After some incorrect judgment calls and a surprising week 1, our resident pickatologist makes his amends to all the people and teams he wrote off and makes his picks for week 2

MIKE KAYE

Last Week: 9-6 / Season: 9-6 / Scott’s Pick: 1-0

Wow! What an exciting first week of football.  I must admit, I was wrong about writing off Cam Newton, Buffalo, and Cincy.  I’m actually glad to be wrong.  It is fun to see ultimate underdogs succeed against vastly superior talent.  On the other side of things, I was glad to be right about Luke McCown and the Jaguars.

That’s enough basking in my glory and shame.  Let’s take this week to the bank (can you take anything to the bank on Sundays?  You can if you have a checkcard.)

Chiefs @ Lions

Pick: Lions. I am sorry I picked against them last week; Went with my heart not my head. I appreciate that they have won five straight games (this is the Lions we are talking about) going back to last season and I believe this will be win number six. The Chiefs are nowhere near as bad as they played against the Bills (right?), but I do think adjusting to a new offense by a guy who has been an offensive line coach for 30 years, is going to take time. I see this one being more defensive-oriented than a lot of people would predict, with two emerging, young offenses. I see a score something like 20-16 or 23-19. Will say my spread for the game is +/- 4.

Raiders @ Bills

Pick: Raiders. This has turned into the Bucs/Lions game of last week. I find this game so hard to call; It is basically a coin toss for me. I’ll pick the Raiders because of the way both sides of the ball seemed to gel on Monday night on the road (hopefully they won’t repeat their performance when it comes to penalties). I like what I saw from the Bills; they are scrappy and young and play like they have nothing to lose (because they don’t…outside of games). The Bills could be dangerous this year as a possible trap game for top dogs on their calendar. In this one though, I am going with my gut and picking the Raiders.

Ravens @ Titans

Pick: Ravens. I thought they would win last week, but the Ravens absolutely bullied and shut-up the Steelers. Now they play the Titans, who really didn’t inspire much confidence last week with their loss to the Jags. Kenny Britt is an emerging star, but like I predicted last week, Chris Johnson is rusty. The Ravens have a much better defense and offense than the Jaguars, so I think this will be no easy task for Tennessee. I see Johnson improving on his yardage this week but I don’t think it is enough to stop the Baltimore birds.

Jaguars @ Jets

Pick: Jets. Last Sunday was nice too both of these clubs, but I feel like the Jets have the upside in this contest. Jacksonville’s receivers are very polished and MJD can’t do it all by himself (but believe me, he will try). The Jets have to be feeling great after robbing the Cowboys of a victory and I think that momentum stays with them this week as they win handedly.

Browns @ Colts

Pick: Browns. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice…I am still probably going to blame you. The Colts are still going to be licking their wounds from last week, after they were destroyed by the Texans. I think Colt McCoy can make this game his own (and not just because he shares a name with the team he’s playing). The Colts run-defense struggles against big backs and I think Pat Shurmur will exploit that with Peyton Hillis. Look for a duel in this one as I think Indy will put up a better fight against the Browns, who proved last week that they are still trying to get used to the switch to the 4-3 scheme.

Cardinals @ Redskins

Pick: Cardinals. I know I will see a lot of analysts jump on the Skins bandwagon after last week, but honestly I am not as impressed. They did this last year against Dallas and they both proved to be sub-par teams. Arizona and Washington are evenly matched on paper, with each succeeding where the other fails and vice versa. This will be a close game but I think if Early Doucet can contribute like he did last week, Zona’s offense will be in good shape. Kolb was fantastic last week (granted it was against the Panthers and Sean McDermott’s defense) and didn’t even involve Larry Fitzgerald as much as I thought he would (or as fantasy owners may have liked). Expect Fitz to play a big role in this one as he will be the difference maker for the Cards.

Buccaneers @ Vikings

Pick: Buccaneers. Tampa may have lost last week but they didn’t look awful. On the other hand, Donovan McNabb played like he did last year against the Chargers. McNabb has to gain some confidence from his teammates if he’s going to stay the starter, but I just don’t see him greatly improving. The Bucs are young and hungry and will look to make up for last week with a thrashing of the Vikes. I am looking for a big turnaround from Josh Freeman, who I think will be a dark-horse for the MVP Award come the end of the season.

