RJ's NFL Picks For Week 14
Published December 09, 2004
Sunday Early Afternoon
Chicago at Jacksonville: Bears 5-7, Jags 6-6. The Jaguars have lost 3 in a row, and the Bears are coming off a big victory against one of their division rivals. Still, this game is being played in Jacksonville, and they are simply a better team than Chicago. JAGS BY 6.
Cincinnati at New England: Bengals 6-6, Pats 11-1. Give the Bengals credit for last week's stunning come-from-behind win. But they haven't a prayer against the mighty Patriots. NEW ENGLAND BY 13.
Cleveland at Buffalo: Browns 3-9, Bills 6-6. The Browns are losers of 6 straight, whereas the Bills have won 3 in a row, and are fighting for a possible playoff slot. BILLS BY 10.
Indianapolis at Houston: Colts 9-3, Texans 5-7. Indy is hot, and their offense is unstoppable. But I believe Houston is a better team than their record indicates, and they are playing this one at home. That's why I think it will be fairly close. COLTS BY 8.
New Orleans at Dallas: Saints 4-8, Cowboys 5-7. The Cowboys still have a slight chance at landing the final playoff spot in the NFC, and they've won 2 straight. New Orleans has lost 3 in a row, and is on the road for this one. DESPITE ALL THAT, SAINTS BY 3. [UPSET SPECIAL #1!]
N.Y. Giants at Baltimore: Giants 5-7, Ravens 7-5. The Giants have collapsed, having lost 5 straight. The Ravens are also stumbling a bit after having lost their last two games, including a heart-breaker last week. Still, the Ravens' defense should give New York's rookie QB Eli Manning fits. BALTIMORE BY 9.
Oakland at Atlanta: Raiders 4-8, Falcons 9-3. Oakland is, to put it simply, a bad team. Atlanta will rebound from their pathetic performance last week and win this one handily. FALCONS BY 14.
Seattle at Minnesota: Seahawks 6-6, Vikes 7-5. Seattle has looked pretty bad the last couple weeks. And while Minnesota hasn't looked great their last few games either, Daunte Culpepper & Co. should be able to fend off the Seahawks. VIKINGS BY 6.
Sunday Late Afternoon
Miami at Denver: Dolphins 2-10, Broncos 7-5. The Broncos, after having lost their last 2 games, are now desperate for a win to keep their playoff chances alive. Miami put in a decent, though flawed, performance last week in a losing cause. The Dolphins need to learn how to keep their mistakes to a minimum if they expect to start winning games. DENVER BY 16.
N.Y. Jets at Pittsburgh: Jets 9-3, Steelers 11-1 (BEST GAME OF THE WEEK!). I've been predicting a Jets collapse all season, and it hasn't come. Maybe they are for real, and will make some serious noise in the playoffs. That being said, the Steelers are the hottest team in the NFL after having won 10 straight. And on top of that, they get to play this one at home. STEELERS BY 3.
RJ Elliott is a graduate student studying Criminal Justice at the University Of Central Florida. His likes include nature, sports, and pierced blondes. He dislikes daytime television, left-wing dictators, and lead-tainted Chinese imports. He is ambivalent about Angelina Jolie.
- RJ's NFL Picks For Week 14
- Published: December 09, 2004
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Sports
- Part of a feature: NFL Picks
- Writer: RJ Elliott
- RJ Elliott's BC Writer page
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Comments on this articleComments
Thanks for stepping up, Mike.
Re: Bucs-Chargers, you may be right. After all, San Diego has got to lose at some point, and TB proved its defensive prowess last week. But, still, the game is in SD, and I haven't really seen any evidence that SD is about to slip up.
Re: Colts-Titans from last week, I agree Tennessee kept pace with Indy for a little while, but only by using every trick play in the book to their advantage. I mean, they recovered two onside kicks in the first half, right? And despite that, they stsill got whupped in the final analysis.
But, it will be an entirely different game on Monday night, so you could be correct about the outcome of Chiefs-Titans...
Well, the Titans are at home, but the Chiefs just put Priest Holmes on IR, which makes a huge difference to me.
I'm surprised my 11-point favoring of the Steelers didn't raise your eyebrow.
Here's my picks made today and posted today at my site. I'm new at this - only been doing this just as a test for the last few weeks. Unfortunatelyt I really haven't gone back to see how I've done. I knoe the first week I tried it (week 10 I believe, I was not good.
Here's my picks in my order, marked with a ++ . I don't do point spread because i'm new at this and would be even more meaningless than now.
The percentages below are those number of people who went with the team at MSNBC's Jay Novacek's picks page, which has a link on my site mirror. I also linked to RJ's post. We'll see.
