NFL Week 2 Tips & Preview

The weekend gets underway with an NFC South rivalry as the Panthers and Buccaneers try to bounce back from first up losses. Carolina left its run against the Rams a little too late and went down 30-27 to the defending NFC Champions. Tampa on the other hand, Bruce Arians has a massive reclamation project on his hands trying to save Jamies Winston from “Washed Up-ville” where he’s looking at property. I know Cam Newton’s arm still has some questions about it but I’ll give him and the Panthers the benefit of the doubt, especially in their second straight home game on short rest. This has the makings of a bad game for the Buccaneers, having to travel for a Thursday game so I’ll back the Panthers to cover and their star back Christian McCaffrey to score a touchdown.

If the Lions fade as badly in the fourth quarter as they did last week, coach Matt Patricia could find himself on the wrong end of a mutiny.

If they blow their first home game against the Chargers, it could get really ugly in the motor city, so that’s exactly what we’ll back to happen.

LA might be a better side on the road considering they have a hostile crowd when they are at home.

Any concerns about the Chargers missing Melvin Gordon were somewhat allayed by the workhorse performance of Austin Ekeler in their 30-24 win over the Colts last week who are probably on par with, if not better than the Lions.

We’ll take the Chargers with a -5 handicap in the alternate line market since they should be able to win by at least a touchdown.

I’m not too worried about the Texans losing to the Saints on Monday Night Football, that was a clash between two teams that should be good that went down to the wire.

What should be concerning though is the Jaguars losing Nick Foles before halftime of his first game with the team.

In his place is something called G. Minshew who, to his credit didn’t look too bad mopping up against Kansas City last weekend, going 22/25 for 275 yards and two touchdown passes.

That being said, Houston should be able to take full advantage of the rookie quarterback and I’m also expecting JJ Watt to be frothing at the mouth after having an anonymous start to the season.

Back Houston to win big, they should be able to put up at least 30 against a dysfunctional Jaguars side.

Anyone fancy a tie here?

Last year this same matchup in this same week finished in a somewhat controversial 29-29 tie.

It’s probably not advisable backing that at $15 but crazier things have happened.

This game is the pick of the early window and I’ll back the Packers, to win & cover giving them the benefit of the doubt after facing an all time defence in Chicago last week.

As for a TD scorer, Davante Adams will probably get taken out of the game and Rodgers is going to have to look elsewhere, and I’m thinking he’ll go for his secondary receiver in Valdez-Scantling.

Let’s not sugar coat this, the Steelers were absolutely abysmal in New England but that’s hardly out of the ordinary.

If anything, we’re probably going to look back at that game in a couple of months and go, “well they never play well there” as they’re chasing the AFC North.

They get a chance to show they are better than that performance when they take on a Seahawks team that beat the Bengals but had to work a lot harder than expected to get that victory.

Seattle is more than capable of going on the road and winning this game on the strength of Russell Wilson’s right arm.

The potential for a Steelers bounce back here though is too high for me to back though, instead I’ll start off backing the over for a same game multi.

Juju Smith-Schuster wound up with an ok stat line against New England but will be desperate to find the end zone and I’ll also throw in Chris Carson to plunge over from close range.

Do we back the Bengals who looked good in defeat against the Seahawks, or the 49ers who looked alright beating the pretty poor Buccaneers.

It’s another game that falls under the “West Coast team coming east & playing a game at 10am on their body clocks” category so how confident are you in the 49ers as a road underdog?

I need another week before I think the Bengals are better than their preseason expectations though, it’s still Andy Dalton and the rest of the side.

Joe Mixon is the key for the 49ers defence, if they can slow him down they should be able to come away with a big win and I’ll take the value on offer.

These are the Week 2 games that scream “danger” with a side that pulled off a surprising win last week, favoured against a division rival that lost a close one to start 0-1.

Last season the Colts visited Tennessee in Week 17 with a playoff berth on the line and thoroughly dismantled them but things are very different here.

You have to think this game will be a defensive battle between two sides that are very familiar with one another and I have to give a slight edge to the Titans.

Indianapolis got shredded by Austin Ekeler who scored three touchdowns and if the Titans running backs can outperform Marlon Mack (who had a great day on his own) they should be able to get over the line.

If you want to find the biggest overreaction to Week 1, look no further than the markets for this game.

New England looked like the defending Super Bowl Champions and the favourites to win the Lombardi Trophy this season in their dismantling of Pittsburgh.

Miami got blown out (at home) by the Ravens with multiple players reportedly asking for a trade after their 59-10 debacle.

Because of those two factors, the Patriots are currently 19 point favourites and that line is probably going to grow towards 21 by kickoff.

That just forgets one convenient factor, Tom Brady and the entire Patriots team sucks in Miami.

The Dolphins have won five of the last six meetings in their stadium and Brady has looked mortal in plenty of those games, a fact even the most ardent Patriots fan can’t dispute.

