Sam Farmer's NFL picks: Week 7

So I'm in a press box last Sunday and my phone rings. It's my wife.

"How are you doing?" she asks.

"Pretty good," I say. "Parking was kind of a hassle, but . . ."

"No," she stops me. "I mean how are you doing with your picks?"

I can't get away from it. It isn't just readers giving me a hard time about my bad NFL picks, I get it at home too. When I walk through the door on Monday, there it is: Friday's paper marked up with red pen, the correct picks circled and the wrong ones crossed out. She only wants to be helpful, I know, but sometimes I wish the recycling truck came on Sundays.

I don't recall my wedding vows being, "I promise to love, honor, respect and forecast accurately."

Then again, how are we supposed to pick these games? The NFL is wacky this season. Who could have guessed St. Louis would win its first game at Washington? Or that Cleveland would knock off the mighty New York Giants? Or that Dallas would lose at Arizona? (For those keeping score at home, I nailed that one.)

It could be worse. After all, these prognostications are just for fun. There isn't real money -- at least not mine -- riding on these educated guesses. I mean, look at the stock market. The only Jones who had a worse week than Dow was Pacman.

So it's all in good fun.

I did get an e-mail from a reader this week telling me it was pathetic how I had eight losers and only six winners last Sunday. He offered to make my picks for me. Said he used to do it for a living.

And he was right: My picks last week were pretty sad. But I didn't go 6-8, I went 7-7. So I asked him to list the eight games I got wrong. He gleefully prattled off my boneheaded picks, starting with Minnesota.

I wrote back to inform him that the Vikings didn't lose, they won, and now I understand why he used to do this for a living.

And that brings me to this: No matter how many games I get wrong on Sunday, I promise to tell you with 100% accuracy Monday who actually won and lost.

I'll even go back and write that into my wedding vows.

San Diego at Buffalo: Tough as it is for West Coast teams to win on the other side of the country, the Chargers will roll against a Buffalo defense that gave up 41 points to Arizona. Pick: San Diego.

New Orleans at Carolina: This all depends on which Saints show up. New Orleans is getting healthier, and Drew Brees & Co. should be able to outscore the defense-minded Panthers. Pick: New Orleans.