Alternative Picks: Week 7, 2020

They say ties are like kissing your sister, but for Andy, an even split of week six picks just helped maintain a solid lead in the overall standings. Tony’s going to have to start narrowing the gap one of these days if he wants to regain bragging rights.

This week’s slate is filled with a couple of compelling games and a bunch that, frankly, nobody outside of the family members of players should care about. Seriously, the NFC East match-ups we’re being treated to this week used to be must-watch football. Nowadays, it’s possible that seven weeks in, a two-win team could lead this division come Monday morning. Pathetic.

In fact, this season’s NFC East is why I am A) Against the obvious money-grab that this year’s playoff expansion is and B) A proponent that in order to make the playoffs, teams should be required to finish at least .500. That is to say, if the NFC East is won with a 6-10 record, that division forfeits its playoff team for the year and the non-playoff team with the best record takes the bottom seed in the conference. Everyone else slots up one.

Anyway, I digress. … Here are our alternative picks for the week.

1) Andy: Bills over Jets – Minnesota, Philadelphia, the NY Giants and Atlanta all look like they’ll be in the running for the right to pick Trevor Lawrence next April, but the runaway favorite, at this point, has to be the J-E-T-S, JETS, JETS, JETS.
2) Tony: Chiefs over Broncos – The Broncos are coming off a big, upset win against the Patriots — but they run into the buzz saw of an actually good team.
3) Tony: Packers over Texans – Packers are on the road, but only 3.5 point favorites over the 1-5 Texans? I don’t think Houston can do what Tampa did to Green Bay last week — they lack the wide receivers … and running game … and defense …
4) Andy: Chargers over Jaguars – Justin Herbert has come close against a couple of good teams. He gets the payoff this week against a Jacksonville team pretty much trying to lose.
5) Tony: Saints over Panthers – The Panthers have surprised at least me so far this year…but I don’t think they’re good enough to beat the Saints.
6) Andy: Browns over Bengals – I disagree. I think Carolina is definitely good enough to beat New Orleans. So, thank you for picking that one. I do not, surprisingly, think Cincinnati is good enough to beat the Browns. I got burned on that a few weeks ago. Cleveland is actually pretty good, even with the blowout loss to the Steelers last week. Cincy is improving and I continue to like Joe Burrow, but the Browns are going to make the playoffs this year.
7) Tony: Seahawks over Cardinals – Baker Mayfield is playing through an injury, and some fans wouldn’t mind seeing Case Keenum. I wonder where Kevin Stefanski is on that topic? Meanwhile, the Cardinals are having an ok season…but Kyler Murray is one of the few QBs in the NFL that has to look up to Russell Wilson in the status columns AND standing next to him. I don’t think he can keep up with Wilson…yet.
8) Andy: Buccaneers over Raiders – Jon Gruden has the Raiders playing well for the first time since he was the former Raiders coach in Super Bowl XXXVII in January 2003. But just like in that game, the Bucs are better. The now Las Vegas Raiders will probably keep the score closer, but they will lose.
9) Tony: Eagles over NY Giants – I bet Fox is loving having the Thursday night game this week…on the plus side, the winner of this game moves into a virtual tie for first place in the division. Unfortunately for whichever team eventually wins the NFC East, that means they have to play another week longer. We might see our first ever 6-10 division champion this year.
10) Andy: Falcons over Lions – Was a new coaching staff all Atlanta needed? Would Detroit benefit from the same change? Detroit is comparable to, if not worse, than Minnesota. So, if the Falcons can crush the Vikings on the road, I’m guessing they can do something similar to the Lions at home.
11) Tony: 49ers over Patriots – I had started writing up the Falcons/Lions game, but kept flip flopping on my pick…my gut reaction was to pick the Lions, if for no other reason that they seem like the kind of team that would screw up a chance to get their coach fired. In this game…could the Patriots really fall to 2-4? Could Belichick get beat by his former student in Jimmy Garroppolo? I think they can…even with the 49ers continuing to lose guys to injury.
12) Andy: Rams over Bears – It’s not so much that I think the Rams are that much better than the Bears or that I feel all that good about this pick. It’s more that I have no idea who is going to win the Titans/Steelers game or the sludge-fest NFC Least game between the Cowboys and Football Team.
13) Tony: Titans over Steelers – I’ll let you have the sludge-fest, even if the line says I’m taking a mild upset here. The Titans have been on fire since coming back from the COVID layoff, and the Steelers lost Devin Bush last week–that makes the already difficult task of stopping Derrick Henry that much tougher…
14) Andy: Football Team over Cowboys – I picked Washington because the likelihood is someone has to win. In reality, if this game is seen on television, anyone who watches loses.

And … in straight up picks, more ties: