After last week’s action some familiar faces are starting to surface as the top contenders in the AFC. The Indianapolis Colts remained perfect at 8-0 after dodging a bullet against a very talented Houston team that couldn’t avoid shooting themselves in the foot in a game they could have easily won. Although turnovers, penalties, and stupid mistakes dogged them all day long, a missed 42 yard field goal that would have sent the game to overtime was the Texans ultimate undoing. The Patriots once again had some trouble defending against Miami’s Wildcat offense that scored two touchdowns from that formation. In the end though, it was a 71 yard catch and run from Tom Brady to Randy Moss late in the third quarter that sealed up the game for New England. On Monday night, the Denver Broncos had all intentions of taking down the defending champion Steelers, but Pittsburgh’s second half offense was just too much to handle as they won going away 28-10. While these three are all on top of their respective divisions, there is one gate crasher to the party; the Cincinnati Bengals. After beating the Ravens for the second time this year they find themselves tied with the Steelers atop the AFC North at 6-2.
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Moving onto week ten in the AFC the key match ups we will be reviewing are; Jacksonville @ N.Y. Jets, New England@ Indianapolis, and Cincinnati@ Pittsburgh Steelers.
Jacksonville Jaguars @ New York Jets (-6.5) Current Over/Under 40
The Jaguars are kind of like a bad rash; they just won’t go away. After holding off the Chiefs last week 24-21 they moved their record to 4-4 and are still in contention for a possible wildcard spot. The Jets are also 4-4 and coming off a bye week, but after a 3-0 start major problems on both sides of the ball have started to arise. Rookie QB Mark Sanchez has gone from being the toast of the town to yesterday’s news after his team has lost four out of their last five games. The Jets still have the number 1 rushing offense in the league led by All Pro RB Thomas Jones and a defense that is ranked 2nd overall. If they can avoid some of the crushing mistakes that have plagued them in their four losses they should be able to come away with a win on Sunday. The Jets and the UNDER.
New England Patriots @ Indianapolis Colts (-3) Current Over/Under 49.5
The Colts are the only undefeated team left in the AFC at 8-0, but they have struggled at times this season to put teams away. QB Peyton Manning is putting up MVP like numbers, but they have yet to effectively run the ball ranking 29th overall. Their defense has played well only giving up an average of 13.5 points per game which is ranked #1, but they have been run on by a few teams as their run defense is ranked 14th. New England started out the year slow, but over the past few weeks look primed for another Super Bowl run. While their overall offense is ranked 2nd in the league, they too have not been able to consistently run the ball. Something tells me that this is not going to really matter in this game as both Pro Bowl QB’s will look to air it out as much as possible in one of those “whichever team has the ball last wins” type game. The Patriots and the OVER.
Cincinnati Bengals @ Pittsburgh Steelers (-7) Current Over/Under 42
The Steelers will hardly have any time to celebrate their 28-10 over Denver last Monday night as they will have to get ready to face the Bengals in almost a must win type game. Cincinnati is 4-0 in the division including a win over Pittsburgh in week three. A loss at home would effectively drop them two games behind, giving control of the AFC North to the Bengals. In their first meeting Pittsburgh had control early, but a costly third quarter interception that was returned for a touchdown, along with a Carson Palmer TD pass to Andre Caldwell with 14 seconds left gave Cincinnati the win. This time the game is in Pittsburgh which should provide enough of an advantage for them to even the score. The Steelers and the UNDER.
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