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DB Charles Woodson

Predicting Every Week 8 Contest

From the young guns on Thursday to the masters of quarterbacking on Sunday night, from Arrowhead to Lambeau to London Week 8 of the NFL season guarantees a few upsets fueled by desperation, injuries or misplaced complacence.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Minnesota Vikings. Tampa Bay showed fortitude in their game last Sunday as Josh Freeman passed for 420 yards! Okay, it was against the Saints. The third year QB and WR Vincent Jackson have begun to click and the wideout came down with 216 yards and a score. The Bucs have scored almost 30 points per contest in their last three weeks. Usually when you put up 513 yards of offense and hold opposing rushers to 81 yards, you win. As for the Bucs D, Ronde Barber intercepted Drew Brees early and then the record setter scored four times. What can you do?

Adrian Peterson had one of his trademark "you've got to be kidding me" touchdown runs in Week 7. Arizona has a decent defense and Peterson put up 153 yards against them, frequently while carrying defenders or pushing them in a pile. Percy Harvin contributed a TD catch, but Christian Ponder needs to improve some reckless decision making. See above on Barber.

Mercurial rookie safety Harrison Smith returned an INT for a score and the defense sacked Cardinals QB John Skelton seven times. Josh Freeman, consider yourself warned.

Miami Dolphins at New York Jets. Coming off the bye, Ryan Tannehill needs to produce more than the 192 offensive yards gained against St. Louis. The 'Fins must improve on their recent 63 rushing yards per game to have a shot in the Big Apple.

Mark Sanchez might have a good week since Miami has only the 27th passing D, but he can't miss wide open receivers and then take a ten yard sack when his team is trying to stay in field goal range. Sometimes, No. 6 makes supporting him a bit difficult. Yes, rookie receiver Stephen Hill dropped a sure winner, but still.

The defense had their best outing yet against the Pats in Week 7 and third year corner Kyle Wilson is getting much better through his trial by fire. Overall, however, there is far too little discipline on this New York team. There's a switch.

Biggest matchup: The New York Jets desired power rushing against the NFL's fourth ranked running D for Miami. Calling Shonn Greene. The one from last week, not the previous two years.

Prediction: Jets by a field goal.

San Diego Chargers at Cleveland Browns. The Bolts went into their bye week reeling from the Peyton Manning effect. Smith's years of draining away talent, Philip Rivers always makes them competitive last week's meltdown notwithstanding. So many receiving options have left Southern California that (allegedly) the remaining ball catchers might be using the 21st century version of Stickum.

The Browns have found a quarterback and an aggressive owner. Brandon Weeden passed for 264 yards, two TDs and zero INTs. It should have been three TDs, but Josh Gordon dropped a game winner. Is it something in the water? An injury decimated Colts defense held the Browns to 55 rushing yards. That wasn't the plan when they drafted Trent Richardson, who Reggie Nelson White Jersey is extremely questionable with a rib injury.

Meanwhile, the Browns D let practically anonymous Indy RBs (and their supposedly non mobile QB) gain 148 yards. Unless that changes, Philip Rivers won't have to do much except hand the ball off.

Prediction: Chargers by a field goal.

Indianapolis Colts at Tennessee Titans. Injuries may play a part here since three Colts D linemen are questionable while there will be a new tackle protecting Matt Hasselbeck's blind side.

Andrew Luck rushed for two scores in Week 7. Don't expect that to happen often. The Colts controlled the ground and the clock. The Titans defense should be able to prevent a repeat, but they are too inconsistent for fans to count on it. Luck might have some success, since the Titans secondary is allowing 7.5 yards per attempt in recent games.

Please, Mr. Adams don't make your coach put Jake Locker back in. What else does Matt Hasselbeck have to do? He's won two games in a row, last week on the road in the last 1:03 of the game. On fourth and nine. The offense converted 9 of 14 third downs and 1 of 2 fourth downs and Matt Hasselbeck completed 22 of 33 passes.

Bottom line: Tennessee rusher Chris Johnson has made fans cautiously optimistic that he isn't out of the league quite yet (195 yards and two scores). He should succeed against a Colts defense giving up an average of 159 running yards per game this season.

New England Patriots at St. Louis Rams (in London). If you felt the need to bite your nails during Stephen Gostkowski's two clutch Field Goals, you must not watch many Pats games. Week 7 against the Jets was so close and hard fought that there is an outside chance New England may have a letdown in Merry Ole England. Don't bet on it.

Shane Vereen and Stevan Ridley will combine to run the ball for a rushing offense that's put up over 150 yards in each of their last three games. Yes, in New England. Combined with Tom Brady's usual brilliance, the offense is scoring ten more points per game during this span than the Rams.

However, the Rams D is allowing less than 17 points per contest recently. If they can hold Brady to under 21 points, Sam Bradford and company may have a shot. Bradford at least managed a professional level of pass completions this past Sunday, going 21 of 34 for 255 yards. The team just signed O lineman Chris Williams to help out. That's an excellent idea, since the Rams allowed 36 sacks in 2011 and 34 in 2010. In less than half of a season, Bradford has now been officially dumped 21 times. Offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer is running the same neither fish nor fowl schemes he did as a Jet with the same results. It's as if he wants to be a West Coast guy, but hears his father's voice in his head telling him to pound the run. A sad case.

PK Greg Zeurlein will probably break the NFL Reggie Nelson Nike Jersey record in his career possibly soon. However, the Rams need offensive production not based on a rookie's leg.

Defensively, St. Louis actually has the personnel and the coaching aggression needed to get in Brady's grill. This has www.bengalsonlineofficialshop.com/bengals-reggie-nelson-jersey-c-5_30.html been scientifically proven as the only way to beat No. 12.

Prediction: Patriots by a TD. (St. Louis is 6 2 ATS in their last eight games for those who care.)

Jacksonville Jaguars at Green Bay Packers. Clearly, Jacksonville must get a new plan. RB Maurice Jones Drew will not be available, but Rashad Jennings is no slouch. He just can't carry an offense. The QB has to find Justin Blackmon. It would help if Blackmon could find some open grass. Even though backup QB Chad Henne only managed a couple of first downs, Blaine Gabbert probably knows that if he goes out, he'll lose his job. However they do it, the Jaguars offense must improve on last week's 1 of 15 third down conversion attempts.

Have you heard? Aaron Rodgers broke a few more records: reaching 150 TD passes with about 20 fewer INTs than Dan Marino and setting the Packers' highest single game completion rating of 81.1 percent. Is it going to be this way for as long as he and Drew Brees keep playing? Probably. Just go with it. Did I mention that he's averaging 8.2 yards per pass? Yeah. The offense racked up 33 points in the past three weeks with only 24.7 allowed on D.

However, former Defensive Player of the Year, Heisman winner and Super Bowl champ DB Charles Woodson just re broke his collarbone. Rookie CB Casey Hayward has arrived. Playing in place of injured starter Sam Shields the kid has intercepted four passes in three games. That's wonderful, but it's not Charles Woodson.

Bottom line: Numbers don't always tell the tale, but the Jags have scored 12 points while giving up almost 33 points for the past three weeks.

Prediction: Packers by two touchdowns.

Atlanta Falcons at Philadelphia Eagles. It's the battle of the birds! Atlanta squeaked out a win in Week 6 despite trailing the Raiders in yards gained 474 to 286. Matt Ryan was having one of those seasons that elevate QBs to top tier status and then he threw three interceptions in the first half. However, the defense continues to be the best Atlanta group in Mike Smith's tenure as head coach. Thank you, Mike Nolan.