Rick's Week 8 Predictions

So after an interesting week of football, we progress to Week 8:

Seattle at Dallas (Dallas)
Houston at Buffalo (Houston)
St. Louis at Detroit (Detroit*)
Denver at Baltimore (Denver)
New York Giants at Philadelphia (New York Giants)
Miami at New York Jets (Miami*)
Cleveland at Chicago (Chicago)
San Francisco at Indianapolis (Indianapolis)
Jacksonville at Tennessee (Jacksonville*)
Oakland at San Diego (San Diego)
Minnesota at Green Bay (Green Bay*)
Carolina at Arizona (Arizona)

Monday Night
Atlanta at New Orleans (New Orleans 35 - 14)

Bye: Cincinnati, Kansas City, New England, Tampa Bay, Washington

Houston is coming off the big win at home against San Francisco. They should be able to take this momentum into Buffalo to go 2 games above .500 for the first time since 2007 (when they started the season 2-0). The question centers around a couple of starters. Andre Johnson suffered a chest contusion and as of today was limited in practice. Brian Cushing has also been limited in practice this week with a foot injury that's been going on for a while. These starters have been key on both sides of the ball so far this season. Buffalo's defense has been on a tear as of late, with 10 interceptions in the last 3 games. Houston's running game will have to step up in order to keep the Buffalo pass defense off balance. The hurry up offense employed by Buffalo helps keep defenses off balance, but is not very effective when you don't have the talent to effectively execute, which Buffalo does not have. Houston should come out with the win this week.

Brett Favre is returning to Lambeau for the first time in an opposing uniform. There has been a lot of hype surrounding this game just because of that. It plays like an old classic, the student facing the master in a battle to see who has the greater power. Green Bay has only allowed 3 points while scoring 57 since the loss at Minnesota in Week 4. It doesn't matter the perceived quality of the opponent... holding 2 teams to 3 points is a hell of an accomplishment for any defense. The Green Bay offense has also really started to click. I expect this to be a close game, but in the end it will be Green Bay as the winner.

It was announced today that Vince Young will start against Jacksonville this week. I'm sorry, but that's only going to make a bad situation worse as Vince Young is not all that. I expect Tennessee to go to 0-7 this week. The New York Giants/Philadelphia game should be an interesting one to watch. The pass protection for Philadelphia is suspect, but then again, the pass defense for the New York Giants is also suspect. I expect the New York Giants to win this in a shootout style game. One disagreement centers around Miami at the New York Jets. Miami won their last meeting by 4 because the Jets did not have an answer for their ground game. I don't expect much to have changed for this meeting. Alex Smith is set to start for San Francisco this week. He threw for 3 touchdowns against Houston (all to Veron Davis). I expect this to be a shootout, but Payton Manning is a better game manager, which is why Indianapolis will win. Bad team honors go to the following projected losers: Carolina (the team has quit on Jake Delhomme again), Cleveland, and Oakland. The St. Louis/Detroit game may be interesting, although that was a coin toss for me.

Since there are 4 games disagreed on, this could come down to the Monday tiebreaker (which I expect to be a little higher scoring). As for the menu this Sunday, I'm thinking grilled turkey kabobs marinated in Spiedie sauce (it's a New York thing). The side dish will probably consist of a spinach salad with a simple red wine vinaigrette.

Let the games begin!