The Backdoor Cover: Week 9 NFL picks

The Backdoor Cover: WEEK NINE

Season record (38-27-4)

Last week (5-4)

Between Halloween this week with a toddler and a night spent at the labor/delivery room for the next child (False Alarm!), this week’s picks are coming out a tad late. Also, you’ll notice I don’t ramble enough because time is in short supply.

A blessing in disguise this week is my missing the Thursday night game. The past couple of weeks I have done extremely well on Sunday but have lost both Thursday night and Monday night games. That’s the issue that comes with taking games just for the action, they can go bad quickly because most of the time a different team shows up than what you would expect on a Sunday. Just something to consider when taking the games when only one game is being played that day.

Two games I wrestled with all week and didn’t take, much to my readers surprise I’m sure is the Denver/Cincy game and the PHI/NO game. Denver is clearly the better team but there is an angle that is strong with a Cincy coming off a bye, getting between 3.5 – 6 points that I’m not touching. And I haven’t been right with the Eagles yet but I know as soon as I pick against them, they pull the win out and I refuse to give them the satisfaction.

Once again, apologize for the lateness and for condensing my award-winning game commentary down to one sentence per matchup, but it couldn’t be avoided. Kind of like Tony Romo blaming Dez Bryant for all his mistakes.

On to the picks!

NFL

BALTIMORE -4 vs. Browns – Ravens off a bye will be too much, even on the road.

MIAMI -2 vs. Colts – I refuse to not back this Dolphins team until they stop covering.

JACKSONVILLE +4.5 vs. Detroit – I couldn’t come up with a good reason to take the Lions on the road.

CAROLINA +3 vs. Redskins – Because the Panthers are playing much better than the talking heads are giving them credit for and they’ll break through at some point. (buy the half point)

DALLAS +4 vs. Falcons – This makes no sense.

BUFFALO +10 vs. Texans –I always try to find an excuse to back a double-digit underdog and at least Buffalo can score (sometimes).

MINNESOTA +4 vs. Seahawks – Vikings have gone from darlings to afterthoughts the past few weeks, like the game to stay within a field goal.

OAKLAND -1 vs. Buccaneers – I get that everyone is pumped about Tampa Bay, but I’m not ready to back them on the road across the country.

Good luck!