Wild finishes and upsets kept on rolling right into the second week of the NFL season, but things got back on track for me as I picked up a win in my fantasy league (thankfully) and won the week in my pick ‘em league, going 12-4 on picks. Christen had a better week as well, going 10-6, and I made some small gains against the spread and the over/under. It’s going to be a longer season than usual so consistency will be key but, now that I’ve been able to accumulate more information, my confidence is coming back.
| Nick’s Picks | Vs Spread | O/U | Christen’s Picks |
| 12-4 | 8-8 | 6-10 | 10-6 |
| Previous Total | Previous Total | Previous | Previous Total |
| 8-8 | 6-10 | 4-12 | 7-9 |
| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall |
| 20-12 | 14-18 | 10-22 | 17-15 |
I feel bad for the guy who went 15-for-15 but then missed the last leg of his parlay and missed out on three-quarters of a million dollars but taking the Lions to close that out in Green Bay was a huge gamble. The Packers got back on track with a 35-17 over Detroit, but it wasn’t as lopsided as the final score would suggest. Jared Goff led Lions downfield for a touchdown on the game’s opening drive and they actually led 17-14 at the half. The second half was all Packers and most of that was due to Aaron Jones having a monster 4-TD game. I’m sure he broke a lot of hearts last night as he was either the hammer or the nail in many fantasy matchups.
The Sunday night game saw the Ravens pull off a highly improbable one-point win over the Chiefs with 12-unanswered points in the 4th quarter. It may sound like an overreaction or an exaggeration because it’s still so early in the season, but that was Baltimore’s biggest win in the Lamar Jackson era. Sure, their first playoff W last season was a big one but Kansas City is currently the gold standard in the AFC right now and the Jackson was 0-3 vs the Chiefs heading into that game. Lamar got pick-six’d to start the game and had 2-INTs in the first 3 possessions, so it wasn’t looking good there. The Chiefs went up 28-17 to start the second half and led by 11-pts as the 3rd quarter was winding down when Patrick Mahomes got picked off on a bonehead play. Baltimore flipped the fear switch off and rammed the ball down the Chiefs’ throats with the run game. Kansas City’s run defense has always been suspect, but this was demoralizing. They still had a chance to win and were in position for the field goal attempt when Clyde Edwards-Helaire had his first career fumble at the most inopportune time. After the Monday Night Football opener vs the Raiders, the football gods smiled on the Ravens in this one.
After two weeks, only seven teams remain unbeaten as a handful of the other 1-0 favorites were upset in Week 2 including the Saints, Seahawks, and Steelers. Fresh off a Week 1 upset of the Packers, New Orleans rolled into Carolina with what looks like arrogance in hindsight. The Saints were missing several key players in this matchup and the Panthers took it to ‘em. Carolina’s defensive front applied constant pressure and made Jameis Winston look more like the guy who led the league in interceptions than the guy who led the league in touchdowns a few seasons ago. The Panthers’ ceiling remains to be seen but, for the time being, it’s fun seeing Sam Darnold have success with them.
The Seattle Seahawks looked poised to improve to 2-0 in front of their home crowd when they got up on the Titans, 30-16, in the 4th-quarter but the football gods had other plans. Seattle didn’t need to do much to win and still held a 30-23 lead after a quick Derrick Henry 60-yard TD run. Seattle only needed a field goal to ice the game and they even got a 4th down stop to get the ball back with less than 6-minutes remaining. They had the ball with a chance to win the game four times but went 3 & out on three of those. At the end of regulation, they went conservative and played for overtime with the ball at their 43-yard line (well within Wilson’s arm range), but opted not to even try a throw to the endzone. In OT, the Titans got the ball first but the defense held and got Wilson and the offense the ball back. The OT possession was the worst of the bunch, going 3 & out with zero completions and a sack that lost 12-yards. They punted, the Titans got field position, and kicked the game-winning field goal. If you’re an “elite” QB in this league and you get four chances to win the game against a consistently poor defense, you’re supposed to handle business.
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In Pittsburgh, the Raiders showed up ready to play and walked out of Heinz Field 2-0. Joe Haden missed the game and T.J. Watt got lost along the way, and once he was out things got a lot easier for Las Vegas. Not to be short-changed the Raiders’ defense played really well, coming up with 10-QB hits and 7-passes defended, and has been a bright spot for this team so far this season. It’s a little tough to tell how good the Raiders really are at this point, but these kinds of wins early in the season are games they wouldn’t have won last year so they have definitely taken some steps in the right direction.
There were a number of high-drama affairs that came down to field goals, with the wildest of the bunch being the game between the Vikings and the Cardinals in Arizona. Minnesota sprinted to the early 20-7 lead, but the missed point-after-try would be a bad omen. The Cards came roaring back to lead 24-23 at halftime but a pick sick to start the second half gave the Vikes the 30-24 lead. Zona answered with an A.J. Green touchdown to go up 31-30 but after Murray threw another interception, Minny retook the lead 33-31. The Cards would kick a field goal with about 5-minutes left in the game to make it 34-33, and the teams would exchange punts which set up the Vikings’ Greg Joseph for the game-winning field goal attempt. Remember that missed PAT I mentioned, the game would have been tied if not for that and Joseph shanked the kick under pressure and Arizona escaped with a win.
