Week 2 NFL Picks: Texans A Lock, Broncos Still A Mystery

Last Week, I went 10-5 in my picks, though a couple of them were "out on a limb" picks, admittedly. For one, I took the Oakland Raiders over the San Diego Chargers on a gut feeling, and something was speaking to me in regards to Seattle vs. Arizona. Everything else was flat-out me being wrong, and we've mostly got quarterback play to blame for that. Peyton Manning showed that you don't need a healthy neck to ball on the Pittsburgh Steelers, while Robert Griffin III is ... really, really good at this point.

Either way, we're going to get back to the picks and this time I'll be planning on taking less risks. Whether or not that actually works out for me remains to be seen but hey, this is an adventure we're all in together. I've already went ahead and kept my homer picks in for the San Francisco 49ers and the Raiders. You can find the individual picks for those games here (49ers) and here (Raiders).

Lock of the Week: Last week, the lock was Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions over Sam Bradford and the St. Louis Rams. Stafford's Lions ended up relying on a touchdown pass in the final 20 seconds to steal that one so what the hell do I know? Either way, taking the Houston Texans over the Jacksonville Jaguars should leave you confident in advancing another week in your suicide league. They're better than Jacksonville in every way.

Tossup of the Week: We took Denver's matchup against Pittsburgh as the tossup last week, but we're changing gears this time around. Let's go with Minnesota's matchup in Indianapolis as the tossup this week. We don't know how good the Colts actually are with Andrew Luck under center and Adrian Peterson may regress at any time. Two basement teams from last year. At the very least, that kind of matchup is usually pretty entertaining.

Something Extra: It's going to be interesting to see how well the New York Giants do throughout the season. Eli Manning has proven himself among the NFL's elite ... sometimes. Tampa Bay was clearly better than their record a season ago, and they might just give the defending Super Bowl champs something to think about.

The Picks

Oakland Raiders 21, Miami Dolphins 14
New York Giants 17, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 13
Houston Texans 31, Jacksonville Jaguars 14
Cincinnati Bengals 20, Cleveland Browns 10
Kansas City Chiefs 24, Buffalo Bills 16
Baltimore Ravens 24, Philadelphia Eagles 17
New Orleans Saints 28, Carolina Panthers 23
New England Patriots 28, Arizona Cardinals 10
Indianapolis Colts 21, Minnesota Vikings 14
Washington Redskins 17, St. Louis Rams 10
Dallas Cowboys 21, Seattle Seahawks 17
Pittsburgh Steelers 27, New York Jets 17
San Diego Chargers 20, Tennessee Titans 14
San Francisco 49ers 23, Detroit Lions 10
Atlanta Falcons 35, Denver Broncos 31