Art by Leah Bae
Week 4 of the NFL season saw both the New York Giants and the New York Jets pick up their first wins of the season, which came as a shock to everyone. Surprisingly, both teams came up clutch Sunday and they both won in overtime.
NFL fans also got to see Tom Brady‘s emotional return to New England as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played against his former team, the New England Patriots on Sunday night football. The Colts also picked up their first win of the season and the Raiders lost their first game, as Justin Herbert looked like the real deal. The Cardinals beat the Rams and stand alone as the only undefeated team. Could Arizona surprise us as a Super Bowl contender this year?
Joe Doonan, Austin LeDe’, Ali Levens, Karl Winter and Alec Matulka get more confident in their picks every week, as each team has really shown what they are capable of. So here are Joe, Austin, Ali, Karl and Alec’s picks for Week 5 of the NFL season!
Los Angeles Rams (3-1) at Seattle Seahawks (2-2) (Thursday, Oct. 7 at 5:20 p.m. PDT)
Joe: Rams
Austin: Rams
Ali: Rams
Karl: Rams
Alec: Seahawks
“I don’t see the Rams’ loss as a huge deal; it’ll be a close game, but I think the Rams are just better than the Seahawks.” — Joe
“The Seahawks have lost every game at home this season, and they are playing the Rams, who are a very good team, so it’ll be interesting to see if that’s a pattern that continues. At the same time, I feel like the Seahawks, you know, they’re gonna ball out and Russ is gonna cook.” — Alec
New York Jets (1-3) at Atlanta Falcons (1-3) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 6:30 a.m. PDT)
Joe: Falcons
Austin: Falcons
Ali: Falcons
Karl: Falcons
Alec: Jets
“I think the Jets are riding a little too high off that win, and the Falcons are coming off a tough loss and I think they just have more talent actually.” – Austin
“Alec’s Upset Special of the Week! I called it last week with the Cardinals, and so I’m picking the Jets for this one. I know I said a couple weeks ago I would never pick the Jets until they won, and they won, so now I have to take them. And I want to point out that the Jets beat the Titans last week, and the Titans beat the Seahawks, so through the transitive property of football equality, the Jets beat the Seahawks. I will proceed to throw up in my mouth.” — Alec
New England Patriots (1-3) at Houston Texans (1-3) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 10 a.m. PDT)
Joe: Patriots
Austin: Patriots
Ali: Patriots
Karl: Patriots
Alec: Patriots
“Patriots, since they gave a Gronk-less Buccaneers team a run for their money — definitely was closer than I was expecting. I think they’re doing better and also they are not playing a very hard team, so this is probably going to be like a cakewalk to them after playing the Bucs the week before.” — Ali
“I think Patriots are a lot better, and Mac Jones is kind of progressing into what Belichick wants him to be like he’s going to take care of the ball. He’s not going to throw downfield a lot, but he hasn’t made a ton of mistakes, so I was impressed with what I saw from the Patriots last night and expect them to dismantle the Texans.” — Karl
Detroit Lions (0-4) at Minnesota Vikings (1-3) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 10 a.m. PDT)
Joe: Vikings
Austin: Vikings
Ali: Vikings
Karl: Vikings
Alec: Vikings
“The Vikings are better than their record shows; they should win this game big I will go with Minnesota.” — Joe
“’I’ve been putting way too much faith in the Lions for some reason and I actually got a Vikings pick correct last week, so I think I should make that two in a row so I’ll try to go Vikings, and then the Lions will probably win, knowing my luck.” — Ali
Philadelphia Eagles (1-3) at Carolina Panthers (3-1) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 10 a.m. PDT)
Joe: Panthers
Austin: Panthers
Ali: Panthers
Karl: Eagles
Alec: Panthers
“I like Jalen Hurts, and I like the way he played last week, and I don’t like the Panthers. I think they’re stupid team and I don’t have a lot of success speaking for or against them usually so, yeah. Especially if McCaffrey is still not even 100%, like both of these defenses got exposed last week, so I don’t really know want to think about either team and I’m just gonna with the Eagles.” — Karl
“I was quite shocked by the Cowboys Panthers game but I think the Panthers are better than the Eagles who have kind of fallen off after week one, so I’ll go with the Panthers.” — Austin
New Orleans Saints (2-2) at Washington Football Team (2-2) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 10 a.m. PDT)
Joe: Saints
Austin: Saints
Ali: Saints
Karl: Saints
Alec: Saints
“I think the Saints will be pretty upset that they lost to the Giants last week, and Washington came off a last minute win versus the Falcons and their defense has not looked as good as I thought it would. Especially because I have them for my fantasy team, so it’s been pretty disappointing, so I took the Saints.” — Austin
“Both these teams have been underwhelming, but I think the Saints barely win this game because their defense is strong.” — Joe
Tennessee Titans (2-2) at Jacksonville Jaguars (0-4) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 10 a.m. PDT)
Joe: Titans
Austin: Jags
Ali: Titans
Karl: Titans
Alec: Jags
“I’ve got the Titans. They’ve had one of the more head-scratching starts to the season of anyone, but I think they’ve also been banged up, so I’m not hitting the panic button on them yet, even though losing to the Jets is an embarrassment. [Losing to the] Jags would be another embarrassment and I just would not sleep at night knowing I picked the Jags.” — Karl
