Opinion Corner: Pick ‘ems seem to get easier

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In any kind of pick ‘em, it’s always tough in the beginning.

There are so many unknowns, and surprise teams like Arizona and Seattle are just being discovered. But as the season wears on, success rates often rise as does the cream of the crop in the NFL.

That line is slowly starting to become clearer. Before the season started, just about everyone would have picked Green Bay to beat Houston. However, as anyone who checked out our Pigskin Picks in Thursday’s edition found out, seven of the 10 pickers took Houston.

The Texans are undefeated and appear to be on a roll. Green Bay, mired in a 2-3 slump, has come upon a mixture of bad luck and bad football.

As I said in the preseason, the Packers had the league’s worst defense last year and to add to that, their offensive line appears to be in shambles.

So why am I picking Green Bay to beat Houston this week? Because it has to. Houston is arguably the best team in the NFL, but I don’t believe the Texans will go undefeated. Green Bay needs this game much more, and let’s not forget the Packers have the best quarterback in the league, regardless of his stats through the first four games. He knows how to beat good teams.

The picks:

Dallas (2-2) at Baltimore (4-1): Dallas may not have a losing record, but it’s just not a good team. Ravens 27, Cowboys 21

St. Louis (3-2) at Miami (2-3): The Rams have a winning record, but that may not last. The Dolphins are fighters. Rams 31, Dolphins 27

Detroit (1-3) at Philadelpia (3-2): All signs point to a high-scoring game, which of course means that one team will beat the other 9-6, probably. Hard to predict the NFL. Eagles 24, Lions 13

Cincinnati (3-2) at Cleveland (0-5): The Bengals are by far the better team, but when these two rivals play in Cleveland, it’s always exciting. Bengals 28, Browns 24

Indianapolis (2-2) at N.Y. Jets (2-3): The Colts pulled the shocker last week, upsetting the Packers. Indy has Luck on its side. Colts 23, Jets 20

Kansas City (1-4) at Tampa Bay (1-3): These one-win teams had high hopes for this season. Tampa Bay looks a smidgeon better at this point. Bucs 20, Chiefs 17

Oakland (1-3) at Atlanta (5-0): The Falcons are due for a loss in the coming weeks. It won’t be to the Raiders, who appear to be worse under their new head coach. Falcons 34, Raiders 13

New England (3-2) at Seattle (3-2): Good offense vs. good defense. Seattle’s D has been pretty good, but the Patriots’ offense is on fire. Patriots 31, Seahawks 14

Buffalo (2-3) at Arizona (4-1): The Cardinals, like the Seahawks, are surprisingly built on defense and that’s gotten them toward the top of the power rankings. But they still look like a pretender to me. Bills 38, Cardinals 28

Minnesota (4-1) at Washington (2-3): Speaking of pretenders and contenders, the Vikings and Redskins could make a case for being either. Sun sportswriter Chris Aarhus can be reached at (701) 952-8462 or by email at caarhus@jamestownsun.com

Tags: sports, nfl, football