Week 8 Predictions: NFC North

[BwareDWare94]

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As much as I despise seeing the Lions succeed despite Matt Stafford, it just goes to show that discipline on both sides of the ball can make a huge difference in this league. I thought they were fools to award Jim Caldwell an undeserved second chance as a head coach, but I continue to look more and more wrong as each Sunday passes. The defense is playing lights out--Darius Slay and Glover Quinn are making their cases for Pro-Bowl nods, in my opinion. Megatron might play. There's plenty of reasons that this game will go south for the Falcons, and early, but we can only hope that Matt Ryan simply goes off and keeps them in the game. That isn't likely, though, as the Falcons suck with how decimated they are. That offensive line is starting to look a hell of a lot like the line blocking for Keanu in The Replacements.
 

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It's time to outright acknowledge that Jay Cutler sucks. There are no excuses for this Bears team to not be leading the NFC North right now. They've had a cake schedule and their defense has more than risen to the challenge. Instead, the Bears have lost to two lackluster AFC East teams and now they're going to get their asses handed to them by the only good team in that division. If we think the Bears locker room blew up last Sunday, just wait til they lose to New England's no name receivers and a defense that's missing key pieces due to injury. 
 

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Who would have believed that he Vikings could lose in two NFC South stadiums with the exact same score? I can. This team is in shambles, offensively. The offensive line is leaking like a sieve and the running back situation involves on guy who's fast and elusive but struggles to do anything if contact is made around the LoS, and the other seemingly falls to fewer and fewer carries despite the fact that he rarely loses yards. Quite simply, the Vikings are featuring McKinnon, who does deserve more opportunities, but Asiata is the back who should be starting and toting the rock, the majority of the time. He may not break any 30+ yard runs but he's good for a pretty consistent 2-6 yards and shortening the third downs that Teddy has to complete are good for this team. There's no way Minnesota wins this game. Tampa will pick up a nice win with touchdown passes to both Evans and Jackson, both of which will be completed on Captain Completion (Munnerlyn), who should not be covering anybody over 6' in the first damn place. God, I hate him.
 

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The Saints are so damn bad. Aaron Rodgers has an 18-1 TD:INT ratio right now, and I don't expect that 1 to rise any higher this weekend when his team plays New Orleans. Jordy Nelson will continue to dominate, and the rising Davante Adams will have another nice game, making key catches and erasing the faint memory that is Jarrett Boykin. Eddie Lacy will break out in this game and remind us all why he was so valuable to the Packers last season, and the Packers defense will accumulate 4 sacks against Drew Brees, who will need to continually drop back to pass in order to try to keep the Saints in the game. Needless to say, this game is over and the first kickoff hasn't even happened.