Raiders will win this at home with defense

Houston has faded quickly from playoff talk and is now struggling to stay at .500. Still, Matt Schaub should have enough offense to handle Seattle easily.Tennessee has the Rams and is favored by 13.5 Seems like a lot, but this is the Rams we're talking about. Take the Titans and give the points.Washington visits the Raiders and I am using the Raiders defense in a couple of fantasy playoff teams this week. Raiders will win this at home with defense.I like San Diego to beat Dallas and continue the December slide for the Cowboys.

You get three points with San Diego and they might win outright.The Giants will beat Philadelphia to tighten that division up and it will come down to the last week for the NFC East. The Giants win in a one-point spread deal.Arizona is in San Francisco favored by three over the Niners. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Constellation Brands Inc (STZ.N) trimmed its full-year sales and earnings outlook on Wednesday due to the global economic slowdown, sending the wine and spirits producer's shares down as much as 16 percent. market conditions remained "pretty healthy" for wine in the recession, while industrywide spirits sales were being hurt to a greater extent. The beer business, he said, has generally accelerated.For the critical year-end holiday season, Sands said the company was still awaiting data for the last few days of the year.But he sought to allay investor concerns by saying many U.S. consumers waited until the last minute to buy their New Year's Eve libations. Therefore, sales may not be as bad as they look, he said on a conference call with analysts.Constellation, which makes Robert Mondavi, Ravenswood and Clos du Bois wines and also owns the Svedka Vodka and 99 Schnapps brands, reported a profit before special items of 60 cents per share for the third quarter ended on November 30.Analysts on average were expecting 59 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.Net income fell to $84 million, or 38 cents per share, from $120 million, or 55 cents per share, a year earlier.The company now expects net sales, excluding the impact of acquisitions, to grow at a mid-single-digit rate in fiscal 2009, which ends in February.

It previously expected sales to grow at a mid-to-high single-digit rate."Given the current macroeconomic environment impacting our key markets, we are recalibrating our sales expectations," Sands said in a statement.Constellation shares fell as low as $14.20 on Wednesday but recouped some of those losses and were down 7 percent at $15.70 in the afternoon. Through Tuesday's close, the shares had gained 56 percent since touching a new low in mid-November.CUTTING COSTSMorgan Stanley analyst William Pecoriello said a lower interest expense and tax rate helped third-quarter results top expectations.Constellation Brands "seems to be offsetting the slower than originally anticipated top-line growth with belt tightening, lower interest expense and lower share count," Pecoriello wrote in a research note.Net sales, which exclude excise taxes, fell 6 percent in the third quarter to $1.03 billion, hurt by fluctuations in currency exchange rates and the economic downturn that has consumers around the world spending more cautiously.Sands also said the company was taking steps to cut costs and reduce debt "to better ensure that we will meet our future financial objectives."Constellation recently acquired some higher-end wine brands and sold off some less-expensive brands. Analysts on average were expecting $1.69.Constellation also has a 50-50 joint venture with Grupo Modelo (GMODELOC.MX) that imports and distributes the Mexican brewer's beers in the United States.(Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by Derek Caney and John Wallace) Asian Markets. When the San Diego Chargers charged up to Clevelandthis past weekend, there wasn't anybody from here toTuskegee who thought thatthey wouldn't be notching their seventh consecutive win on theirsharpshooting gun butts. The Cleveland Browns are as woeful a football team asexists in the known universe, and San Diego, resting a half dozen starters,wasted no time in making it known to everybody that this was going to be astroll along the veranda as the poor Browns have trouble successfully makingthemselves breakfast this year, and it doesn't look like that's going to changeany time soon, either.

The already awesome Antonio Gates set a new careeryardage mark with 8 catches for 167 yards by the time the third quarter wasdone. Cleveland took the opening kickoff and got mystomach acids churning just a bit when they held onto the ball for nearlysix-and-a-half minutes, using 10 plays to drive 82 yards for a touchdown; notthe kind of defensive performance to inspire confidence in a Chargers fanagainst a team that some wonder if they could put together a drive like thateven with no opposition. San Diego countered with a drive of their own thatresulted in a field goal before Cleveland's wheels began to wobble and thecracks in their game widened into fissures. Their second drive got them closeenough to attempt a field goal which missed, and on the very next play Riversflipped the ball out into the flat to fullback Mike Tolbert, and the 245-poundTolbert zinged down the sideline for a 66-yard touchdown Ahhhhhh, that's a bitbetter. Cleveland surprised all 72 of the fans in the stadium by fumbling ontheir next possession and the Chargers put up a field goal to finish the firstquarter ahead 10-7. At this rate, they'dfinish with more than 500 yards of total offense unless San Diego had a bit ofdefensive fortitude stashed somewhere in their plan. San Diego tacked on anotherfield goal to go in at the half ahead 13-7, but uneasy lies the head of the teamthat is ahead in any NFL football game by a mere 6 points.