Hi, hello & welcome back to the National Football League! I'm "Slammin" Stevie Cook, and it's time for us to stop talking about meaningless bullcrap and talk about actual by God football!
FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL! FOOTBALL! Yeah buddy. Let's hook 'em up!
Thursday, September 10
Pittsburgh at New England (-7): The big NFL premiere features one of the most despised football teams in the league. An organization that's been known cheaters for years with the most hateable players, the most delusional fanbase, and ownership that thinks they alone run the league. And they're playing against the defending Super Bowl Champions, the New England Patriots.
In case you haven't been paying attention during the off-season, there's been a bit of controversy surrounding the Patriots. We found out that some deflated footballs were used during last year's AFC Championship Game & Tom Brady might have been involved. So Roger Goodell suspended Brady for four games because deflating footballs is just as bad as using performance-enhancing drugs. He also fined the Patriots organization a ton of money & took away some draft picks because...well, we're not really sure. A report came out this week suggesting that the whole thing was a makeup call for Spygate. In any event, the Brady suspension went to court & the judge decided that Goodell was abusing his power, the NFL had no proof, and the suspension was nullified.
So what matters here? Tom Brady is playing & the Patriots are pissed off. That doesn't bode well for the Steelers, who have no defense to speak of and won't have Le'Veon Bell playing because Le'Veon Bell likes the weed. I usually won't bet against the Steelers with this big of a spread, but I'm thinking the Patriots want to send a message to the rest of the league this week. And that message? "F*ck y'all."
Sunday, September 13
Green Bay (-4) at Chicago: The longest-running rivalry in the NFL continues when the Packers meet the Bears. The Packers will be without the services of Jordy Nelson for the entirety of the season & Randall Cobb has a banged up shoulder. They still have Aaron Rodgers though, and Rodgers should be able to find somebody to throw to. Oh, and they also have Eddie Lacy, who scored a touchdown in each game against the Bears last season.
They also have Jay Cutler playing against their defense. Cutler threw two interceptions in each game against Green Bay last season & was generally ineffective. He will probably have Alshon Jeffery & his tricky calf at his disposal. But not much else. The Packers killed the Bears each time out last season, and I don't see John Fox making enough of a difference this early in his tenure to make things all that different.
Kansas City at Houston (-1): I'm high on the Chiefs this year. That might be a bad sign for Kansas City, as it seems like they do better in years where I'm not crazy about them before the season. But they've got a lot of good young talent on that defense, I expect Jeremy Maclin to open things up in the passing game, and the running game should be stout as usual. I didn't see any of Hard Knocks so I'm not as up to speed on the Texans as many probably are. Their defense should be pretty dangerous with that Watt fella, Clowney, & other top draft picks. Their starting QB is Brian Hoyer. I mean, he was the best QB in Cleveland over the past ten years, but that's like being the prettiest girl at a petting zoo. I'm taking the Chiefs to win here.
Cleveland at NY Jets (-3): Oh boy. Something we forget about when hyping up every single NFL game every single week is that there are a ton of stinkers every single week. This game features two teams that I plan on watching very little of this season. The Browns play the Bengals twice so I gotta put up with that, but I feel like the Jets should be easy to avoid this season as ESPN won't be endlessly hyping them. Their Monday night game is in Indianapolis, that won't be a game so it's skippable. They get the Bills on one of the non-CBS Thursday night games, and the Cowboys late in the season on a Saturday night NFL Network game. There's also a London game, but you can always sleep through that.
As for a pick, I feel like the Jets should be able to cover that spread at home against the Browns. If they can't, it's going to be an even longer season for Jets fans than we already figure it will be.
Indianapolis (-3) at Buffalo: Andrew Luck vs. Tyrod Taylor. Need I say more? Colts.
Miami (-3.5) at Washington: Everybody seems pretty high on Miami this year, and I'm part of that club. Ryan Tannehill looks better than ever, and with young talent like Jarvis Landry & DeVante Parker coming in the Miami offense should be pretty strong this season. Nobody is high on Washington this year, and for good reason. I think the Dolphins get the road win over Kirk Cousins & company. Hopefully Cousins survives his meeting with Suh, or we'll get even more coverage of the DC QB debacle/controversy.
Carolina (-3) at Jacksonville: A showdown between the two franchises that entered the NFL in 1995. The Jaguars got off to a great start in the 1990s, but have been pretty brutal the last several years. The Panthers have been more consistent and have a Super Bowl appearance to their credit, so you'd have to say they've been the better franchise. Will that matter on Sunday? Not necessarily, but the Panthers will have the better team on the field. Their offense isn't great but their defense should be able to shut Blake Bortles down.
