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Last week was a good week for the picks. Heading into Monday night, I was a perfect 14/14 relying on the Steelers to win at home vs the winless Dolphins to capture my 14 point pick and survive another week in the big pool. Never in my life had I picked every game correctly in a week and was quite nervous. I even texted friends early in the first quarter when Miami jumped out to an early lead to tell them I was kicking myself for not switching the pick to Miami before kickoff. (Seriously considered it, no way the football gods could let me be perfect.)

 Ahh but alas, the Dolphins have no intentions of winning a game and ran a boneheaded defense at the end of the half allowing the Steelers to score a long TD and bring the game to within 4 points. The Dolphins were to never score again and Pitt got the easy victory.

This week’s schedule has been the toughest for me to make a pick. Halfway through the season and I have used up many of the stronger teams with good matchups. That left me with 2 options pick the Packers in Carson,CA against the Chargers or the 49ers in Arizona on Thursday night. I opted to go with the latter.

The 49ers are the biggest favorite of the week and have looked unstoppable on defense. Add to that facing a first time NFL coach and rookie QB, it should be a no brainer. Right? Well anyways Thursday night games always seem to burn me, so I will be watching this one with my fingers crossed and a bottle by my side to ease the nerves.

Well, I was really pulling for the Redskins on Thursday night as nearly 2/3rds of the remaining players had selected the Minnesota Vikings. Having used the Vikings week 5 they were not an option for me this week. So I narrowed it down to another two big favorites that I like this week.

First is the Los Angeles Rams against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals look to be the weakest team the Rams will face the rest of the season, so this might be the best game to take the Rams had it not been in London. I have yet to see a team perform well across the pond, I think they legislate we kick more field goals or something when the NFL sends teams over. With the close call this week I am going to save a solid Rams team for another week.

So that led me to the other team that I ultimately picked, the Pittsburgh Steelers going up against the Miami Dolphins at home where they are two-touchdown favorites. Without Ben Roethlisberger this is the only game on the Steelers schedule that I would feel comfortable picking them. Now I wish I was getting Josh Rosen against this Steeler defense but I think they can get a few turnovers from old man Fitzpatrick regardless.

Bust out your folding tables and trim up your mustache, because this week we’re picking the Buffalo Bills. The Bills come into this week off a bye and should be getting back a healthy Josh Allen and Devin Singletary to take on the Miami Dolphins on their home field. They are also this week’s biggest odds on favorite at -17.

I would feel even better about this pick if the Fins were still rolling out Josh Rosen, but either way this ferocious Bills D should make that O-line look like swiss cheese. No amount of Fitzmagic can save them.

A close 2^nd this week would be to pick the 49ers on the road vs the Washington Redskins favored by 10. I opted to take the Bills though, for the home field advantage, and because San Francisco is a better team overall that I can use later on in the season.

Well it was quite refreshing seeing the Kansas City Chiefs fall last week to the Indianapolis Colts. I am developing a theory that good guy Andrew Luck just wanted Jacoby Brissett to get a fair shake at starting QB after he earned it filling in for Tom Brady a few years back during the Deflategate suspension. With that loss we saw another 135 members drop out of the pool followed by 43 poor saps who thought the Bears were a good team. Heck, a team slightly better than the Raiders would have rolled that pathetic Bears offense, rather than gift them a turnover to make it look close. This brings the remaining entrants down to a manageable 326.

This week I am going with the Baltimore Ravens to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals. They opened up as the 2^nd biggest favorite of the week at home -11.5, following only the Patriots at -16.5 who mopped the Giants Thursday night. Pretty simple logic here, I already selected the Pats earlier this year and this doesn't look like a spot for the Bengals to get their first W. In fact, this might be a good point in the season for the Bengals to consider losing all of their games and get a decent QB in the draft. By default, either the Dolphins or Redskins will get a win this week, which will give them a leg up, especially if that winner is Miami.

I do believe the Ravens will be the most popular pick this week so if you want to go off the board a little might I suggest going with the Chargers against the Steeler's backup's backup. They will be facing a tough Pittsburgh crowd at Dignity Health Sports Park, but I think ole Phil and the guys can overcome the noise.

On a final note, I would like anyone to submit a theory as to how the Cleveland shit Browns opened as a favorite vs the Seattle Seahawks. Did another of Russel Wilson's teammates sleep with his wife or something?