Lions at Packers
Detroit
++ Green Bay 92%
Seahawks at Vikings
++ Seattle
Minnesota 79%
Bengals at Patriots
Cincinnati
++ New England 87%
Bears at Jaguars
++ Chicago
Jacksonville 81%
Giants at Ravens
++ New York
Baltimore 87%
Colts at Texans
++ Indianapolis 94%
Houston
Raiders at Falcons
Oakland
++ Atlanta 86%
Browns at Bills
++ Cleveland
Buffalo 88%
Jets at Steelers
New York
++ Pittsburgh 80%
Dolphins at Broncos
Miami
++ Denver 94%
Buccaneers at Chargers
Tampa Bay
++ San Diego 82%
Rams at Panthers
++ St. Louis
Carolina 71%
49ers at Cardinals
San Francisco
++ Arizona 89%
Eagles at Redskins
++ Philadelphia 91%
Washington
Chiefs at Titans
++ Kansas City 62%
Tennessee
Saints at Cowboys
++ Dallas 76%
New Orleans
R.J., I don't have time to go into all
this weeks games but... San Diego is hot
especially coming off that defeat of the
Bronco's last week. I've got noooo doubt
they'll hand Tampa Bay their asses this
coming sunday. But do you really think
they'll cover the spread ?
Early scores are in. Good job on raw picks, RJ, getting 7 of 8 winners. I got 6 of 8 winners, but was pretty far off on the points.
Okay ya'll, here are my standings through the first 14 games:
Chicago at Jacksonville: JAGS BY 6.
Jags win by 19
Cincinnati at New England: NEW ENGLAND BY 13.
NE wins by 7
Cleveland at Buffalo: BILLS BY 10.
Buffalo wins by 30
Indianapolis at Houston: COLTS BY 8.
Indy wins by 9
New Orleans at Dallas: SAINTS BY 3.
NO wins by 14
N.Y. Giants at Baltimore: BALTIMORE BY 9.
Baltimore wins by 23
Oakland at Atlanta: FALCONS BY 14.
Atlanta wins by 25
Seattle at Minnesota: VIKINGS BY 6.
WRONG! Seattle wins by 4
Miami at Denver: DENVER BY 16.
Denver wins by 3
N.Y. Jets at Pittsburgh: STEELERS BY 3.
Steelers win by 11
Detroit at Green Bay: LIONS BY 3.
WRONG! Packers win by 3
San Francisco at Arizona: SAN FRAN BY 1.
SF wins by 3
St. Louis at Carolina: CAROLINA BY 4.
Carolina wins by 13
Tampa Bay at San Diego: SAN DIEGO BY 10.
SD wins by 7
So, I am currently 12-2.
Mike is 10-4 (if I added correctly).
T. A. S. is 7-7 (if I added correctly).
And Mr. Hot Air himself from my last NFL predictions post (MCH) didn't even have the guts to offer his picks...
RJ- Nice job! I'm pleased with my 10-4, but I see why not to bet on games with the spread.
I faltered on the Chargers-Bucs and Panthers-Rams games especially. But I really thought the Seahawks-Vikings and Cowboys-Saints games could go either way.
I made 9-6, with MNF left to play. I can't for the life of me figure why I picked the Rams. Guess I just figured it was too good to hpe that Seahawks win and Rams lose. Things don't work out that way for the Hawks usually. The Hawks are "my team" by the way.
I thought I had done better as I watched results come in. Ah well. Good for testing.
If KC wins I'm 10-6 - RJ's not-so-hot-but-not a disaster-either result from last week.
So, now I'm 13-2, and the MNF game could go either way (it's 28-28 as of this writing).
And where is MCH?
Yoo-Hoo! MCH? Where are you?
Please tell me how much I suck NOW, MCH...
"RJ- Nice job!"
Thank you, sir.
"I'm pleased with my 10-4, but I see why not to bet on games with the spread."
10-4 is damn good. And the spread is a bitch. Which is why I don't bet real money with bookies...
"If KC wins I'm 10-6 - RJ's not-so-hot-but-not a disaster-either result from last week."
Sorry I goofed on my "7-7" math the other day. You were REALLY 8-6, and you're 9-6 now.
Worst case scenario, you go 9-7. Hell, that's good enough for a division title in the NFC! ;-)
The larger point is, predicting games is fun to argue about, and it's difficult to be get 'em right. And cowards who Tuesday-morning QB someone else's picks are of little value...
See how can I be 9-6 and you 14-2 as they equal different numbers. Did I miss a pick?
Just a casual exercise in figuring out how you all figure it out. Starting with the basic question "So, how many games were there?"
"See how can I be 9-6 and you 14-2 as they equal different numbers. Did I miss a pick?"
There were 16 total games. I think you forgot to include the MNF game in your score.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/23110)
Hey RJ, I'll try my hand...
Jags by 4 over Bears
Pats by 3 over Bengals
Bills by 16 over Browns
Colts by 17 over Texans
Cowboys by 4 over Saints
Ravens by 2 over Giants
Falcons by 6 over Raiders
Vikings by 7 over Seahawks
Denver by 21 over Dolphins
Steelers by 11 over Jets
Packers by 8 over Lions
49ers by 6 over Cards
Rams by 4 over Panthers
Bucs by 3 over Chargers
Eagles by 17 over Redskins
Titans by 3 over Chiefs
I think this the week the Jets collapse comes, but the Bucs-Chargers game is where we differ the most. I think the Chargers are due for a slip-up, and a hot defensive team is just the one to provide it.
The Titans just played the Colts, and gave them one hell of a first quarter. As lame as the Colts defense can be, the Chiefs are worse, and the Titans at home should be good enough to beat the Chiefs.
Of course, I could be the hot breeze source...