Week 7 picks.

A couple of fun items first:

Fun Item #1: Back in July, I posted an open inquiry for new, cooler job titles for a graphic designer. Nobody suggested even one. Luckily, I kept working on this and I came up with an answer. I am no longer a graphic designer, I am a visilogian (viz-uh-LOW-jen). I am a student of visilogy (viz-IL-uh-jee), the study and thorough knowledge of visual communication. Sounds a lot better right? There is no such word at dictionary.com, Google, or Wikipedia. So there then. Any time you ever hear or use that word, know that I made it up.

Fun Item #2: Who else loves those Subway commercials? I wrote about my sudden, surprising love of Jon Lovitz in June, and this latest round of commercials is even better. I can't decide which is a better line, when he yells "Holla!" at Lil' Jon, or when he yells "Just eat the sandwich!" at Reggie Bush.

Okay, on with the picks:

Minnesota (+6 1/2) over SEATTLE
Yeah, this is a homer pick. But I will say that not only is Sean Alexander still out, but Steve Hutchinson will have a HUGE game. Put Chester Taylor in if he's on your fantasy team, I smell a lot of points coming from him.

Green Bay (+4 1/2) over MIAMI
Yes, every time I need to prove that I came up with the word "visilogian", I'm going to have to point to a blog post where I picked the Pack to win. But I must go with what I know, and what I know is that Miami stinks haaaaaaaard. People are coming down on Brett Favre, so it's time for him to step up with a big game to allow him to suck for a few more weeks before they pull him out.

KANSAS CITY (+5 1/2) over San Diego
I'm not sure at all about this one, but I'm a big believer in what I'm now going to term the Office Space Corollary. "That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled. That and the fear of losing my job, but you know what Bob? That'll only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired." There are, in every sport and every season, a handful of teams that work just hard enough not to get blown apart (read "Washington in any sport"). They'll almost always win when their fan base will start rioting if they lose. I feel like Kansas City is close to this point after that humiliating loss to Pittsburgh. And even though San Diego is clearly the superior team, it's a division game at Kansas City. I got a hunch.

ATLANTA (+1 1/2) over Pittsburgh
Boy, that didn't take long to diffuse the panic over the Steelers, did it? Remember a week ago, when everyone thought their goose was cooked? Now they're making Atlanta, a very decent team, into a home dog. I agree that it's difficult to get a bearing on the Steelers so far this year, but let's call it both ways. I'm thinking they're WAY overrated here.

CLEVELAND (+5 1/2) over Denver
The upsets just keep on rolling. I was not impressed AT ALL by Denver last week. Their 4-1 record is not indicitive of the level of this team. Fun fact provided by Gregg Easterbrook: Denver has only scored 12 more points than Oakland so far this year. It's pathetic.

Arizona (-3 1/2) over OAKLAND
Duh. No upset is big enough for Oakland to win.

The rest of my picks:
NEW YORK JETS (-3 1/2) over Detroit
Philadelphia (-5 1/2) over TAMPA BAY
CINCINNATI (-3 1/2) over Carolina
New England (-5 1/2) over BUFFALO
Jacksonville (-9 1/2) over HOUSTON
INDIANAPOLIS (-9 1/2) over Washington
DALLAS (-3 1/2) over New York Giants