Thursday Night recap

Now that Thursday nights games are done, it's time to have a peek and see how my picks got on. Packers 34 @ Lions 12: I had a feeling it might end like this. Basically three players made the difference; Stafford, Rodgers and Woodson. Stafford put his excellent performance from Sunday behind him and promptly threw 4 interceptions. Turning the ball over like that has plagued Stafford all season, you just have to hope he will get better with time, which I think he will. It also doesn't help to only get two completions to your best receiver, Calvin Johnson. Last week Johnson caught 7 passes for 161 yards. Use him. As for Aaron Rodgers, he got the ball to his two best receivers a combined 11 times for 195 yards and a TD. That's the way to do it. Rodgers finished just two yards shy of 350 yards passing with 3 TDs and no picks. And finally, probably the most impressive of them all was Packers CB Charles Woodson who despite being 333 years old managed to notch up 6 tackles, 1 assist, 1 sack, 2 interceptions and a forced fumble. Nice job. 1-0. Raiders 7 @ Cowboys 24: Yesterday I said "..... the Cowboys do have the kind of rushing attack that could rip Oakland apart, but they just don't have the balls to say no to Tony Romo so expect that great triple team to be under utilized once again". Uhm, it looks like Wade Phillips and his crew grew the required balls overnight. Felix Jones and Tashard Choice combined alone for over 130 yards on just 10 carries, with Marion Barber tacking on another 61. I never expected the Raiders to do anything special, I just didn't think the 'Boys would either. Boy was I wrong. Romo even found the courage to largely ignore Roy Williams in the open field and go for his two best receivers (Austin & Witten) instead, who paid him back handsomely. 1-1. Giants 6 @ Broncos 26: Again I'd like to quote myself from yesterday "And that's the issue I have with the Giants in this game. They don't/won't run the ball enough. Instead they put it all on Eli and expect him to roll out a repeat of his Superbowl performance. And it's not gonna happen". Psychic or what? 40 passes, completed just 24, and only 15 carries for his backs. That's always bad news. Eli is not that good. Meanwhile I had a feeling (as also mentioned yesterday) that the Broncos might take some shots down field against a banged up Giants secondary. And they did. Brandon Marshall was displaying some superb one handed skills as the Broncos offense finally found some life again. 2-1. Not a bad start pick wise, but there's plenty of action coming up this week to either boost my tally or tear me down. Tomorrow I'll tell you exactly which teams I'm backing.