NFL Picks 2013: Week 5

So file week four among the many during an NFL season during which nobody really knows what is going to happen. Two of us hit nine out of 15 and two guessed correctly on seven, with many of the misses being spread out over a number of different games.

The three-way tie for first was momentarily broken. I pulled a notch ahead of Tony and Anthony, with Rich gaining a little bit of ground on third place. Here are the standings:

Week five isn’t any easier. This week there are, again, some nonconference games between teams that don’t play all that often. But this time around, they come with the benefit of being fantastically interesting matchups between playoff contenders. Seattle visiting Indianapolis, Denver heading to Dallas and San Francisco hosting Houston are among the games I’m interested in watching this weekend.

Here are our picks for the week:

Game of the Week: Seattle at Indianapolis – We considered a number of this week’s games, including all of the nonconference games mentioned above. We also looked at the Kansas City/Tennessee game, which matches the surprisingly undefeated Chiefs and the against the surprising one-loss Titans.

At the end of the day, the decision came down to this: we expect that the Seahawks and Colts are truly contenders to make it to the playoffs and possibly go deep. We think it’s possible the Titans and Chiefs might challenge for a spot in the playoffs, but we’re not yet convinced of their contender status. But all of these games will be among the weekend’s best.

Game of the Weak: Philadelphia at New York Giants – I don’t think any of us saw this one coming. It’s not all that surprising that the rebuilding Eagles come into the game with just one win. That the Giants are winless at the quarter pole is startling. There is still a lot of talent on that team, but it’s probably too late to turn it around at this point. Can one of the rivalry games get them fired up? We’ll see.

Honorable mentions for this week include the Buffalo/Cleveland Thursday night game, the Jets/Falcons Monday nighter and several Sunday contests including Jacksonville/St. Louis, Carolina/Arizona and San Diego/Oakland.

To view our bets for the week, click here.

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