On to Week 4 by Rick

The final score for Week 3 came to 11-5 (me) and 12-4 (Mardi). Overall I'm holding a one game lead with the current tally at 32-16 (me) and 31-17 (Mardi). It's proving to be a close race between the 2 of us this season. Without further ado I present my predictions for Week 4:

Detroit @ Chicago (Chicago)
Cincinnati @ Cleveland (Cincinnati)
Oakland @ Houston (Houston)
Seattle @ Indianapolis (Indianapolis)
Tennessee @ Jacksonville (Tennessee)
New York Giants @ Kansas City (New York Giants)
Baltimore @ New England (Baltimore)
Tampa Bay @ Washington (Washington)
Buffalo @ Miami (Buffalo)
New York Jets @ New Orleans (New Orleans)
Dallas @ Denver (Denver)
St. Louis @ San Francisco (San Francisco)
San Diego @ Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh)

Monday Night:
Green Bay @ Minnesota (Minnesota 27 - 20)

Let's start with the Houston game. Houston is coming off a tough loss at home against the Jaguars. The worrisome run defense is going to have their hands full with Raider RB Darren McFadden. Houston needs to have a good day on run defense to force QB JeMarcus Russell to go to the air, where he has not been very good so far this season. Houston may also consider some press coverage in the secondary this week in order to disrupt the receivers. As noted before, the Texans were able to get pressure on David Garrard, but with the receivers being wide open all the hard work by the line was for naught. Even though Mario Williams has only one sack so far, I look for him to have a good day against Oakland as so far they have had a lot of trouble protecting JeMarcus Russell. Oakland does have decent run defense but I'm looking for Steve Slaton to build on his modest success against the Jaguars. The other key to a Texans victory will be for Matt Shaub (823 yards, 7 TD's and 1 INT through 3 games) and his receivers to continue their excellent play from Weeks 2 and 3.

The first Monday Night Football matchup in our little rivalry sees Minnesota hosting Green Bay in Minneapolis in a division game. Right away one can tell that this is going to be another close game for the Vikings as Green Bay has really pulled it together from last season. One glaring weakness is Green Bay's run defense, which is ranked 23rd in the league and is going up against the 7th ranked run offense. Green Bay is going to have to rely on turnovers and the quick release abilities of Aaron Rodgers to hold off Jared Allen and the Williams Brothers. Overall, both offenses are close, but with the better run game going against a lesser defense, not to mention home-field advantage, this game will go to the Vikings.

Bye weeks start this week with Philadelphia, Arizona, Carolina, and Atlanta all staying home. Detroit is coming off their first win of the season in Washington, but they won't be quite ready to handle Chicago. Tennessee's defense should be disruptive enough to the Jacksonville running game to help them pull out their first win of the season. Baltimore at New England was difficult to call so this one I have to play by the numbers. Joe Flacco is running a terrific offense and Ray Lewis is showing that he's still the man at MLB. New England is struggling in the red zone and their young defense still has some question marks. Edge: Baltimore. Miami has a lot of tricks but isn't playing fundamental football, which is why Buffalo will win on Sunday. New Orleans has both a running game and air attack that will be the biggest test so far of the New York Jets defense. Look for New Orleans to win and move to 4-0. Dallas has the number 1 ranked running offense so far this season but they are going up against the number 1 ranked defense in the league. Coupled with home field advantage, this game should go to Denver. San Diego is going into Pittsburgh with a lot of injuries. I'm looking for Pittsburgh to capitalize on this and win. Cleveland, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, Seattle, and St. Louis are just bad teams so far this year, which is why I'm looking for them to lose this Sunday (the Tampa Bay/Washington game was basically a coin-toss).

I'm going to start planning the menu for Sunday afternoon (I'm thinking a slow-cooked turkey chili spiced with chipotles). Let's see what Mardi has to say about this Sunday's matchups.