National Football League

Weekend Blitz: NFL Week 7 picks + best links of the week

Published Oct. 17, 2014 12:45 p.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

Jimmy Traina

Welcome to another edition of "Weekend Blitz," a column that will appear on FOXSports.com each Friday during the football season. Consider this one of your must-read features as you wrap up the week and head into a Saturday and Sunday filled with pigskin. We'll be giving out NFL picks, possibly some college football picks and looking back at the week that was in the world of sports and pop culture.

Please come back every Friday or check FOXSports.com/Buzzer or follow me, @JimmyTraina, on Twitter.

Went with four favorites last week and got lucky to go 2-1-1, thanks to Geno Smith's late Pick-6 against the Broncos. That brings the season record to 13-8-1 without a losing week . . . yet. We do have some underdogs this week, although one favorite stands out easily as the pick of the week.

COLTS -3 VS. BENGALS: This line makes no sense to me. The Colts are not only a better football team than the Bengals, they come into this matchup on a roll. Plus, Indianapolis is coming off extra rest with its last game being two Thursdays ago. The Colts' offense has scored 44, 41, 20 and 33 points over their past four games (all wins) while Cincinnati's defense has imploded over the past two weeks, giving up 80 points. Now the Bengals face Andrew Luck, who might be playing the best football of his young career. His last four games look like this: 370 yards, 4 touchdowns; 393 yards, 4 touchdowns; 312 yards, 1 touchdown; 370 yards, 3 touchdowns. Expect a VERY easy cover for Indy.

BEARS -3.5 VS. DOLPHINS: Miami had a heartbreaking loss at home to Green Bay last week. We expect a hangover to linger this week when they hit the road against a Bears team with tons of weapons on offense. It could be an especially long day for the Dolphins if the Bears can get a couple of early touchdowns and force Ryan Tannehill to throw. Miami ranks 25th in passing offense.

JAGUARS +5 VS BROWNS: We've been on Cleveland since Week 1, but after blowing out Pittsburgh 31-10 at home last week, we could see a letdown on the road against the lowly Jags. Jacksonville's defense has been terrible, but the unit has played better the last couple of weeks. Rookie quarterback Blake Bortles has experienced growing pains, but he's also done some nice things. If he can avoid throwing interceptions, this game will remain closer than you'd expect.

RAVENS -7 VS FALCONS: Betting against Atlanta on the road is normally a good play. It's especially a smart idea when they come in with the second-worst defense in the NFL, giving up 419 yards per game.  

49ERS +6.5 AT BRONCOS: Obviously, I wish the line was 7, but expect this one to be close. The Broncos aren't blowing out teams like they did last year. Peyton Manning still gets the job done, but he had some throws against the Jets last week that looked downright awful. It will be interesting to see how he fares against a strong defense like San Francisco's.

* Colin Kaepernick's reaction, via Instagram, to the NFL cutting his fine for inappropriate language in half despite the fact that the league said he did not use a racial slur.

* This Royals fan scaring the hell out of a reporter on live TV.

* Awful Announcing's list of "The Most Infamous Twitter Accounts in Sports Media."

* All of the Randy Orton "RKO" Vines that became a huge hit on social media.

* Blake Griffin, Chandler Parsons, Iman Shumpert and Matt Barnes teaming up for this hilarious "book club" video.

* Royals pitcher Brandon Finnegan giving a Twitter follower free tickets to an ALCS game.

* David Letterman's touching story about fatherhood before introducing a great performance by the the Foo Fighters.

* FOX baseball reporter Ken Rosenthal addressing idiots on Twitter.

* Ravens wide recevier Steve Smith quitting Twitter.

* The absurd controversy of Royals pitcher Jeremy Guthrie wearning a harmless T-shirt.

share

Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Football League