Milton blog

How will Bill Belichick and the Pats fare this week minus their sideline spy cameras?

Atlanta at Jacksonville (-10.5)
In week 1 the Atlanta offense looked as confused as a virgin at an orgy (giving up 6 sacks, throwing 2 interceptions and only scoring 3 points) so the Falcons chances against the 2nd best defense in 2006 in week 2 looks very bleak. Jacksonville had some kinks to work out in week 1, with Garrard not named the starting QB until the final days of pre season (once Leftwich was cut loose) and they should look much better in week 2, with Fred Taylor ready to run rampant over the Atlanta D which lost star Patrick Kerney in the off season.
Jaguars

Buffalo at Pittsburgh (-10.5)
Buffalo only scored 14 points (7 of them by special teams) and gave up 15 points in week 1 – things will be much worse in week 2 when they lose home field and play a much stronger Steelers offense which was lead by a rejuvenated Roethlisberger (4 TD passes last week) not to mention several injuries sustained by the Buffalo D in week 1.
Steelers

Cincinnati (-6.5) at Cleveland
If Cincinnati can score 27 against the best D in the league watch for them to completely spank the Browns 27th ranked defense. The Browns may very well pick a fan from the crowd to start at QB, it would be a great promotion and have very little effect on the outcome of this game! For you history buffs, Cinci beat the Browns 34-17 and 30-0 last year.
Bengals

Green Bay (-1.5) at N.Y. Giants
QB Eli Manning has a lot to prove in the Giants home opener this season to fans and critics alike. If Manning and WR Burress continue to hook-up like they did in week 1 then watch for a high scoring game with lots of passing from both teams. Manning has a bruised right shoulder but is likely to start.
Giants

Houston at Carolina (-6.5)
Texans QB Matt Schaub will be starting only his 4th NFL game in the last 4 seasons against an aggressive Carolina D which looked very strong in their win over the high-rated Ram offense last week. Likewise the Houston defense is no match for QB Jake Delhomme, WR Steve Smith and RB DeShaun Foster.
Panthers

Indianapolis (-7.5) at Tennessee
No I’m not crazy. Consider this: last year the Titans beat Indy at home 20-17 and in their first match-up last season the Colts only won by 1 point – so Tennessee looks good to beat this spread. In week 1 Tennessee held the 2nd best 2006 NFL offense (Jacksonville) to just 10 points! Of course, last week Indy made the Saints #1 2006 offense look about as impotent as a Nevada boxing commissioner – so I wouldn’t bet the farm on this one.
Titans

New Orleans (-3.5) at Tampa Bay
Lots stacked against the home team Bucs in this game, including: the Saints beat Tampa Bay both times last season, the Saints will be looking to prove they’re still a top team after being spanked by the Colts last week and the Bucs’ RB Cadillac may be “in the shop” and off the field for this game following an injury early in last weeks’ game. Need any more reasons?
Saints

San Francisco at St. Louis (-3.5)
This will be a close one, with these teams splitting their series last season and both teams stacking-up fairly even. The 49ers will have success rushing the ball against the weak St. Louis run defense while St.Louis will keep things even with a strong passing game against the porous 49er pass defense.
Niners

Dallas (-3.5) at Miami
Dallas QB Romo will not have an easy time against the strong Miami D – with Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas and newly acquired Joey Porter eager to protect their house on home turf. Miami’s new QB Trent Green will be ready to give the home crowd what they’ve been looking for in a QB since Marino’s retirement with this home opener.
Dolphins

Minnesota at Detroit (-3.5)
Minnesota should not only cover this spread, they should win the game outright. They beat Detroit both times last year, by 9 points at home and by 10 points in Detroit, Viking rookie RB Adrian Peterson had a fantastic first game last week and the Viking D was equally impressive in week 1 with 6 sacks and 2 interceptions. When Detroit QB Kitna boldly guaranteed his Lions to win 10 games this season he had to be counting on their two games against Minnesota to be losses!
Vikings

Seattle (-3.5) at Arizona
These teams split their series last season, with the home team winning both times. Arizona is a sleeper team for this year – watch for them to wake-up this week – with QB Leinart hitting his two strong receivers and RB Edgerrin James having a 100+ yard game.
Cardinals

Kansas City at Chicago (-12.5)
Look for Chicago to bounce back from a tough week one loss to a strong San Diego team with a good old fashioned butt-kicking over the hapless Chiefs. Chicago did lose defensive cornerstone Mike Brown for the season in week one, but they’ll still dominate on both sides of the ball.
‘da Bears

N.Y. Jets at Baltimore (-1.5)
Only one week into the season and injuries are already taking their toll on both of these teams. Most notably for the Jets is QB Pennington (ankle) and RB Thomas Jones (calf) – both of whom saw limited practice on Wednesday. Meanwhile for Baltimore - QB McNair (groin), LB Ray Lewis (strained arm) and LT Ogden did not participate at all on Wednesday’s practices. Lewis has apparently self-declared himself ready to play on Sunday – given the edge to the Ravens. The Ravens have the advantage over the Jets for back-up QB’s with Boller having many starts under his belt while Clemens has yet to start an NFL game.
Ravens

Oakland at Denver (-10.5)
These two teams tend to play tight games, so the Raiders should be able to keep it close, and with them likely starting recently acquired QB Duante Culpepper this could add some spark to their offense. Oakland’s starting QB in week 1, McCown, is listed with a cracked finger, increasing the likelihood that Culpepper will have the opportunity to steal the starting position with his debut this week.
Oakland

San Diego at New England (-3.5)
New England runs into a much better defence than the one they scored 38 points against last week – with the Charger pass defense much more capable to keep Randy Moss in check, while San Diego scored 2 TD’s last week against the great Bears’ defense and will have similar success against the New England. Also New England is much less likely to try to steal signals from their opponents this week with the entire world watching them more closely now!
Chargers

Washington at Philadelphia (-7.5)
Philadelphia will be pumped-up for their home-opener, on a Monday night no less, against a much lower ranked D than they faced last week. Furthermore the Eagles beat the Skins both times last season, including a 27-3 drubbing in the “City of Brotherly Love.”
Eagles

Survivor
(Pick one team to win outright each week, the goal to put together the longest streak of consecutive winning picks, while not able to pick any given team more than once during the season.)
Picking Denver over Buffalo turned out to be much more of a squeaker than I predicted, but nevertheless, I live to play a second week of sudden elimination “Survivor” picks. For week 2, I’ll take the Steelers over the Bills – if not for the devastating injury to Bills TE Kevin Everett the focus after week 1 in Buffalo would have simply been on the horrible performance on both sides of the ball – match that against a Steelers team that was red hot in week 1 and you’ve got money in the bank!
Week 2 Survivor: Steelers

Now Milton, what do you think?

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 6:24 am and is filed under Guy Stuff, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.