The thinking fan’s guide to NFL Week 2

Danny Kelly: Week 1 has now come and gone with its fair share of interesting storylines and surprises, and with all that in mind, let’s look forward to Week 2’s slate. We can start out close to home for me, and for those in Seattle, a slight to major amount of consternation has kicked in with the prospect of starting the year 0-2.

The Seahawks will again be without Kam Chancellor this week, and it’s pretty clear that their defense just isn’t the same without their fiery, intimidating All Pro safety. Shutting down the best quarterback in the world, Aaron Rodgers, is going to be a major challenge this week. Up front, they have to get pressure, and in the intermediate level, Seattle’s linebackers need to really clean up their drops and take some steps forward in their run defense -- both tackling and fits. I expect that things will get cleaned up a bit for Seattle this week, but do you expect that the Seahawks can do what they’ve done to Aaron Rodgers in the past, without Chancellor?

Stephen White: Well, anytime you take a great player off the field that unit won’t be the same because great players don’t grow on trees. So, no, I don’t think the Seahawks will be able to duplicate what they have done in the past against the Packers, but Im also not sure they will have to.

The Packers’ Defense is not close to being on the same level as the Rams, especially up front. Russell Wilson was running for his life last week, but I expect him to be pretty comfy in the pocket against the Packers. In that case, the defense just has to bend and not break for the Seahawks to win the game, not necessarily be top-defense-in-the-league dominant. That I think they can do.

And hey, lets not act like they were awful against the Rams either. Fluke play where Kam’s replacement falls down and they send the game to overtime at the end does not negate the fact that even though the Rams defense dominated the Seahawks’ offense in ways we have rarely seen done recently, they still were down until the very end of the game because the Seahawks’ defense is still good enough to help you win.

Stephen: Moving along you picked the Sunday Night Football game, but how about the marquee 1:00 p.m. matchup the Patriots vs. Rex Ryan and the Bills. And I have to put the head coach’s stamp on this team after reviewing the all-22 of their win last week confirmed for me that it’s a whole new day in Buffalo.

Andrew Luck dropped back to pass by my count 55 times including sacks, scrambles and penalty plays. Ryan blitzed him on 25 of them. And the truth is Rex called the dogs off a little in the second half while nursing a lead because the Bills were a lot more blitz happy in the first half. Luck is the CONSENSUS best young quarterback in the league wouldn’t you agree? So to see him dismantled by that pressure early and often was just startling! Forget the Bills offense because even though I think they will continue to be dynamic with Tyrod Taylor starting it’s a hard sell until he strings a few games together. But we know Rex Ryan and what he doing with the talent in Buffalo is just filthy.

So the question is do we think Tom Brady is that much better cerebrally than Luck that he will have better success against that pressure? That’s what I think the game will ultimately come down to. And the answer to me is no, I don’t believe Brady is that much better, so I took the Bills to win this week. What do you think Danny?

Danny: Andrew Luck is certainly the consensus “best young quarterback” so it was definitely a little shocking to see the Colts shut out for nearly three quarters in their opener, particularly with the offseason additions of Frank Gore and Andre Johnson. I picked the Bills in that game for a reason -- that’s a really, really good defense in Buffalo and I love to hear your charting stats about how they went so hard at Luck with constant blitzing in the first half. No surprise that Rex Ryan is continuing with that style of ball, and most importantly, I think he has the personnel to really do it well this year.

Going forward, I expect the Bills to give the Patriots a big challenge as well. Buffalo has very good secondary and when paired with their elite front line (that returns Marcel Dareus this week), Bill Belichick and company are going to have their hands full scheming ways to move the ball this week. I think they’ll end up trying to attack the Bills in a similar way they attacked the Seahawks in the Super Bowl -- underneath routes, quick passing, screens, and pick plays -- and hope that offensive line can give Tom Brady enough time to get those quick passes off in the face of exotic blitzes.

Will they have as much success in this as they had in the Super Bowl? Remains to be seen -- Brady likes to find a weakness in the defense and then just go after it relentlessly, but a healthy Buffalo defense doesn’t really present many weak links this year. I picked the Bills in this game because I’m a huge believer in their defense, and I think with Tyrod Taylor and Buffalo’s arsenal of weapons on offense, they’ll be able to score enough to hold off the Pats.

Danny: Another nice matchup on this weekend’s slate is the Eagles-Cowboys, and I always love this matchup because of the great rivalry that exists between the teams and fans. Philly stumbled out of the gate for sure though -- they were discombobulated on offense in the first half in Atlanta and was down early, but Sam Bradford turned things up a notch and found himself a nice rhythm in the second half. If he can carry that into this next game, I think the Cowboys could be in trouble.

What do you think about this game? Can Dallas get over the loss of Dez Bryant and hang with the typically high-scoring attack of the Eagles? Does their defense have the personnel to stop Philly’s wide-open, up-tempo attack, particularly if they’re unable to substitute at times because of the no-huddle?

