NFL Week 8 - Pats Prediction

Pats Prediction:

Last week: Oops. My bye week lasted an extra week. Blame it on my flag football league, the DFFL, which plays on Sunday mornings and business travel. I went to Philly and back for a site audit on the 20th and was slightly frazzled all weekend. I hate flying to Philly or Newark because the return flights to Boston never leave on time. I forgot to post the Pats Prediction last Saturday and I don’t have the chance to do so on Sunday mornings. By the time I get home the 1PM games are underway.

I’m not even sure what the spread was for last week’s game. I’m going to guess that the spread was between 4 and 10 points and that the Patriots were favored.

Here’s where you have to trust me; I am an Eagle Scout, after all. I would have taken the points last week, but said that the Patriots would prevail. The Bills’ defense gives Brady trouble (they did have three sacks) and the Pats were on the road. I still felt, correctly, that the Pats were a far better team than Buffalo. The Bills need at least one more year to be contenders in the AFC East. They need to shore up the offensive line, get a possesion receiver, and let Losman progress naturally for the remainder of this season. I would not have expected the blowout, though.

Season record: 4-2 straight up, 1-4-1 against the spread.

Week 8 Favorite: New England (-2.5)

The Monday night game this week scares me a little bit. The Vikings are a very good team. They aren’t truly a great team yet because they have let a couple of games slip away. They do play very well at home and the Metrodome is a very loud stadium. If this game were being played in New England, I would pick the Patriots outright. This game isn’t being played in New England and I have a hard time predicting the outcome. I can see several possibly scenarios: a low scoring defensive game (favoring the Vikes), a high scoring shootout (favoring the Pats), or something in the middle. I’m hedging my bets on this one and predicting something in the middle, a game that could really go either way.

Prediction: Vikings 24, Patriots 23.