In an upset that helped me win the week, the Cowboys-Chargers game also came down to a game-winning FG try and Legatron himself, Greg Zuerlein, returned to Los Angeles to hit the 56-yarder to win the game for Dallas. This wasn’t as high-scoring of a game as a lot of people expected because both defenses are pretty solid and were very aware of what the offenses wanted to do. Both of these teams can compete and look like playoff teams this season. In other LA business, the Rams went on the road and edged out the Colts by a FG 27-24 in Indianapolis. The Rams didn’t look as good as they did in Week 1 and the Colts showed improvement, but Carson Wentz still doesn’t appear to be in full command of the offense and was doing some really wild stuff out there. The Colts defense gave him a chance but Wentz left the game with a nearly catastrophic ankle injury and backup QB Jacob Eason threw the pick that iced it.
The Bears held off the Bengals by a field goal, but it got a little dicey as Cincy cut a 17-pt lead down to 3-pts in the 4th quarter. Chicago also saw Andy Dalton go down with a knee injury which opened the door for rookie Justin Fields to take over. He didn’t have a great go of it and threw a costly pick, but he converted the key first down using his legs to make sure Chicago ended the game with the ball and the 20-17 win.
In the only other truly close game, the Niners picked up an important 17-11 road win over a pretty good Eagles team, and they did it with major injury problems in their secondary. San Francisco’s defense mostly held Jalen Hurts in check, at least in the passing game, and won the time-of-possession battle by about 10-minutes thanks to a sustained ground game. It wasn’t the sexiest performance, but a win is a win. Unfortunately, the Niners’ backfield got even more chewed up by injuries.
The Jets and the Jaguars must have heard that I dubbed Atlanta the worst team in the league and wanted in on the action. New York only scored 6-points at home against the Patriots in a game they were fully expected to lose. Jets’ rookie Zack Wilson is learning first-hand what it means to be part of the organization as he got sacked 4-times and threw 4-INTs. Jags’ rookie QB Trevor Lawrence isn’t looking like the best QB from the draft either, as he went 14/33 for 1-TD and 2-INTs in a 23-13 loss to the Broncos. Teddy Bridgewater has made Denver his home and gotten them off to a 2-0 start. The Falcons got handily beaten by the Bucs, 48-25, and definitely didn’t cover the 12.5-pt spread. However, they did enough to climb out of the basement and showed improvement from Week 1, against Tampa Bay no less, whereas both the Jets and Jags looked worse.
Last but not least, a couple of AFC contenders got back on track with wins as the Browns took care of business against the Texans, 31-21, and the Bills shut out the Dolphins 35-0. In an odd coincidence, both starting QBs on the losing teams got hurt in these games. Tyrod Taylor left for the Texans after appearing to pull a hamstring on his TD run and Tua Tagovailoa left the game with a rib injury after a big hit. I feel especially bad for Taylor because he’s an ex-Buffalo guy and had Houston playing at a level far above where anyone expected. Neither guy is going to be out for the season, so that’s promising.
However, Houston will be hosting Carolina for Thursday Night Football to start Week 3 and there’s little-to-no chance that Taylor is going to be ready for this one in a short week. Davis Mills looks to get the nod but the rookie is going to have a big mountain to climb, starting his first game under the national spotlight in primetime. We could be in for a one-sided affair in this one.
The Bucs stay on top of the mountain and the Raiders crack the top-5 while the Panthers and Broncos break into the top-10. Here’s a look at the rest of the Power Rankings after Week 2:
| 1. Buccaneers 2-0 (=) |
| 2. Rams 2-0 (⬆5) |
| 3. Cardinals 2-0 (⬆6) |
| 4. 49ers 2-0 (⬆10) |
| 5. Raiders 2-0 (⬆11) |
| 6. Panthers 2-0 (⬆16) |
| 7. Broncos 2-0(⬆14) |
| 8. Ravens 1-1 (⬆22) |
| 9. Chiefs 1-1 (⬇2) |
| 10. Browns 1-1 (⬆17) |
| 11. Steelers 1-1 (⬇3) |
| 12. Bills 1-1 (⬆19) |
| 13. Titans 1-1 (⬆21) |
| 14. Seahawks 1-1 (⬇4) |
| 15. Packers 1-1 (⬆23) |
| 16. Cowboys 1-1 (⬆18) |
| 17. Eagles 1-1 (⬇12) |
| 18. Chargers 1-1 (⬇9) |
| 19. Washington 1-1 (⬆25) |
| 20. Bears 1-1 (⬆28) |
| 21. Bengals 1-1 (⬇13) |
| 22. Saints 1-1 (⬇7) |
| 23. Dolphins 1-1 (⬇8) |
| 24. Texans 1-1 (⬇15) |
| 25. Patriots 1-1 (⬆26) |
| 26. Vikings 0-2 (⬇24) |
| 27. Lions 0-2 (=) |
| 28. Colts 0-2 (⬇20) |
| 29. Giants 0-2 (⬆30) |
| 30. Falcons 0-2 (⬆32) |
| 31. Jaguars 0-2 (⬇29) |
| 32. Jets 0-2 (⬇31) |