Week 2 NFL Predictions

And now for my picks of the top 5 games of the week.

San Diego Chargers @ New England Patriots

In the rematch of last years divisional playoff game, the Chargers travel to New England to take on an embarrassed New England team. Despite the fact that the Pats were in the news the whole week because of Bill “Jason Bourne” Bellicheck's spying ways, I don't see a veteran team like the Pats being rattled by the controversy. On the other hand we all know that LT hates the Patriots and would love nothing more than to have a 250 all purpose yards output against this team. One would expect Tomlinson to bounce back after last weeks dismal performance. Defensively both teams can be dominant so I think the game will come down to which team makes the least mistakes. This is where the Pats distinguish themselves from not only the Chargers, but also the rest of the League. Expect Tom Brady to play at the very least efficiently and expect Phillip Rivers to throw at least 1 pick. The Pats win a tough one at home 24-20.

New York Giants @ Green Bay Packers

The Packers continue their NFC East swing this week by visiting the Giants in the Meadow lands. The Packers may have just escaped at Lambau last week with the Eagles inability to catch a punt, but their defense showed the league something. They held Donovan McNabb to a 46% completion percentage and a 60.7 passer rating. Add to that the fact that they are facing an already tanking Giants team that saw multiple injuries to key players last week. Even if Manning and Umenyiora do play, it won't be at 100 percent. Look for Favre to have a great day against a soft New York secondary that was plain victimized by the Dallas Cowboys the previous week. Also don't be surprised if the New York offense does not look as good against the Packers as it did against the Dallas D. The Packers get a win on the road 20-7.

New York Jets @ Baltimore Ravens

The Jets were probably the worst team to make the playoffs last year and were appropriately dispatched early on. Against the Patriots last week they looked pretty good in the first half, however allowing the second half kickoff return for a touchdown sealed their fate. Pennington played an efficient if not unspectacular game. Thomas Jones does not look completely healed yet, and Mangenius's offense looked particularly pedestrian against a great Pats D. Look for the same against Baltimore. Baltimore's D may have allowed 27 points to a great Bengals offense but the Bengals offense this aint. Whether or not Ray Lewis plays (I believe he will) the Ravens D is as good as its been in a while. The lower the score is, the greater the chance Baltimore wins the game. Baltimore wins this game 13-7.

Houston Texans @ Carolina Panthers

Its the matchup of all the “insiders” old favorite sleeper pick (the Panthers), vs the new media darling, the Texans. The Texans looked great last week. Matt Schaub completed 70% of his passes and he looked in sync with Andre Johnson. The Ahman Green/ Ron Dayne tandem yielded over 100 yards for the game and the D was spectacular. One problem, they played the no account Falcons. I could have thrown for over 200 yards against the Falcons secondary and Joey Harrington looked like a bad joke. Carolina on the other hand looked good against a potential playoff team. Im curious to see if Delhome can keep it together for a whole season but I see the Panthers running away with this one. Carolina wins 24-10.

Washington Redskins @ Philadelphia Eagles

Neither team looked particularly good in their respective games last week. The Eagles with their last minute loss and the Redskins with their last minute win, both looked anemic on offense. Both defenses were outstanding however so look for this one to be a field position battle. The Skins have one of the best secondaries in the league, and I don't see Westbrook doing much on the ground against the Skins run stuffing front seven. On the other side, Lito Shephard wont be playing due to injury, which means that Santana Moss will be matched up with a second tier corner and maybe more importantly Randel El will be matched up with a third tier conerback. I expect the Eagles to stuff the line and force Campbell to beat them. I predict that he will. Redskins win 17-10.