“I’m actually gonna go Jags on this one. The Titans have given two teams their first wins of the season and it’s unlikely that the Jaguars will go 0-17. I just feel like it’s not gonna happen, so I feel like they’ll pick up a win against the altruistic Titans.” —Alec
Miami Dolphins (1-3) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-1) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 10 a.m. PDT)
Joe: Buc
Austin: Bucs
Ali: Bucs
Karl: Bucs
Alec: Bucs
“Bucs are back on track and should win this, though the Dolphins have always given Tom Brady trouble.” — Joe
“I’m going with the Bucs. It’s a nice little Florida matchup, which is very fun just for the memes and dolphins, the animals, are usually pretty smart. But this team is kind of dumb so based on that alone, I’m going to go with the Buccaneers which are pirates, which are people, and people are smarter than dolphins.” — Ali
Art by Ali Levens
Green Bay Packers (3-1) at Cincinnati Bengals (3-1) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 10 a.m. PDT)
Joe: Packers
Austin: Packers
Ali: Bengals
Karl: Packers
Alec: Packers
“I’m on the Bengals hype train, but I’m gonna go with the Packers this week, because I’ve been picking against the Packers too much, so I feel bad for Packer fans.” — Austin
“You know what, I’m gonna go with the Bengals I think the Packers have a decent record, and I think like Karl said I think this might be a trap game for the packers and like the classic hit movie Star Wars said it’s a trap.” — Ali
Denver Broncos (3-1) at Pittsburgh Steelers (1-3) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 10 a.m. PDT)
Joe: Broncos
Austin: Broncos
Ali: Broncos
Karl: Broncos
Alec: Broncos
“I think the Broncos got the reality check we expected last week but I think they’ll be back on track this week the Steelers meanwhile have been in a downswing so yeah, I’ll roll with the Broncos here. I think it might be scoring kind of a grounded type of fare but the Steelers have been really bad so until they show us something better there’s not gonna be a lot, not a lot to get excited about there.” — Karl
“I am still bitter about the Seahawks Steelers Super Bowl, so I feel like that’s just a good reason to pick the Broncos. [The Broncos] have been playing pretty well, granted they lost to the Ravens, but the Steelers also lost.” — Alec
Chicago Bears (2-2) at Las Vegas Raiders (3-1) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 1:05 p.m. PDT)
Joe: Raiders
Austin: Bears
Ali: Raiders
Karl: Raiders
Alec: Raiders
“Until Matt Nagy makes the right decision and makes Justin Fields the permanent starter and gives up the play calling permanently, it will be hard to choose the Bears.” — Karl
“I pick against the Bears too much and they proved me wrong last week, so I’ll go with them.” — Austin
Cleveland Browns (3-1) at Los Angeles Chargers (3-1) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 1:05 p.m. PDT)
Joe: Chargers
Austin: Browns
Ali: Browns
Karl: Browns
Alec: Browns
“I think what swings this one for me is how good the Browns defenses look, I mean, the Bears and Vikings aren’t great, but they have absolutely shut down their opponent the last two weeks. I mean their pass rush has been insane.” — Karl
“I have hopped on the Justin Herbert bandwagon; he looks really good, so I will go with the Chargers.” — Joe
New York Giants (1-3) at Dallas Cowboys (3-1) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 1:25 p.m. PDT)
Joe: Cowboys
Austin: Giants
Ali: Cowboys
Karl: Cowboys
Alec: Cowboys
“I don’t like the Cowboys. I don’t root for the Cowboys success. I just don’t. They’re fake they’re not a contender in the NFC, so I will go with the Giants.” — Austin
“If I know anything, it’s that the Giants are very inconsistent we beat a mediocre team that was playing horribly and we acted like we were the best team on the planet and we have won one game, but Cowboys are just overall better and that kills me to say it because I don’t like the Cowboys.” — Ali
San Francisco 49ers (2-2) at Arizona Cardinals (4-0) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 1:25 p.m. PDT)
Joe: Cardinals
Austin: Cardinals
Ali: Cardinals
Karl: Cardinals
Alec: Cardinals
“For the Niners, it looks like Trey Lance is gonna be starting going forward, which is good for them, but this is gonna be a tough challenge. It’s gonna take him maybe a few weeks to kind of get used to it, so they might drop to under .500 here, and it’s gonna be tough to jump up in that division.” — Karl
“The Cardinals are at home this week and they have been playing really well, and the Niners have been really inconsistent, so I will go with the Cardinals.” — Alec
Buffalo Bills (3-1) at Kansas City Chiefs (2-2) (Sunday, Oct. 10 at 5:25 p.m. PDT)
Joe: Bills
Austin: Chiefs
Ali: Bills
Karl: Chiefs
Alec: Bills
“The Chiefs defense has been awful thus far, and the Bills have put up huge points the last couple weeks, while allowing none on defense.” — Joe
“I find it hard to pick against the Chiefs. They beat the Bills twice last year, and the Eagles did put up points against them. So I think it’ll be a high scoring game, but I mean, if you get in a shootout with the Chiefs, I think they’ll win.” — Austin
Indianapolis Colts (1-3) at Baltimore Ravens (3-1) (Monday, Oct. 11 at 5:15 p.m. PDT)
Joe: Ravens
Austin: Ravens
Ali: Ravens
Karl: Ravens
Alec: Ravens
“Ravens, because their rush attack will be simply too much to handle for the Colts, and I don’t think the Colts will put up enough points to win.” — Austin
“Ravens, because they have a better roster, and have shown me more this year and the Colts continue to have QB issues with Wentz’s injuries.” — Joe
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Contact Austin LeDe’: austin.lede@pepperdine.edu
