Only 13 games on tap this weekend. Is it a coincidence following the week of Friday the 13th? Speaking of bad luck…who would have thought that the loss of one player, Shawn Springs, would have such a detrimental consequence on a quality defense? The injury to Springs is an example of why anyone that says continuity trumps talent is just plain wrong. The Skins have given up 21 passes of 20 or more yards! Only the Packers have given up more (28). Shawn, please hurry up and get healthy…and Carlos catch the damn football already!

New York Giants at Atlanta
This ought to be a great match up. The Falcons come into this game 1st in offensive rushing yards/game and 2nd in defensive rushing yards/game. The Giants come in 2nd in the league in offensive total and passing yards/game. The possible return of John Abraham can only add to the advantage of being at home for the Falcons. More of Kenny, Moose and Goose, oh boy!
Pick – Falcons

Carolina at Baltimore
The Ravens, after a short week and a close loss in Denver, will be home and will get back to winning against the Panthers who have won three straight after dropping their first two. Take the under in this low scoring affair.
Pick – Ravens

Houston at Dallas
Oh how sweet it would be to see the Texans pull another upset over the Pukes. Can’t see it, the Pukes are at home, and you can bet Man Boobs has consistently reminded them about the last meeting. Besides, the Texans are just plain lousy.
Pick – Pukes

Buffalo at Detroit
The Lions are banged up, not that they’re any good when they’re healthy. The Bills will consider this a day at the park after facing the Bears last week.
Pick – Bills

Philadelphia at New Orleans
This is a tough pick. The Saints haven’t beaten the Eagles in 15 years (five meetings in that period). Make it 16. Go Saints! An interesting stat – Bush is on pace to become just the second rookie in history to amass 500 yards rushing and 800 yards receiving in a season (with the great, Charley Taylor – 1964).
Pick – Eagles

Seattle at St. Louis
Although this is a divisional match up to determine the best of a mediocre NFC West, it’s more like a match up between a contender and a pretender. The Rams have been one of the fortunate teams to have good luck early this season. Even with Alexander out and Engram questionable, the Hawks will find a way to win, having had two weeks to prepare and lick their wounds following a whooping at the hands of the Bears (Holmgren’s worse loss in Seattle, 6-37).
Pick – Seahawks

Cincinnati at Tampa Bay
The Bengals are another team coming off a bye-week and a whooping (Patriots 13-38). Unbelievably the Bucs had the league’s best defense last season; however, they are one of those teams with a streak of bad luck early this season – playing in a tough division, hence a brutal schedule, and the loss of Simms.
Pick – Bengals

Tennessee at Washington
Fortunately the Titans will not be taken lightly after the scare they put into the Colts last week.
Pick – Redskins

Miami at New York Jets
The Jags put an absolute embarrassing butt-whooping on the Jets last week. Pennington and Coles are frustrated and have historically played well against the Fish. Dolphin fans will soon find out that Harrington is not the answer. The question is will Culpepper’s knee ever fully heal?
Pick – Jets

Kansas City at Pittsburgh
Who would have ever thought going into week 6 that the Steelers would have already had their bye week and lost 3 straight after beating the lowly Dolphins in week 1? Damon Huard has a QB rating of 107.4, while Roethlisberger’s is 41.7…go figure? Larry Johnson is nicked and Cowher has never opened a season 1-4, and he isn’t about to start now. He’ll have his team ready to play at home on Sunday.
Pick – Steelers

San Diego at San Francisco
The Chargers defense is flat out tremendous and their offense is just about as intimidating. The 49ers on the other hand aren’t scaring anyone.
Pick – Chargers

Oakland at Denver
After losing to the lowly Rams opening day, the Broncos have ran off victories over the Chiefs, Patriots and Ravens. Their defense, currently ranked 2nd in the league, and their running game, ranked fourth, are a recipe for success in this league. The Faiders aren’t worth discussion.
Pick – Broncos

