Howdy all

Last week I managed a very respectable 9 in the Pick Ems, scoring a whole 3 points above the average. It helped me close the gap somewhat on my Groups leader and hopefully I cancontinue in that fashion this week.

Now I will write a full post tomorrow with all my weekend Picks, but just like last week we have a Thursday night fixture this week that you need to get your pick in on time for. So this post is just concerned with that fixture.

Miami Dolpnins @ Carolina Panthers (Spread Panthers -3.5)

Ronnie Brown I hardly knew you.

Yes, this match up comes on the week that Ronnie Brown is put on the Dolphins Injure Reserves list meaning that he’s out for the season. As somebody who owns Ronnie in 2 out of my 3 leagues this devastates me about as much as it does the Dolphins themselves. The pity is that this is a mouth watering match up for the Dolphins run first offense against a poor team against the run. Can the Dolphin’s adapt in 4 days to Browns absence?

The interesting thing is that both these teams are very inconsistent. In fact each of their records for the past 5 games reads W L W L W. The Dolphins have been extremely poor on the road this year, owning a paltry 1-3 record whilst the Panthers are not much better at home with a 2-2 record. I guess what I’m saying is that this is a toss up. With that in mind, giving Ronnie Browns injury and the Panthers recent success at getting Steve Smith somewhat productive I think they’ll have enough tonigh.

Verdict: Panthers beat the spread.