Patriots at Lions: With New England having impressed with recent wins over Pittsburgh and Indianapolis, this game is obviously theirs to lose. It’s easy to draw that conclusion with the Pats having won 7 of their previous 8 games. The only recent loss for the Brady bunch, was to Cleveland on November 7, when they got smoked 34-14. Give the Browns credit, but it’s got more to do with New England not being up for the game, than improvement in Cleveland. The Patriots defense is better than a year ago, but still needs to be better, especially against the pass, where they rank 31st in opponents passing yards. New England is 17th in opponents rushing yards. The Patriots have beaten the best the NFL has to offer, including Baltimore, and San Diego, to go along with their recent impressive victories. The Lions have lost 3 in a row. They are 26th in stopping the run. It’s not hard to figure out what Belichick’s strategy will be against them. BenJarvus Green-Ellis should be getting a lot of touches. The Lions are 6th in passing yards, so they will try to get at one of the few vulnerabilities that the Patriots have.
New England 36 Detroit 16.
Saints at Cowboys: New Orleans has won 3 in a row, and starting to look more like the team that won the Super Bowl last February. They are hoping to have Reggie Bush back, against Jason Garrett’s much improved Dallas team, who have won back to back, since the coaching change was made. Drew Brees has 8 passing touchdowns during the recent win streak. New Orleans is getting healthier, and along with Bush, they are hoping to have safeties Malcom Jenkins, Darren Sharper, and tight end Jeremy Shockey playing in this game. Jon Kitna has thrown three touchdown passes in each of his last two games, and Dallas has averaged 117 rushing yards in the last two games, to go along with back-to-back 30 point games. The Saints are 3-1 on the road, and considering the depth of New Orleans earlier injury problems, and the coaching change in Dallas, a lot of the assembled statistics for this year are probably insignificant at this point in time, other than the fact that the Saints are 3rd in passing yards.
Saints 27 Cowboys 24.
Bengals at Jets: Rex Ryan would have to give sleeping pills to his team to lose this one. Cincinnati has lost an incredible 7 in a row. Their last win was September 26th against Carolina, 20-7. They rank 23rd against the run, and 18th against the pass. About the only positive to be found for the Bengals, is that most of their losses, other than the Buffalo game and their opener with the Patriots, have been by 7 or less. They are 8th in passing yards, and that might have something to do with their needing to play catch-up so often, aside from the presence of Terrell Owens,and Chad Ochocinco. Having said that, there have only been 3 really solid games for Ochocinco, in which he had 159, 108, and 86 yards in receptions this season. He has 4 touchdowns so far, to go along with 50 catches. Terrell Owens has 8 touchdowns and 62 receptions. The Jets are 4th in rushing yards, and 17th in passing yards. They are 5th in run defense, and 16th in pass defense. New York have only one loss in their last 9 games, and that was the 9-0 defeat to Green Bay at the New Meadowlands Stadium.
Jets 33 Bengals 26