After a week in London where the team seemed to take a step back, the Jaguars are off this week to hopefully rest, recuperate and rebound.  While bye weeks tend to suck when it comes to following your team, it also gives you more time to throw eggs at your rivals (not literal eggs).

 

With this in mind...

 

Houston (4-5) at Cleveland (6-3)-For the first time in a long time, mid November rolls around with Cleveland Browns fans actually having legitimate hope in a Browns playoff berth, as they host Houston, who, coming off the bye, is trotting out Ryan Mallett for his first start at QB.  While I think using the bye to prepare Mallett for the start is smart, starting him on the road in Cleveland is tough.  Cleveland's defense, while not dominant, is decent against the pass.  That, the weather (snow forecast?) and the probable absence of Arian Foster will make things harder for Mallett.  Meanwhile, the Texans, while doubling their win total from last year, have not managed to generate the kind of pass rush they envisioned when they drafted Clowney to go along with Watt, generating a middle of the pack 19 sacks, and ranking 29th against the pass.  The weather...the playoff push...Mallett getting the first start of the year..too many things for the Texans to overcome.  Cleveland wins 23-17.

 

New England (7-2) at Indy (6-3)-one of the most important conference rivalries over the last 15 years renews again.  After a relatively slow start for both teams, both the Pats and Colts have bounced back to lead their respective divisions and are clear playoff contenders.  Despite an insane amount of turnover and no names at receiver, Brady and the Pats keep chugging along, thanks in large part to the return of Gronkowski.  Indy, despite looking like they would have no pass rush once Mathis went down with season ending injury, have actually produced a respectable 24 sacks, tying them for 10th, and unlike the bulk of the Manning era, Luck actually has a respectable defense at his disposal.  Indy wins a shootout 31-27.

 

Pittsburgh (6-4) at Tennessee (2-7)-though these are not your father's steelers, or even your older brother's Steelers, they are better than the tacks, who present to HOF defensive coordinator Dick Lebeau another rookie QB-Zack Mettenberger-to befuddle.  In prime time, and fighting for a playoff spot,   Steelers win a battle of loathsome and contemptible franchises 23-10. 

 

Last week:  1-1

Overall:  21-11

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Worst to 1st.  Curse Reversed!

I think the quarterback's name is spelled Mallett.

 

Why do you sound like Clowney has been playing bad all year? The reason their defense is not great this season is he has been out since Week 1. This week will be the one he finally returns.

 

The Colts-Patriots rivalry was really just a Manning-Brady rivalry. Before their first meeting, nobody ever talked about the Colts and Patriots being AFC rivals - even when they were in the same division.

 

My picks are the same as yours, but I don't know about snow in Cleveland.

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I think the quarterback's name is spelled Mallett.


Why do you sound like Clowney has been playing bad all year? The reason their defense is not great this season is he has been out since Week 1. This week will be the one he finally returns.


The Colts-Patriots rivalry was really just a Manning-Brady rivalry. Before their first meeting, nobody ever talked about the Colts and Patriots being AFC rivals - even when they were in the same division.


My picks are the same as yours, but I don't know about snow in Cleveland.

Clearly you are absent historical knowledge. They were heated rivals. Sometimes it was the teams first victory of the season! Even bad

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10-3 in the weeks I've participated in so far.

 

This week I'll take the three home teams, so brownies,
colts
,
and steelers
.


 

If the home teams were flipped I'd still take the home teams except for the steelers.

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<p style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">2-0 last week.

<p style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">25-7 overall.

<p style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> 

Browns over Texans

Steelers over Titans

Colts over Patriots

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Clearly you are absent historical knowledge. They were heated rivals. Sometimes it was the teams first victory of the season! Even bad.

 

My understanding is the Jets are enemy #1 for the Patriots. I first began to read about a Patriots/Colts rivalry when they became annual playoff contenders with their franchise quarterbacks and everyone made a big deal about Manning versus Brady.

