We go into week eight with all three of us on fifty-one points in the picks competition so plenty to play for.

Gee:    Week 7   5-9               Overall   51-56
Dan:    Week 7   6-8               Overall   51-56

Dolphins @ Texans (-7.5)

This week’s Thursday night game is a curious one that pits the Miami Dolphins’ two game losing streak against the Houston Texans’ three game winning streak. This is a bad spot for a Dolphins team who are pretty beat up even before they are on the road on a Thursday night. Their offence and defence sits just above middle ranks by DVOA and Brock Osweiler’s numbers, whilst not bad in his second start at quarterback, were not good enough to compensate for a defence that let Lions’ Kerryon Johnson ran for one hundred and fifty-eight yards on only nineteen carries.

The Texans’ offence has been very up and down but their defence is top five in the league by DVOA and whilst their pass defence has not been good, they are eighth in points allowed per game. I see nothing in this game that persuades me from my usual maxim for Thursday night other than the size of this line, which the Texans have only exceeded once this season against the Jaguars and so that does make me look hard. I keep changing my mind on this as I’m really worried about the spot the Dolphins are in but in the end this is just too many points for me.

Gee’s Pick:      Dolphins
Dan’s Pick:      Dolphins

Week 8 Trivia

‘As week 7 closes we find ourselves in ties wherever we turn. The Pick ‘Em sees all 3 of us with 51 points but the Trivia Quiz also has both Gee and Dan level on 3 each.

This week’s question was how many stadia had grass pitches and while the responses did have some logic behind them, Gee managed to pick up a single point even though his 21 was high – the answer being 19 with 12 being synthetic.

Don’t worry it confused Joe Namath too, when asked if he preferred grass or ‘astro’ he said he’d never smoked astroturf.

Moving swiftly on this week’s question is: Who is the Head Coach with Most Career Wins? I’ll add a bonus for anyone able to get closest to the exact number.

Keep moving those chains.’