A pair of surprise division leaders square off today in Tennessee as the unbeaten Titans host the New York Jets.

Many are touting this as a possible preview of the AFC Championship game, but there's a lot of football to be played between now and then.

The Jets will be one of the best teams the Titans have faced thus far this season as they've rolled through largely inferior opponents en route to their 10-0 record.

Of course the Jets haven't exactly played a killer schedule either.

New York's defense is pretty good against the run, which could cause some problems for the Titans. But opponents have done a good job of slowing Tennessee's rushing attack the past couple of weeks only to see Kerry Collins beat them with 519 yards with five TDs in those two games.

It's troubling that the Titans are banged up in the secondary, but they have enough to win this game.

It should be reasonably close, however, as most of Tennessee's games are.

Take the Jets to cover in a 24-20 loss.

N.Y. Giants (minus 3)

at Arizona

The Cardinals are home underdogs despite being a division leader, which shows how much respect the Giants are now getting.

But New York will get after Kurt Warner.

Take the Giants, 30-24

Indianapolis (plus 3)

at San Diego

The Chargers picked off Peyton Manning six times in San Diego last year and came away with a two-point win.

Indianapolis is playing better ball than it was earlier in the season, but something tells me the Chargers come up with the win.

Take San Diego, 27-23

New England (plus 2)

at Miami

Matt Cassell got to talk to Joey Porter quite a bit in their earlier meeting this season, a Dolphins' victory.

He'll talk to him some more.

Take Miami, 27-20

Carolina (plus 1)

at Atlanta

The Panthers are the quietest 8-2 team perhaps in league history.

Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme has not been playing well of late.

Take Atlanta, 24-21

Green Bay (plus 3)

at New Orleans

There should be points a plenty in this one.

But Green Bay's pass defense is better than that of New Orleans.

Take Green Bay, 34-31

Philadelphia (plus 11/2)

at Baltimore

The Ravens should be smarting from their 30-10 thrashing by the Giants last week.

The Eagles tied (tied!) the Bengals.

Take Baltimore, 20-17

San Francisco (plus 11)

at Dallas

Tony Romo got his feet back under him last week.

Remember when this used to be a marquee matchup?

Take Dallas, 34-13

Tampa Bay (minus 81/2)

at Detroit

Detroit will win a game one of these weeks, right?

It won't be this one.

Take Tampa Bay, 27-13

Washington (minus 31/2)

at Seattle

It's not too often that Washington gets to travel to the state of Washington to play.

But this might as well be a home game for the Redskins.

Take Washington, 23-16

Minnesota (plus 21/2)

at Jacksonville

The Jaguars continue to struggle, particularly against the pass.

But throwing the ball is not exactly Minnesota's strength.

Take Jacksonville, 20-17

Oakland (plus 91/2)

at Denver

Mike Shanahan enjoys not only beating the Raiders, but blowing them out.

Al Davis still owes him money from when he fired Shanahan as Oakland's head coach almost 20 years ago.

Take Denver, 30-6

Chicago (minus 81/2)

at St. Louis

The wheels have come off for the Rams after an impressive start for Jim Haslett.

Chicago's playing better football.

Take Chicago, 27-10

Houston (plus 3)

at Cleveland

Brady Quinn's finger injury is troubling, but the Browns should take advantage of the cold weather against a warm-weather team.

Take Cleveland, 28-24

Buffalo (minus 3)

at Kansas City

The Bills are really struggling as quarterback Trent Edwards just refuses to throw the ball down the field.

Tyler Thigpen is playing well for Kansas City.

Take Kansas City, 23-20

Last week: 11-4, missed the pick of the week

Overall: 82-71-4, 5-6 in pick of the week

F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com

Home