And
the madness continues to sprawl. The margins are tight, the competition is
fierce, the endings are dramatic. There’s so much parity at the pro level of
the game, that fantasy leagues have parity. A couple of my fantasy leagues are
1-1 top to bottom through two.
I
didn’t do too bad all things considered, going 11-5 on this blog and 12-4 on my
Yahoo! Picks (only because I had hedged my own prediction since it was such a
toss up haha). That brings the total count to 21-11 so far.
Let’s
carry on.
Chiefs
at Eagles
An
exciting Thursday night game for sure. This will be the stiffest defense the
Eagles will have faced thus far in the young season. They have a talented
secondary and an active, aggressive front. The Eagles won’t have to worry about
scoring a boatload of points however. A handful of successful drives would be
all they need to beat the Chiefs and they have the personnel to pull it off.
The key will be to keep their electric ground game going against a tough
KC run D. Without it, they won’t be able to get Vick and D Jax rollin’
I
still expect the home team to will out a win here. They lost the Charger game
late and it stung because they knew they had a big day offensively. The defense
will be just a bit better but it’ll be enough.
Eagles
to be continued...
and before it is...
There's a quick bit I'd like to comment on before we carry
through.
I was recently told that I suck at this and that I shouldn't be a
gambling man lol well, for starters, I'm not one. I'm a creature of order and
there are simply too many unmitigated external variables in gambling for me to
operate comfortably so I don't bother. However, I'm a football man. I love the
game, I study its many parts and, in our present day of widespread parity, it's
all that more exciting to assess and discuss. Those who call me out on my picks
are likely the same trolls who harassed Ray Rice about how his injury
inconvenienced their precious fantasy teams.
Anyway,
lol I did it again, this time
inadvertently. I usually set my picks on Yahoo! immediately after the Monday
night game, the previous week of football still fresh in my mind, before I even
check out the games on Rewind, before I read any literature, before I watch any
NFL TV. I go off my hunches and apparently, they're more right, more often than
when I overthink things and do silly things like pick the Eagles over the
Chiefs in Andy Reid's return to Philly. He frustrated Vick to no end with that
awesome Chiefs defense and forced that super speed offense of Chip's into a one
dimensional shadow of itself. As a result, the Chiefs are now looking like one
of the strongest surprises of the new season. Their defense is sick, Smith
brings calculated, accurate balance to the offense and that has in turn
unleashed Jamaal Charles. Nice, Andy, very nice.
And according to Yahoo!, I already knew
that lol
Let's just go with those early hunches,
then, yeah?
Packers at Bengals
I was tempted to ride with the upset here.
Then I realized that the Bengals looked good beating a decimated and struggling
Steelers team. In other words, I’m still not totally sold on Cincy as a legit
contender and the Pack is stupid good. That said, they’re in a great position
to get over their kinks and make a real statement that could dictate how the
rest of their season goes. And at home, with a strong pass rush that keeps Rodgers off balance and a bounce back by AJ Green, I think they do it.
Bengals
Rams at Cowboys
Normally, I'd respect the trend NFC East
teams have been showing us of not getting it done outside of their division but
I think this is the week its bucked. They have all manners of weapons on
offense, are coming off a tough loss against the Chiefs that they could have
won and have an underrated defense heading home. The Rams are no slouches and
have the pass rush to harass Romo; I just don't see them getting this road win.
Cowboys
Cardinals at Saints
Rather quietly,
the Saints are showing they can be a legitimate contender in the NFC. They’ve
won a couple of close ones but they gritted both out and have now logged two
division wins to kick the season off. If nothing else, it is a good start. As
for the Cards, the upgrade at QB is nice but many of the problems that plagued
them last season still do and aside from the Lions haven’t beaten anyone in the
last 14 games. That will prove costly against New Orleans.
Saints
Browns
at Vikings
The Browns have thrown in the towel.
Although the Vikes have all sorts of glaring weaknesses, they really shouldn’t
have any trouble with the Browns at home especially now that Cleveland has
traded away T-Rich and are starting Hoyer under center. Their defense is still
rigid but the rest of this team isn’t going to make any noise this week.
Vikings
Chargers at Titans
The Bolts have looked much better
offensively under McCoy. Rivers almost looks like that Rivers of a few years
ago. That’ll be put to the test against a surprising Titans team that, like the
Chargers, gave up a late lead to the Texans. That’s the only difference between
2-0 for either team. On paper, I like San Diego here; they’ve got the vertical
game working, Mathews looks decidedly better and the defense is stingy.
