There's no harder week to pick than Week 1. Offseason moves and meaningless preseason action aren't the best tools for prognostication, so it's actually pretty damn impressive that our panel of experts cumulatively managed to hit on 11 of 16 games last week. And in fairness, how many folks had Buffalo over Indy, St. Louis over Seattle and Tennessee over Tampa?
So things should get even easier in Week 2, right? Eh, not necessarily.
Things kick off on Thursday with the Chiefs hosting the Broncos, which is a lot harder to predict after KC throttled Houston and Peyton Manning went touchdown-less against the Ravens last Sunday (but still won somehow). You also wouldn't have expected Monday night's Jets-Colts game to be a challenge -- until Indy laid an absolute egg against the Bills, whose defense is very similar to a Gang Green unit that held the Browns to 10 points in their opener.
And how about Dallas vs. Philly? You would expect Tony Romo's high-powered gang to outpace an Eagles offense that looked lost for much of its trip to Atlanta, but how much does that change with Dez Bryant on the sideline?
And we haven't even mentioned Cardinals-Bears, Titans-Browns or Bills-Pats, all of which are even lines in Vegas.
The toughest game to pick this week might be the NFC North matchup in Minnesota. The Vikings were still in preseason form in a Monday night loss to the 49ers -- Adrian Peterson didn't even break 60 yards rushing. It's hard to imagine Mike Zimmer not having his team a little more fired up this week. Detroit blew an 11-point lead at halftime, but it all evaporated when they let the Chargers score 23 points in a comeback win. The OddsShark computer has that one dead even with its score projection, 21.6-21.6, giving it to the Lions in a tiebreaker.
What I'm saying is that Week 2 ain't exactly a walk in the park if you're picking games. Good luck, fellas.
(Mind you, these are picks to win the game, not against the spread.)
Week 2 | Ryan Van Bibber | Stephen White | Joel Thorman | David Fucillo | Danny Kelly | Matt Ufford | PFT Commenter | OddsShark |
DEN vs KC | KC | KC | KC | KC | KC | KC | KC | KC |
HOU vs CAR | HOU | CAR | CAR | CAR | CAR | HOU | HOU | CAR |
SF vs PIT | PIT | PIIT | PIT | SF | PIT | PIT | PIT | PIT |
TB vs NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO | NO |
DET vs MIN | MIN | MIN | MIN | MIN | DET | MIN | DET | DET |
AZ vs CHI | AZ | CHI | AZ | AZ | CHI | AZ | AZ | AZ |
NE vs BUF | BUF | BUF | BUF | NE | BUF | NE | NE | BUF |
SD vs CIN | SD | CIN | SD | CIN | SD | CIN | CIN | CIN |
TEN vs CLE | TEN | CLE | TEN | CLE | TEN | CLE | CLE | CLE |
STL vs WAS | STL | STL | STL | STL | STL | STL | STL | STL |
ATL vs NYG | ATL | ATL | ATL | NYG | NYG | ATL | NYG | NYG |
MIA vs JAX | JAX | MIA | MIA | MIA | MIA | MIA | JAX | MIA |
BAL vs OAK | BAL | BAL | BAL | BAL | BAL | BAL | BAL | BAL |
DAL vs PHI | PHI | PHI | DAL | PHI | PHI | PHI | PHI | PHI |
GB vs SEA | SEA | SEA | SEA | GB | SEA | GB | SEA | GB |
NYJ vs IND | IND | IND | IND | IND | IND | IND | NYJ | IND |
Our panel consists of: David Fucillo, SB Nation's fantasy guru; Danny Kelly, SB Nation NFL contributor; PFT Commenter, SB Nation's hot takes expert; Joel Thorman, SB Nation NFL blogs manager; Matt Ufford, editorial producer; Ryan Van Bibber, SB Nation's NFL editor; and Stephen White, retired NFL defensive end and SB Nation NFL contributor.
Our panel's record last week and for the season:
Van Bibber | White | Thorman | Fucillo | Kelly | Ufford | PFTC | OddsShark | |
Week 1 | 8-8 | 10-6 | 10-6 | 11-5 | 12-4 | 8-8 | 8-8 | 11-5 |
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