COAS/SSLYAR Pigskin Pick 'Em Week 2

Odd numbers occasionally cause some craziness, so when Nathaniel and I sat down to talk about how we were going to go about doing the posts for game picks, we agreed quickly that he would start this season, since I started last season's. I only hope that winning the contest isn't tied to who has more posts, but we'll see.

Week 1 was full of some dramatic games and started out pretty interesting but also historically (and I'm not talking about Peyton Manning). For the first time since we started this coalition, Nathaniel has the lead in picks! It's only one week in, but he's up by 1 game (the Skins-Eagles game was the difference). So as we get set to start Week 2 tonight, hopefully neither of us gets too caught up in overreacting to the first game. Of course, I make no promises about either of us. We disagree on only 7 of the games this time, so let's see if the standings can flip.

Thursday Night
New York Jets @ New England Patriots (-12.5)
Lucas: Jets. Granted, it was Week 1, but Brady and company needed a game-ending drive to win the game. Also granted, New England's offense is WAY better than Tampa's, but this line is way too high.
Nathaniel: Jets. The thought of taking Geno Smith on three days’ preparation on the road in his second start terrifies me as much as the next guy. But I don’t quite see how a team can be giving 12.5 points when Air Bud would be its second best receiver. Unlike Kenbrell Thompkins, at least he’d never miss Tom Brady’s audibles.

Sunday, Early Afternoon
St. Louis Rams @ Atlanta Falcons (-7.5)
Lucas: Rams. Roddy White is hurting still, and that causes some issues for their passing attack. They're at home, so they'll find some voodoo magic to win again, but their 4-4 mark last year in the Georgia Dome against the spread gives me some pause.
Nathaniel: Falcons. On the rationale that the Falcons were unlucky to lose on the road to the Saints and the Rams were lucky to beat the Cardinals at home. Wouldn’t put it past Jeff Fisher to figure out how to turn this into an unwatchable 10-6 slugfest, though.

Carolina Panthers @ Buffalo Bills (+2.5)
Lucas: Panthers. If Aurora Christian head football coach and former Bill Don Beebe can't rally the troops to a victory against New England, what else can? And Carolina looked pretty good against Seattle... sorry, Coach.

Nathaniel: Panthers. Part of me wants to believe in the Bills. The other part of me wants a sandwich.

Minnesota Vikings @ Chicago Bears (-6.5)
Lucas: Bears. At one point early last Sunday, Adrian Peterson was on pace for a season that would make 2012 look like me running behind Arizona's offensive line. Then he turned back into a human. The Bears got torn apart in the air last week, but it's Christian Ponder this week. Come on.
Nathaniel: Vikings. Chicago was a little lucky to beat the Bengals and Christian Ponder moved the ball pretty well through the air against Detroit. He also threw three interceptions, but I’m not going to bring that up because that would likely submarine my argument.

Cleveland Browns @ Baltimore Ravens (-6.5)
Lucas: Ravens. I'm just going to leave this here.

Nathaniel: Ravens. Let’s not overreact to one bad road game against the greatest regular season quarterback of all time here, Vegas.

Dallas Cowboys @ Kansas City Chiefs (-2.5)
Lucas: Chiefs. Look, Andy Reid should know Dallas by now, and the Cowboys aren't forcing 6 turnovers against Alex Smith. Unless he's had a copious amount of barbecue Sunday morning, he should be fi- uh-oh...
Nathaniel: Chiefs. Kansas City’s defense did what any good defense is supposed to do against a terrible offense: completely eff them up. Dallas looked pretty bad Sunday Night despite getting giftwrapped a win by the Giants.

Washington Redskins @ Green Bay Packers (-7.5)
Lucas: Packers. "If only there were a rule in the book where, if the other team gets called for a penalty, if the situation seems better based on what happened on the play, I can decline the yardage option and let play continue. Unfortunately, as far as I know, no such system exists, so we had to take the yardage and the controversy that followed with Clay trying to kill Colin Kaepernick... wait, I'm sorry? ... %#@%@$$@#^&!"

Nathaniel: Redskins. Hate the line because I don’t see many scenarios in which Washington wins, but the likelihood of a backdoor cover at 7.5 is too great to pick Green Bay in my opinion.

