NFLX Wk. 4.

[TazaD]

13-12-1 (Pointless springs to mind! ) Week 4 — road teams with 2 or more wins are 18-3 ATS versus home teams with one win. PLAY: Atlanta +3.5; San Fran +6.5 St. Louis -2.5 KC have big problems at QB with Green unlikely to be risked, Collins out and Huard doubtful, leaving Quinn playing "significant time" and Kilian. Nasty! Of course the Rams' starters won't see much playing time, but Martin, Fitzpatrick and Smoker have all looked good, so they should be able to score against a pretty awful KC D. Detroit @ Buffalo under 37 Detroit's lack of scoring can be put down to 2 things; being happy to run a very vanilla offense, and the usual lack of ground game, which hurts them in the red zone. You wouldn't think either of these things would change this week, esp. up against one of the NFL's best D's. Buffalo aren't exactly a scoring machine themselves. They have run the ball more times than they have thrown it so far, and Detroit's run D isn't too bad. Detroit are 0-5 under in their last 5 pre-season games on the road. Oakland v. New Orleans under 41.5 Much like Detroit, the Raiders appear happy to go through the motions and not show too much on offense. The starters will be in only for a series or two then Tuiasosopo (who has been struggling) will get plenty of time, followed by Walter. NO's pass D has been quite good, and I don't think Oakland will be able to take advantage of their terrible run D. Oakland D has been surprisingly good too so far, and with NO back-ups getting plenty of time, I can't really see this one ending in a shoot-out. Pittsburgh @ Carolina under 37.5 Pittsburgh have been horrible offensively so far. No Bettis, Staley, Parker, so Haynes will see most of the running plays. Carolina starters will see "very minimal" action. These teams have played wach other in the last pre-season game in the past 2 years, for scores of 21-14 and 16-13. TB v. Houston under 37.5 Both teams seem intent on pounding the ball along the ground. Tampa starters will be out "fairly early" and the Houston starters will be in for less than 10 plays. Capers isn't concerned about last week's lack of production offensively and it won't affect the script for this game. Reports out of the Houston camp are that they are really focussing on Wk. 1, so every chance they want to get this game over and done with as quickly as possible. Last year's final pre-season game went 17-9, and the 3 previous meetings have all gone under this number.