Week 2 Overview and Thursday Night Pick

Week 2: 7-9    Overall: 16-16

Ok so this week I took a step in the wrong direction.  There were upsets and just poor decisions by me.  Here are the 3 things I took a away from week 2:

1. The NFC West isn’t as bad as people think. 
    The Rams on the back of Bradford and Danny Amendola’s double digit catches before the half, helped the Rams overcome the streaking RG3 powered Redskins.  The Seahawks handled the Cowboys with with ease.  The 49ers continued to show their dominance as probably the best team in NFC by making the Lions look like a watered down version of its offense a year ago.  The most shocking of last week was the Cardinals upsetting the Patriots.  Brady only looked like Brady on one drive of the game (which they scored a TD).  The offense did just enough to get points on the board with the assist of a slightly better performance from their running game.  Also the defense is proving they are a top tier defense of the league behind veterans Wilson, Docket, Campbell and emerging star Washington.

 2. Bounty Gate will end up costing the Saints.
    The offense hasn’t been on point like usual.  The rhythm isn’t there and maybe Sean Payton ran the show more than Drew Brees would want you to believe.  The truth is they are scoring enough to win but the defense can’t stop anyone (especially athletic quarterbacks apparently).  Teams don’t typically make the playoffs after starting 0-2 and the Falcons look to take the NFC by storm this year so look out.

 3. Although the replacement referees are terrible, it won’t effect ratings.
    Lets face it the replacement referees aren’t very good.  They often appear afraid to make calls and are indecisive.  Then once they make a bad call, and review it, they still get it wrong.  We all miss the old refs but....it won’t keep me from watching the NFL.  I’ll complain about the refs but I won’t stop watching football just to get them back.  In the grand scheme they don’t “cost” people games, although they might very soon.  I hope the strike is resolved but I won’t be losing sleep over it as a NFL fan.

Giants Vs. Panthers

The Giants showed they can just throw their way to victory.  Eli Manning who threw for (510 yards, 378 of which were to Cruz and Nicks) made it clear that they can be last in the league in rushing again and still win it all.  This week however they are short Nicks and Bradshaw.  I still see Eli putting up yards, getting in the endzone might be a little tougher.  The Giants defense will be matched up against the athletic specimen of Cam Newton.  They may be able to slow him down some with their quick D-Line but he’ll be hard to stop completely.  I see this to be a relatively close matchup but the Giants experience will help them prevail. 

Pick: Giants