NFL Picks, 2012 Season Week 4

Nobody gave the Vikings a chance to beat San Francisco, not even Dan Zinski (@VikingAgeDan, @TheVikingAge), senior blogger at Viking Age Guy. “Honestly I thought they had no shot,” he says. “I’m not ashamed to say that. I figured they’d scrap through and maybe make it interesting before San Fran took control. I wasn’t ready for them just out-muscling the 49ers.”

But Zinski and the rest of the world were wrong. Minnesota beat San Francisco at its own game for what I believe is the upset of the season so far. I think the Vikings are still a year or two away from being a real contender, but Christian Ponder is giving the team’s fans reason for optimism. Zinski originally believed the Vikings were a four win team at best, but he’s revised his outlook, now giving the team a shot at 8-8.

“They should be in most games,” he says. “I’m still concerned about their defense and the lack of a deep passing game. But I’m becoming a Ponder believer and he has some legit weapons in Percy Harvin and Kyle Rudolph.”

Zinski joined Zoneblitz as the site’s celebrity game pick blogger for week four.

Week three was pretty brutal across the board, with my picks (Tony) edging Andy’s by one game (9-7 vs 8-8), while our guest blogger @moleandmeares finished 6-10 for the week. For the season, I’ve taken the lead, but we’re all separated by only two games:

Week four picks:

Game of the Week: It’s not very often that an 0-3 team vs. a 1-2 team will make the game of the week, but the New Orleans @ Green Bay matchup should be fascinating to watch. The Saints are presumably hanging onto the slimmest of hopes to recover their season now, and dropping to 0-4 will probably seal their fate. Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers can either use their questionable loss on Monday night as a driving force, or they can let it be the catalyst for implosion in a season that was filled with promise after their 15-1 season in 2011.

Game of the Weak: There’s not really one game that stands out this week for pitting two terrible teams against one another, outside of (by record) our Game of the Week. Even the teams that you generally want to avoid watching have some interesting storylines this week. So we’ll give you two options: Cleveland @ Baltimore, which should be a one-sided affair that never deserved the national spot light (although admittedly, the Ravens have a tendency to play down to opponents, and the Browns have looked…marginally better as of late), and the San Diego @ Kansas City matchup, which features the team that may have looked the worst in the NFL before beating the Saints last week (Kansas City) hosting a team that is coached by Norv Turner (which always has the potential to be a train wreck).

To see our “Best Bets” for this week, click here.