NFL Cherry Picks W9: In a Sorry Slate, Broncos @ Oakland Beckons

Maybe you’ve got some chores to do around the house, ones you‘ve been putting off. On Sunday, put on your dungarees and have at it.

Check out the lawn. Maybe it could use one more mowing before the snowing starts to blowing. Brrrr!

If you haven’t already you could start on your Christmas - Hanukkah list. That’s why they invented catalogs, Sport. You won’t regret it, come December.

You have kids or you‘re a Big Brother / Sister? Take ‘em to a nearby park to breath in some Mother nature, or head to the city zoo. And don‘t feed the rhinos.

Better yet, team-up and give Mom a hand around the house Sunday, or take her out to lunch, just as long as it’s not fast-food or chain-fare, meaning, somewhere nice. And leave the damn phones at home.

But whatever you do, don’t plan to spend your entire afternoon watching the National Football League.

And it ain’t got nothing to do with the Krude one (Colin-of-the-mock-socks). Any TV viewer who’d ditch a date (NFL) simply because of one self-serving racist could not have had a spirit for sport to begin with, making it more likely their exit is in support of Krusader’s play-act, making the Nielsen numbers they represented ephemeral (false positive) and then no true reflection upon which sponsors might rely.

Check out the next round of NFL contests.

If Week 9 games could fill a Halloween sack you’d have some glum looking kids with a sad haul of tricks n’ treats to spread on the living room floor: Things like butterscotch wraps, gummy-bears, caramel-covered popcorn balls, red delicious, licorice thingamajigs, whatsits & whatevers. All great stuff, if that’s what you like, but void of the candy corn, Milky Way® and M&M’s® we’ve come to expect.

NFL schedulers must’ve figured fans had better things to do at the midway point than lounge in front of the boob-tube with match-ups like Dallas @ Cleveland, Saints @ 49ers, Panthers @ Rams and the Titans heading to San Diego (Zzzz).

This has gotta’ be the sorriest slate of the season.

There is one game that beckons like a Kit-Kat® sitting solitary on the kitchen counter: Denver @ Oakland (NBC 8:30 EST). Chomp!

Both tied for the AFC West lead at 6-2 with young field generals feeling their oats (T.Siemian / D.Carr), the winner taking command but knowing a re-match awaits Week 17 at Sports Authority in Denver to close out the regular and to drip with playoff ramifications.

The Raiders, led by 3rd-yr. quarterback Derek Carr whose playing in a different stratosphere this 2016, one where the likes of Tom Brady, Matt Ryan & Aaron Rodgers usually orbit (’Who‘s the dude with the goatee?’), hold the scoring edge (#5 ygpg / #6 pspg) over the Mustangs rather tame offensive output (#27 ygpg / #13 pspg), while the hosts, led by Von Miller and T.J. Ward (SS), continue to exhibit tremendous defensive wherewithal (#3 yapg / #5 papg) as their guests can’t stop feeding off the bottom (#31 / #29).

It's the immovable object versus the unstoppable force, that is, when the Raiders got the ball and the Mustangs aim to stuff it down their...you get the drift.

In truth, I must concede a smidgen of hyperbole in my watchability ratings. Apart from the AFCW battle-for-supremacy, you could reasonably claim a few other contests capable of converting Mom’s lunch outing into an early dinner.

That includes traditional tussles where the Philadelphia Eagles fly into the Meadowlands to face the rival Giants, the Colts take to Lambeau and the Steelers return to the Crab Cake city to face the Ravens. All teams flashing flaws but still very much in hunt for playoff sweets.

In fairness to NFL schedulers, how were they to know that mediocrity (parity) would come to permeate the 32 teams? Correction, 31 (See; Patriotus Juggernautus).

And as any fan worth their weight in high fructose corn syrup knows, even the saddest looking match-up can produce the most exciting battle that turns ticket-stubs into collectible gold. So there’s that.

Cherry Picks Week 9

Falcons (5-3) @ Tampa (3-4): 11.3 NFLN 8:25: Atlanta wins

Detroit (4-4) @ Minnesota (5-2): 11.6 Fox 1:00: Vikings win

Eagles (4-3) @ Giants (4-3): Fox 1:00: New York wins

New York Jets (3-5) @ Dolphins (3-4): CBS 1:00: Miami wins

Pittsburgh (4-3) @ Baltimore (3-4): CBS 1:00: Ravens win

Indianapolis (3-5) @ Green Bay (4-3): CBS 4:25: Pack wins

Broncos (6-2) @ Oakland (6-2): NBC 8:30: Denver wins

Buffalo (4-4) @ Seattle (4-2-1): 11.7 Disney 8:30: 'Hawks win

Record: 39 - 40 - 2

Steven Keys

NFL HunchLine

Photo credit: V.Miller, wc.cca, J.Beall, 8.20.11; rake-leaves, wc, D.Goehring, 12.17.09; D.Carr, wc, P.Sheffield, 9.28.14; T.Siemian, wc, JBeall, 8.29.15; cherries, Chirak, wc, 6.24.7; NFL-symbol, wikiproject

Posted: 11.2.16 @ 11:11am EST; Copyright © 2016