As the furor surrounding several off-field issues faded into the background for weekly-picksa couple days, normalcy returned to the field a bit in week three, as well. Good teams beat bad teams, mediocre teams played other mediocre teams close in games that swung our standings and two or three really good games stood out.

And we managed to fare alright this week, coming back nicely after a brutal week two. John Vomhof Jr. hit 12 of 16 contests while the rest of us trailed by a game. Tony still leads the overall pool for the season – though friend of Zoneblitz Dr. Phil went 12-4 in week three to tie him for the lead. If he can match us for the entire season we’ll have to hunt down some Zoneblitz swag for the good doc.

Name Week 3 Overall
Tony 11-5 30-18
John 12-4 28-20
Maggio 11-5 28-20
Andy 11-5 28-20

 

The bye weeks start this week, so there are only 13 games on the slate. And again there are maybe a couple standout matchups along with a couple duds. Division games are at a minimum. So if there were a week you needed to take off for work or something, this might not be a bad one to pick.

Here are our picks:

Andy Tony John Maggio
Thursday, September 25
NY Giants at Washington Washington Washington Washington Washington
Sunday, September 28
Buffalo at Houston Buffalo Houston Buffalo Houston
Carolina at Baltimore Baltimore Carolina Baltimore Baltimore
Green Bay at Chicago Chicago Chicago Green Bay Chicago
Detroit at NY Jets Detroit Detroit NY Jets NY Jets
Tennessee at Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis
Miami vs Oakland, @ London Miami Miami Oakland Miami
Tampa Bay at Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh
Jacksonville at San Diego San Diego San Diego San Diego San Diego
Atlanta at Minnesota Atlanta Minnesota Atlanta Atlanta
Philadelphia at San Francisco Philadelphia Philadelphia San Francisco San Francisco
New Orleans at Dallas New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans Dallas
Monday, September 29
New England at Kansas City New England New England New England Kansas City
Bye weeks: Arizona, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Seattle, St. Louis

Game of the Week: Philadelphia at San Francisco – It’s kind of slim pickings this week – there’s not a lot I’m excited about. Other possibilities included New England at Kansas City on Monday night or New Orleans at Dallas on Sunday night, but I don’t really believe in the Chiefs or the Cowboys to this point. The 49ers have gotten off to a rougher start than expected, but the defense is still good and the team will find it eventually. Can they do it in time to take on a hot Eagles team that has been on fire since falling behind early to Jacksonville in week one? Hard to say.

Game of the Weak: Miami vs Oakland at London – The Dolphins’ week one triumph over New England has largely been forgotten following losses to Buffalo and Kansas City. There have even been whisperings of benching Ryan Tannehill – which would be colossally stupid, in my opinion. The Raiders are junk right now. This is the game the league wants to send overseas to market the product? This is probably good news for those who don’t want to see the league add a team in London – Dolphins/Raiders could lower the NFL’s popularity level overseas by several percentage points.

For some pointspread picks, click here.