Week 2 - NFL Version

We’re treading a bit lighter this week after the bath we took last week.  We’re hoping we learned something from the games we watched.  We’ll also quickly run through each game for our “Unofficial Line Picks for Shits and Giggles” in our next post sometime Saturday or Early Sunday.

Cleveland @ Indianapolis

Our Position: Cleveland -1 -120

Some people are very down on the Browns after their loss to Cincinnati last week.  The Browns outside of a few plays on defense and some poor special teams probably should have won.  Due to poor punting, the Bengals started 3 of their first four drives just a first down outside of field goal range and took a quick 13-0 lead.  Cleveland after battling through penalties rallied to a 17-13 lead before having a mental lapses and giving up an easy TD.  They later sold out and gave up a long run to Cedric Benson.  We think people are overreacting to the loss and feel as if the Browns almost handed Cincinnati 20 points and the mistakes they made are easily correctable.  Indianapolis looks like a mess without Peyton Manning and beyond that their defense looks to be struggling, too.  We think the Browns are a little undervalued here and take a position.

Tampa Bay @ Minnesota

Our Position: Tampa +3

We got a little lucky with Minnesota last week and were possibly dead wrong about Donovan McNabb.  We don’t want to overreact to Minnesota’s performance, nor do we want to with Tampa.  Going into this season we saw Tampa as a better team than Minnesota and despite losing to Detroit we see no reason why they’re still not the better team.  This line implies these two teams are even or Tampa is slightly better on a neutral field.  We disagree and will take Tampa.

Dallas @ San Francisco

Our Position: Dallas -3

The focus most of this week was on Tony Romo choking in the last quarter against the New York Jets.  What was lost was Romo’s ability to move the ball through the air against a good defense and the Dallas defense shutting down a fairly strong Jet running game.  San Fran was only able to tally 209 yards against a bad Seattle team and we’re actually out gained by the Seahawks.  If it wasn’t for the 49er special teams and Seattle turnovers this game would have been much closer.  We think Dallas goes on the road against a team far more inferior than the Jets and wins by a touchdown or more. 

Much like some of our college football positions, this next play is something we’ll wait on in the hopes the public drives the total up.  We’ll confirm it via Twitter on Sunday or if they line gets high enough between now and then.

Cincinnati @ Denver

Our Position: Cincinnati / Denver under 40

The Bengal defense actually played well against the Browns last week.  It’s certainly above average.  Meanwhile, outside of being handed field position and two big plays the Bengal offense struggled to move the ball against a sub-par Cleveland defense.  While Denver’s defense struggled against the run, Cincinnati proved last week they are not a high potent offense.  Denver’s offensive line on Monday night struggled mightily and we see no reason why this wouldn’t continue against a good Bengal defense.  The Oakland / Denver game went a field goal over the lined total of 40 last week, but needed a 63 yard field goal and a special teams TD to do it.  We don’t see Denver’s offense picking it up or Cincinnati’s being as good as Oakland’s.  We were very tempted to take Cincinnati and the points, but the line has dropped so far it’s probably about right at this point.  We should have got it earlier, but now will pass and just play the total