The offensive line still isn’t very good. The running game needs a lot of work. And the quarterback play is … unpredictable. But the Arizona Cardinals are 4-0 for the first time since before I was born.
Scott Allen, editor of the Raising Zona blog, says he’s surprised at how well the season started but adds that expectations have now risen.
“I can see them winning at least the next two games, although the Miami game should teach the Cards to take nothing for granted,” he says. “Once they hit Minnesota on October 21st, all bets are off.”
Allen joined Zoneblitz with his picks for week five. He’s got a tough act to follow. Last week’s picker, The Viking Age’s senior blogger Dan Zinski, hit 11 of 15 games to pull our celebrity blogger contingent into a tie with Tony for first place.
Andy and Tony tied at 10-5, leaving Andy two games behind Tony and the bloggers for the season.
Week Four | Season Total | |
Tony | 10-5 | 37-26 |
Celebrity bloggers | 11-4 | 37-26 |
Andy | 10-5 | 35-28 |
Here are the picks for week five.
Thursday, October 4 | Andy | Tony | @RaisingZona |
Arizona @ St. Louis | Arizona | Arizona | Arizona |
Sunday, October 7 | |||
Green Bay @ Indianapolis | Green Bay | Green Bay | Green Bay |
Atlanta @ Washington | Atlanta | Atlanta | Atlanta |
Philly @ Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh | Philadelphia | Pittsburgh |
Cleveland @ NY Giants | NY Giants | NY Giants | NY Giants |
Baltimore at Kansas City | Baltimore | Baltimore | Baltimore |
Miami @ Cincinnati | Miami | Cincinnati | Cincinnati |
Seattle @ Carolina | Carolina | Seattle | Carolina |
Chicago @ Jacksonville | Chicago | Chicago | Chicago |
Tennessee @ Minnesota | Tennessee | Tennessee | Minnesota |
Denver @ New England | New England | New England | New England |
Buffalo @ San Francisco | San Francisco | San Francisco | San Francisco |
San Diego @ New Orleans | New Orleans | New Orleans | New Orleans |
Monday, October 8 | |||
Houston @ NY Jets | Houston | Houston | Houston |
Game of the Week: Peyton Manning at Tom Brady, err, Denver @ New England, is shaping up to be an excellent match-up of two teams that look to be headed toward the playoffs. Manning looked great in dismantling Oakland last weekend. It took Brady a couple quarters to finally put the pedal to the metal against Buffalo, but the end result was a 52-point output for the Pats. Neither team will get that high, but expect some offensive fireworks in a game that we might look back at several weeks from now when it comes to seeding for the post-season.
Game of the Weak: On paper, there are a number of mismatches this week that feature 1-3 or 0-4 clubs taking on 3-1 or 4-0 opponents. Miami @ Cincinnati holds little intrigue for me, but the Bengals are 3-1 and Miami has been more competitive than expected so far. Houston @ NY Jets only offers some appeal because it will be interesting to see how Rex Ryan rallies the troops after a couple sub-par performances and how Matt Schaub handles a hostile atmosphere on Monday night.
So I’ll go with the Buffalo @ San Francisco game, which features a thus-far putrid Bills team traveling across the country to face one of the meanest, most fundamentally-sound defenses that has played in years as this week’s dog.
Have fun everyone.
To see our “Best Bets” for week five, click here.
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