NFL Week 9 picks and score predictions: Packers ruin Tom Brady's trip to New England, Jaguars destroy Ravens
With the NFL season heading into Week 9, we are officially halfway through the year, which makes right now the perfect time to hand out some midseason awards. Actually, I'm only handing out one award, and it's going to me, and I don't even want it: It's the award for worst picker from Week 8. I went 8-6 last week, which ended up being the worst record out of our experts here at CBS Sports in Week 8. I clearly spent way too much time trying to find a Halloween costume and not enough time researching my picks. Next year for Halloween, I'm going to go as someone who's good at picks, so I guess I'll be dressing up as Jamey Eisenberg. Eisnenberg, who is our long-time NFL fantasy analyst here, might want to just make NFL picks full time because he went 12-2 last week. Also, he's 69-49-3 against the spread this year. I might have to copy his picks this week. So will I actually copy Jamey's picks? Probably not, but let's get to the picks and find out for sure. Actually, before we get to the Week 9 picks, here's a quick reminder that you can check out the weekly picks from every CBSSports.com NFL expert by clicking here . Also, as you probably know by now -- because I point it out every week -- I'm in charge of the NFL newsletter here at CBSSports.com. If you want to subscribe, all you have to do is click here and enter your email address . I'm going to eat one piece of my six-year-old's Halloween candy every time someone signs up. My dentist is going to love this. Speaking of things we love, let's get to the picks. If you had asked me at 10 a.m. ET on Nov. 1 who was going to win this game, I probably would have picked the Ravens , but a few things have happened since then: Those two injuries mean the Ravens will likely go into this game with an undrafted rookie ( Joe Fagnano ) as their starting quarterback, but that's not even a guarantee because he's dealing with an ankle injury. The Ravens literally might have to run the wishbone offense on Thursday. You have to be desperate to run the wishbone and I think the Ravens are there. Bill Walsh actually implemented for a game in 1987 when he had to use a replacement quarterback while the regular players were on strike. October 5, 1987 Bill Walsh Employs the Wishbone In the second half of the first MNF game to feature "replacement players" during the 1987 players' strike, the 49ers legendary head coach utilizes the "wishbone" offense against the Giants and head coach Bill Parcells. Walsh —… pic.twitter.com/EoXESclJi1 The Ravens could also run the wing-T. Basically, any offense from 1934 would work at this point. They could even call the Buccaneers ' for a few tips. They just won a game without throwing a single pass. The Ravens might have to do that this week. So the Ravens don't even know who their starting QB will be this week, and to make matters worse, they have to face what might be the best team in the AFC. If Week 8 was any indication, the Jaguars have finally figured out how to run the ball again and when they run the ball, they're virtually unbeatable. Since Liam Coen took over as head coach, the Jags are 10-1 when they rush for at least 110 yards and they did that in Week 8 by rushing for a season-high 183 yards in a 42-7 win over the Colts . When the Jaguars can run the ball, that takes some pressure off of Trevor Lawrence and he seems to thrive in those situations. In Week 8, Lawrence completed just 10 passes, but he threw for 210 yards and three touchdowns while finishing with a 153.3 passer rating. Do you want to know how absurd that is? Those stats made Lawrence the first player in 55 years to finish with at least 200 passing yards, three touchdown passes and a passer rating of 150-or-higher on 10 completions or fewer. The last player to pull that off was Roger Staubach and he did that while playing for the Cowboys in 1971. Did I mention that the Cowboys won the Super Bowl that year? Because the Cowboys won the Super Bowl that year. I'm not saying the Jags are g [... truncated ...]
