I say the Chiefs will be the real high-flyers against the Jets!

@RWarehall - A fast game is a good game. Go for the Jets :P

I'm going Seahawks this week, but you are free to switch to the Raiders if you like...

I'll go with the Chiefs this week as well... trying to avoid the all vs Florida teams strategy that would most often bear fruit.

Thank you for the info, it is quite interesting! As a casual NFL viewer I cannot judge the ref's performance, so it is good to know you also have critics against them. But what is more important - as I see from your replies - it stays on the healthy side and does not turn into blaming only the officials. I really like this behaviour. For example in Europe the fans, media can debate for weeks if a fault was really a fault or it was a goal or not, etc and totally forgot how the teams played. It should follow the NFL's better method.

For this week in the second chance league I would like to choose the Cleveland Browns. After they were jinxed and counter-jinxed so much. :)

Can't remember if I picked against the Raiders yet, but might as well now: Seahawks!

So true. Good defense last year is now illegal contact, and people are amazed that there are random guys throwing for 300 yards every week.

To some extent it's the nature of the games too. Less scoring in soccer means a single penalty awarded can determine the outcome of a match. In American football, like CrowTRobo wrote, the officiating can be awful but teams can usually also blame themselves for missing scoring opportunities.

Not feeling much inspiration this week, either. I was almost tempted to leave it to the Jets - they ought to shape up any da y now. Aaaany day now... Still, looking at the matches, I can't help but be intrigued by the clash of the big cats! Well, not really, seeing how the Jaguars remain the underdog. But I did hope to pick the Bengals at some point, so it may as well be now. Go Bengals!

Frankly, I'm mostly of the opposite opinion. Refereeing in NA seems rather soulless, in all the major sports. Far from being authorities, the refs always come off as slaves to reviews, arguments with coaches, timeouts, the lot. When they make their pronouncements, they sound like a mere mouthpiece. It is almost comical then, how they will dramatically send off players at the slightest inkling of argumentativeness. Maybe it's the absurdly convoluted rulebooks, maybe the corporate nature of the leagues, but NA refereeing is one of the more prominent bland spots in local sports. Yeah, soccer referees screw up on occasion, even with the new technologies, but they still seem to inspire some genuine respect and authority.

Let's remember the GoG forums do seem to often fall on the more civilized side in terms of discussion. This is not the case everywhere else. There are plenty of Americans that are as bad as European football fans when it comes to blaming the refs.

Good week, everyone who made a pick won. Also a great week in the NFC East, the Eagles won and the other three teams lost. :)

Enter: Butt-Fumbler

Hahah. I never liked Sanchez, but Foles hasn't exactly been playing fantastic. To be honest, I don't see a huge drop in quality between Sanchez and the Foles of this year (last year was a completely different story). What will really cause a problem is losing linebacker and defensive play caller DeMeco Ryans. There is a substantial drop in quality with the backups in that position.

Arizona Cardinals will beat St. Louis Rams through repeated bombing runs as Rams lack radar technology. Hehe, silly Rams :)

Wow! johnny Football might not see the light of day this year...

Look who's tied for first in the AFC north!

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/browns-lead-bengals-7-3-1st-quarter-022008619--nfl.html

WOOOOOOOOOT GO my favorite sports team! Go!

Hoyer for the win! <3

However, Cundiff has got to go.

I'm going to go with the last place Ravens this week...