NFL Football- Week Ten Previews

Week Ten already in the 2009 NFL Football season and the standings are heating up around the league.
The AFC has races in two of the four divisions at the halfway point with one seemingly out of reach already and another getting to that point rather quickly.
The Indianapolis Colts pretty much punched their playoff ticket already when they topped the Houston Texans and now have a 8-0 record. The Texans have their bye this weekend and are 5-4 in the AFC South, four games behind the Colts.
The New England Patriots, who travel to Indianapolis to face the Colts on Sunday Night Football, have a two game lead over the New York Jets in the East however, the Jets did beat New England back in Week Two so that still is a race with half the season to go.
The two divisions with real races are the North and the West divisions.
Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are both 6-2 and face each other on Sunday in Pittsburgh. This is the key game in the AFC North this season as the winner will have sole possession of first place. The Baltimore Ravens are also a factor at 4-4 and play Pittsburgh twice in the second half of the season.
In the AFC West, the Denver Broncos have stumbled the last two weeks, getting hammered by both Baltimore (30-7) and Pittsburgh (28-10) and are 6-2, which still has them in first place in the division. But the once commanding three game lead is now down to just one game over the three-time defending division champion San Diego Chargers.
The Chargers have won three straight, including last week's 21-20 last second thriller in New York against the Giants.
The Broncos and Chargers face each other once again next week in Denver, so the Broncos will have incentive this week to get the lead back to two games as they travel to Washington to play the Redskins while the Chargers face the always tough Philadelphia Eagles in San Diego.
In the NFC, the East division is a log jam with Dallas, Philadelphia and the New York Giants all within two games of each other.
Dallas (6-2) has won four in a row and is in first place after topping Philadelphia, 20-16 last week. The Eagles (5-3) fly out to San Diego to face the Chargers, who topped the slumping Giants 21-20 last week. The Giants, along with Houston, have their bye this weekend and it couldn't come at a better time for this team, which has lost four straight games after starting the 2009 season with a 5-0 mark.
Minnesota, New Orleans and Arizona are on cruise control in their respective divisions at the halfway point. Arizona (5-3) has a two game edge over the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks while the Vikings (7-1) and Saints (8-0) each have three games leads.
The teams in the AFC and NFC that are chasing the division leaders have their work cut out in the second half of the season and it all gets started Thursday night when the NFL Network gets their evening edition of pro football going with the Chicago Bears (4-4) playing at San Francisco, which has lost four consecutive games after a 3-1 start this season.

After a tough go around last weekend, here goes another week of fearless forecasts...

(HOME TEAMS are listed in BOLD)


Chicago over San Francisco
Tennessee over Buffalo
Miami over Tampa Bay
NY Jets over Jacksonville
Pittsburgh over Cincinnati
New Orleans over St. Louis
Carolina over Atlanta
Minnesota over Detroit
Oakland over Kansas City
Dallas over Green Bay
Denver over Washington
San Diego over Philadelphia
Arizona over Seattle
Indianapolis over New England
Baltimore over Cleveland

Last week's record: 6-7


SEASON RECORD: 80-49