Tag Archives: Green Bay Packers

Red’s 2026 Weekly Six-Pack of Picks – Week 3

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For Week 2 Red was a truly pathetic 2-4 with almost nothing going as predicted.  Lowlights included his pick of the Bears over the Vikings in an offensive thriller – and instead those teams combined to score 12 points with Minnesota on top.  Picking the Stealers to beat the Pats was another bigly bust with Pittsburgh managing to score all of 3 points in a humiliating loss.  And all that is not to mention the Chargers continuing to suck.  But for the Bills nice performance and the Panthers stomping on the Falcons, it would have been even grimmer.  All of this drops Red to 5-7 for the year.  With trepidation, Red moves on.

Your Early Game Pick of the Week –  If the Packers cannot beat the Falcons on Thursday night, they should pack it up and get out of town.  The Falcons, Texans and Chargers right now look like the worst teams in the league.  The Packers have to dispatch the dregs if they want a shot at the division title.  Green Bay 24 Atlanta 9. 

Your Texas Game Pick of the Week  –  What is up with the Ravens?  They did not look great against the Colts in Week 1 but did manage to score 41 which is probably a top-ten score this season.  And then a rather complete bed-shitting against a Saints team that it should have dispatched with a reasonable effort. Alas, twas not to be.  And now the Ravens must travel to the unfriendly confines of Jerry World for a Sunday afternoon showdown in Arlington.   Meanwhile in North Texas (the Cowboys have no connection to the actual city of Dallas anymore), the Cowboys looked very mediocre (244 total yards and 90 penalty yards) in losing to the Giants and pretty darn good in dispatching the Commandos with CeeDee running wild through the hapless Commandos secondary which also gave up two TD catches to the redoubtable Jake Ferguson.  So what to make of this one.  Red sees the Ravens coming back and the Cowboys regressing to form.  Baltimore 21 Dallas 17.

Your Must Watch Game Pick of the Week –  Red makes this pick not because he expects a great game, but because it will be telling of the trajectory of the teams involved.  So far, the Eagles have narrowly escaped with two wins against the Commandos and Titans.  It makes for exciting viewing and heart palpitations for the coaches.  Meanwhile, the Bears put up 59 points (which will likely be the highest score all season) and followed that with a penalty and turnover fest and a mighty 3 points against an almost equally pathetic offensive output from the Vikings.  Are the Bears the team from Week 1 or Week 2?  Are the Eagles going to win every close game this season.  Don’t touch that dial.  Philadelphia 31 Chicago 24.

Your Grudge Match Game Pick of the Week  – After thoroughly thumping the third-rate Texans, the Bengals look to be in mid-season form already.  The Steelers on the other hand eked out a win at home against the Flailing Falcons and got popped by the Patriots.  This Midwest matchup looks to be a real test for both teams.  A tough call here but the Bengals have impressed so far.  Cincinnati 27 Pittsburgh 20.

Your WTF – Triple Reverse Time Zone Hex Game of the Week –  Each of the next six weeks features an international game ranging from such exotic locales as Rio de Janeiro to the venerable Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid.  Look forward to those calls.  But this week it is the WTF game with the Seahawks having to navigate the perils of the TRIPLE REVERSE TIME ZONE HEX (eerie music) in traveling to Washington (Read Maryland) to face the Commandos.  The Seahawks look respectable and the Commandos do not.  But Red has to go out on limb every once in a while.  Hail to the Commanders, fight for old DC.  Washington 20 Seattle 19.

This Week’s Shit Bowl – – So far for the Texans, the defense has lost one game and the offense has lost one game.  Although the special teams contributed to the butt whipping administered by the Bengals in Houston last week (botched field goal attempt and a long miss), Red fully expects them to sink the Texans in Indianapolis this week.  The Texans look pretty terrible so far, but they did last year as well going 0-3 before righting the ship.  Meanwhile the Colts are also 0-2 but gave the Chiefs what for in KC Sunday night.  Red hates to call it this way, but in this matchup of the un-undefeated its Indianapolis 24 Houston 13. 

Red’s 2018 NFL Predictions – NFC North

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May Red just say, “He hates this division.”  Red is not entirely sure why, but he has always disliked having to pick winners and LOSERS from this one.  Which is curious because the NFC-North contains three of the most venerable franchises in the league.   The Lions started as the Portsmouth Spartans in 1929 moving to Detroit in 1934 and played in the first official playoff game – the 1932 Championship against the Bears (played because the teams ended the season tied for first place).  The Packers joined the league in 1921, the second official NFL season.  And the Bears can lay claim being one of the two original NFL franchises (as the Decatur Staleys) still in existence.  The Arizona Cardinals (nee Chicago Cardinals) are the other.  The Vikings are the upstart newcomer having joined the league in 1961 to increase the NFL to a whopping 14 teams.

