NFL Week 7: The Couchletes Pick ‘Em

If you’re not a girlfriend or wife you just have to love Thursday night football. For me, it’s the best of both worlds. We get one game in primetime, which is totally manageable for people with kids and a career. In being just one game, we’re not overwhelmed trying to take in game action from across the country, flipping channel to channel or settling in for a long Red Zone viewing stint. But it’s still football and it makes it feel like the weekend, reminding us all that, yes, there is still one more business day in the week left but ONLY ONE!

Last week’s games threw our experts for a loop. The “any given Sunday” mantra could be heard loud and clear. Starting with last Thursday’s game where the Titans, yes those Titans, defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers by a field goal. I know, twilight zone material right there. The Browns, YES THOSE BROWNS, actually won a game – the first of 29-year-old rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden’s career and a shameful display by a 2011 playoff team, the Bengals.

Some weekly standbys s***t the bed, including the 49ers, Cowboys (though we knew they’d find a way to lose), Patriots, and Texans; not to mention the incredible comeback by Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos (I hate you, Phillip Rivers). Since we do a weekly power ranking of the top five teams in the league, these outcomes were all noteworthy to us and things we didn’t necessarily anticipate; though, they’re what make us love the sport so much.

The question we’re asking these days is: How good is your good?

Regardless of a recent loss or not, the rest of this season will be dictated by overall strength and consistency, not to mention health, not a few good performances against bad teams. Parody has never been greater in the league.

With that, here are week 7 picks from the rest of my fellow Couchletes.

Match-up Kevin Ryan Rahul Hoa Mark
@SF vs. SEA SF SF SF SF SF
@BUF vs. TEN BUF TEN BUF BUF BUF
@IND vs. CLE IND CLE IND IND IND
GB vs. @STL GB GB GB GB GB
@MIN vs. ARI MIN MIN ARI MIN MIN
@NYG vs. WAS NYG NYG NYG NYG NYG
NO vs. @TB NO NO NO NO TB
DAL vs. @CAR DAL DAL DAL DAL DAL
@HOU vs. BAL HOU HOU HOU HOU BAL
@OAK vs. JAX OAK OAK OAK OAK JAX
@NE v. NYJ NE NE NE NE NE
PIT vs. @CIN PIT PIT PIT PIT PIT
@CHI vs. DET CHI CHI CHI CHI CHI