After taking last week off (holidays and grandkids didn’t leave much time for prognostications), I’m ready to get back at it! Were there some great games last week or what?

I had actually picked 13 of the first 14 games correctly (I would have had all 14 if I didn’t go back and change the Seattle-Tampa Bay game), but then missed the last two games, knocking me out of the money, er, glory of winning, the weekly contests that I enjoy so much!

Oh well, let’s see if we can hit all fifteen this week!

This week’s Lock of the Week (8-1).

Los Angeles at New England.

The talk of the town this week is what in the world is New England going to do, now that Gronk is out for the rest of the year? Well let’s answer that as simply as possible.

They’re going to beat the Rams!

I can’t believe that the experts are even asking these stupid questions. Have they already forgotten the first four weeks of the season, when they were missing Brady? If I recall, Gronk missed a couple of those games, too. And guess what. They won three out of four of those games. And that was before Martellus Bennett was on anybody’s radar.

And now the Lambs are coming to town? Who could have asked for any better medicine than this? The Patriots will shut down the LA offense (like nearly everyone else does) and methodically burn up the clock en route to a dominating victory.

And then Coach Fisher will get another contract extension before the Lambs fly home!

Final score – New England 27, Los Angeles 6.

This week’s Upset of the Week (4-5).

Detroit at New Orleans.

Contrary to last week, when I didn’t pick a single upset, this week I have four to choose from. And I don’t feel confident with any of them! So, I flipped a few coins and this is what came up.

This game has all of the signs of being an old-fashioned, rockem’ sockem’ robots (Google it kids), wild-wild west shootout. Two teams with powerhouse offenses and very little, if any, defenses.

Drew Brees is looking like his old self, and actually has a healthy crew of backs and receivers around him, something he doesn’t usually have this late in the season.

Meanwhile, Matthew Stafford is having a career season, now that there are no superstars on the team. Go figure!

This may resemble an Arena game, which means whichever team makes a defensive stop, just one, may end up walking out of here with the victory. That’s why I’m going for the home team, led by the man who’s been there before.

Final Score – New Orleans 42, Detroit 38.

This week’s Game of the Week (6-2-1).

Washington at Arizona.

Okay, first of all you can’t call me a homer on this one. I haven’t even discussed the Cardinals in this space for over a month. Second of all, do you really think this game is going to be boring?

Have you seen the Redskins offense lately? Cousins is exploding, and he is loaded with offensive weapons, half of which we all thought were retired, or very close to it. Garcon and Jackson have had their respective careers re-energized, Jordan Reed is the top tight end in the league this year, Jamison Crowder, the #3 wide receiver, is averaging a TD every other week, and the running game is actually working for a change.

How can Arizona possibly stand a chance, especially the way they’ve been playing lately (as in, this entire season)? Call it a gut feeling or just wishful thinking, but I think the offense will snap out of it this week. The sound bites that have hit the airwaves this week have been long overdue, but seem to be signaling that the players are waking up, even if it may be too late.

But if it’s true, and the offense actually plays up to their potential? This could be a shocker to the experts near and far. That includes the hometown talking heads that wrote the Cardinals off four weeks ago and the national pros that led the charge two weeks before that!

The bottom line is the defensive weaknesses will tell the tale of this game. Arizona’s biggest weakness on defense is, and always has been, the tight end. With the latest word being that Reed is out this week, the Cards should be able to contain Garcon and Jackson. Watch for Crowder to lead the way for yardage and scoring for the Redskins.

Washington’s biggest weakness on defense is the running game. Unfortunately for them, Arizona has one of the top three running backs in the league in Dave Johnson. If the coaching staff is smart, they’ll ride him strong until the Redskins prove they can stop him. I’m looking for him to approach 200 all-purpose yards and three TDs this week.

This should be an exciting game right up until the final gun sounds.

Final Score – Arizona 34, Washington 27.

There you go. Nothing left to do now but fire up the grill and pop open a cold one. Let the games begin!