Week 2 NFL Picks

Well my Green Bay over the Seahawks gamble didn't pay off last week. I have a 4-2 record and Loren has a 5-1 record after the first week.

Miami at Buffalo
Derek - Miami. I'm a pessimistic Dolphin fan, but they showed me something last week. The Pats normally crush the Phins and it looked like it was going to happen again. But Miami dominated the second half, running over the Pats D and chasing Brady all around the field.
Loren – Buffalo. I’m going to need to see consistency from Miami before I take them against a team that beat the Bears in Chicago last week. Buffalo’s D will be better than expected and if Manuel can limit turnovers, Miami will have a hard time staying in this game.

New England at Minnesota
Derek - New England. Yes, Loren picked before AP was deactivated. But so did I. The Pats don't lose two in a row and not to Matt Cassel.
Loren – Minnesota. Too many options for a thin New England defense to contain. This feels like a down year for the Pats while the Vikings have young talent, confidence, and can still fall back on AP as needed.

Atlanta at Cincinnati
Derek - Cincinnati. Tough one, but I'm going to go with the team that has a defense. I expect a high scoring game but the Bengals at home should have enough juice to pull out a victory.
Loren – Atlanta. What a match up! If this was played in Atlanta, I wouldn’t think twice about taking the Falcons. But we haven’t seen them play on the road this year and this is a difficult first test. I expect, though, that the Falcons will have the Bengals defense spinning by the end of the game. Who do you cover? Whoever you choose, you’ll eventually get burned.

Detroit at Carolina
Derek - Detroit. Lets see if the Lions O can move against the Panthers D. This is a game of strength against strength and weakness against weakness. I just think the Panthers aren't up to last years standards and they might only score 10 points.
Loren – Detroit. Detroit would not let up against the Giants. If they continue to make use of all their offensive capabilities while being opportunistic on defense, there won’t be a lot of teams that can take them down. Doesn’t figure that a weakened Panthers team would be one of them.

Chicago at San Francisco
Derek - San Francisco. I was thinking the bears would have a great team this year, but after watching the inconsistent plays last week I can't buy into them yet. The 49ers while down on D this year comparatively should still have enough at home to be the Bears by double digits.
Loren – San Francisco. Are there two veteran QBs more inconsistent than Romo and Cutler? At least they’re consistently inconsistent. The 49ers handled Romo last week, I anticipate they’ll be up to the task of limiting Cutler’s chances. I foresee more Cutler pouty bro-face…

Philadelphia at Indianapolis
Derek - Indianapolis. Which team will need to comeback in this game. I'm going with the home team but I expect to see a lot of fire works.
Loren – Indianapolis. It took them a while to get rolling, but Indy’s offense eventually started looking legit against Denver last week. Same goes for Philly, but their efforts were against Jacksonville. I’ll take the team the slugged it out with the Broncos over the team that needed a comeback against the Jags.