Before we share our expert picks for NFL Week 6 which include our lock of the week here with the rest of the picks coming on Thursday and Friday, let's look back. Last week we correctly picked eight of 13 picks with only four wrong and one push. These aren't just picking winners here, we're picking against the spread and beating Vegas odds makers at their own game.
Does this mean you should take our expert picks straight to the betting window or your local bookie? No. We don't encourage betting money on NFL football games. We do however, heartily support you using our picks to beat your friends in friendly pick 'em contests. You can even use our picks against us in our weekly contest which you can join here (ID: 55411, PW: arizona).
Here's the four games we got wrong last week (because we believe in accountability). We picked the Colts -3 over the Chiefs in a game that easily could have gone that way but didn't. Once again we got burned believing in the Cardinals -- that won't happen again. The Saints were six-point favorites over the Panthers and we went against our instinct to bet on Cam to beat the spread and lose the game. He did, we didn't pick him, we both lost. Finally we went with the Titans to upset the Steelers but Pittsburgh was having none of that.
Our Lock of Week is one of the mostly highly anticipated games on the NFL Week 6 schedule:
San Francisco 49ers at Detroit Lions (-4.5): The Lions are the home favorite and bring their 5-0 record to bear against the 4-1 49ers. Both teams beat the Buccaneers and both teams have some wins over bad teams under their belt. Their one common opponent, the Cowboys, beat the 49ers in San Fran and lost to the Lions at home.
This game features two of the best defenses in the NFL which should keep the points down. And while the 49ers will do a better job against Javhid Best than the Bears did, the real difference here is through the air. Alex Smith with limited time will struggle to move the ball while Matthew Stafford will find Calvin "Megatron" Johnson enough times to win this game by a touchdown. Pick: Lions