THURSDAY NITE (NFL NETWORK)

ATLANTA (8-5) -12 OVER JACKSONVILLE (4-9)(42.5) – Jacksonville is coming off of it’s best
offensive showing of the season, a 41-14 win last week over a reeling Tampa Bay team. Evidently
the firing of Jack Del Rio didn’t affect the team in a bad way, but Atlanta is MUCH better than
the Bucs. The Falcons are 26-2 when they get the ball to Michael turner over 20 times in a game.
He already has 1,068 yards rushing and is facing a Jacksonville team that has given up 12 rushing
touchdowns this year. Last week rookie QB Blaine Gabbert has his best game of the season. Falcon
QB Matt Ryan should have his way with the Jacksonville defensive backfield getting the ball to
Julio Jones, Roddy White, and Tony Gonzalez. The Falcons can’t afford to lose this game because
they travel to New Orleans next week which will be tough. The Jags really have nothing to play for
so I like Atlanta here, but not giving up 12 points. Since early in the season, they’ve struggled at
home against the spread. I’M GOING TO PASS ON THIS GAME TONIGHT. IF YOU HELD A GUN
TO MY HEAD I’D TAKE THE JAGS.

SATURDAY GAME

DALLAS (7-6) -6 ½ OVER TAMPA BAY (4-9)(47) – Even though the Cowboys are extremely
inefficient at closing out games where they have a lead, I have them ranked as an OK++ team and
the Bucs are barely an OK—team. Even though they are at home, the Bucs since beating Atlanta
and New Orleans at home the first half of the season have slid to a point of the season where
they’ve lost 7 games in a row and cumulatively just scored 119 points while giving up 227. QB Josh
Freeman has a 72.5 QB rating and has thrown just 12 TD passes compared to an 18 intereptions.
Tony Romo and the Cowboys MUST win this game. They have figured out more ways to lose games
in the fourth quarter than any team in recent history I can remember. RB DeMarco Murray went
down for the season last week. That means Felix Jones will start the rest of the season at RB for
the Boys. The Cowboys have plenty of firepower through the air with WR’s Dez Bryant, Laurent
Robinson, and TE Jason Witten. The Cowboys should be able to score at will against the Bucs, but
the Bucs should have some success also moving the football. The question is, will they care about
winning any more after losing 7 in a row? I’M GOING TO TAKE THE COWBOYS MINUS THE
POINTS FOR 3 STARS HERE. They MUST win the game and WILL!