefs, I think they’ll get it done in KC.
Cardinals (3-2)	Rams (0-5)	OK, so the Cardinals are starting to put things together now… who knew all it would take was playing Kurt Warner at QB instead of Matt Leinart. How nice would it be for Warner to go back to St. Louis, the city he became a star in, and get a win?
Panthers (3-2)	Saints (0-4)	New Orleans has had 2 full weeks to prepare for this game, and with Deuce McAllister out for the season, they probably needed every one of those off days. The Panthers have been pretty inconsistent so far, but they could win this one. I’ll give the Saints one last chance though, because I think they’re better than they’ve shown.
Buccaneers (3-2)	Colts (5-0)	Losing Cadillac Williams and Luke Petitgout for the season is a big hit to the Bucs, and even tougher that that have to go play the Colts in Indianapolis this week.
Ravens (3-2)	49ers (2-3)	The Ravens need a win in a bad way right now and their job will be a little easier as the 49ers are without Alex Smith. With that said, I think it’ll still be close, because Baltimore just hasn’t been very good this year.
Chargers (2-3)	Broncos (2-3)	If you’re the Chargers GM and the home fans are chanting for the coach you fired after your team went 14-2 last year (not to mentioned that the players on the field are basically all the same)… It should be pretty clear now that you made some bad decisions in the off-season. Last chance for the Chargers to save their season.
Bears (2-3)	Packers (4-1)	I’m not sure what’s most surprising: the Packers 4-0 start, or the Bears 1-3 start. I think the Packers will continue on their roll this week, but it won’t be easy against a very angry Bears team.
Cowboys (5-0)	Bills (1-4)	Dallas should be 5-0 by the time this game ends, but they need to be careful with the Bills who are coming off of a huge win over the Jets last week. The ‘Boys will also need to be careful that they don’t start looking ahead to next week’s huge game at home against the Patriots.
Note: the Bengals (1-3), Eagles (1-3), Raiders (2-2) and Vikings (1-3) have a bye week this week.

Don’t forget to check out this week’s ESPN Expert Picks. Hopefully I’ll fair much better this week than the last 2, especially week 4.

Update: Crazy ending on MNF to another crazy week. That had to be one of the most exciting (and weird) games I’ve ever seen. 11-3 this week, not bad.

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