While there’s the possible addition of Antonio Brown (pending his off field issues) to potentially aid the Patriots cause, that line is just appallingly high.

Before the Dolphins went into full blown tank mode, I was ready to back them to win outright, such is the mismatch between the two sides.

Plus the guys on the roster can’t afford to throw in the towel at this point, they still have jobs to play for so expect some sort of response even if it’s just out of pride, plus Dolphins coach Brian Flores was on the Patriots staff last year.

Hell, New England could probably win this game with backup Jarrett Stidham playing with his throwing arm behind his back, but I just can’t back them with that much of a handicap on the spread.

Washington got one of those backdoor covers last week that almost made you forget they blew a 17-0 lead against the Eagles.

Now they take on a Dallas side that comfortably handled the New York Giants and should have a similarly easy day here.

While the Prescott to Gallup connection might get a little bit more attention than what the Giants gave it, it might turn into a good day for Ezekiel Elliot to continue to work his way back into game shape running over the Washington defence.

Buffalo heads back to Metlife Stadium for the second straight week, this time to take on New York/New Jersey’s other team, the Giants.

They were able to pull themselves together after a disastrous start and come away with a 17-16 victory.

While the Giants weren’t great last week, they were able to generate plenty of offence against the Dallas Cowboys and you have to hope they remember they have Saquon Barkley this time, giving him more than 11 carries.

Chances are they won’t be chasing this game anywhere near as much as they were in Dallas so it should take a lot of the pressure off Eli Manning and I’ll take the value of the Giants as a home underdog.

Easily the most impressive team from Week 1 was the Ravens and their complete demolition of the Miami Dolphins.

Not only did they comfortably beat the Fins in South Florida, they made them look like a mid-level college team.

Up next is the Arizona Cardinals who are still looking for their first win (& first loss) of the season after battling for a tie.

While the resilience they showed getting back into that game, the Ravens are a whole different sort of challenge and if Lamar Jackson can keep up his passing efficiency from last week, they should be able to come away with a huge win.

There should be plenty of points in this one as well as the Cardinals try to match the Ravens score for score and I’ll also back Ravens running back Mark Ingram to find the end zone after starting the rout in Miami.

Two 1-0 sides coming off confidence boosting wins face off in front of the Black Hole in Oakland.

The Raiders will be asking Antonio Who after they put a… tumultuous preseason behind them to get a big division win and they have a chance for a second straight upset against the Chiefs.

Realistically though, this Chiefs side, even without Tyreek Hill, still has a litany of weapons at their disposal and they will find a way to overwhelm the Raiders secondary, especially after it lost its rookie safety in Abram.

As always with the Chiefs, I’ll back the overs as well since they can score 40 and the Raiders will do their best to keep up, at least early on.

Then, in the absence of Hill, I’ll take the guy they drafted as suspension insurance for Hill, MeCole Hardman to score a touchdown in this game as well, and make the rest of the AFC wonder if there’s any slowing Kansas City down.

Let’s just get this out of the way early, Mitch/Mitchell Trubisky was woeful in the season opener and his job is only going to get tougher this week.

Denver is a tough place for a good quarterback to win, players much better than him have struggled at Mile High and for an added level of difficulty, the Broncos are lead by his former defensive coordinator.

You don’t think Vic Fangio learned in practice last season exactly what Trubisky’s shortcomings were?

Back Denver here, it could be ugly, the under also looks pretty tempting.

The NFL didn’t want us to have to wait for this one, it’s the rematch of last year’s highly controversial NFC Championship Game.

We just hope it isn’t decided by a non-call again.

It probably won’t be, but what we should get here is a clash between two sides that could very well be playing at the end of January again.

The Rams were able to grind out a win over the Panthers and will be glad to be at home, while the Saints have to get over an emotional last second win on a day’s less rest.

Because of that, I’ll back the Rams to win & cover a small spread and take the two star running backs to find the end zone after both were shut out last week.

It could have been a brutal start to the season for the Eagles, down 17-0 to Washington but they were able to get out of dodge and start the season with a win.

Dan Quinn’s seat in Atlanta is pretty warm and an 0-2 start would tip it over into officially hot territory.

The Falcons were 28-0 down before they could even get on the scoreboard and lost despite giving up only 98 yards to Kirk Cousins through the air.

That desperation and playing at home should help keep this game close but Carson Wentz won’t be held under 100 or even 200 yards here and that should get the Eagles a big road win here.

Just when you think the Jets might be onto something…

First they blew a 16-0 lead at home to Buffalo and now Sam Darnold is going to miss this game with mono, also known as “the kissing disease” so make of that what you will.

If you’ve got some work to do on Tuesday, don’t expect this game to distract you too much, the Browns will find a way to put a poor Week 1 showing behind them and really get going under the primetime lights.

They should be able to win and cover with two of their best skill players in Nick Chubb and OBJ finding the end zone.