Minnesota Vikings –  New quarterback – new offensive coordinator – new challenge with first place schedule –  all could add up to a tough season.  Many commentators are looking at a difficult schedule and predicting a big fall off for the Nordic warriors.  Red doesn’t see the NFC -West as all that tough as the Seahawks, Cardinals, Rams and 49ers are all overrated.  The NFC – East component should be even easier unless the Bills and Dolphins step up – and Red thinks the more likely scenario has those teams stepping in it.  Red is not high on Kirk Cousins but he made a really pathetic OTNAs team look decent at times. The big question is what to do about the running game with the loss of Jerrick McKinnon and no real answer for a solid replacement.  So why the Vikings?  Like he said, Red has to pick someone.  Minnesota sleds to a tough 10-6 record.

Chicago Bears  – Every season one formerly pathetic excuse for a professional football somehow picks itself up off the garbage pile and starts winning games.  Red’s pick for worst to (almost) first this season is the Bears.  Red’s just going with his ever growing gut on this one.  And Red will be putting an “I Like Mitch Trubisky” bumper sticker on his car – just so people will wonder – “Who the hell is Mitch Trubisky?”  To which Red could answer, “He’s the poor man’s Kirk Cousins.”  Chicago also goes 10-6 but only gets Wild Card spot – Maybe – stay tuned.

Green Bay Packers – Red admires the 200 some thousand Green Bay Packers, Inc. shareholders and the way this team has been run for almost its entire existence as a community project.  All professional sports teams should be owned and controlled in this fashion – not by some billionaire blowhard (Jerry Jones comes to mind for some reason) who could give a shit  about the average fan once he or she has paid for the season tickets.  The owner who won’t make sure the fans aren’t gouged at the concession stands and don’t have to sit in three hours of traffic to get home.  The owner who plays commercials at 120 decibels at every possible opportunity.  The “welfare queen” owner who sucks on the public tit and expects the taxpayers to make him richer just because he has deemed to grace their city with a professional football team – at least until there is greener turf somewhere else.  So while Red always wishes good things for the Packers, he also has to be honest with his readers and tell them – not this season.  A-Rodg carried them on his capable shoulders until going down last season.  Is he back?  If so, then maybe there is hope.  Or maybe not.  Green Bay is 8-8.

Detroit Lions –  The last good thing Red remembers about the Lions is reading Bobby Layne’s autobiography – Always on Sunday – in elementary school.  Red is not sure why his parents let him read about Bobby’s alcoholic womanizing, drunk driving, and non-stop partying but it sure opened Red’s eyes to the possibilities of life – or a certain kind of life anyway.  Unfortunately, Red’s athletic career and exposure to the side benefits of sports celebrity was cut short by a crippling lack of talent and a desire to keep his teeth.  Maybe Red was allowed to read this fascinating tome because Layne had been the hero at UT when Red’s parents were in school.  And maybe the curse of Bobby Layne is still hanging over this franchise.  Although possibly apocryphal, after he was traded to the Stealers in 1958, Layne supposedly responded to the trade by saying that “the Lions would not win for 50 years.”  Bobby apparently called for an extension at some point.  So while short on analysis here, Red has hopefully provided you some insight into the stupidity of this whole exercise.  Detroit stinks – 4-12.

 

Red’s NFL Picks – NFC North

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The division Red hates most of all.

Vikings.  What a start to last season with the Vikings coming out of the gate 5-0.  Then cold hard reality (like a Minnesota winter) set in and the team went 3-8 to finish the season.  But for the fast start an even season would have looked pretty good after losing Teddy Bridgewater to what may still prove to be a career-ending injury.  With Sam Bradford at the helm and little help from the running backs, the Vikings probably did about as well as could be expected.  Adding Latavius Murray and rookie Dalvin Cook will give SB some more tools and there have been improvement on the O-line, but this season will turn on the defense.  Mark Zimmer had the unit humming last year – ranking 3rd in yards allowed and 6th in points allowed.  They start the same basic unit this season with only Captain Munnerlyn and Chad Greenway gone.  Just a little better play from up and coming players like Danielle Hunter, Tres Waynes and Eric Kendricks could make this the second or third best defense in the league.  More turnovers and they are there.  Red likes the Vikings chances in an overall down year for this divisions.  Minnesota blows no one away but manages a title with a 11-5 record.

Packers.  Packers needed six consecutive wins to end the season after a mealy 4-6 to claim the NFC North last season. But guess what – they still have Aaron Rodgers and a talented crew around him.  That is, except for at tailback where the untested Ty Montgomery is stepping in. Opening with Seattle will be a reasonable test of the Pack and could set the tone for the first half of the season.   But it doesn’t get any easier for the Packers as they also face the Falcons, Bengals, Cowboys, Vikings and possibly dangerous Saints before a favorable Week 8 bye.  Expect a 4-3 record at the break. After that it is a bit easier.  Packers are 10-6 and in as the Wildcard.

Lions.  Matt Stafford is now the highest paid player in the history of the NFL?  Does that make any kind of sense – even nonsense?  No.  Even with the HPPITHOTNFL, the Lions were drubbed in the playoffs by Seattle. This year no one gets the chance to drub the Lions in the playoffs.  Detroit is an 9-7 team at best and while that got them a playoff beating last year – it won’t be good enough in 2017.

Bears.  Red swears the Bears will not switch gears and stay in arrears (in wins) this year, so hear this,  steer clear (if you hold your cash dear) of ever betting on the Bears – except to lose – Red fears.  Sorry.  Chicago 3-13.