Week 9 picks and mid-season awards

Let’s dispense with some mid-season awards…

MVP-Daunte Culpepper, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Priest Holmes, and Donavan McNabb are all having great years but Terrell Owens has been a difference maker. Owens has given McNabb a bona fide threat at wide out and he leads the NFL in touchdown catches and is third in receiving yards.
Defensive MVP-Champ Baily has been the difference for the Broncos forth ranked defense but Ray Lewis is still the best defender in football.
Offensive Rookie of the Year-Roy Williams has exceeded expectations and has more than made up for the loss of Charles Rogers in Detroit. With all due respect to Ben Roethlisberger, Williams has been the best rookie in the league.
Defensive Rookie of the Year-This is a two man race. Both Teddy Lehman and D.J. Williams have been great. Lehman is second on Detroit in tackles and has breathed life into a porous defense. However, D.J. may be the Broncos best line backer at this point and he leads the team in tackles.
Coach of the Year-Bill Cower and Herm Edwards have their teams playing at an elevated level. The Jets and Steelers have combined for two losses and Cower led his team to a stunningly easy victory over the Patriots while Edwards nearly beat the Pats in Foxboro. This one’s too close to call.

Now the picks…
Jets over Buffalo
Detroit over Washington
Arizona over Miami
KC over Tampa
Dallas over Cincy
Carolina over Oakland
San Diego over the Saints
Seattle over San Fran
Giants over Chicago
Patriots over the Rams
Baltimore over Cleveland
Colts over the Vikings
Game of the week…Philly barely over Pittsburg
And my Broncos over Houston…maybe.

There are some decent games in college this week…

#2 Oklahoma over #22 Texas A&M
#9 Tennessee over Notre Dame
#4 Cal over Oregon
#6 Texas over #19 Oklahoma St.
Colorado over Kansas