The Jets, with their physical front and ball-hawking secondary, are the first National Football League team to open a season by forcing five or more turnovers in each of its first two games in 23 years, since the 1992 Steelers did it against the Oilers and Jets. A year ago they started 0-2 as well, yet they wound up in the AFC Title game.
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Ricky: Redskins. If the Giants win, it’ll be by a field goal. He wasn’t going to keep up that kind of production. When Gruden and Washington can’t put it together, it will lead them right to the basement of the division.
Oakland Raiders @ Cleveland Browns-Both of these teams are coming off impressive performances. Even as there are some cases where the bad start can be traced back to bad fortune, others feature legitimate concerns regarding their roster, coaching, and injuries that could completely derail the season in a hurry. Johnny Football showed some signs that he might be a decent NFL quarterback.
The conquered Ravens, Colts and Seahawks of the 2014 playoffs are all 0-for-2015, and reportedly have combined their resources to hire the independent, unbiased, totally objective investigator Ted Wells to look into what role the Patriots have had in their latest miseries. The defense has been incredible thus far, notching 10 takeaways, just 3 fewer than all of 2014. Last week, on the other hand, was nothing short of an abomination.
The interesting dynamic here is that Eagles head coach Chip Kelly seems to still be all aboard the Bradford hype train.
He will be replaced on the field by the Cowboys’ No 2 quarterback Brandon Weeden. Or will newly-acquired Matt Cassel get the nod. And there is no doubt, the math makes much more sense now in terms of coaches going for two earlier and more frequently. Despite their 0-2 start and losing on the tiebreaker versus the Cowboys, the NFC East looks overly winnable, especially now that the Eagles will visit a Romo-less Dallas in Week 8. Then check out how the rest of our crew of pigskin experts see this weekend’s action as they pick against the spread.
Indianapolis Colts @ Tennessee Titans-The Colts have looked truly terrible the first two games of the season. He has all the potential in the world, but if he’s going to get the Colts back on track, the former number 1 pick is going to have to take care of the ball. Arizona returns home with a 2-0 record after embarrassing the Bears on Sunday and gets a 49ers defense that was obliterated by the Steelers last week. That Raiders team that outlasted the Ravens in a shootout had no chance against the Bengals in Week 1.
Meanwhile the Bengals have one of the most talented squads in the league but there’s something missing. The Ravens dropped a tough one in Oakland.
Give the Falcons credit for winning two close games that they could have lost. That’s the easiest way to win a game. It’s too bad I don’t have as much faith in Joe Flacco as the Ravens.
Blowout of the Week, AFC: Although I admire what the Jaguars have been able to do defensively through two weeks and their ability to upset the Dolphins in Week 2, Jacksonville is not ready to contend with an offensive juggernaut like the Patriots. But let’s face it, there really is no point in breaking this one down. With Tom Brady’s four-game suspension lifted, the Patriots do not have to go to backup Jimmy Garoppolo. This week the Panthers take on the abysmal New Orleans Saints in North Carolina, where Newton should be able to run all over the Saints’ pathetic defense. For another, this Robert Mays sentence: “The decision to run $22 million guaranteed of running backs behind $1.1 million of guards seems to be backfiring”.
Tampa Bay at Houston (-61⁄2) – Absolutely no respect for the Bucs off a huge win at the Saints and now underdog to the winless Texans. I expect Watt or his teammates to have a monster day defensively against Winston.
If you have been reading my Rams takes over the first couple weeks of the season, you know full well that I have been harping on the inconsistency of this team. I picked up my first Thursday night win of the season and we’re going to keep that momentum going through the picks. Maybe Vikes RB Adrian Peterson goes off for 150 yards and two TDs.
San Diego Chargers (1-1) at (-1) Minnesota Vikings (1-1), 1 p.m.
Detroit Lions: Here are Detroit’s next three games: home against the Denver Broncos, on the road in Seattle and home vs. the Cardinals. They look unstoppable right now. But they can be very good in St. Louis.
Chiefs at Packers (-6.5): When Mike McCarthy was the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers in 2005, he lobbied for the club to draft Alex Smith instead of Aaron Rodgers. And yet: Chuck Pagano is calling out his GM and his quarterback, Frank Gore can’t do anything, Andre Johnson isn’t making a difference, and the defense is actually worse than the crappy defense they had previous year. San Fran’s struggles from last week continue as they’ll fall to a far superior Arizona team. After a home game with the Miami Dolphins, there are road trips to New England and Indianapolis. They’ll look to bounce back against another AFC East opponent in the Dolphins.
What’s great and ridiculous about the current sports media landscape is that every team or player’s misstep becomes magnified. Rex Ryan learned his lesson about running his mouth and has been extremely quiet this week. Bills win and move to 2-1.
The Colts and Seahawks are primed to right their ships in Week 3, facing the Titans and Bears respectively, both of which finished as bottom-10 passing and rushing defenses in 2014. In the very first game the Cowboys lost their star wideout Dez Bryant who broke his foot bone and will miss at least two months.
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The Eagles look directionless.
