The Armchair Quarterback’s guide to the NFL: Week 5

Welcome to the Armchair Quarterback’s guide to week five of the NFL season. For returning readers, thanks once again for coming back and for those that may be reading this weekly feature for the first time, I hope you’ll find it to be one of the better (if not the best) weekly preview/prediction pieces on the web. Each week I look at every NFL game and analyze things like strengths, weaknesses, previous head to head match ups and then mix in a few of my own personal observations to give you a feel for which teams are likely to come out victorious in that week’s match ups.

I won’t lie, last week was a little disappointing for me. After averaging an 11-5 record over the first three weeks I was just 7-6 in week four. I did call the win by my beloved Chiefs on Monday night, but the six winners I got wrong were the Giants, Texans, Buccaneers, 49ers, Vikings, and Cowboys. That 7-6 weekly finish brought my season total to 40-21. That’s still a better overall record than everyone at ESPN and CBS that does their weekly picks, save for one person….(sigh), Pete Prisco who has a 41-20 record. I am still four for four on my weekly “Survivor Pool Lock of the Week” picks for those of you that are in a knock out pool with your friends or coworkers.

After a slate of very close and hard to pick games last week, this week’s slate of games has a few more match ups that look (on paper, at least) like there is a clear cut favorite. However, as the last couple of weeks have shown, just when you think you have teams figured out the Buccaneers beat the Steelers and the Vikings knock off the Falcons. So while I feel confident in my selections this week, I’m also well aware that you can never count on all the games going exactly as expected.

Now let’s get this week’s games…….