Presenting Week 3

Week 2 was full of surprises and some damn good football. My prediction of more road wins came true as 9 of the 16 games played showed the visitor to be victorious. The final score for me was 10-6 and for Mardi 7-9. The current totals show to be 21-11 (me) and 19-13 (Mardi).

Without further ado, here is the Week 3 schedule and my predictions:

Cleveland @ Baltimore (Baltimore)
Washington @ Detroit (Detroit)
Jacksonville @ Houston (Houston)
San Francisco @ Minnesota (San Francisco)
Atlanta @ New England (New England)
Tennessee @ New York Jets (Tennessee)
Kansas City @ Philadelphia (Philadelphia)
Green Bay @ St. Louis (Green Bay)
New York Giants at Tampa Bay (New York Giants)
New Orleans @ Buffalo (New Orleans)
Chicago @ Seattle (Chicago)
Pittsburgh @ Cincinnati (Pittsburgh)
Denver @ Oakland (Denver)
Miami @ San Diego (San Diego)
Indianapolis @ Arizona (Arizona)

Monday Night:
Carolina @ Dallas (Dallas 27-17)

Houston is coming off a big win in Tennessee this week and hosting AFC South rival Jacksonville. Houston's offense bounced back and showed why they were the 3rd best ranked offense in 2008-2009. Jacksonville has gotten off to a very rough start this year, losing to Indianapolis and Arizona. Houston is expecting Kevin Walter to return this week, who will add another weapon to Matt Shaub's passing attack. Chester Pitts, the Texans iron-man, will miss his first game this Sunday due to a sprained MCL. Kasey Studdard is a capable backup though, and should handle the Left Gaurd position well in Pitts' absence. There are 2 things that worry me about the Texans - their running game (very anemic 2 weeks into the season) and the defense's tendency to give up big plays. If Steve Slaton can pick up the pieces on Sunday, it should keep Jacksonville on their toes. As much as Jack Del Rio won't comment, there is a youth movement going on in Jacksonville with 4 rookies projected to start on offense this Sunday. In fact, they just cut another veteran player this week after a poor performance against Arizona. While they do have another week to improve and gel as a team, I expect their struggles to continue.

Minnesota is hosting San Francisco this Sunday in a matchup of early division leaders. San Francisco has been the surprise team this season, even without the services of diva Michael Crabtree. The running game on both sides is going to be a feature of this game. While Frank Gore is no Adrian Peterson, he did gain 207 yards against Seattle on very effective play from his offensive line. San Francisco will need to work on its air attack, though, as Minnesota's defensive line won't let Gore put up those kinds of numbers again. Brett Favre has been a game manager thus far into the season. All of his passes thus far have been short passes, and more than a few teams have noticed this. I can't claim to know why Favre isn't taking more shots down the field (something to do with his shoulder, perhaps?), but look for San Francisco to try to shut down the short passing game. If they can succeed in this and Favre isn't able to connect down the field, I expect San Francisco to win the game.

Tennessee goes into NYC this Sunday to take on the Jets. This one was a little tough to call. After losing 2 close games, the Titans are going to be hungry. Mark Sanchez and company are coming off a nice, if not so-pretty, win against the Patriots. I'm going to have to go with Tennessee on this one as their defense should disrupt Mark Sanchez enough to keep the offense on the field. Another tough game to call is Atlanta at New England. In this one I'm going to have to go with experience and home field advantage in picking New England. Defense wins games and that's why I'm picking Baltimore, Green Bay, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh in each of their matchups this week. Both New Orleans and Buffalo are sporting high powered offenses... in this case the edge goes to New Orleans. San Diego's high powered offense was kept at bay by the Baltimore defense, but not shut down completely. If they can keep their offense on the field, they will beat Miami. Peyton Manning was looking mortal on Monday despite the win, while Kurt Warner was looking like a 30-year-old in his prime. Edge: Arizona. Tampa Bay is not going to be able to handle the Giants offense. Carolina is a bad team since they seemed to have quit on Jake Delhomme. The Cowboys had some misfires late against the New York Giants, but it was still a close game, which is why they are picked to win on Monday. And as for Denver at Oakland, this game was basically a coin toss with the decision going to Denver.

Mardi has assured me her analysis of week 2 will be available soon as real-world work and family responsibilities have kept her busy this week. She has assured me that she is still paying attention