Tennessee Titans @ Houston Texans (-9.5)
Lucas: Titans. I'm probably putting too much stock in the fact that Tennessee kept the Steelers out of the end zone for almost the whole game last week, but Houston also started pretty slow and needed the Chargers to be, well, the Chargers to pull out the win. Give me the points.
Nathaniel: Texans. Tennessee’s defense might actually be good. We know for sure that Jake Locker is not, however.

Miami Dolphins @ Indianapolis Colts (-3.5)
Lucas: Dolphins. Indy couldn't put away Oakland, of all teams, last week. I'm probably putting too much stock into that one game, but I'm playing a hunch.
Nathaniel: Dolphins. Rule of thumb: if you just spent the last Sunday making the Raiders look like an actual NFL team, you probably shouldn’t be favored the next week.

San Diego Chargers @ Philadelphia Eagles (-7.5)
Lucas: Eagles. Chip Kelly wants the Eagles' offense to go faster, yet I would argue they were at Warp 8 or 9 for much of the game. Kelly knows he can't go much faster, and that Warp 10 puts him everywhere at once, right? Or is that his goal...?

Nathaniel: Chargers. Seems like a pretty big overreaction to one admittedly wildly entertaining half to place the Eagles as a touchdown and change favorite. San Diego looked pretty good itself in the first half Monday night too, you know!

Sunday, Late Afternoon
Detroit Lions @ Arizona Cardinals (+0.5)
Lucas: Cardinals. Something inside Larry Fitzgerald snaps after Ndamukong Suh tears through the offensive line and kills Carson Palmer, the only thing Fitzgerald has had resembling a quarterback the last couple years. He challenges Suh to a duel, who accepts and comes charging at him before quickly getting ejected from the game and banned for life from the NFL. Have I mentioned I hate Ndamukong Suh?
Nathaniel: Cardinals. You could literally hear Larry Fitzgerald’s sobs of joy over actually having a competent NFL quarterback Sunday all the way in Zimbabwe.

New Orleans Saints @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+3.5)
Lucas: Saints. Are we sure Greg Schiano hasn't figured out how to use the pirate ship to his advantage? I feel like it's something he has to have asked about repeatedly by now.

Nathaniel: Saints. Most likely without the aid of an ill-timed tackle out of bounds by Lavonte David.

Denver Broncos @ New York Giants (+5.5)
Lucas: Broncos. Okay, the Giants aren't turning the ball over 6 times again. And Peyton is probably not throwing 7 touchdowns again. But as banged up as the G-Men secondary is, Peyton is going to do some damage. Have fun, Eli.

Nathaniel: Broncos. Football on your phone and football in your pants.

Jacksonville Jaguars @ Oakland Raiders (-6.5) 
Lucas: Jaguars. Chad Henne can't be any worse than Blaine Gabbert, right?
Nathaniel: Raiders. The fact that Oakland’s being favored over anybody, let alone by 6.5 points this season, is amazing and a testament to how hopeless the Jaguars looked last week. A nation waits breathlessly as Blaine Gabbert continues his quest to become the worst quarterback in NFL history to get significant playing time over multiple seasons.
Lucas note: Except Gabbert is out this week. Dude sliced his hand open this past Sunday.

Sunday Night
San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks (-2.5)
Lucas: Seahawks. Seattle didn't impress in Week 1 the way San Francisco did. But this game is in Seattle. The Seahawks don't lose at home... even when they should. No, I'm not letting this go.
Nathaniel: Seahawks. Even assuming the teams are dead even (which I think they are), Seattle’s home-field advantage alone is worth five to six points. Hopefully all the talk of this becoming the NFL’s next great rivalry doesn’t jinx the proceedings.

Monday Night
Pittsburgh Steelers @ Cincinnati Bengals (-7.5)
Lucas: Bengals. The Dalton-Green combo worked really well against the Bears defense. As long as Marvin Lewis drops out of the Andy Reid School of Clock Management, they should be fine.
Nathaniel: Steelers. If we were going solely by what these teams did last week, Cincinnati should be favored by double digits. That rich history of success and Cincinnati’s struggles at home, however, makes me inclined to at least wait until Week 3 before burying the Steelers.

Records So Far
Lucas: 9-7
Nathaniel: 10-6