- "It was great to have those guys back," Ravens running back Ray Rice said. "It looked like they knew what they were doing."
- "I thought they handled (the game) great," Cleveland coach Pat Shurmur said. "I had all the confidence in the world that this was going to be officiated in the right way."
- "Welcome back to the officials. Good to have them back," Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. "These guys are really good. The communication was good. I didn't agree with every call, but they were excellent."
I think the players and coaches in Thursday night's game have summed it up well. The professional refs know what they are doing. There is not the confusion we have been seeing the first three weeks. The pace of play has picked up ever so slightly because of better communication. They are professional refs for a reason. I am now retiring the term "Replacements" hopefully never to be used again.
Week 4 is upon us and what a great week it is sure to be! This is our first bye week of the season with just the Steelers and Colts taking the day off Sunday. The Steelers can certainly use the bye week to recover from their dismal 1-2 start and Andrew Luck will surely enjoy the extra time to continue getting better in practice being this is his rookie season. They guys on the field this week present some great matchups and some opportunities for redemption or failure.
The Patriots and Packers are both looking for their redemption, both sitting at 1-2. The Packers have the easier road with the Saints coming to town. New Orleans still has Drew Brees, but they have no defense and no coach. The Patriots, on the other hand, travel to Buffalo who has won their last two games and look to being rounding into form. Buffalo will miss C.J. Spiller who is a huge part of their offense. This definitely gives the edge to the Pats, who should go to Buffalo and leave with a W.
This is not to say the Lions are a "great" team, but the Vikings will really see what they are made of heading to Detroit. Adrian Peterson is clearly back near 100% and Christian Ponder looks like a solid QB at the moment. They looked impressive against the Niners stingy D last week, and the Lions have not shown their potential from last season. Time will tell if the Vikings can contain all of the Lion's weapons and especially Calvin Johnson. I do see the Lions pulling out a close one.
I did not picture talking about the Seahawks/Rams game of the Dolphins/Cardinals game in Week 4, but here we are. It is great watching Seattle and Arizona play defense. These matchups should make it even better as they are going against young teams that generally have problems against tough, physical defenses, the likes of which they will see this week. It should be interesting to see if the Seahawks can take their game on the road where they are 0-1 this season and finished 1-7 last year. Arizona is at home against Miami, and if they want to be a playoff team, these are the games where they maul the opposing rookie QB and send a statement that they can handle their business. Seahawks in a close one, Cardinals going away.
The night games this weekend should be some of the best of Week 4. The Giants travel to Philly and the Bears to Big D in two battles of 2-1 teams. The Giants/Eagles game, being a divisional matchup, has a little more importance as far as standings. All four teams do have playoff aspirations making each game important as a test to see where they are at early in the season. The Eagles, as we have said for a few years, have a lot of talent on paper, but it's the Giants who get it done on the field. The Cowboys are similar to the Eagles with all the talent talk, but fortunately for them face a team that is not as consistent as the Giants. Jay Cutler has the arm, but he finds a way to meltdown and give the ball away often times. We cannot talk about giving the ball away, however, without mentioning Tony Romo. Romo is another great talent that finds ways to give games away via turnovers. I expect the Giants to have their way with Philly, but the Bears/Cowboys game to be an enjoyable slugfest with the Bears being the team with the last turnover and the loss.
The LV Hilton picks are on the table, here is how I see them shaking out in Week 4:
- Patriots -4 at Bills
- Vikings +4 at Lions
- Panthers at Falcons -7
- 49ers at Jets +4
- Chargers +1 at Chiefs
- Titans at Texans -12
- Seahawks at Rams +3
- Dolphins at Cardinals -5.5
- Raiders at Broncos -6.5
- Bengals -2.5 at Jaguars
- Saints at Packers -7.5
- Redskins at Buccaneers -3
- Giants +2.5 at Eagles
- Bears +3.5 at Cowboys
There you have it, Week 4's picks. I am batting .500 for the year, time to step it up. How are your picks going? Here we go for another week that puts us a quarter of the way through season. Cheers to football!
Week 3: 8-8 (Should have been 9-7, thank you Repla.....)
Season: 22-22-2
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