The Miami Dolphins have a chance to move into a tie for first place in the AFC East this week.  The best part of that equation is that the Dolphins simply need to win to do so.  Since the Patriots are on their bye week, the Dolphins don’t have to do any scoreboard watching, they simply need to go out, play their game, and win.  If they do, at this time tomorrow, the Dolphins will be tied with the Patriots at 5-3 atop the AFC East.

Last week, we got back on the winning track with our Pitiful Picks.  We went 3-1 with our only loss coming in the Eagles/Falcons game.  This brings our season total up to 17-12.  We didn’t think the Dolphins game would be close against the Jets and it wasn’t!  This week, I have a much more uneasy feeling about the Dolphins chances, but we’ll get to that in a bit.  There are a number of close point spread lines this week, suggesting many of the games are fairly even matchups.  We’ll see what we can do in this week’s edition of PhinNation.com’s Pitiful Picks:

Atlanta Falcons -3.5 over Dallas Cowboys

Last week, we took Andy Reid’s 13-0 streak of wins following Eagles bye weeks.  We gave the Eagles too much credit and didn’t give enough to the Falcons.  I don’t think the Falcons are going 16-0 this season, but I also don’t see them losing to a Cowboys team that seems to keep shooting themselves in the foot.  The Falcons are at home and the odds makers usually give 3 points to the home team.  That means they think the Falcons are just 1/2 a point better than the Cowboys.  I disagree whole-heartedly.  I think the Falcons win this game by at least a touchdown.  Falcons 24 Cowboys 17

Detroit Lions -5.5 over Jacksonville Jaguars

The line for this game was actually lower earlier this week. However, I don’t think a desperate Lions team will mess around with a terrible Jaguars team.  The Lions are coming off of a quality home win against the upstart Seahawks and should keep their season alive with a win against the Jaguars.  The Jaguars, for those of you that didn’t know, had Chad Henne playing quarterback for them last week…..Chad Henne folks… I think this is the week that Matthew Stafford and Megatron put up a big game and the Lions route the Jaguars.  Lions 31 Jaguars 16  (cont’d on page 2, click below)