Well, week one of the 100th NFL season is now in the bag and it turned out to be a pretty exciting weekend of football. The biggest takeaways were that maybe the Browns have been a bit overhyped and that it is probable that barring injury the AFC’s road to the Super Bowl will be via New England – as they put up a devastating performance against Pittsburgh, and that’s before Antonio Brown arrives!
Performance of the day? well, its got to be Baltimore, it’s not often you put up 59 points on the road. We feel sorry for Dolphin fans though – they only kept 22 players from last seasons roster and it showed in a rather inept display against the Ravens. They should get better once everyone knows each other names, but week two could be ugly as New England are coming to town.
Unluckiest team? Jacksonville new QB Nick Foles goes down with a broken collarbone. It may not be so bad though as rookie Gardner Minshew stepped in and looked pretty good; as we thought he was following his walk on year with Washington State.
Our Predictions
A good weekend to start the season – we went 12-3-1 straight up. The results are as follows;
Green Bay Packers @ Chicago Bears 10-3
The Packers defense looked good – The offence well not so much but give it time.
Prediction Green Bay Packers 24 – Chicago Bears 17
Los Angeles Rams @ Carolina Panthers 30-27
The game was effectively over in the fourth quarter at 30-20 before a garbage-time Panthers TD made the game look closer than it actually was.
Prediction Rams 23 – Panthers 21
Tennessee Titans @ Cleveland Browns 43-13
Tennessee were greatly helped in their win by a sloppy Browns performance 182 yards of penalties and three interceptions from Mayfield. Still, take nothing away from them this was a statement win.
Prediction Browns 27 – Titans 20
Kansas City Chiefs @ Jacksonville Jaguars 40-26
Losing Nick Foles early didn’t help but stand in Gardner Minshew completed his first 13 passes and went 22-25 for 275 yards. Not too shabby for a rookie taken in the 6th round.
Prediction Chiefs 28 – Jaguars 21
Baltimore Ravens @ Miami Dolphins 59-10
Lamar Jackson had a 5TD night.
Editorial credit: Debby Wong / Shutterstock.com
Baltimore are either very good or Miami are really bad – probably the latter. Who said Lamar Jackson can’t throw – well it was against probably the worst team in the NFL but still 5TDs is impressive.
Prediction Ravens 17 – Dolphins 13
Atlanta Falcons @ Minnesota Vikings 12- 28
Atlanta can’t stop the run or protect Matt Ryan who threw 2 interceptions.
Prediction Vikings 26 – Falcons 23
Buffalo Bills @ NY Jets 17-16
Josh Allen looked just the better of the two much-hyped young QBs on show, leading the Bills back from 16-0 down, despite losing the turnover battle 4-1.
Prediction Jets 28 – Bills 26
Washington Redskins @ Philadelphia Eagles 27-32
Washington looked better than expected but couldn’t hold the Eagles off in the second half having led 20-7 at half time. Now if only the Redskins had a running game.
Prediction Eagles 37 – Redskins 13
Indianapolis Colts @ Los Angles Chargers 24-30 (OT)
The Chargers seemed to switch off after going 24-9 up in the third quarter and nearly paid the price.
Prediction Chargers 36 – Colts 21
Cincinnati Bengals at Seattle Seahawks 20-21
The Bengals played much better than expected and strangely went for a short field goal in the Fourth when trailing by 4 points.
Prediction Seahawks 21 – Bengals 10
Detroit Lions @ Arizona Cardinals 27-27 Tie after OT.
The Cardinals looked dead and buried early in the Fourth trailing 24-6. Kyler Murray showed his potential in bringing them back and they led in OT before a Detroit FG made it a tie.
Prediction Cardinals 23 – Lions 20
NY Giants @ Dallas Cowboys 17-35
Welcome back Jason Witten a year in the commentary box didn’t seem to have affected him too much and he had a nice TD. The Giants didn’t look awful, but there are holes in the roster on both sides of the ball. Rookie QB Daniel Jones came on for the last two minutes – a precursor of coming events?
Prediction Cowboys 30 – Giants 23
San Fransisco 49ers @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-17
This was a whole lot closer than it looked and the Buccs only trailed by 6 going into the two-minute warning, but a pick-six by Ahkello Witherspoon and a two-point conversion sealed a good road win for the 49ers
Prediction 49ers 36 – Bucs 31
Pittsburgh Steelers @ New England Patriots 3-33
Tom Brady celebrated his 20th season in the NFL with a devastating performance amassing 341 yards & 3 TDs. However, it was New England’s defense which should scare everyone, they were solid against the run and handled pretty much anything Big Ben could throw at them.
Prediction Patriots 30 – Steelers 21
Houston Texans @ New Orleans Saints 28-30
The Texans came really close to gaining a huge road win. The Saints were once again on the wrong end of an officiating error, which if they had lost would have caused eruptions. Will Lutz 58 yard FG as time expired ensured justice was done.
Prediction Saints 33 – Texans 23
Denver Broncos @ Oakland Raiders 16-24
Oakland put a week of drama behind them to clinch a nice win against their likely main rivals for the AFC West wooden spoon in 2019. Denver will need to get better at converting red zone possession to TDs or it could be a long hard season.
Prediction Broncos 21 – Raiders 18
