ESF's own Blazing 5

The Ravens have been a terrible team on the road this season and honestly have benefited from a pretty weak schedule.  They have not had an impressive victory since week 3 when they beat the Patriots by 1. In the past 4 games the have played the Ben-less Steelers twice splitting those games, beat the Chargers by 3, beating up on the lowly Raiders, and struggling to defeat the Browns. The Redskins on the other hand are clicking and have been able to run extremely efficiently, and even with a banged up Suggs playign this week, the Ravens have not been the same team against the run as they have been in years past. This game will come down to the Ravens having to pass on the Redskins in bad weather conditions and most importantly on the road, where Flacco has been awful all year long. Redskins 31-20

Another game where I feel like a road team comes in being overvalued because of a good record which results from having an easy schedule thus far. All year long Atlanta has been playing close games and been able to pull it out in the end. In fact, the Falcons have done quite well with this for the past few season, however I feel the team is still a bit fraudulent as proven every year in the postseason. On the other hand, I believe Carolina has played much better than their record shows, even though they did struggle in KC last week. I think the Panthers keep this one close enough to at least win cover by the hook, and can also see them winning this game outright. Panthers 27-23

A bit of a theme is starting to occur as I pick yet another home team that is deemed by the public as anything but superior to their traveling foe. But in this game I see the biggest difference as a Vikings team much improved from last year. And while they did not impress in their first matchup in Chicago, I expect this one to be different as Adrian Peterson should be given the ball from the get go and Minnesota cannot and should not get away from going to him. AP shot the Vikings in the foot with an early fumble in the last matchup and then the Vikings had to play catch up after making the mistake of putting the game on Ponder's shoulders to early. But still in that game the Bears struggled to have any type of a run game, while Peterson ran quite well. I will go with the team that proved they can run it, especially when the Bears have showed signs of regression and are also without Urlacher and Jennings for this one. Vikings 20-16

While I actually wish that Sanchez was not starting in this one, the Jets are still playing the Jaguars....and the Jaguars are completely dismantled with injuries. I will admit I may actually end up staying away from this one for the sheer fact that I hate the idea of betting on the Jets, but this seems like a great time to take them. The Jaguars have been terrible on the road and tomorrow I just do not see any offensive of production coming from them. I also believe that Henne will try forcing too many things to happen and that the Jets will have the far better ground game, both will lead to the Jets dominated the field position game which should play vital in this one. Jets 24-13

The Lions know how to make games close, they just do not know how to win them. I would give that to the fact they really struggle to close games out with any sort of a running attack at all, and even more so they're secondary play has not allowed them to stop teams from getting back into games. But in this game I love to take the points even though they are traveling to Green Bay for the sheer fact that the Packers will yet again be bombarded by injuries. Tomorrow could be a crazy day with the NFC North as both the Bears and Packers could possibly fall to 8-5, and the Vikings could climb a game out of the lead at 7-6. The Lions in this scenario, or any scenario for that matter, are out of it, but unfortunately for the Vikings and Bears I see the Packers being in sole possession of first place after tomorrow. Packers 27-24

Leans:

Bengals -3.5

49ers -11 (may wait to see if I can get a better line at the half, Dolphins do not matchup well at all, especially @SF on a week where SF is looking for redemption)

That's why I said "I actually wish that Sanchez was not starting in this one" 

Bol buddy