For those of you fortunate to watch football this past Sunday, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. The Jets did something I thought nearly impossible, especially considering they were two points down with 30 seconds left in the game: they won. So needless to say, my first football Sunday of the year was an exciting one. Without further ado, let's get to this week's games.
New York Jets at New England Patriots
As much as I love the Jets, I don't think they'll have the same luck this week at New England that they did in Week One, although I hope they surprise me once again. New England is favored by 13 points, which, in my opinion, is far too many, considering they beat the Bills last week by only two points. The Patriots will be without Danny Amendola this week, who played a major part in last week's win.
As much as I would like to see Geno Smith and the Jets go into Foxboro and beat the Patriots, I think that's hoping for a little too much. However, I would take the Jets with the spread but in no way think they will win the game.
Jets 17 Patriots 28
St. Louis Rams at Atlanta Falcons
Even though the Rams looked great in Week One, I have to stick with my Super Bowl pick and take the Falcons in Week Two. Even though I incorrectly picked the Falcons to beat the Saints last weekend, I don't think they'll fail me this week. Last week the Falcons played well but went 3-11 on third down. Steven Jackson had 11 carries for 77 yards and seemed to add more balance to the Falcons' heavy passing offense. I happen to like the Rams this year and think that they will have a successful season, but it's nearly impossible to go against the Falcons in the Georgia Dome.
The Falcons are favored in this game by seven points and after a lot of adjustments to come in practice this week, I think the Falcons are going to win their first game of the season by a comfortable margin. I look forward to seeing Roddy White get involved and Julio Jones to break off a huge catch when least expected. Rams 21 Falcons 31
Pittsburgh Steelers at Cincinnati Bengals
A few years ago, I would've picked the Steelers in this game regardless of the spread. Nowadays, the Steelers are looking old. They lost Mike Wallace and Rashard Mendenhall this past offseason and the Steelers' offense looks to be lacking the explosiveness they once had. In addition, they lost center Maurkice Pouncey for the season with a torn ACL and MCL. The Bengals, on the other hand, are just the opposite. The Bengals have an extremely high upside with A.J. Green developing into one of the league's best wide receivers and Andy Dalton becoming a more mature quarterback. Though both teams are 0-1 this season, the Bengals almost snuck by the Bears in Chicago, which is pretty difficult to do. The Steelers, however, were embarrassed (even though they only lost 16-9) in their own stadium last weekend by the Titans. A Titans player gave the Steelers a free two points in the first five seconds of the game due to an unintentional self-safety. In the other 59 minutes of the game, the Steelers scored only seven points and had only 195 net yards of offense. I don't see the Steelers going anywhere this year. The Bengals will pick up their first win of the season this Monday night and easily win by more than the seven-point spread. Steelers 13 Bengals 28
Denver Broncos at New York Giants
If you happened to miss the Broncos game last Thursday, you missed an absurd performance by Peyton Manning in a game that included seven passing touchdowns. Yes, I said seven. The Giants worry me a little after last week's performance. Even though they managed to put up 31 points in Week One, they had six turnovers and were lucky that Dallas didn't capitalize more on those turnovers. If they have another six turnovers this week, the Broncos will win the game by a landslide. On the Broncos' side of the ball, Peyton Manning is living proof that the fountain of youth exists. At 37 years old Peyton Manning is still playing the game as well as he did 10 years ago. I think the Giants will step up their game this week but fall just short of the Broncos.
Broncos 35 Giants 31
San Francisco 49ers at Seattle Seahawks
This week's Sunday night matchup features two of the best defensive teams in the league. The Seahawks and 49ers both won their opening week game, though the 49ers definitely had the tougher matchup. The 49ers were able to outlast the Packers' juggernaut offense and come up with a 34-28 win, in large part due to Colin Kaepernick's ability to find newly added Anquan Boldin.
The Seahawks had a tough time against the Panthers last week but still managed to come out with a win despite a lackluster offense. Despite their struggles last week, I can't pick against the Seahawks at home. Quest Field is just too loud (in 2011, fans were so loud that the ground started shaking and registered on the Richter scale as a magnitude 2 earthquake) for opponents to operate in. Seahawks are favored by two and a half points and I think they'll win by three in dramatic fashion.
49ers 21 Seahawks 24
Last Week's Record: 3-2
–By Adam Troyetsky