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Oh and PS: Titans/Steelers game is at Tennessee, not Pittsburgh.

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D'oh!

 

Fixed.

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Worst to 1st.  Curse Reversed!

This week I'll choose...

 

Browns over Texans

Steelers over Titans

Patriots over Colts - Note...  I'm still undecided on this game and may edit this post in the future to change it.

 

<p style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Last week 1-1

<p style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Overall 22-10

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.

Oh and PS: Titans/Steelers game is at Tennessee, not Pittsburgh.

 

Makes no difference. Dick LeBeau + rookie quarterback = Steelers win every time. The Steelers won in Jacksonville, remember?

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Bullseye, when you fixed the Steelers/Titans game, you forgot to color Tennessee blue.

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Makes no difference. Dick LeBeau + rookie quarterback = Steelers win every time. The Steelers won in Jacksonville, remember?

 

Agreed. I selected Steelers, I was just letting people know, in case that did matter.

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Week # 10 Results: 2-0

Overall 22-10

 

Week # 11 Selections:

 

Cleveland over Houston

Indianapolis over New England

Pittsburgh over Tennessee

 

Regarding the Patriots-Colts rivalry,  I recall it being a very intense rivalry back in part of the 1970's.   Especially 1977,  when the Baltimore Colts beat the Patriots on the final Sunday of the season to win the AFC East and keep the Patriots out of the playoffs.  

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I keep forgetting to post but I do our weekly yahoo pick em, I need to get back on track and see what I have but my yahoo is running slow... But i had Steelers, Indy and browns this week I know that.

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:thanks: Extra Life 2016 is 11/05/16 :thanks:

 my yahoo is running slow...

 

 

You should probably get a prostate exam.

 

 

 

Bullseye, this has been a great idea (Your AFCS competition, or whatever it is) that you had. I think that if you continue putting this together a few years from now it will have a much larger group of participants.

 

Someone needs to create a photoshop Lombardi AVI Trophy that the AFCS MB Champion can use for the entire year. Rumbardi? Dumbardi? Whatever it is, I like what you have put together. I wish I had got in at the beginning, so please do this again next season.

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Looks like we all got the first game wrong.

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Well...for the first time (IIRC), I am guaranteed to have a below .500 week, with Indy getting smoked at home and the Texans beating Cleveland on the road.

 

It puts me in the horrible position of actually rooting for the Steelers to avoid a winless week.

 

The only "solace" I take in this (and it isn't much considering this was never intended to be a "competition") is that it seems everyone was in lockstep with the picks this week, so I guess I don't look much worse than anyone else....this week. 

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Worst to 1st.  Curse Reversed!

Who takes the division? I think Houston can pull it off if Mallet can go "well". I don't think they need anything great from him as they have some good running backs but they where never going to win anything with Fitzpatrick.

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Colts are in big trouble with no Bradshaw and Allen, they are his 2 favourite redzone options. Also every play run by TRich is basically a waste of a down at this point.

 

What on earth has happened to the D too? I hope we follow the Patriots game plan and give them a big dose of the run game and double TY Hilton non stop. Think it's 50/50 at this point who wins the division assuming Mallet is serviceable.

 

In fact I think the Jags have a great shot at beating the Colts coming off a bye

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Who takes the division? I think Houston can pull it off if Mallet can go "well". I don't think they need anything great from him as they have some good running backs but they where never going to win anything with Fitzpatrick.

I still think Indy takes the division, but I knew Houston was not as bad talent wise as their record suggested last year, and I figured they would have something of a bounce back season.  They can still make a playoff run.

 

On a side note...understanding Bill O'Brien has forgotten more about football than I will ever know, for the life of me I can't understand why they would use J.J. Watt on offense.  I know he was once a TE.  I know he is an incredible athlete.  But there is no way in the world I would risk injury to him over a play in the red zone.  That's what 3rd string TEs are for. 

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Worst to 1st.  Curse Reversed!