Packers @ Panthers

Pick: Packers. I know Cam Newton more-than-proved a ton of people wrong (myself included) but he didn’t do enough to win the game against the Cardinals. That does not mean he won’t win some games this year, but it does give me confidence in the Packers to win this one. I look for Cam to struggle against the exotic defensive scheme of Dom Capers. Look for Charles Woodson to blitz a lot in this game: young guys have a lot of difficulty against blitzing DBs.  Cam will get this groove back soon enough but this week is going to be tough. I love the matchup of the Packers wide receivers versus the Carolina secondary. James Starks looks to have a big game, once Greg Jennings and Co. keeps the home team’s defense honest.

Bears @ Saints

Pick: Saints. Expect another close one here. The Bears owned the Falcons last week, so they are riding high as far as I am concerned, but the Saints didn’t look sluggish in their loss against the Pack. The Saints are going to come out aggressive as I see them putting points early, forcing the Bears to quit on their best option: their rushing attack. I think Matt Forte will have a good game before they yank his rushing talents for the not-so-stellar passing-for-points option. Saints win by at least ten.

Seahawks @ Steelers

Pick: Steelers. A lot of pretty good teams are trying to avenge opening day losses this week. The Seahawks couldn’t get things done against San Fran so why would anyone think they could do it against a very angry Pittsburgh team on the road? Big Ben bounces back big time in this one with at least two TDs and 300 yards for the Black and Yellow as the Steelers win.

Cowboys @ 49ers

Pick: Cowboys. The Boys have to win this one for Jerry Jones to keep spewing out garbage about how well Romo is playing. I do think they will rebound, but this game won’t be a walk in the park. The Niners will rely too much on David Akers again (he hit four field goals last week) and not take any chances. That will be their downfall: they should take advantage of Dallas’ awful secondary. Felix Jones will have success if he runs outside of the tackles, because he won’t win a match up against Patrick Willis on the inside.

Chargers @ Patriots

Pick: Patriots. Game of the week. Brady is coming off a near perfect outing (one pick, made worse by the fact that it was made by a defensive lineman) and the Chargers are coming off a comeback win that was the product of Phillip River’s poise when things got tough. I want to see how Brady does against a better defense than Miami, but I feel it’s hard to pick against him, especially at home.

Bengals @ Broncos

Pick: Broncos. This will probably be a similar game to the Seahawks-49ers week 1 contest. I expect both to rely heavily on field goals and short yardage passing. It may come down to which defense is more fatigued or which defense makes the most mistakes. I like what Andy Dalton showed in his debut, but I’d like to see him do it more often now that a team has tape on him. The Broncos will come out of this one with a win, mainly because they are at home and they are looking to recover from a game that they could have won. That Oakland loss has to really sting. In a short week they come out with purpose as the running game finally gives Kyle Orton some help, unlike last week.

Texans @ Dolphins

Pick: Texans. I really want to pick the Dolphins because of how good Henne looked against the Pats and the fact that the Texans may have had too emotional of a win against the Colts. I do not think this will be easy for Houston and it could become a shoot-out, but I like the Texans because of their running back depth; which is the total opposite for the Fins. When a team has a proficient running game, they can control the clock and the field. I think that’s exactly how Houston wins this game.

Eagles @ Falcons

Pick: Scott’s Pick: Falcons. This is a really difficult game to pick.  The Eagles put forth a nice display in St. Louis against a Rams team battered by the injury bug, but going to Atlanta, where the Falcons have to be fuming coming off an embarrassing week 1 set back to the Bears, is a whole different ball game.  Atlanta is a vastly superior team at home, compared to on the road, but Philadelphia is a tough team to play anywhere.  It comes down to urgency, as Matt Ryan and friends need this one much more than the Eagles.  An 0-2 start for Atlanta could really derail a season of massive expectations for the Falcons. I think it’ll be close, but I like Atlanta by a nose.

Rams @ Giants

Pick: Giants. Monday Night Football features what will be MASH unit versus MASH unit, as the Giants bring their beat up defense to the field against the beaten up on both sides of the ball, St. Louis Rams. It’s an odd MNF game considering all the injuries both teams have suffered, making this game a really strange game to predict. I like Hakeem Nicks (if he plays) against the now-awful group of corners that the Rams deploy (they lost their best corner Ron Bartell to an injury last week). I think Eli will out-duel the possibly-injured throwing hand of Sam Bradford, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if the Rams some-how pulled this one out. Either way, it should make for an interesting set of storylines come Monday night.

Photo: AP

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