Lions At Eagles

The Lions travel to Philly following a 40-10 demolishing of the battered Green Bay Packers.

Riding their home crowd, the Lions defense compiled seven sacks, including a Ndomuking Suh safety.

When focused, the Lions have shown they can be a formidable team.

This has been the case more often than not at home, where they hold a 4-2 record.

Whether they can maintain that discipline on the road against a hot Eagles team is to be determined.

A win in this game would be a statement for either team in their respective divisions.

Nick Foles is making headlines as a starter, but he still has a lot left to prove.

He first turned heads with a three touchdown, 296 yard game against a hapless Buccaneers team still lingering in the shadow of the Josh Freeman debacle.

I’m picking the Lions to bring Foles back to earth some, as he won’t be able to outscore the lions prolific attack that featured a dominant run game last week.

To keep the offense out of pass-first situations, the Eagles defense needs to bend-not-break and not let the ferocious Lions front four get their hands on Foles.

The Eagles can’t let the Lions get up two scores.

The Picks
Lions: Jake, Owen, Colin and Julia

Eagles: Rory, Taylor and Stu

Seahawks at 49ers

The previous meeting between these two teams was a display of dominance by the Seahawks secondary against the 49ers receiving core. Enter Michael Crabtree.

Crabtree looked pretty good in his action against the Rams, securing a long reception, though I can’t expect he’ll shoulder the load like he did late last season.

The Seahawks are a notorious man-to-man defense on the outside and will focus on shutting down the ground game.

This leaves potential for big plays, but the secondary led by Richard Sherman win more than they lose.

I expect the Seahawks to be respectable on offense and the 49ers to be the same on defense.

Colin Kaepernick needs to click with his receiving core and beat the Seahawks secondary or do something spectacular with his legs.

I’m putting my marbles on Seattle’s secondary, even on the road.

The Picks

Seahawks: Jake, Stu, and Colin

49ers: Owen, Rory Julia, and Taylor

Giants at Chargers

The Chargers host the Giants as two teams on the outside looking in at the playoff picture square off.

Early this season the Giants were an awful team as Eli played badly, but since he’s rebounded they’ve looked at least competitive.

The story for the Chargers has been the revival of Phillip Rivers.

He’s completing a modest 71 percent of his passes for 8.5 yards per attempt.

What’s more impressive is the receiver turnover he’s had to navigate, giving preseason reps to receivers who didn’t play most of the season.

Not that Malcolm Floyd or Danario Alexander would have been upgrades to the impressive Keenan Allen, but the depth would have been helpful.

Andre Brown has given the Giants some running game, but expect a close game between these evenly matched teams.

I’m taking the home team and Phillip Rivers.

The Picks

Giants: Taylor and Colin

Chargers: Jake, Stu, Owen, Rory and Julia