Foss' Football Forecast, December 31, 2006

The final day of 2006 also wraps up the final week of the NFL regular season. I had a tough week last week only going 4-6, ending my streak of four consecutive weeks with a winning record. Only Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans and Baltimore came through for me. The biggest upset was the Houston Texans first ever win (in their 10th try) over the Indianapolis Colts on a last second field goal, 27-24. After a 1-8 start the young Arizona Cardinals are finally starting to play as a team and up to their potential, winning four of their last six, and upsetting the 49ers in San Francisco, 26-20, ending any chance of the 49ers making the playoffs. The 49ers loss allowed my Seattle Seahawks to finally clinch the NFC Western Division although they backed into it losing themselves to the red-hot San Diego Changers (nine-wins in a row) in Seattle, 20-17. This could finally be the Chargers year, but we'll get into playoff talk next week.

I knew I was stepping out on a ledge a bit picking the Bengals over the Broncos in Denver, but I felt Cincinnati was the better team and they led most of the game, but Denver held on in the snow in a close game, 24-23. Three other home teams failed me as Jacksonville lost to New England, 24-21, to almost eliminate the Jaguars from the playoffs; I wanted to pick Carolina over Atlanta, but Michael Vick playing at home seemed like a sure thing, but it turned into a defensive game with the Panthers prevailing, 10-3. Then on Christmas Day, the Cowboys didn't give the home fans any presents getting embarrassed by the Eagles, 23-7. My overall NFL record is now 57-38 for an even 60 winning-percentage.

Looking at this weeks games, I found the home team to be a strong pick in nine of my ten picks, some games were too close to call with team's needing a win to make the playoffs, so I tried to go with the safe games this week. Here are this week's picks:

NFL Sunday, New Year's Eve:
HOUSTON by 10 over cleveland
DALLAS by 14 over detroit
NEW YORK JETS by 14 over oakland
seattle by 7 over TAMPA BAY
PHILADELPHIA by 7 over atlanta
BALTIMORE by 14 over buffalo
INDIANAPOLIS by 10 over miami
SAN DIEGO by 14 over arizona
DENVER by 10 over san francisco
CHICAGO by 7 over green bay (possibly Brett Favre's final game)

Happy New Year all, may everyone have a safe, healthy and prosperous, 2007!

I hope everyone is enjoying the bowl games, we are finally getting to the major bowls, but are still a week away from the Championship Game as the Florida Gators still try to workout a plan to defeat the undefeated Ohio State Buckeyes.