Traina's Weekend Blitz: Week 16 NFL picks – FOXSports.com
Welcome to another edition of “Weekend Blitz,” a column that will appear on FOXSports.com each Friday during the football season. Consider this one of your must-read features as you wrap up the week and head into a Saturday and Sunday filled with pigskin. We’ll be giving out NFL picks, possibly some college football picks and plug some of the best content from the world of sports and pop culture.
Please come back every Friday, check FOXSports.com/Buzzer or follow me, @JimmyTraina, on Twitter.
It took us until the regular season was wrapping up to get on a roll. We followed up a 5-1 Week 14 with a 3-1 Week 15. The season record now stands at 33-31-1. There is actually a chance we finish with a somewhat respectable record. That leads us right into a five-pack of picks for the second-to-last week of the season.
THE PICKS
CARDINALS -4.5 VS. PACKERS: Arizona has flown under the radar a little bit this season because Carolina hasn’t lost, but the Cardinals own the top offense in the league. And it’s only getting better with running back David Johnson coming into his own the past three weeks with rushing totals of 99 yards, 92 yards and 187 yards. As good as the Packers are, they won’t be able to keep up with Arizona, which can lock up the No. 2 seed in the playoffs with a win.
PANTHERS -6.5 AT FALCONS: We can’t see Carolina’s unbeaten season ending at the hands of a team that has been awful since October. The Panthers got a wake-up call last week when they let the Giants come back from a 28-point deficit before winning on a field-goal at the buzzer. Carolina will tighten things up this week and come through with a cover. The Panthers will have a chance to complete the perfect regular season next week at home. They will be on top of their game this Sunday to make sure they come home with that opportunity.
COWBOYS +6 AT BILLS: Addition by subtraction is a beautiful thing. Brandon Weeden is no longer on the team and Matt Cassel has been benched. That means Kellen Moore is in. Yes, we’ll take a rookie quarterback with hardly any experience over those two any day. Buffalo is a mess on several levels (defensive players are unhappy, Sammy Watkins has called for players to be benched, the coach doesn’t care at all about discipline when it comes to penalities) and Shady McCoy is out. Dallas’ defense will keep this very close throughout, so grab the points.
BRONCOS -3.5 VS. BENGALS: Denver’s defense, at home, against a rookie quarterback (A.J. McCarron) is too attractive to pass up. Especially when the Broncos are still fighting with Cincinnati for the No. 2 seed in the AFC. We don’t love Brock Osweiler and Denver’s offense, but we expect the Broncos defense to help get this cover. The unit got torched last week in Pittsburgh. We can’t see that happening two weeks in a row.
STEELERS -10 AT RAVENS: No team is on an offensive roll quite like Pittsburgh, which has put up 34, 33, 45, 30, 30 and 38 points in its past six games. This game has 38-13 written all over it. It won’t matter at all if Baltimore starts Ryan Mallett or Jimmy Clausen.
OTHER ITEMS
* A 26-year-old Las Vegas woman won $100,000 on a 20,000-to-1 parlay thanks to the Lions beating the Saints on Monday night.
* The Lions will be in very unfamiliar territory on Sunday.
* Here’s a fun recap of the best and worst moments of the year for Las Vegas bookmakers.
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