NFL Game Picks and Survivor Pool Lock: Week 9

Russ Bliss Predicts the Winners of each NFL Game this week

I almost went 11-2 last week but instead of my prediction of Dallas beating Detroit 31-30; it was the other way around. Still, 10-3 is not bad and brings my season record to 77-43. With only 9 weeks left in the regular season I'll need to get 11-12 right on average to get the annual goal of 180 correct. That's not an easy average to attain, but it's also not impossible. Let's see if I help, or hurt, the cause this week.
 
Here are my Week 9 NFL Game Predictions:
 
Cincinnati 28, Miami 20
Carolina 24, Atlanta 17
Kansas City 23, Buffalo 16
Dallas 35, Minnesota 21
New Orleans 27, NY Jets 23
San Diego 30, Washington 24
St. Louis 23, Tennessee 21
Oakland 26, Philadelphia 23
Seattle 34, Tampa Bay 17
Baltimore 20, Cleveland 17
New England 27, Pittsburgh 20
Indianapolis 24, Houston 20
Green Bay 31, Chicago 21
 
There you have them: my week 9 NFL game picks.
 
San Francisco clobbered Jacksonville (42-10) even worse than I had predicted (38-10) to nail the lock in week 8. That brings me to 6-2 in the Survivor Pool Locks for the season. Here are the picks from the prior weeks and the results:
 
Week 1 (W; 21-17) Indianapolis over Oakland
Week 2 (L; 30-33) Philadelphia over San Diego
Week 3 (W; 45-17) Seattle over Jacksonville
Week 4 (W; 52-20) Denver over Philadelphia
Week 5 (W; 34-20) St. Louis over Jacksonville
Week 6 (W; 24-7) Kansas City over Oakland
Week 7 (L; 27-30) New England over NY Jets
Week 8 (W; 42-10) San Francisco over Jacksonville
 
Jacksonville is on bye this week so I don't have the luxury of taking their opponent in week 9. But there's still a great pick for this week that I see. Only problem is that in prior years when I've taken this team, it's either been a loss, or the game has been a lot closer than I thought it would be. I hope that won't be the case again this season. I don't anticipate it will be as the opponent this season is a mess at QB and has been a mess more often than not on defense having allowed their opponents to score 31 points or more in 5 of 7 games. As long as Tony Romo doesn't turn the ball over late and the defense can get pressure on whoever starts at QB for the Vikings this week, this game shouldn't really be close.
 
My Survivor Pool Lock for Week 9 is: the Dallas Cowboys over the Minnesota Vikings.
 
Best of luck to all in your own picks this week!