Seattle (-4) at St. Louis: I've been picking teams to win outright so far. That changes right here. St. Louis plays the NFC West teams really tough, especially in the Edward Jones Dome where Seattle lost last year while they were still in their Super Bowl funk. I think the Rams make life tough enough defensively to make it a field goal game. The Seahawks will be fine, it's just tough to go on the road divisionally in Week 1.
New Orleans at Arizona (-2.5): This feels like the year that Drew Brees will realize that he's too old to be putting up crazy numbers. Doesn't help that Jimmy Graham went to the Seahawks & he's playing one of the top young defenses in the league in Arizona. The Cardinals have a great homefield advantage and the Saints rarely play well on the road, so I expect a big Arizona win here.
Detroit at San Diego (-3): The Lions added Haloti Ngata to replace Ndamukong Suh & that seems like a fair enough move. They have a secondary that creates a lot of turnovers, which is something that could give Philip Rivers some problems. I expect the Lions to keep it close here, but the Chargers should still win & cover due to the Lions' offensive deficiencies. San Diego also has a strong secondary that should give everybody except Calvin Johnson problems.
Tennessee at Tampa Bay (-3): Usually a game featuring the two worst teams from last season would get a sentence at most in a column like this. But when the top two rookie quarterbacks go head to head in their very first game...you've got some pretty good trainwreck potential. Or do you? Marcus Mariota has looked very effective in his preseason games. Jameis Winston has not, which has a lot to do with his inept offensive line that's gotten him sacked on a number of occasions. Mariota is more elusive & able to avoid bad situations, and that's why I think the Titans will give Mariota a 2-0 lifetime record against Winston.
Cincinnati (-3.5) at Oakland: On paper you'd like to think this would be an easy win for the Bengals. As a lifelong Bengals fan, I know there's rarely such a thing as an easy win for the Bengals, and there's no such thing as an easy win for the Bengals on the West Coast. In fact, the Bengals have never defeated the Raiders in Oakland. They beat them one time in Los Angeles & have lost the other fourteen times they have played the Raiders outside of Cincinnati.
Fortunately, they haven't played in Oakland since 2009. Andy Dalton, AJ Green & most of the other Bengals have never played in Oakland. They don't know the Bengals' past against the Raiders, and the less they know about it the better. It's still early enough in the season for Bengals fans to have some positivity, so I'm saying they break the Oakland curse this week.
Baltimore at Denver (-4.5): The Ravens are everybody's sexy pick to win the Super Bowl, but they've drawn a pretty tough assignment in Week 1. Denver's never an easy place for road teams to win, and the last time the Ravens went there to start the season (2013) didn't end too well for them. That being said, Denver has a ton of questions to answer. How will the team adjust to Gary Kubiak's new offensive scheme? Will Peyton Manning be 100% or will he look like the Peyton Manning we saw in the second half of 2014? Will we see more running, and how will that go against the Ravens' defense? I like Denver a lot, but 4.5 seems like a lot of points & the Ravens are the safer pick here.
NY Giants at Dallas (-6): I like the Cowboys to win the NFC East & I don't like the Giants to do a whole heck of a lot. That being said, Giants vs. Cowboys games tend to be weird affairs. The Cowboys have won the last four games, which isn't surprising in & of itself because the Giants have been down the last two years, but only one of those meetings was decided by more than six points. You'll see a game in the 20s to 30s points-wise, Eli Manning will hook up with Odell Beckham Jr. on one or two touchdowns and one or two crazy catches, Tony Romo will hook up with Dez Bryant on one or two touchdowns, and the Cowboys will win a close game, but the Giants will keep it within 6 points.
Monday, September 14
Philadelphia (-3) at Atlanta: Lots of people are excited about the Eagles this season but I don't really see it. I know Sam Bradford supposedly has tons of potential, but I also know he'll probably be out by Week 2. DeMarco Murray & Ryan Mathews are pretty solid running backs though, and if there's one thing I know about the Falcons defense it's that they can't stop the run. However, the Falcon offense is a lot more effective at home than it is on the road. Expect a high scoring game here, and I think this is a game the Falcons have to win if they plan on getting to 8 wins & winning the NFC South.
Minnesota (-2.5) at San Francisco: Kinda ending the week with a thud here, to be honest. The 49ers organization has been gutted & nobody's expecting a heck of a lot from them this season. The Vikings are my sleeper team this season with the return of Adrian Peterson, the maturation of Teddy Bridgewater & Mike Zimmer continuing to coach up the defense. Zimmer teams are tough & can go out on the road & win games they need to win like this one, so I like the Vikings to close out Week 1 action with a victory.
Well folks, there you have it! Join us next week for Week 2 picks & make sure to follow me on Twitter @OchoSports.
Last Year's Regular Season Record: 126-124-6
No comments:
Post a Comment