Throwing Darts: Traveling with Pittsburgh in Week 5

Five picks against the number every week, that’s how we roll. All selections use the Yahoo Pick’em Spread.

Play along, share your five best picks in the comments. (If you need your results from Week 4, click here.)

Steelers +3 at Chargers: Three things I don’t like about San Diego right now: a crummy rushing defense, a banged-up offensive line, and no home-field advantage. The Chargers do have a major edge at quarterback, of course, and that makes up for a lot, but Michael Vick could be notably improved after a week and a half to prepare. Or maybe the Steelers will do the simplest thing, what they should have done a week ago: let Le’Veon Bell win the game for them.

[Yahoo Daily Fantasy Football: Enter our $750K Week 5 contest]

Bengals -2.5 vs. Seahawks: Getting under three is always a big deal. This relatively-modest line speaks to Seattle’s name brand hanging on tight. Maybe the Seahawks will fix their offensive line and their offense (which right now is “Hey Russell, run around for 10 seconds and make stuff up”), but I have to see it first, and I’m especially suspicious on a short week.

Giants -7 vs. Niners: Big Blue is sometimes a team that plays down to its level of competition, but this is also a team that’s two plays from 4-0 (and let’s be real, Tom Coughlin handed away the Week 1 game at Dallas). You can’t run on the Giants right now, and who can Colin Kaepernick throw on?

Cardinals -2.5 at Lions: The Arizona Week 4 loss was one half of flukes, and then one half of Todd Gurley. The Lions defense is quietly pretty decent, but I have nothing good to say about the offense. The best offensive minds work personnel to scheme - Joe Lombardi is trying to do it the other way around.

Titans +2.5 vs. Bills: Coming in off the bye is nice, and look at all those important skill players missing for the Bills. And what’s happened to the Buffalo defense everyone loved six weeks ago?

Last Week: 3-2
Season: 14-6

Fantasy Versus Reality

This year, two of my esteemed Yahoo colleagues are sharing their own selections, using the Yahoo Pick’em spread. Play along in the comments.

Frank Schwab (5-0 last week, 13-7 season)

Seahawks +2.5
Rams +9
Bears +9
Saints +4.5
Raiders +5

[Week 5 rankings: Quarterback | Running Back | Receiver | Flex | All Positions]

Eric Edholm (4-1 last week, 15-5 season)

Titans +2.5
Giants -7
Cowboys +8.5
Bengals -2.5
Broncos -5