Stephen: I was soooooo looking forward to this Cowboys-Eagles game early season clash before Dez broke his foot, but to me that injury is just a killer for that offense. In addition to being their emotional leader, Dez blocks his ass off all the time, attacks the ball in traffic and truly commands a double team. With him out, teams will be able to blitz more and play more single high safety in general. The Cowboys also still aren’t sure who their main running back should be. Combine what will probably be a somewhat sputtering offense in Dallas along with their defense having to keep up with the high octane Eagles, and I think it might get ugly fast.

I would pick the Eagles this week and I don’t think it will be close.

Stephen: I still can’t understand why the Vikings only gave Peterson 10 carries in a loss to the 49ers. Especially on the rare night where Teddy Bridgewater was a bit off accuracy-wise in the passing game. That was all the more reason to feed the beast but they just kept slinging it around.

Zimmer being Zimmer, nobody is probably as pissed off as he is about it in hindsight. He is an old school coach at his core and I bet you anything Peterson will never have less than 20 carries in any game he remains healthy in for the rest of the season.

What was your shocker this week, Danny?

Danny: For me, I don’t know if it was shocking really, but it was definitely really disconcerting to see how confused the Steelers looked on defense nearly the entire game against Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. It’s like they didn’t gameplan to try to take away the game’s best tight end, and frequently didn’t even cover him at all. Ok, I lied, it was shocking. I was flabbergasted about that.

The other thing that I thought was shocking was how fast the Texans benched Brian Hoyer. As we all saw on Hard Knocks, Bill O’Brien said that it would remain a fluid situation, but I do believe he said something to the effect of “well, we’re not going to yank you the minute things go bad,” but that’s just about what they did when they put Ryan Mallett into the game. Obviously, he’s now the new starter. What a weird, tough situation in Houston.

Stephen: With the Texans decision to bench Hoyer in favor of Mallett, I kind of look at it as a quick acknowledgement of having chosen the wrong guy in the first place. I said at the time I thought Hoyer was the safe choice, but he does not have the upside of Mallet, and right now, the Texans need upside on offense at least until Arian Foster comes back.

If there was one thing from Sunday’s game that makes me agree with this decision it is the difference in how many times Nuk Hopkins was targeted while Hoyer was in the game versus how many times Mallett threw him the ball. Mallett understands that you have to get the ball in the hands of your playmakers, reads be damned. And Hopkins is one of the best young WRs in the game right now. So while I understand it looks hasty, I also 100 percent agree with the move and think it will pay off for them almost immediately.

Danny: Looking forward again, this week’s slate of games looks really great, and consequently, really tough to pick. For me, one of the toughest is that game in Pittsburgh where the Steelers host the Niners. We all kind of thought that San Francisco was dead, but they’ve managed to once again keep their identity as a hard-nosed running team.

The defense didn’t look nearly as bad as I think everyone thought it would. I think that the Niners match up pretty well against the Steelers and could present some problems with their pass rush, so that game will be a lot of fun to watch.

Did you have any trouble making your picks this week, and if so, which game was the toughest?

Stephen: Maybe a surprise, but I would actually say the Titans-Browns game was the toughest game for me to call this week. Cleveland’s defense is going to present a helluva lot more challenges to Mariota and the rest of the Titans offense than what they encountered against the Bucs last weekend. Johnny Manziel also looked like a real life NFL quarterback at times last week. I truly think this game could go either way so I just don’t feel confident picking either team.,

What matchup was the hardest for you to choose?

Danny: The Steelers-Niners was up there, but I think the absolute toughest for me was the Chargers at Bengals. I like the Bengals defense a lot -- they have depth and talent pretty much everywhere on the field -- but Philip Rivers is just so good. That’s going to be a fun battle.

San Diego’s young group of skill position players is becoming really exciting to watch. The combination of Keenan Allen, Ladarius Green, and Melvin Gordon could be really good this year, in addition to Danny Woodhead, Malcom Floyd, and the perpetually underrated Stevie Johnson. I think that group of receiving options going up against the Bengals’ secondary is my matchup of the week. I ended up picking the Chargers, but that was more of a gut pick than anything.

What matchup are you most looking forward to?

Stephen: I’m kinda looking forward to seeing what kind of destruction the Rams defensive front can unleash on Washington’s offensive line this week. The Rams had six sacks against the Seahawks, but we all kinda knew the Seahawks offensive line would have some issues this year.

I would say Washington’s offensive line actually played better than I expected against a pretty impressive Dolphins defensive line. Big money free agent Ndamukong Suh was particularly quiet considering he lined up to rookie Brandon Scherff’s side almost every play. Not giving Scherff all the credit there, but I think Rams defensive tackles will present some different problems for him this week than Suh did last Sunday. And frankly I’m looking forward to any and every occasion there is potential for Washington to implode on offense this season ... lol.