The Green Bay Packers are the reigning NFL Super Bowl champions, undefeated through the first four weeks of the season and have an offense so dynamic that four different wide receivers caught touchdown passes from Aaron Rodgers last week. That doesn't necessarily means the Week 5 NFL picks and predictions will all favor the team traveling from Lambeau, though.
SB Nation's own Andrew Sharp posted his weekly NFL picks column on Friday, though, and he went with the smart money and picked the Packers.
Green Bay at Atlanta (+7) ... This week I went back and added up the stats from Aaron Rodgers' last 8 games, going back to last year's playoffs. The numbers: 193-273, 70.7% completion rate, 2,419, 21 touchdowns, and 4 interceptions. Either Aaron Rodgers is riding one of the greatest hot streaks in NFL history, or he's just really this good, and we should get used to this for the next 5-7 years. God help the Falcons secondary that made Tavaris Jackson look good this past weekend.
That doesn't sound good for the Falcons, but one has to remember Green Bay's defensive secondary hasn't exactly been stellar either -- especially without Nick Collins -- and Matt Ryan has a couple of solid weapons with Roddy White and Julio Jones streaking down the field.
Back to the picks, though, and it looks like Yahoo! Sports has picked the Packers across the board. CBS Sports did the same, not surprisingly, and ESPN was unani... had NFL expert Chris Mortensen pick the Falcons in the upset. Toldjya someone would pick against the Packers!
As far as score predictions are concerned, if that's what is of interest, Sports Illustrated's Peter King has the Packers winning 31-20 as Rodgers does his thing.
For more reading on this game, be sure to check Packers blog Acme Packing Company and Falcons blog The Falcoholic.