NFL Week 2 Picks: Predicting Every Game

Ah, Week 2. We’re back with lines and picks for all the games, and man, Week 2 has gotta be the most nightmarish gambling week of the season. You have too many teams who overachieved in Week 1 that may still suck and go 6-10 (Bucs? Vikings? Cardinals?), and then a handful of teams who looked crappy but could still wind up as Super Bowl contenders (Saints, Packers, Giants).

A few of the supposed-to-be-crappy teams will actually be good, and then a few of the Super Bowl contenders will fall apart and have awful seasons this year, but WHICH ONES?

The Rams have been a disaster at home in September games dating back many years. They are just 2-11 ATS in their past 13 at home during September.

But the Redskins, despite their Week 1 success, have not been a great bet as a favorite. In 12 recent games in that role, they have covered the spread just twice, according to the OddsShark.com Twitter feed.

If the amount of betting on this game is any indication, fans either don’t care much about the game or don’t trust either team with the Week 2 point spread.

“It’s the lowest-bet game volume-wise of the week so far, so fans are unaccustomed to the Raiders as road chalk and uncomfortable with the Dolphins, period,” said Bovada spokesman Kevin Bradley.

Of the seven ESPN NFL analysts making picks, five picked the Falcons but Eric Allen and Merril Hoge picked the Broncos. Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports likes the Falcons while the eight CBS NFL analysts were split. Pete Prisco, Clark Judge Dave Ricard and Will Brinson picked the Falcons while Mike Freeman, Jason La Canfora, Josh Katzowitz and Ryan Wilson all went with the underdog Broncos.

If Denver is going to pull the upset, they are going to have to overcome a big home field advantage. Since 2008, Atlanta is 26-6 at home during the regular season.

Regardless of the impressiveness of the victory, the experts are riding with Big Ben. Seven of nine ESPN experts, both the Yahoo expert and the Yahoo users, and eight of nine CBS experts are taking the Steelers in this contest.

Talk about the result with Jets fans by heading on over to Gang Green Nation, and with Steelers fans by checking out Behind the Steel Curtain.

All seven ESPN NFL analysts picked the 49ers, only two of which picked San Francisco last week. Jason Cole, of Yahoo! Sports, also went with San Francisco after he picked against the 49ers last week. Of the eight CBS Sports NFL analysts, seven picked the 49ers to win. Only NFL blogger Ryan Wilson is picking the Lions this week.

For more coverage of the San Francisco 49ers, visit Niners Nation and SB Nation Bay Area. For all your Lions news, visit Pride of Detroit.

For the latest on all things Chargers, check out Bolts from the Blue. For more on the Titans, head over to Music City Miracles. For more news, notes and analysis from around the league, visit SB Nation’s NFL news hub.

How do the experts view this game?

Talk about NFL picks with Cowboys fans at Blogging the Boys and with Seahawks fans at Field Gulls.

Week 2 in the NFL gets started with the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers on the first edition of Thursday Night Football of the year. That isn’t the only big game of the week though -- the Jets visit the Steelers, the Eagles host the Ravens and the Falcons and Broncos will meet on Monday Night Football. Below, we attempt to accurately predict those, and every NFL game this week.

What a Thursday night opener. This is one of the best games of the year with two teams that have plans to make a deep playoff run. The Packers lost last week and I can’t imagine them going 0-2 on the season. Aaron Rodgers is too good, with or without Greg Jennings.

Philadelphia was a 1-point home favorite at midweek because the Ravens were the only team in this matchup that looked like a contender in Week 1.

The Eagles struggled to a weak win at Cleveland while the Ravens routed Cincinnati. And Baltimore’s recent history against the NFC East generally and the Eagles specifically is giving bettors more ammunition to bet on the Ravens.

OddsShark.com has the game currently at even money.

For more on the Colts, check out Stampede Blue. For more on the Vikings, head on over to Daily Norseman. Looking for more comprehensive coverage? Check out SB Nation’s NFL hub.

CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco foresees a stiff test for the Saints on the road, giving Carolina the edge in a shootout that he sees finishing in a 37-31 final. Prisco believes that being at home will give Newton just enough of a boost for the Panthers to avoid starting the season 0-2.

The experts at ESPN are a bit torn between these two teams as five of their NFL analysts have picked the Saints, while another four have taken the Panthers.

The majority of experts at ESPN are selecting the Redskins this week, with only one NFL analyst taking St. Louis as their pick.

Pete Prisco over at CBS Sports is predicting that the Rams will fend off the Redskins at home by the score of 20-14. He believes back-to-back road games will hinder Washington’s chances in this game.

For more on the New England Patriots, visit Pats Pulpit. Cardinals fans can catch up with their squad over at Revenge of the Birds. For all your NFL news, be sure to check out SB Nation’s NFL hub.

The game is scheduled to kick off Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, and can be seen on CBS.

For more on the Eagles, please visit Bleeding Green Nation. For more on the Ravens, please check out Baltimore Beat Down.

For more on the Bucs check out Bucs Nation and for more on the Giants head over to Big Blue View. For more news, notes and analysis from around the league, visit SB Nation’s NFL news hub.

Despite both team’s 0-1 records, most experts are picking the Bengals over the Browns in this one.

Most of ESPN’s pundits haven’t made their picks as of yet, but of the ones who have, they’ve picked the Bengals to win. Over at CBSSports.com, all of their NFL experts have picked the Bengals to win as well as those over at Yahoo! Sports.

With the Texans clearly the class of the division, this game seems to be an easy pick for the experts. All eight experts at CBS Sports picked the Texans, as did the two experts at ESPN who have made their selections, and Jason Cole at Yahoo!

For more news on the Texans, check out Battle Red Blog. For Jaguars news and updates, check Big Cat Country. Get complete NFL coverage at SB Nation’s NFL hub.

So far, experts are split on ESPN and Yahoo!, with some going for each team. The game’s spread, which has fluctuated but will likely end up being less than three (in favor of the Raiders), indicates that we could be in for a close game.

But handicapping games so early in the season is dangerous business, especially in this case, as neither team made much of an impression in Week 1.

At ESPN, Mike Golic and Ron Jaworski are split, as Jaws is the one choosing the Bills at home.

The Bills are the consensus at CBS Sports, where six of the eight experts are taking the home team to get its first win of the season.

Green Bay opened as 4-point favorites, but were quickly bet up to -7 at one shop (and it sits around -6 at most sportsbooks tracked by OddsShark.com). But as tempting as the point spread may be (and historically the Packers cover it against the Bears as their 7-2 ATS mark indicates), it’s the total that has attracted the most handicapping interest.

“Eight of the last nine meetings have played UNDER the total and the only exception was the Christmas Day game in 2011,” said Jack Randall, whose site provides the NFL odds to SBNation. “Still, a lot of the early totals wagering is on the OVER, according to our consensus data.”