Weeks 2 Predictions, with needless commentary
San Francisco 49ers at St. Louis Rams
Buffalo Bills at Pittsburgh Steelers
Green Bay Packers at NY Giants
Atlanta Falcons at Jacksonville Jaguars
Cincinnati Bengals at Cleveland Browns
Houston Texans at Carolina Panthers
Indianapolis Colts at Tennessee Titans
New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Seattle Seahawks at Arizona Cardinals
Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions
Dallas Cowboys at Miami Dolphins
NY Jets at Baltimore Ravens
Oakland Raiders at Denver Broncos
Kansas City Chiefs at Chicago Bears
San Diego Chargers at New England Patriots
Washington Redskins at Philadelphia Eagles
I'm betting Steven Jackson's bad opener was a fluke. They should win a close game at home.
The Bills were lucky to scrape a win against Denver, and the effect on team morale of the paralyzing injury to Everett are unpredictable. The Steelers are a better team, at home.
The Packers didn't look that great in their win either, but it may have been rust, and the Giants are in bad condition - it seems like half of the starters are wounded in one way or another.
Jacksonville's disappearing run D = fluke. I think. The Falcons are inept, in any case.
I really, really want to say Browns here, and I reserve the right to change this pick until kickoff. Their defense actually looked pretty stout, despite getting 34 pts dropped on them, and the Bengals' performance last week is more a reflection of some good luck (which is what announcers mean when they talk about "opportunistic defenses") and McNair and Boller imploding under some modest pressure.
I didn't get to see either Houston or the Panthers play. Home team pick.
Colts, 'nuff said. Though the Titans did manage to win one last year, right? Better defenses than the Saints should be able to exploit a downgraded offensive line. I don't think the Titans are that defense. I'm not convinced about the Colts D, either. That run D was historically bad last season, so it should improve just due to regression to the mean, but it still doesn't look good to me.
Like I said above, I think the Saints' offense's abysmal performance was more about rust than anything else. Tampa should improve over last season (when they were devastated by injuries), but I don't think they can take the Saints, even at home.
Seahawks-Cardinals is tough. I think Tampa lost the game to Seattle more than the Seahawks won it, and the Cardinals looked confused on both sides of the ball Monday night. Give it to the home team, though it can go either way.
Yeah, the Lions surprised me. But you don't get a cookie for beating the Raiders, who managed to score 3 TDs against this terrible defense. The Vikings should put up more of a fight - expect another big game from Petersen and a Minnesota win.
The Cowboys aren't going to score like that every week. It didn't even look like the WRs were being covered at all. Forget zone defense, this more like zoned-out. That said, the Dolphins defense looked real bad. Randle El, who can be generously described as a solid number-two receiver, blew them up.
Who's starting for the Jets? Either way, I'm going with Baltimore. Pennington at least should prevent it from being a rout - the Ravens' D is not one that you want to make your first NFL start against. The Jets D, like I predicted, was awful, but so was the Baltimore offense - like I said last week, the O-line is shaky, McGahee overrated, McNair old and fragile, and Boller inept. The Ravens should take an ugly game.
Don't be fooled by McCown's performance last week - it was against maybe thw worst defense in the league. The Denver needed to make many, many mistakes to lose that game. Count on Cutler to settle down a bit, and Oakland to revert to form.
Wow, everything old is new again. The Bears defense looked great, stuffing LT. Rex Grossman...did not, so much. The running game let them down too. If the Chiefs weren't so bad everywhere (and their strength, the running game, should be checked), I'd say the Bears were in trouble. They're not.
Upset of the week - the fallout from the cheating scandal, a bounce-back factor, a legitimate opposing defense, and the Chargers' tendency to play the Pats well should garner them a victory.
I'll go with the Eagles at home, though the Redskins looked much better last week. The Eagles, Broncos, and Ravens reminded me of last year's Steelers team - playing well most of the time, only to ruin it with inopportune turnovers.
I have seven road teams winning, which seems high. My Chargers pick is aganst the grain, but you shouldn't really bet against the home team between Week 1 and Week 17 unless you have a very good reason for doing so. I feel good about only three or four of those road picks, which is not a good omen.
