Around the League: Week 2 Review

Each week, Jared and Travis Tango will submit picks for each game as you see here. Following the games for each week, Jared will write a few thoughts about each game. Oakland Raiders at Buffalo Bills This was a great game to watch featuring little to no defense and a whole lot of broken plays. I'm starting to question whether or not Ryan Fitzpatrick's label, which has been "NOT a franchise quarterback", is legitimate. On the other hand, Denarius Moore is quickly earning a second look as the playmaker for the Raiders. I took Oakland, need them only to lose by 3 or less, and won. Lucky call. I have to assume that Travis didn't see the spread, so I have to give him the point as well. We'll need to hammer this out and square these picks up moving forward. Jared - 1 for 1 Travis - 1 for 1 Buffalo Bills 38 Oakland Raiders 35 Chicago Bears at New Orleans Saints Drew Brees has yet to throw an interception in the first two games (having thrown 22 last year). Jay Cutler has yet to get an offensive line to give him anything resembling protection. The score indicates that much. I took New Orleans to win by 8 or more. Travis took New Orleans in a squeaker. Jared - 2 for 2 Travis - 1 for 2 New Orleans 30 Chicago 13 Cleveland Browns at Indianapolis Colts Growing pains. Eventually, I expect Kerry Collins to maintain possession of the football and put the ball in the endzone. The Colts defense was not awful, and save for a late game breakaway run, they managed to keep Peyton Hillis under wraps. The Indianapolis bandwagon is emptying quickly. I guess I'm just a "glass half full" kind of guy. I saw an improved defense and an improved running game on offense. I took the Browns. Travis took the Colts. Jared - 3 for 3 Travis - 1 for 3 Cleveland 27 Indianapolis 19 Kansas City Chiefs at Detroit Lions Frankly, Kansas City looks like the whipping boy for the rest of the NFL. Detroit, fresh removed from the same monicker, looks decidedly... solid. The bleeding doesn't stop for the Chiefs as they lose star running back Jamaal Charles for the year to an ACL tear. Travis and I both picked Detroit to win big. Jared - 4 for 4 Travis - 2 for 4 Detroit 48 Kansas City 3 Green Bay Packers at Carolina Panthers Aaron Rodgers said after playing Cam Newton "I'm glad we played him early in the season before he figures it out". I'm not going to hype Newton beyond his current pedestal, but wow. The Packers won this game, but Carolina fans have a lot to be excited about, with exception to their 29th ranked rushing game. Travis and I both took Green Bay to win big. Jared - 4 for 5 Travis - 2 for 5 Green Bay 30 Carolina 23 Baltimore Ravens at Tennessee Titans I have nothing to say about this game that resembles a well thought out series of statements. In Week 1, Baltimore crushed last year's Super Bowl bridesmaid Pittsburgh. In Week 2, they get crushed by the bridesmaid of the AFC South Tennessee. Kenny Britt looks like an elite receiver. Chris Johnson has yet to show up. Not a lot to see here. Move along. Travis and I both took Baltimore to win by at least 6. Jared - 4 for 6 Travis - 2 for 6 Tennessee 26 Baltimore 13 Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Minnesota Vikings In what looked like a different game that it played out based on each team's first game, this was actually one of the better games. Some mistakes cost the Bucs what would have been a comfortable win after overcoming a 17 point deficit. Kudos to the very young Tampa Bay team for gutting out a win on the road. I took Minnesota. Travis took Tampa Bay. Jared - 4 for 7 Travis - 3 for 7 Tampa Bay 24 Minnesota 20 Jacksonville Jaguars at New York Jets Frankly, this is what happens when you open your mouth. The Jets can play with anyone and can outplay their lesser foes. I'm concerned with New York's running game. I'm laughing at Jacksonville's passing game. Look for Blaine Gabbert to get the nod as the starting quarterback for the Jaguars here soon. Travis and I both took the Jets big over the Jaguars. Jared - 5 for 8 Travis - 4 for 8 New York 32 Jacksonville 3 Arizona Cardinals at Washington Redskins I'm still seeing quite a bit of strong play that says Kevin Kolb is the real deal. I've yet to see, however, anything that says the Cardinals are fielding a defense worth talking about. The Washington Redskins are undefeated in the regular season. I can't believe I just typed that. Rex Grossman is not the goat he's been labeled as in the past (yet). I can't believe I typed that either. Travis and I both took Arizona. Jared - 5 for 9 Travis - 4 for 9 Washington 22 Arizona 21 Seattle Seahawks at Pittsburgh Steelers Pittsburgh and Baltimore are both confusing me. Seattle is in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. They're awful everywhere. The Seahawks have been shut out in 6 of 8 quarters they've played on offense. Travis and I both took Pittsburgh. Jared - 6 for 10 Travis - 5 for 10 Pittsburgh 24 Seattle 0 Dallas Cowboys at San Francisco 49ers Romo giveth, and Romo taketh away. That's about all there is to it. For what it's worth, Tony Romo is a good quarterback. His performance Sunday makes him a man's man. The 49ers are just not there yet. Props to Miles Austin for a huge 9 catch, 143 yard, 3 touchdown game. Travis and I both picked Dallas. Jared - 7 for 11 Travis - 6 for 11 Dallas 27 San Francisco 24 Cincinnati Bengals at Denver Broncos While I don't see either team as top half of the NFL, this was a pretty well-played game. A.J. Green appeared to show why he was drafted in the 1st round. Andy Dalton didn't look bad either. If you didn't see or hear, Tim Tebow lined up as a wide receiver. You read that right. I took Denver outright. Travis took Cincinnati. Jared - 8 for 12 Travis - 6 for 12 Denver 24 Cincinnati 22 Houston Texans at Miami Dolphins Flatly, the Houston running game is in trouble. However, their defense was pretty stout. Matt Schaub had a nice game, throwing for 230 yards and 2 touchdowns. On the other side of the field, rookie Daniel Thomas ran for 107 yards on 18 carries. Houston looks strong so far this year. Travis and I both took Houston. Jared - 9 for 13 Travis - 7 for 13 Houston 23 Miami 13 San Diego Chargers at New England Patriots At this point, Tom Brady is on pace to throw for an NFL record 6,000+ yards and 56 touchdowns. Frankly, so is are the quarterbacks throwing on the New England defense. New England will win a lot of games this year until we get to the Playoffs, where they'll get beat by someone who actually plays defense. San Diego will likely do the same thing. Travis took New England. I took San Diego. Jared - 9 for 14 Travis - 8 for 14 New England 35 San Diego 21 Philadelphia Eagles at Atlanta Falcons It appeared, through 3 quarters, that this was every bit of the game I expected it to be. Philadelphia is not the same team without Michael Vick. Matt Ryan can play some football. Again, for 3 games, this looked like another Game of the Year candidate. It just didn't end that way. Travis took Atlanta (which I give him the nod for pick of the week). I took Philadelphia. Jared - 9 for 15 Travis - 9 for 15 Atlanta 35 Philadelphia 31 St. Louis Rams at New York Giants If Sam Bradford had any weapons at all, he'd be a top 10 quarterback in this league and the Rams win this game. If Eli Manning had any healthy teammates, this wouldn't have been much of a game going the other way. Giants players keep dropping like flies. St. Louis keeps dropping games. Travis and I both took the Giants in a snoozer. Jared - 10 for 16 Travis - 10 for 16 New York 28 St. Louis 16 It appears like Travis and Jared have a little bit of talking to do, as the spread is quickly becoming the difference. After two weeks, Jared has a 1 game lead on Travis. Jared is 18 for 32. Travis is 17 for 32. Game on!