Apologies for my absence as of late. I have been in a strange place as of late, but that’s a story for another post. I can assure you, that I have drafts in the works, I’ve just been more focused on real life and less focused on blogging for the past month. Whatever the case, I’ve at minimum committed to this particular column for the season, so let’s keep it going (in before I miss another Thursday pick!). The Packers (along with several other teams) fell off of the undefeated list. Now sitting at 3-1, we’ve still managed to hold onto the NFC North Division lead for another week. The Bears tied our record on Sunday, but because we hold the head-to-head victory we stay on top. The Lions and the Vikings both lost, so they fell to the bottom of the rankings. This is good news, though the game against the Eagles was both an awesome show and a huge disappointment. It was nice to see the offense get going early, but then stay hot up until the 4th quarter. It was terrible to see two fruitless trips to the red zone in the final minutes of the game, culminating in a game-losing interception by Rodgers. Two things to consider though, about that last play — the ball was tipped and then ended up in a defender’s hand, so it’s not as if it was a horrible throw that falls on Rodgers’ shoulders. Also, the defender was already tackling the receiver before the ball even got there, and well that should have been a penalty that erased the INT. What’s done is done though, so let’s grade my picks for last week:

Packers 27, Eagles 20
Giants 24, Redskins 13 – Correct
Chargers 21, Dolphins 9 – Correct
Colts 20, Raiders 10
Texans 30, Panthers 17
Chiefs 31, Lions 20 – Correct
Ravens 23, Browns 20
Falcons 24, Titans 20
Rams 28, Buccs 22
Seahawks 30, Cards 14 – Correct
Jags 26, Broncos 21 – Correct
Vikings 30, Bears 13
Cowboys 35, Saints 27
Bengals 14, Steelers 10

Week Score: 5-9
Season Score: 39-23

Yuck. What a bunch of stinkers those picks were, but I’d argue most people would have seen it the way I did. I didn’t think the Eagles would play as well as they did. I thought the Browns were still overhyped and that the Ravens would win that game. Who knows what’s going on in the South? I can’t pick these games for shit. The Texans and Panthers and Buccs are so up and down I can’t make sense of it. Rams losing to the Buccs? Saints beating the Cowboys without Drew Brees? You can’t make this shit up. Also, the Steelers finally got a win. Let’s see what’s up with week 5:

Seahawks 27, Rams 21
Jags 21, Panthers 14
Cardinals 25, Bengals 24
Texans 23, Falcons 20
Saints 30, Buccs 24
Vikings 31, Giants 30
Bears 24, Raiders 13
Eagles 35, Jets 7
Ravens 20, Steelers 10
Bills 27, Titans 14
Patriots 40, Redskins 17
Chargers 21, Broncos 6
Packers 28, Cowboys 23
Chiefs 35, Colts 21
49ers 26, Browns 19

There’s still some hard-to-tell picks I had to make here, but I’ll stand by them regardless. The season is at a point where some teams are separating themselves from the pack while the middling teams are harder to tell if they’re on an up or downswing. We’ll check back in next week to see how I did.