Sports Picks & Predictions

3 Unit Play. #252 Take Under in St. Louis @ New England (Thursday 7:30 pm) QB Sam Bradford will be given every chance to win the starting job this evening but he has not looked good whatsoever. He will play with the first string offense because of the injury to QB AJ Feely. The Patriots will likely play their first string into the third quarter but I just do not believe that alone will allow them to emerge victorious. The Rams have scored just 24 points combine in their first two preseason games. Assuming St. Louis does not give this game away with turnovers, the under will be the safe bet.

10 Unit Play. #409 Take Pittsburgh over New York (Saturday 7 pm NFL Network) The reports state that QB Ben Roethlisberger will make his preseason debut Saturday at Meadowlands Stadium and that gives the Steelers the edge needed to win this game straight-up. Coach Mike Tomlin is 11-3 straight-up during the NFL Preseason and the Steelers defense plays all century during the exhibition season. Pittsburgh has gone under in 15 of their last 17 games during the NFL Preseason. Would love to make this play an under but the preseason has changed lately with games going over at an alarming clip. After Roethlisberger the Steelers have a battle for No. 1 since Big Ben is sitting out at least the first four games of the regular season. Vying for this are Byron Leftwich and Dennis Dixon. Leftwich has experience but Dixon outplayed him last week. Both will be looking to make a statement since no decision yet has been made about who will start the season. The Giants did not look sharp against the Jets last Monday and only won the game because of three turnovers by the Jets. QB Eli Manning took a big hit in that game and needed stitches in the face. QB Jim Sorgi will likely play at lot in this game and he completed just 8 of his 15 passes. Expect a lot of players to see action in this game and expect a low scoring game with the Steelers coming out on top.

10 Unit Play. #405 Take Philadelphia over Cincinnati (Friday 8 pm Fox) NFL Preseason Game of the Year. We will fade the Bengals again this week and hope for better results. Cincinnati

3 Unit Play. #403 Take New England over Atlanta (Thursday 8 pm Fox) Coach Bill Belichick has an impressive NFL Preseason record going 35-27 during his tenure. I am not a big fan of the Atlanta quarterback rotations of Matt Ryan, Chris Redman, and John Parker Wilson. The Patriots ran the ball pretty well last week and they will have extra rest for this game capered to the Falcons. Expect this to be a low scoring game and we will take the points behind a veteran coach and quarterback.

2-Unit Play. Take Under in New York Giants vs. New York Jets (8 p.m., Monday, Aug. 16) This should be one of the harder hitting games of the weekend and there is plenty at stake for both sides. The Giants have had to hear all of the hype about the Jets for months now and I

10 Unit Play. #279 Take Denver over Cincinnati (Sunday 7 pm NFL Network) I do expect the Bengals to play better in this game then they did last week against Dallas; however, I just do not believe they have very good back-ups. Carson Palmer played terrible during the end of last season and his back-ups, JT O

3 Unit Play. #268 Take Arizona over Houston (Saturday 8 pm KTRK) Everybody thought Kurt Warner was god in Arizona but let

10 Unit Play. #260 Take Washington over Buffalo (Friday 7:30 pm NFL Network) Mike Shanahan

3 Unit Play. #255 Take Oakland over Dallas (Thursday 9 pm CBS 11) I am buying the cool aid on the Raiders and feel that they will be a much improved team now that they got rid of QB JaMarcus Russell. Tom Cable had to play him through much of the NFL Preseason last year and thus they only won 1 of his 4 games. Expect them to be a much better preseason team this year with a quarterback rotation of Jason Campbell, Bruce Gradowski, and Kyle Boller. Dallas does have a game under their belt but they did not look that impressive against the Bengals and their only touchdown came off of a pick six. I expect the Raiders to make a statement during the preseason and win this game straight-up. Getting points is just icing on the cake.

2-Unit Play. Take #241 Cincinnati over Dallas (8 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 8) Lets follow the money on this one and go with the Bengals. This line has moved five full points since its open. Some of that has to do with the Terrell Owens signing, even though T.O. will probably only play a series or two, and the rest of is has to do with what has been coming out of Cowboys camp. And thats the fact that Wade Phillips isnt going to waste any of his starters or key players. Dallas has 5 preseason games and they are intent not to overwork their key players. Dallas has gotten crushed in its preseason opener each of the last two years, losing by 21 and 14 points. The Cowboys are also 2-5 ATS in their last seven preseason openers. Cincinnati will have a little bit of home cooking in this one as they are playing so close to home. That should give them the extra edge and I like a nice Bengals winner to get our season started properly.

