Steve Brownlee

I was looking for a parallel to all the upsets that occurred in the NFL last weekend.

Seems like I didn’t have to look far — just take a gander at what happened in both League Championship Series in Major League Baseball that ended earlier this week.

In the National League, which I hope you noticed that Marquette native Adam Hamari umpired home plate in Tuesday’s Game 7, lightly regarded Arizona went into the raucous — meaning NFL-like — Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia and took the Phillies down in both games 6 and 7.

The American League was even stranger as the home team lost ALL seven games of the series. Since Houston had home field “advantage,” that meant Texas was able to take that series in seven games.

In the NFL last weekend, we had the New York Giants beat Washington, Atlanta down Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh win at the Los Angeles Rams, all mild upsets; then Denver beat Green Bay and Minnesota took out San Francisco, somewhat longer-shot upsets.

And, of course, don’t forget wins by Chicago and New England, as the way those franchises have been playing, beating ANYONE in the NFL was a major accomplishment. Just for the record, the Bears beat Las Vegas and the Patriots dropped the Bills.

I could blame it on the spookiness of our impending Halloween holiday, but that would mean these kinds of things happen every year in late October. It’s not quite that common of an occurence.

So onto the picks, with lots of trepidation:

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Today, 8:15 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Buffalo — It isn’t that Buffalo is out-and-out bad, but worse for a wanna-be prognosticator like me, they’re bad enough once in awhile to make any upset a possibility. I just don’t think it will be a probability this week. Bills, 23-19.

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Sunday, 1 p.m.

Houston at Carolina — Both teams are coming off bye weeks, but it was Houston that was showing promise before their quarterback, C.J. Stroud, got injured. Apparently he is back or at least ready to come back as I couldn’t find anything about him not playing this week. Good enough for me. Texans, 24-17.

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Los Angeles Rams at Dallas — The Rams’ problem last weekend was playing an opportunistic Steelers team. If the Cowboys are anything with coach Mike McCarthy, they’re NON-opportunistic. So on a flyer, I’ll take the Rams, 30-26.

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Minnesota at Green Bay — What impressed me most about Minnesota on Monday night against the 49ers was its defense, certainly with turnovers. Since that’s been Packers QB Jordan Love Achilles heel lately, I’ll go with the Vikings, 31-25.

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New Orleans at Indianapolis — I’m not overly impressed with the Colts having Gardner Minshew at QB, though Derek Carr hasn’t exactly been doing a bang-up job with New Orleans, either. But I’ll take the more wily of a veteran with Carr. Saints, 23-19.

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New England at Miami — Sure, the Patriots got their win last week, but I just don’t see them keeping up with the track meet that will be held in south Florida when Miami takes the field. Dolphins, 29-23.

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New York Jets at New York Giants — If you saw my column a couple weeks ago, you’ll know this is a game where I would normally root for BOTH teams to lose, as I “love” the national media’s fawning over all things New York. However, with Northern Michigan University grad Robert Saleh coaching the Jets, also that they’re coming off their bye, it’s actually easy for me to take the Jets, 26-20.

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Jacksonville at Pittsburgh — If you believe in the Steelers’ ability to pull out any win no matter how badly they’re getting dominated during a game, then they could conceivably be 17-0. But really, they’re just good enough to probably eke out a winning record and the maybe the last wild-card berth at the end of the season. So I see playing Jacksonville as one of their seven or eight losses, not one of their nine or 10 wins. Jaguars, 23-16.

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Atlanta at Tennessee — Considering that the only other Sunday early afternoon game left is Philly at Washington, taking Atlanta here will give me a perfect 9-for-9 predicting away teams to win at 1 p.m. I just hope an American League LCS breaks out, otherwise I’m really going to look bad. Falcons, 30-24.

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Philadelphia at Washington — With the way upsets have been going, this one isn’t a slam dunk. But if there’s going to be a slam dunk this week, this should be it. Eagles, 35-22.

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Sunday, 4 p.m.

Cleveland at Seattle — With the traditional reverberating noise in Seattle’s stadium, this seems like a tough challenge for Browns backup QB P.J. Walker, plus there’s the distraction of really how injured is starter — and $230 million guaranteed — signal caller Deshaun Watson. Give me the likely more focused Seahawks, 24-17.

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Baltimore at Arizona — I don’t care if my “reverse momentum” strategy favors the Cardinals. If the Ravens can hand the Lions their heads on a platter one week, then turn around and lose at Arizona the next week, then either Baltimore is a mirage — or the Lions are. Ravens, 33-20.

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Kansas City at Denver — The Broncos should be relieved after beating the Packers last week, and even though this is a division rivalry game for them, it also a division rivalry game for KC. Chiefs, 37-24.

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Cincinnati at San Francisco — This very well could be the game of the week. But while Cincy is coming off its bye week, the 49ers are actually coming off a short week, playing and losing Monday night. With injuries slowing San Fran, I’ll take a flyer on the Bengals, 29-27.

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Sunday, 8:20 p.m.

Chicago at Los Angeles Chargers — Well, this is certainly a pair of dog teams playing in prime time. But that may be what just makes this an intriguing, and ultimately, good matchup. One team doesn’t know how to win (the Bears), the other doesn’t not know how to lose (the Chargers). Even though Chicago has won two of their last three (and two all season), I can see the Chargers able to pull away enough to not be able to blow it in the fourth quarter no matter how good they are at doing that. Chargers, 31-30.

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Monday, 8:15 p.m.

Las Vegas at Detroit — Reverse momentum in full bloom in Detroit. ‘Nuff said. Lions, 34-24.

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Last week — 5-8 (oops!), 38 percent. Season — 62-44, 58 percent.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 552. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.