Last week, the Kaguars thorughly embarrassed themselves, losing at home in a blowout to Detroit. Admittedly I haven't done a scientific survey, but I don't know of any Jaguars fans that can look at the remaining schedule and see a win, outside of the law of averages/any given Sunday kicking in. Worse yet, the baloon that was Minshew Mania has developed an air leak, if it hasn't been totally popped. Once again, Jaguars nation is starting to look forward to the draft before November-even with an additional playoff spot per conference. To quote John Cusack from "High Fidelity"..."When will it stop?!?" Elsewhere, the tacks strengthened their growing stranglehold on the division by beating the 1-5 Texans in an overtime shootout. Jaguars fans watching that game or at least the highlights took another small sigh of relief at the knowledge the Jaguars are not the only team Derrick Henry abuses. One trouble spot for the tacks is the season ending injury to LT Taylor Lewan. Finally, the Colts narrowly avoided a huge embarrassment by rallying to beat the Bengals. All of these results ended in the rare for me unbeaten week, putting me at 14-5 for the season. But I can not afford a down week. Hopefully I won't experience a letdown this week.
On to this week's picks...
Steelers (5-0) at
Tennessee (5-0)-in this week's marquee matchup, former AFC Central rivals face off as the Steelers travel to Trashville to take on the tacks. While they have a capable backup in Kelly, he's a step down from Lewan. Having to make a change on the offensive line could be problematic against a team that blitzes as much and as varied as the Steelers. I expect if they can help it, the tacks will try to pound the ball at the Steelers. I don't buy Alualu as a legit NT for a second. Though both teams are equally detestable in my eyes, I guess my rooting interest is in the Steelers in this one for three reasons: First, the tacks have already outlived their usefulness to me by Beating Buffahole; 2) The Steelers have yet to play the Bills this year, and they can potentially bury the Bills from having home field advantage by beating them, and' 3) Because screw the tacks!
Steelers win 28-24.
Green Bay (4-1) at
Houston (1-5)-The Texans have played better since firing Bill O'Brien a couple of weeks ago, but face a Packers team smarting by the blowout thumping they received at the hands of the Bucs last week, giving them their first loss. Watson is an excellent QB, but I think the Packers still have too much firepower for these Texans.
Packers win 31-24.
Jaguars (1-5) at
Chargers (1-4)-The Jaguars historically have sucked mightily on the West Coast (Shaddap tacks, Texans and Colts fans). This week, the Jaguars find themselves goint to L.A. for the first time in team history as they face the Chargers one of their most prolific West Coast tormentors. While the Chargers also enter the game with only one win, they have been far better at this football thing than the Jaguars this year. Rookie QB Justin Herbert has not looked much like a rookie at all. He currently has a gaudy 107 passer rating, a 9-3 TD-INT ratio and a 69% completion percentage. With solid TE play and big WRs, the Bolts seem like a matchup problem for the Jaguars defense. The Jaguars' D, at least in theory, gets a boost with the return of DE Josh Allen, but without the help of current Ravens Yannick Ngakoue and Calais Campbell, Allen has not been anywhere near as effective as he was his rookie year. While the Jaguars' offense prvided early surprises, the last four games it has been riddled with inconsistency. Minshew has been hanging passes and has been missing open receivers. The team has managed to get away from UDFA surprise James Robinson despite playing soft run defenses in Houston and Detroit. The offensive line exceeded expectations, but hasn't seemed to run block particularly well these past few weeks. On top of that, they are facing a chargers' defense ranked 6th against the run. The strange thing is that statistically, the Chargers are only marginally better rushing the passer than the Jaguars this year, registering only 7 QB sacks so far. One interesting note: Jaguars kicker Josh Lambo returns from injury to face his former team. I don't think he will matter too much though.
Chargers win 28-13.
Colts are off.
Last week: 3-0
Overall: 14-5
Worst to 1st. Curse Reversed!
