Houston Texans at Cleveland Browns (- 3): Brady Quinn has two weeks under his belt and gets to throw against the 22nd ranked defense in the NFL. He also gets to do it in the comfy confines of his own home stadium. Cleveland should be a little pumped up after a surprising road victory at Buffalo this past Monday night that was about as pretty as Amy Winehouse after a night of drugging, although winning that Monday night game against the New York Giants earlier in the season did not do much for the team about a month ago.
Houston has been consistent on the road this year. Lost at Pittsburgh by 21, lost at Tennessee by 19, lost at Jacksonville by three, lost at Indianapolis by six and lost at Minnesota by 7. Sense a pattern? Now Cleveland is not as good as any of those teams mentioned, but playing at the Dog Pound is about as much fun as keeping an eye on Andy Reid’s kids. Just ask the Giants. The Browns keep their slim playoff hopes alive for another week. Prediction: Cleveland 24, Houston 20.
New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins (- 3): You remember what happened the first time these two teams tangled this season, right? That’s when Miami unveiled the Wildcat offense and New England’s defenders pretended like they never saw an option attack at any time during their high school and college careers. Ronnie Brown would have been a mean wishbone quarterback in the 1980s with the Oklahoma Sooners.
But that first game was back when Patriots coach/genius Bill Belichick had not seen the Wildcat in action. That was also when Pats quarterback Matt Cassel was just getting his cleats wet in terms of starting on a full-time basis. A lot has obviously changed since then. Cassel has a 400-yard game to his credit, Belichick has had time to watch endless hours of tape of the Wildcat and find ways to stop it, and Miami has struggled mightily in back-to-back home wins over lowly Seattle and lowlier Oakland. If you have not learned by now, you cannot count out the Patriots no matter what the situation. Prediction: New England 20, Miami 13.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions (+ 9): Detroit cannot go winless. There is just too much talent on the team, and the Lions keep getting closer to winning and have been giving great efforts, especially in recent road games at Chicago and Carolina. Daunte Culpepper has played pretty darn well for someone who just started learning the playbook two weeks ago. Obviously he is a quicker study than Brett Favre. And the Lions finally learned that versatile rookie Kevin Smith, not slow-footed slug Rudi Johnson, should be receiving the bulk of the rushing attempts.
Detroit’s dilapidated defense holds Jeff Garcia and Co. to 20 points so the hometown team can eek out win no. 1. Prediction: Detroit 21, Tampa Bay 20.
