Doc Brown has been delivering on his NFL picks the last two weeks and has rallied to post a respectable season number against the spread of over .500. That trend will hopefully continue this week. One problem is there are so many question marks.
Injuries have taken their toll on teams, so you have squads like Buffalo, Minnesota, Philly, Tampa Bay and Tennessee all using new or relatively new quarterbacks. And then you have teams like Jacksonville and Cleveland going back to old familiar ones, so at least we have an idea of how those movies might play out. But with many of the newer ones, like Thad Lewis, Mike Glennon and Nick Foles, it’s hard to know what to expect. Despite that, we are placing our chips on a few of these cats. Full analysis of the top three below.
(ATS = Against the Spread, SU = Straight Up)
The Oakland Raiders have looked good with Terrelle Pryor under center. The guy is a game-changer and makes them a competitor in every game. Kansas City has a really good defense, and that will be a challenge, but the Doc think Pryor’s speed makes him tough for any team to defend. The guy just keeps them in every game, so the Doc think he’ll do that here. If the spread were maybe five or six points, the Doc would consider KC, but nine seems like too much.
Thad Lewis is a total wild card, but everything else about this matchup favors the Bills. First off, Buffalo has a good, underrated defense that keeps them competitive. They’ll be at home, and this is just the sort of game the Bengals could be snoozing for. Lewis is solid enough to not make mistakes. As long as he does that, it should be a one-touchdown game.
Tampa Bay’s season has become a disaster. The Doc isn’t wild about the Eagles with Nick Foles at quarterback, but this is more about the Bucs being bad than the Eagles being good. Mike Glennon isn’t the answer at quarterback for Tampa Bay. Philly should be able to edge them out, likely with the help of a few turnovers.
