Fantasy Sports Nation: Week 2 NFL Picks ~ 2012

QUICK THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL UPDATE... (8:21 pm)

FSN TAKES CAROLINA PANTHERS (-3) VS. NY GIANTS FOR (2 UNITS)

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2012 NFL Picks: 6-9-0

2012 NFL Picks (YTD regular season 'unit picks' aggregate differential): (-12)

2012 NFL Picks (YTD regular season 'exotics' differential): (-2)

2012 NFL Picks (week 1): 6-9-0

*all picks 'ATS' (against the spread)

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PREVIEW: Welcome to Fantasy Sports Nation 2012 NFL Picks Week 2... The 'real' refs still haven't negotiated a deal with the greedy NFL...

Let's call WEEK 2 another 'LITE' version... I'll be happy when Roger Goodell is washing dishes...

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WEEK 2 NFL PICKS

THURSDAY GAMES

Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers

Line: Packers by 5

Congrats if you had the Packers... There's almost no way in hell that I'm going to come up with "picks" for Thursday Night games (until I get more time on my hands, or that the weather gets lousy)...

NO PICK for (0 units)...

SUNDAY EARLY GAMES

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New York Football Giants

Line: Giants by 7

I'm going to repeat this several times, but I'm NOT the 'bandwagon' type... Week 2 in the NFL is probably the worst of the worst in terms of 'bandwagoning'... If your team won in week 1, you're going to the Super Bowl... If they lost, they'll probably gt the first pick in the draft next year... Same stuff goes with fantasy...

You have to have a short memory in the NFL... It's IMPOSSIBLE that things change that drastically from week to week (except for minor momentum differentials and/or key injuries)... The Giants have had 10 days to mull over their horrible loss to Dallas in week 1... Tampa Bay looked better than expected in week one, but the Giants are still the Giants & the Bucs are still rebuilding with a coach who was at Rutgers last year... At least he probably knows some good restaurants in town...

GIANTS for (1 unit)...

Arizona Cardinals at New England Patriots

Line: Patriots by 13.5

Arizona has a horrible record in the East Coast at the 1:00 time slot... Look it up... Furthermore ~ they're playing with a [now] backup QB [Kolb] who shouldn't be trusted until he proves something... The Patriots looked great (especially on defense) vs. the Titans last week...

Still ~ The Patriots might find themselves 'looking ahead' to a Sunday Night matchup vs. the Ravens next week... Last year, the Cardinals managed to hang with the Ravens (which is hard to do in Baltimore)... They were in the middle of a pretty solid 2nd half of season stretch...

I'm going to go against the 76% that are laying points with the Patriots...

CARDINALS (0 units)...

Minnesota Vikinga at Indianapolis Colts

Line: Vikings by 3

How can the Vikings be favored ON THE ROAD over anyone after barely managing to squeak by Jacksonville in week 1?

COLTS here for (2 units)...

New Orleans Saints at Carolina Panthers

Line: Saints by 7.5

If you remember my pre-season picks to go to the playoffs, you'll note that I have the Panthers as surprise winner of this division... I looked like a genius when the Saints lost at home, (but then turned into a pumpkin again when the Panthers lost by a slim margin to a fired up Buccaneers team)...

I'm not changing course... There seems to be too much disarray in the Saints locker room & I think the Panthers just need to cut down on mistakes a little...

PANTHERS here for (1 unit)...

Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills

Line: Bills by 3

Here is another matchup of two 'surprise' picks I made to go to the playoffs... BOTH of them looked pretty crappy last week (though the Chiefs, less so)... If you ask me, the Chiefs have a better defense AND offense than the Jets, so unless the Bills have something up their sleeve [& without Fred Jackson], I'll take the points...

CHIEFS for (0 units)...

Baltimore Ravens at Philadelphia Eagles

Line: Eagles by 3

Arguably, the Ravens looked like the most impressive team in the NFL last week... The 'no-huddle' kept the Bengals totally off balance for almost the entire game... Many think that it was just a 2nd half phenomenon, but I disagree... There was a 12 man on the field call that went against the Ravens early when the Bengals were pinned back near their own goal line... That allowed the Bengals to keep a drive alive (where they eventually scored & kept the game close thru halftime)... Otherwise the blowout might have been even more substantial...

The Eagles looked like crap last week & were, in fact, losng to the worst team in the NFL right thru the very end...

Still, dynamics change week to week & I doubt that the Ravens are taking this game lightly... Flacco is going to have to work the 'no-huddle' in a hostile environment for the first time with crowd noise, one of the pass pass rushes in the NFL, & a pair of pro-bowl corners... It's impossible to NOT expect a few mistakes...

The Ravens are coming up on a week (playing the Patriots on Sunday Night Football next week ~ where they have to then wheel around and play the Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football)... That's 4 NFL games within a span of 17 days (which is equivalent of making them 'crash test dummies')... I just hope they survive this game without any serious injuries...

I'll take the Ravens & the points, but simply the oddities of 'looking ahead' (which I doubt they'll do as I expect them to take the Eagles seriously), & so much 'cramming' with regards to game planning, makes this a tough spot actually...

RAVENS for (0 units)...

Oakland Raiders at Miami Dolphins

Line: Raiders by 2

Ryan Tannehill looked awful (vs. the Texans) in his first NFL game... The good news is that he has to face the Raiders who are traveling all the way across the country on a short week (after playing Monday Night Football)...

The oddsmakers are baiting you into laying points with the Raiders (if you go by tradition)... So I'll quietly pass on this game...

DOLPHINS for (0 units)...

Cleveland Browns at Cincinnati Bengals

Line: Bengals by 7

How can you really say that the Browns are any good just because they hung around with the Philadelphia Eagles last week?... The Bengals got embarrassed by the Ravens on national TV, so you might be getting some line slippage here...

If Brandon Weeden throws 4 more picks this week, the 7 points that you're laying is going to look like a bargain...

BENGALS for (0 units)...

Houston Texans at Jacksonville Jaguars

Line: Texans by 7

Does anybody in the league have an easier schedule to start the season than the Houston Texans?... I mean, COME ON MAN (Miami then Jacksonville)...

They have to travel to Denver to try their luck against Peyton Manning next week, so I'm going to take a chance and say that Jacksonville has a chance at a backdoor cover here... No way I'm laying any units on Blaine Gabbert though...

JAGUARS for (0 units)...

LATE GAMES