However, their middling
offensive line is going to get harassed by Tennessee’s pass rush and they aren't particularly good against the run. The Titans
are slowly gaining national attention and I think they pull this upset off at
home and fly under the radar no more.
Titans
Bucs
at Pats
I thought about taking the Bucs on the road. The Bucs certainly have their issues
but their defense is tough at both levels and the Patriots are wounded and
wobbly. The Bucs will do what the Jets tried to do but do a better job of it;
run the ball, play tough defense, take advantage of the New England secondary
on deep balls and try to make less mistakes. Knowing that it’s the Bucs means I
won’t hold my breath on all that, though.
Pats
Lions
at Redskins
It’s eventually going to come together for
RGIII and the Skins. I think it’s this week. The Lions can’t be trusted
especially without their sexy new toy Bush out. Their defense is so porous, I
think RGIII will find his rhythm much earlier than the 3rd quarter
when he’s been showing up the last couple times out. The Redskins defense has
been minced and can very easily get the whooping again here but I think they
hustle right out the gate and, for once, not play from behind feeding the rock
to Morris and using RGIII’s legs to their advantage while ahead late.
Redskins
Giants
at Panthers
I’m tempted to pick the Panthers as I’ve
been high on them since before the season started. Sadly, they’ve looked
middling on offense and their defense just can’t win games by itself.
Ultimately, Cam is just going to have to go off because otherwise this team
isn’t very exciting at all. On the other hand, you know the Giants are
incensed. They’ve looked awful, their running game is in shambles, Eli is as
frustrated as ever, Coughlin’s having heart palpitations and all in all, an 0-2
start in a difficult division is about as bad a start as it gets. They can’t
afford to let that slip any further.
Giants
Texans
at Ravens
This was going to be an uphill battle
anyway for the Ravens who’ve looked disjointed and overmatched so far through
two games (their win over the Browns means almost nothing in terms of their
overall look, either). But with Ray Rice out and even though I know Bernard
Pierce is a beast, I still think this is going to be rough going. The Texans
still don’t look good yet so at least it’s possible, especially in Baltimore.
Not this week.
Texans
Falcons
at Dolphins
The Phins look pretty good at that shiny
2-0 spot with its new look squad keeping pace with New England. Lamar Miller
finally flashed some of what has the city buzzing and Tannehill has looked, at
worst, adept in the passing offense. Most importantly, their defense has been
strong and this spells issues for a Falcons team that may have to start looking
at some of these games as crucial ones considering how fast the Saints will
have run off with the NFC South. They lose to a surprising Miami team.
Dolphins
Bills
at Jets
A toss up. On one hand, I like what I’m
seeing out of the Bills but their bad outweigh the good. On the other hand, I
feel the same way about the Jets.
Bills
Colts
at Niners
Well, the trade that shook the football
world will be on full display in a great matchup between the Colts and Niners.
Word is T Rich is still getting a good chunk of snaps even though he’s new to
the offense. Regardless, the Colts are really that much better with a
legitimate running game to go with their passing attack. The Niners though
aren’t havin’ any of that. They’re going to be looking to bounce back at home
and are likely to do it.
Niners
Jaguars
at Seahawks
The funny thing here is that Vegas is putting
a really steep bet on this match up to the tune of 20 point underdogs lol truth
is, while the Jags really are that bad and the Hawks really are that good and
20 points are entirely possible… it’s peculiar to me only because the Seattle
offense has been quiet so far. They got some chunkage from Marshawn Lynch but
almost nobody outside of him has produced at a high level just yet. Anyway,
there is only one
Seahawks
Bears
at Steelers
The Bears have surprised me a bit. I
expected them to struggle even with the nice new offensive mindset. Instead,
they’ve been very good at moving the ball. The Steelers can also move the rock
well enough but they can’t punch any of it in. Running game is a mess, Big Ben
is still on the run, and the defense just ain’t what it used to be. I think
that even on the road against a quality team such as Pitts, the Bears continue
their surge.
Bears
Raiders
at Broncos
Well shoot. I can’t say I expect the
Raiders to win. I do think they will play them tougher than most are
predicting. The Raiders are still on wobbly ground because they haven’t been
decisively good, not even in the Jaguars game that they dominated. They now
contend with arguably the best QB of the era and a team that has averaged 45
points a game through two lol But no reason to overlook the fact the Raiders
and Broncos always have good games, are rivals in a division, seeing each other
2 times a year. In primetime? Forget
about it. The Raiders are going to lose but it won’t be by nearly as much as
everyone thinks. Pryor will use his legs to stay mobile, McFadden goes off and
the defense will be in Manning’s face as much as they can be and throw off his timing.
Broncos
DIG IT
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