7 Unit Play. #140 Take Minnesota over Dallas (8:00 pm NFL Network) It is finally the last night of the NFLX season and this games pits the Minnesota Vikings against the Dallas Cowboys. QB Favre will not play at all, but I still like the Vikings rotation of quarterbacks with Jackson, Rosenfels, and Booty. The Vikings are 3-0 in the NFLX season and Dallas is just 1-2. Minnesota is 5-4-1 lifetime in this match-up and expect a bunch of the key Cowboys to not even make the trip, let alone see action. The Vikings have better back-ups and that will allow us to collect big in the process as well.

8 Unit Play. #120 Take Tennessee over Green Bay (Thursday 8:00 pm) The Packers have been the most impressive team of the 2009 season but that has been based on the first team and particularly Aaron Rogers. He has been unstoppable but he is only expected to play 1 series in this game at Nashville. With Matt Flynn banged up that means Brian Brohm will play most of the game and he has looked terrible when he has seen action. Tennessee has much better back-ups at the QB position with Vince Young and Patrick Ramsey and expect them to pull away late and win this game by double digits. CBs Charles Woodsen and Al Harris will likely not even make the trip to Nashville and Tennessee will give us yet another big time victory.

5 Unit Play. #263 Take New Orleans Oakland (4:00 pm NFL Network) Have to admit that we are kicking ourselves for getting off of the Saints last week after we used them for our top play in Week 1. After trailing a solid Texans team last week 7-0, New Orleans dominated outscoring them 38-7. If they can do that to the Texans in Houston, they can certainly win on the road in Oakland to go 3-0. There strategy for success is simple, a new defense coordinator that likes to blitz and a solid rotation of quarterbacks.

Drew Brees, Mark Brunell, and Joey Harrington all of significant starting experience and the latter two should be able to pick apart a weak Raiders squad. The Raiders are still a mess and with their coaching issues yet to be resolved, expect them to struggle yet again in 2009. JaMarcus Russell has yet to impress me much and with him likely playing into the third quarter in this game, the Saints will win this game with ease.

10 Unit Play. #420 Take Green Bay over Buffalo (Saturday 8 pm WTMJ) NFLX Game of the Year. The Bills are playing their third game of the preseason and I expect them to hold many of their starts out including Terrill Owens. Coach Mike McCarthy was very aggressive in his play calling and expect that to continue in another home game at Lambeau Field. Report have the Packer starters playing around 25 plays and that should be good enough to get them the lead. Back-up Matt Flynn played very well in limited action last Saturday completing five of his six passes and he appears to be capable of moving the football and expect him to see action into the third quarter. Dick Jauron is just 13-21 straight-up in NFLX football and the Packers fans are some of the few that actually care about wining these games. Expect Defensive Coach Cappers to bring another aggressive gameplan and blitz Buffalo numerous times. Green Bay wins this one by double digits and we collect big in the process as well.

4 Unit Play. #410 Take Under in Atlanta @ St. Louis (Friday 8:00 pm KTVI) The Rams will be without their No. 1 quarterback in Marc Bulger, who fractured his finger and will be out a couple of weeks. Without him the Rams turn to Kyle Boller, Keith Null, and Brock Berlin and these names will not light up your eyes at all. I really feel that some of these totals are way too high especially considering that Mike Smith went 1-3 on over-unders in 2008. The Falcons are a running team and that keeps the clock moving and sets up for a perfect situation to play the under. The Falcons quarterbacks are not real strong either with Joe Flacco, Chris Redman, and DJ Shockley. Do not be put off by the scores of these teams in week 1, I do not expect either team to reach 20 points and thus we will emerge victorious with whoever comes out on top.

4 Unit Play. #276 Take Under in Cleveland @ Green Bay (8:05 pm WTMJ) The Browns have a major quarterback battle brewing and the Packers cannot afford to have Aaron Rogers suffer any injuries. That being said, the Browns have four QBs on the roster and Brett Ratliff and Richard Bartel do not impress me much. Assuming there are no big plays on defense or special teams, I expect this to be a low scoring game and we will collect with whoever comes out on top.

7 Unit Play. #264 Take New Orleans over Cincinnati (Friday 8:00 pm Fox 8) As we saw in the first game of the NFLX season, the result of the games often come down to the 4th quarter and back-ups most people have never heard of. The Quarterback plays a major role in handicapping games and it is hard to like the Saints QBs. They only have three on the roster and all of them are names you have heard of: Drew Brees, Mark Brunell, and Joey Harrington. Say what you want about the last two, but they have experience and that should bode well for them on Friday night. If you watched hard knocks this week you saw that the Bengals are really banged up at a couple of positions and after first string Carson Palmer, I do not really like their QBs in JT O