NFL picks 2018, Week 3: The quarter has an uncanny knack for picking games. Can our experts beat it?

Are you smarter than a 2007 United States quarter-dollar? Probably. But can you pick NFL games better than said coin? Probably not. Nobody on our panel of experts bested this circular oracle, and only one of us managed to tie it.

So please feel free to use this quarter’s picks in your pick ‘em pool this week. You might as well, because two weeks into the season, it’s still hard to draw a lot of conclusions about which teams are truly bad and which ones are maybe just having a little bit of an extended preseason.

That’s not entirely applicable. A few things have become rather obvious. The Bills are trash. The Cardinals and Lions pretty much are too. Right now, all three of those teams look like they could go 0-16 this season. They won’t. Nobody on our panel got burned by any of those three teams last week, except for the mighty coin ... (hey, I never said the damn thing was infallible, just pretty good at picking NFL games randomly).

The Bills aren’t getting any takers this week, except from the coin. The coin believes in you, Buffalo! They’re on the road to play the Vikings, so, yeah, there’s no chance. The Lions host the Patriots on Sunday night this week. Yeah, no chance there either, not even against a Patriots team that’s kind of just a B student right now. The coin took the Lions too.

Arizona hosts the Bears this week. And while the Bears offense hasn’t really been so hot once they burn off the first 15 or so scripted plays, the defense is tough to beat. Not even the coin picked the Cardinals this week.

Is the week the Browns FINALLY win? YES!

It didn’t look like the Browns were going to do much of anything on Thursday night against the Jets. Same old, Browns ... their best hope was maybe to pull of a fluke win because of a weird bounce or a missed field goal. Then Baker Mayfield came into the game, and the Browns actually got some hope for change, oh, and a win.

What a sight to see. There was free beer for all, a rally possum and dancing Cavs in the stands.

Our panel mostly went for Cleveland. The coin picked the Jets.

Who’ll stop the Bucs?

All but one sentient member of our panel thought the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles would do it last week. Nope. Ryan Fitzpatrick went out there and threw another four touchdowns, including two 75-yard shots, just like nobody predicted.

This week, the Bucs get the struggling Steelers, a team in the midst of their usual family feud. This one seems like it could turn into a full-on ugly family Thanksgiving, unless it doesn’t.

Our panel members are split on that one, but there’s a distinct lean to picking the Bucs to win this one on Monday night. Yes, the coin is buying the FitzMagic again this week.

More picks of interest

This week’s guest picked is RJ Ochoa from Blogging the Boys, SB Nation’s home for all things Cowboys. Go check it out.

Oh, and ... ALL HAIL THE COIN!