NFL Picks, 2012 season, Week 8

The Houston Texans took advantage of an injury-depleted Baltimore Ravens defense on Sunday but also stymied what had been one of the league’s more interesting offenses at times during the 2012 season en route to putting an impressive beating on the once-vaunted purple-and-black.

It was the latest and most convincing win in a season full of them so far for the Texans. It also erased the sour taste of a blowout defeat at the hands of the surging Packers from a week earlier.

It leaves the Texans with a 6-1 record heading into the bye. And don’t expect them to let up once they return from a week off. “This team is one of the more focused in the league,” says Barrett Walton, managing editor of Texans Bull Blog. “The rest of the schedule is fairly weak with only the Patriots and Bears looking like reasonable challenges.”

Walton sent a lengthy collection of thoughts that we’ll soon turn into another post. In the meantime, suffice it to say that he thinks this is a team that football fans should get comfortable watching for the next few years. “This franchise is built to last,” he says. “And you can expect to see this team on top for several years to come.”

Walton also joined us as this week’s guest blogger for the pick segment for week eight.

By all appearances, week seven was the easiest one for picking so far. In our confidence pools, several people got every game right or missed just one. On Zoneblitz, an easy week means Andy and I only got three wrong, while our guest blogger Kevin McCauley from the Acme Packing Company missed just two.

That moves our guest celebrity bloggers to a three game lead over me and a four game lead over Andy for the season:

This week could put some separation between Andy and me, as we’ve got four games picked differently:

Game of the Week: We’ve reached that middle point in the season where there can be weeks like this where there aren’t really that many matchups that look great on paper. Heading into the season, New Orleans @ Denver looked good, but the Saints have limped to a 2-4 record, and are already four games behind Atlanta in the division. Early in the season San Francisco @ Arizona looked like it might be intriguing, but with the Cardinals riding a three game losing streak and looking pretty lethargic offensively, the intrigue has worn thin.

With that, the most interesting matchup of the week in our eye is the Atlanta Falcons traveling to Philadelphia—the Eagles are only 3-3, but with a win Sunday and some help from the Cowboys, they could move to just a half-game back of the Giants. Meanwhile, the Falcons are the last unbeaten team in the NFL, but have looked mighty beatable the last three weeks before the bye.

Game of the Weak: While there aren’t any great games in our eyes, there also aren’t a lot of terrible games—possibly due to the parity of the league, in particular the AFC. Last week there were only two teams in the AFC above .500, and after last week’s slate, there are still just three, with the Patriots joining the ranks.

One game stands above the rest for looking like it will be terrible, though: the 2-4 Oakland Raiders head east to take on Brady Quinn and the Kansas City Chiefs in the only matchup of the week to pit two opponents with losing records against one another. Two will enter, one will leave, and no one will really care.

To see our Best Bets for this week, click this link.