Chicago at Arizona
The Cardinals have lost 4 straight after defeating the 49ers opening day. The loss of Larry Fitzgerald couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Cardinals. They need all their weapons this week against the Bears. Leinart won’t have the success he had last week against the Chiefs this week. Only three of the Bears last 11 opponents have a winning record. At the Giants in week 10 and at the Patriots in week 12 appear to be their only serious challenges. Let the undefeated season chatter begin.
Pick – Bears

Bye Week: Browns, Packers, Colts, Vikings, Patriots, Jaguars

Last Week’s Results: 11-3
Season to Date: 45-29

-Frank Hastings

Hognostications Counterpoint NFL Week 6

Two correct games marked the separation between 1st place at 13 – 1 and 34th place at 11 – 3 in the Hognostications for NFL Week 5. What can I say about this? Amazing! The true trends in the performance of all teams are beginning to emerge but that does not necessarily translate into easier Hognostications for us from one week to the next.

Congratulations to all of you for your great scores above 50%, well, almost all of you. There was a lonely poster who got a 7 – 7 score. This is the -only- score beneath Peter “the Sleazy” King with a score of 8 – 6. We are not going to name names here. But you know who you are.

What a terrible week to be the Washington Redskins and a fan of them. I am still licking my wounds. And yes, I still have to go through that familiar cycle from anger to frustration to rationalisation to hope that gets me going into every consecutive week after a loss.

How about that brash Superbowl talk during the off-season? How distant does that sound now? Joe Gibbs and the Washington Redskins have their come-back work cut out for them again. But I am still hopeful because we will play these two NFC East rivals again at FedEx later in the season. There will be pay-back, I am sure.

No, I do not take the Tennessee Titans for granted this week. That would be a great mistake and Joe knows that. He is already hyping their performance against the Colts to warn and scare our players and fans. I am convinced that we will win. But it will be a hard earned victory.

Talking about confidence in our team, some of you have taken notice of my criticisms against those very few Redskins fans who have picked against the Skins. I want to make something very clear: Everybody is free to pick -any- team throughout the pick-sheet. I am not asking you to pick one team or another. This article is designed to give you our views on the games. It is not intended to babysit anybody or to tell you how to make your picks.

Ah! But as a Redskins fan, my position is that -anybody-, including me, can comment and criticise -anybody else’s picks- within the Rules. So, I make no exceptions, you can be a staff member or a regular poster, old or young, green or blue, it does not matter to me. I will make it known and expose those who do not share our confidence, passion and love for the Washington Redskins. If we do not have and show confidence in our team, then who else should? And if you do not like it, you can always skip the Hognostications thread in the Around the League forum.

I earned the spot to be writing here as a result of my performance last season. If anybody else wants to take me down, all you have to do is get a better final season score. In fact, like the Skins, I have had my few ups and mostly downs, and that should not be too difficult to do. But I will not quit -every- week on the Washington Redskins and their victories in the Hognostications pick-sheets.

Hail to the Redskins!

My picks:

Sunday, October 15 (ET)

Eagles at Saints 1:00 PM
Pick – Philadelphia

Seahawks at Rams 1:00 PM
Pick – Seattle

Titans at Redskins 1:00 PM
Pick – Washington

Bengals at Buccaneers 1:00 PM
Pick – Cincinnati

Panthers at Ravens 1:00 PM
Pick – Carolina

Texans at Cowboys 1:00 PM
Pick – Dallas

Bills at Lions 1:00 PM
Pick – Buffalo

Giants at Falcons 1:00 PM
Pick – Atlanta

Chiefs at Steelers 4:15 PM
Pick – Pittsburgh

Chargers at 49ers 4:15 PM
Pick – San Diego

Dolphins at Jets 4:15 PM
Pick – New York

Raiders at Broncos 8:15 PM
Pick – Denver

Monday, October 16 (ET)

Bears at Cardinals 8:30 PM
Pick – Chicago

-RedskinInCanada

Edit: This blog was archived in May of 2016 from our original articles database.It was originally posted by Frank Hastings