If you’re reading this, it means you survived the weird slate of games we saw yesterday!
Let’s start with my picks:
The Bucs-Saints game is one of the only ones to go the way I thought it would. It was a low-scoring game in which the Buccaneers ran away with it early. Baker Mayfield looks great to start the year, and so does the defense. I really hope they can keep it going, however, the Mike Evans hamstring injury is something to keep an eye on. They cannot lose him for a significant amount of time.
The Rams and Colts under looked so good until the fourth quarter, when the Colts finally showed up to play. That over/under came down to a 2-point attempt, which Indianapolis converted with ease. The Rams pulled this one out in the end, but they still aren’t looking very impressive in the first quarter of this season.
Vegas set a trap that most people fell for, as the Dolphins were surprisingly blown out in Buffalo. Tua Tagovailoa didn’t have his usual pinpoint accuracy and took some bad sacks, including a big one on fourth down around midfield. The defense couldn’t bring down Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, or anyone else on the Bills’ offense. Maybe the Dolphins really did have an advantage from the intense heat last week. Regardless, this game served as a reminder of who the team to beat is in the AFC East.
So, we went 1-2 yesterday, bringing our record to 4-5, -0.7u. We’ll get back on track next week.
There were some other interesting games around the league yesterday:
The Bengals had an embarrassing loss in Tennessee to bring their record to 1-3 on the season. Derrick Henry finally got going, looking like he was playing against middle schoolers, and he even threw a touchdown pass. It looks like more than Joe Burrow’s injury for Cincinnati. They just look like a bad football team and have for four weeks now.
In the suck-bowl, the Broncos came back from a 21-point deficit to beat the Bears, who look like they’ll have the first two picks in next years draft. Justin Fields is right about Chicago’s coaches: they look like they’re trying to lose football games. Fields had maybe his best game passing in the NFL, and Matt Eberflus decided not to kick a field goal to put the Bears up with three minutes left.
In the night game, some bad and missed calls down the stretch sealed the game for Kansas City. Zach Wilson played his best game of the year and looked as confident as he ever has. However, the Chiefs killed the last 7 minutes of the game with some help by the referees, who made a phantom pass interference call on Sauce Gardner that negated a Jets interception and missed a clear holding call on Jermaine Johnson on Patrick Mahomes’ 25 yard rush for a first down. There’s nothing I hate more than a “sports are rigged” guy, and the Jets had some calls go their way in the first half, but these are calls you can’t get wrong at that point in the game. It’s almost as if the NFL knew its audience and catered to it.
For the second time this year, we have games at MetLife Stadium on back-to-back nights. The Giants are matched up with the Seahawks tonight, who are favored by two points. I’ll be honest; I have no read on this game. I still don’t quite believe in Geno Smith and the Seahawks on the road, and I do believe the Giants are a better team than they’ve shown this year. They’re at home tonight, but have already been blown out there this year, and they’re still missing Saquon Barkley and Andrew Thomas. For that reason, I’m taking tonight off. I don’t bet just for the sake of it, so I’ll just have some fun throwing some money on a first touchdown.
Tough Money Sports 