The Mark Graham Sports Blog's posts tagged Mark the Greek

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• Mark The Greek's Monday Night Pick Sure To Go Wrong

  November 07, 2011

  Last week I predicted the upset of the Chiefs over the Chargers, maybe I'm better than I thought. I just kinda knew that Philip Rivers was going to have a bad game and boy did he. Now to ride this wave of success, I pick the winner of the Chicago Bears at the Philadelphia Eagles. And away we go!

  • Chicago Bears at Philadelphia Eagles

  The Eagles appear to be back on track after losing four straight and try to win their third straight tonight. The Bears are coming off a bye week and have won three of the last four against the Eagles and pummeling Tampa Bay and Minnesota in their last two games.

  The Eagles finally ran the ball well last Sunday night against the Cowboys with LeSean McCoy running for a career high 185 yards. Michael Vick looked like Tom Brady (of last season) going 21-28 with 279 yards passing.

  The Bears have the 11th best run defense in the NFL and held Tampa Bay and Minnesota to a combined 83 yards rushing. However, the Eagles have the number one ranked run offense in the NFL and LeSean McCoy is red hot right now. In order for the Bears to win they need to stop McCoy and make Vick try to throw the ball.

  Both teams have quarterbacks that could play a lot better. Jay Cutler has only completed 59 percent of his passes, ranked 24th in the NFL. When Matt Moore of the dreadful Miami Dolphins has a higher completion rate than you, you have some problems. Michael Vick turns the ball over. A lot. Vick has thrown eight interceptions this year and is careless with the ball with his scrambling style.

  Philly has the second best defense in football and the Bears need to be clicking on all cylinders and Jay Cutler and the Bears offense needs to play th ebest football they have had all year. The Bears ranked 30th out of 32 teams in total offense and against the second best defense in football it makes for a poor matchup.

  So considering the game is in Philly and the Eagles high powered running game and tough defense I will pick......

  • Prediction: Eagles

  Next week on Monday Night, the Minnesota Vikings head to the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field to play the Green Bay Packers.

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• Mark The Greek's Monday Night Pick Sure To Go Wrong

  October 31, 2011

  Well last week I dropped to 1-1 in my "Monday Night Pick Sure To Go Wrong", but then again who outside of Jacksonville would think the Jaguars would beat the Ravens? I mean c'mon. This week I try to get back on track when the San Diego Chargers play the Kansas City Chiefs.

  • San Diego Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs

  San Diego is coming off a tough defeat to the New York Jets that saw the Chargers blow a 21-10 lead at halftime. The Chargers are going to be playing angry and make sure to close out this game.

  Philip Rivers has struggled this season and has thrown nine interceptions this season including multiple picks in SIX games this season. So the key for the Chiefs is to pressure Rivers into making forced throws and creating turnovers.

  If Philip Rivers can get hot and play up to his potential then the Chiefs can't stop him. Basically so goes Philip Rivers, so goes the San Diego Chargers.

  The Chiefs are a very hot team right now that have won three straight and with a win tonight would give them a share of the AFC West lead. Kansas City last week picked apart the Oakland Raiders, granted they were without their starting quarterback, forcing six interceptions. They are facing a struggling Philip Rivers and he could not have picked a worse team to face right now.

  However, Kansas City's three wins this year came against Minnesota, Indianapolis, and Oakland. Minnesota and Indianapolis have a combined two wins between them and Oakland, like I said previously, was without Jason Campbell.

  The Chiefs have a pretty solid running game, considering Jamaal Charles in out for the year, with the two headed threat of Jackie Battle and Dexter McCluster. The Chargers have struggled with their run defense and with the Chiefs mixing up their running backs could create a long night for the Chargers.

  I'm going with my gut in this one and I pick the....

  Prediction: Chiefs

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• Mark The Greek's Monday Night Pick Sure To Go Wrong

  October 24, 2011

  This week's Monday Night Football game pits the mighty Baltimore ravens against the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars. So here are my predictions on tonight's game:

  • Baltimore Ravens at Jacksonville Jaguars

  Where to begin, the Jaguars passing game is dreadful, last in the league, and now rookie Blaine Gabbert has to face the 8th best secondary in the NFL in the Baltimore Ravens.

  The Jaguars run defense is about the middle of the road, but I believe that won't be good enough to stop the high powered Ray Rice. The one saving grace for this Jaguars team is they're secondary, ranked 9th in the NFL. I still don't think that will be enough to stop Joe Flacco and the Jaguars offense will continue to bring this team down as the Ravens will focus solely on Maurice Jones-Drew and make Gabbert throw the ball.

  With a Ravens win tonight they would improve to 5-1 for the first tine since 2000 when they won the Super Bowl.

  Prediction: Ravens

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