We have basically reached the halfway point of the season as after this week every team will have played eight games. Last week, there were some big games in the conference that had an impact on several divisional races. The AFC West tightened up a bit as the Broncos had their division lead trimmed to two games after they lost their first game of the year, falling 30-7 to Baltimore, while San Diego pounded out a 24-16 win over the Raiders. Miami showed they are still alive in the AFC East with a 30-25 win over the Jets. The Texans are off to their best start in franchise history at 5-3 with a 31-10 pasting of the Bills, but the Colts came from behind to beat the 49ers 18-14 to remain unbeaten and still lead the AFC South by three games. Tennessee, with Vince Young at quarterback finally got their first win of the year routing the Jaguars 30-13 making the South basically a two team race.
Moving onto week nine in the AFC the key match ups we will be reviewing are; Baltimore Ravens @ Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Dolphins @ New England Patriots, and Pittsburgh Steelers @ Denver Broncos.
Baltimore Ravens (-3) @ Cincinnati Bengals Current Over/Under 43
Baltimore, coming off their bye week snapped a three game losing streak with their win over Denver putting them back in the thick of the AFC North race at 4-3. Cincinnati will be coming off their bye week heading into this game and are currently tied with Pittsburgh atop the division at 5-2. The Bengals beat the Ravens back in week five 17-14 on an 80 yard touchdown drive with less than two minutes left in the game. While the first game was a defensive battle I do not see that happening this time around as both these teams have quarterbacks with big play ability. Bengals QB Carson Palmer has already thrown for 13 TD’s this year, while Raven QB Joe Flacco has thrown for 12. Defensively, Cincinnati ranks 31st against the pass while Baltimore ranks 19th so look for the balls to fly on Sunday. Despite having to give points on the road I like the Ravens to cover as well as the over in this one.
Miami Dolphins @ New England Patriots (-11) Current Over/Under 47.5
New England has had a week off to recover from any jet lag after their road trip to London two weeks ago, while Miami has to get ready to play another do or die game after their win over the Jets. The Dolphins relied on a couple of kick returns for touchdowns by WR Ted Ginn to help secure the win, but I wouldn’t count on that kind of repeat performance if they are to have any chance to beat the Patriots. Rather, they have to find their running game that while still ranked 4th in the league, was held to 52 yards on 23 attempts by the Jets. New England will rely on Tom Brady and their 3rd ranked offense to roll off enough points to win this game. While Brady needed a few weeks to work out the kinks in his game, he appears to be firing on all cylinders at the midpoint of the season. Take the Patriots to win and cover the spread along with the under.
Pittsburgh Steelers (-3) @ Denver Broncos Current Over/Under 39
Denver’s unbeaten streak finally came to an end at six after losing to Baltimore and with Pittsburgh coming to town, they will quickly have to put it behind them or they could easily find themselves losing two in a row. The Steelers are coming off their bye and will be ready to go. In their last game they handed the Vikings their first loss while showing every other team in the league they are ready to defend their Super Bowl Title. They probably won’t win any style points for their five wins so far this year, but they have an effective offense that can score when they need to along with an opportunistic defense that will create turnovers and can score points as well. This game will be gut check time for the Broncos to see if they really are one of the elite teams in the AFC, or the first six games were just smoke and mirrors. I still think Denver is for real and like their chances at home, especially getting points. Take the Broncos to cover along with the over as a 39 point total is a bit low for these two teams.
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